Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad
The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad is a shortline railroad operating in Northeastern Pennsylvania, especially the Scranton area. DL began service in August 1993 and is the designated operator for of trackage in Lackawanna, Wayne, Northampton, and Monroe Counties. It is a subsidiary of holding company Genesee Valley Transportation Company, Inc. (GVT). It was founded by Jeffrey Baxter, Charles Riedmiller, John Herbrand, Michael Thomas and David Monte Verde who continue to make up its corporate ownership. Overview. GVT began in 1985 in upstate New York marketing rail-related services to both private and public industry throughout the northeast. Under  contract with the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority who owns the rail assets and properties. GVT operates within Lackawanna, Wayne, and Monroe counties from Scranton northeast to the city of Carbondale on the former Delaware & Hudson Railway's Penn Division mainline (now called the Carbondale Mainline), from Scranton southeast to Slateford Junction in Monroe County on the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's (DL&W) Southern Division mainline (now called the Pocono Mainline), and from Scranton southwest to Montage Mountain and Minooka on lines of the former Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad electric interurban streetcar line, known as the Laurel Line. The  line is still known as the Laurel Line with the Minooka Industrial Track connected to it. As of 2022 there are about 25 active rail industries in the region with the possiblity of several new rail dependent industrial prospects for the region. These are the lines hosting the seasonal passenger trains of both the Steamtown National Historic Site, the Electric City Trolley Museum, and the Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society. The Pocono Mainline has hosted a number of excursions out of Steamtown, including excursions of the Nickel Plate 765. In 2015 the authority extended DL's lease for five  years. Poconos expansion. The DL interchanges with Norfolk Southern Railway in Taylor, Pennsylvania, Norfolk Southern in Portland, Pennsylvania via Slateford Junction near Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania, and the Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad via Duryea Yard outside Pittston, Pennsylvania, thus connecting to the Great Lakes via Sayre Yard and New Jersey and New York City via former Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) assets. In the summer of 1998, under a haulage agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), the DL had operated unit Canadian grain trains between Taylor, Pennsylvania and the Ardent Mills Grain Mill at Pocono Summit, Pennsylvania. Operated  by DL crews, these trains averaged approximately 52 cars. The grain trains to Ardent Mills Grain Mill still continue, but the haulage agreement is now with Norfolk Southern since NS now owns Taylor Yard. Equipment roster. The DL is renowned as a bastion for both rebuilding and operating 50+ year-old ALCO diesels on a daily basis. It is the only railroad operating four ALCO RS-3s and the owner of the only ALCO C636 in existence. A new unified color scheme of gray and white with red and yellow stripes was to be applied to GVT system units beginning  in 2006 as they exit the South Scranton shops; the most recent being rebuilt ALCO C425 No. 2457 in the summer of 2016. No. 3000 appeared in September 2016.