Norfolk Southern's former D&H - a Phoenix Rising DVD

Norfolk Southern’s takeover of the former Delaware and Hudson south of Schenectady on September nineteenth of last year has continued the slow increase in traffic on the critical midsection of the former D&H that began with the 2004 trackage and haulage rights agreement with Norfolk Southern that resulted in a modicum of profitability for this beleaguered line.  The midsection and main stem of the former D&H where we videotaped has long been known as the Susquehanna Division and later as the second or Susquehanna subdivision and is now part of Norfolk Southern’s Freight Main Line, continuing the title and mileposts that under Guilford ownership had been applied to their main line from Mattawaumkeag, Maine to Sunbury, Pennsylvania.  The Delaware and Hudson has surmounted many challenges and been near death more than once in the past eighty or so years – first with the loss of the anthracite coal business to oil and gas, then the loss of friendly connections as a result of the formation of Penn Central and later Conrail that led to near death in the late seventies and early eighties before Guilford took them over, the bankruptcy and directed service crisis after the strikes on Guilford in the mid-eighties, and finally Canadian Pacific’s indifference to growing the traffic after failing to find an acceptable buyer for the D&H and their constant cutbacks in service in the past few years.  Preceded by Norfolk Southern acquiring haulage rights on much of the D&H in 2004 and a half interest in Pan Am’s line from Mechanicville to Ayer Massachusetts in 2009, Norfolk Southern’s acquisition of the south end of CP’s D&H subsidiary seemed a foregone conclusion but it still took years for the parties to come to an agreement.  For the first time since the 1920s the former D&H is arguably entering a stable period where its future isn’t in doubt.  This program shows over twenty-four hours of action on the former second subdivision between Delanson where the now truncated Albany main joins the main line and Belden tunnel, sixteen miles from Binghamton, in July of 2016. Length = 61 minutes.  This program can be watched with or without narration.