Phoebe Snow (train)

Phoebe Snow

The Phoebe Snow at Hoboken Terminal, 1965
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Defunct
Locale	New Jersey Pennsylvania New York
First service	November 15, 1949 (DL&W) 1963 (EL)
Last service	November 27, 1966
Former operator(s)	Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL)
Route
Start	Hoboken, New Jersey
End	Buffalo, New York
Distance travelled	396 miles (637 km)
Average journey time	8 hours
Train number(s)	3 (eastbound), 6 (westbound)
Technical
	F3, E8A (locomotives) Tavern-Lounge (passenger)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)

Phoebe Snow was a named passenger train which was once operated by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) and, after a brief hiatus, the Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL).

Around 1900, DL&W launched a marketing campaign around the fictional character of Phoebe Snow to emphasize how the exhaust from its steam locomotives was cleaner than competitors' locomotives, as a result of using anthracite coal. The train took its name from the character.

Its route traveled across New Jersey, passing over the Paulinskill Viaduct and the Delaware River Viaduct of the Lackawanna Cut-off; Pennsylvania, passing over the Tunkhannock Viaduct; and the Southern Tier of New York.

The train operated for a few decades, then was suspended.

On November 15, 1949, the DL&W inaugurated a new streamlined passenger train named after its long-dormant promotional symbol. Launched by DL&W president William White, the new Phoebe Snow represented the DL&W's modernization of its passenger train fleet, and image, as it became Train No. 3 (westbound) and No. 6 (eastbound), which previously had been assigned the railroad's former premier train, the Lackawanna Limited. The Phoebe Snow ran on a daylight schedule between Hoboken, New Jersey, and Buffalo, New York, making the 396-mile (639-km) trip in about eight hours. Westbound, the sleepers and some coaches would continue on to Chicago, Illinois, over the Nickel Plate Railroad's Nickel Plate Limited and, on return, would be transferred in Buffalo from Train No. 10, the New York Mail.