Delaware and Hudson Canal Company
 |
|
| Reporting mark | DH |
|---|---|
| Locale |
Maryland New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Quebec Vermont Virginia |
| Dates of operation | 1823–Present |
| Successor |
Canadian Pacific subsidiary sold a portion of lines to Norfolk Southern |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
| Previous gauge |
4 ft 3 in (1,295 mm) (see Stourbridge Lion) |
| Length | 1,581 miles (2,544 kilometers) |
| Headquarters | Albany, New York |
Thep Delaware and Hudson Railway (reporting mark DH) is a railroad that operates in the northeastern United States that has been since 1991 owned and operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway under the rail subsidiary Soo Line Corporation also controls the Soo Line Railroad, Canadian Pacific Railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited.
The name itself originates from the 1823 New York state corporation charter listing the unusual name of "The President, Managers and Company of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co." authorizing an establishment of "water communication" between the Delaware River and the Hudson River.
Nicknamed "The Bridge Line to New England and Canada," the D&H helped connect New York with Montreal, Quebec and New England. It called itself "North America's oldest continually operated transportation company." In 1991, after more than 150 years as an independent railroad, the D&H was purchased by Canadian Pacific Railway (CP).
On September 19, 2015, Norfolk Southern Railway commenced acquisition of Delaware & Hudson's "South Line", the 282 miles from Schenectady, New York to Sunbury, Pennsylvania from CP. The Delaware & Hudson "South Line" is a rail route that now consists of two rail lines, the Sunbury Line and the Freight Line; the Sunbury Line absorbed the Nicholson Cutoff during that rail line's history.
By the 1790s, industrializing eastern population centers were having increasing troubles getting charcoal to fuel their growing kilns, smithies, and foundries. As local timber was denuded efforts to find an alternative energy source began. During a fuel shortage in Philadelphia during the War of 1812 an employee by the direction of industrialist Josiah White conducted a series of experiments and discovered a number of ways that 'rock coal' or Anthracite could be successfully ignited and burned. The fuel theretofore, had been seen more as a way to put out a fire, than a fuel to build one up, so its use also had to overcome a lot of prejudice, White and his partner Erskine Hazard would found the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, creating the Lehigh Canal, and inspiring the exploitation of the anthracite deposits found by William Wurts around Carbondale, Pennsylvania which lead to the development of Scranton. The Mills of White and Hazard, and the regular large boatloads they proved they could supply had tipped the prejudice against Anthracite to wary neutrality in Philadelphia by 1822-1824 when the Lehigh was much damaged by flooding. The news of its rapid repair and restoration together with the fact anthracite stocks had for a time run down, but not out establishing the reliable sourcing finished off the bias, as did the beginning of mine output reaching the Delaware basin markets due to the long delayed completion of the Schuylkill Canal
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