Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's Phoebe Snow

     The Phoebe Snow was a lightweight streamlined DL&W train in service between Hoboken, New Jersey and Buffalo, New York from 1949 to 1963. It was styled and finished in maroon and grey--engine, passenger coaches, parlor cars, diners, observation lounge and caboose. A ferry across the Hudson river was used to connect to New York City. The DL&W Phoebe Snow was in competition with the New York Central to Buffalo.

     A contributor of history articles to the Cortland Contrarian rode the Phoebe Snow with his family in 1955 from Hoboken to Binghamton, New York. The family switched trains at Binghamton to arrive at the Central Avenue train station at Cortland, New York. Having slept through most of the trip, our contributor, who was about five years old at the time of the excursion, recalls little of the experience. His mother told him details about the trip years later.
     The Phoebe Snow could travel between Hoboken and Buffalo in eight hours, taking longer when frequent delays were added. The train passed over two historic landmarks, the New Jersey cutoff between Port Morris, New Jersey and Slateford, Pennsylvania, and the Nicholson-Hallstead cutoff in Pennsylvania. Both magnificent viaducts were made of reinforced concrete and stood high over the surrounding countryside.

                                                 
                                                  Steamtown excursion train on Nicholson Viaduct

     Watch the train in motion and listen to a song made in tribute to the Phoebe Snow by songwriter and performer John LeBaron on YouTube. Click "skip ad" when prompted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6yjxjtVcuY
Marconi radio experiment in 1913 at Binghamton,N.Y.