William Truesdale

William Haynes Truesdale (1851–1935) was an American railroad executive primarily known as president of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) at the turn of the 20th century.

Born December 1, 1851, in Poland, Ohio, Truesdale was the oldest of Calvin and Charlotte (Haynes) Truedale's four children. In 1854, the family moved to Rock Island, Illinois, where, at age 17, Billy Truesdale got his first railroad job as a clerk with the Rockford, Rock Island and St. Louis Railway. In 1876, he was hired as passenger and freight agent for the Logansport division of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad, with offices in Terre Haute, Indiana On October 2, 1878, while living in Terre Haute, he married Annie Topping, the daughter of Lt. Col. Melville Douglas Topping, who was killed August 20, 1862, at the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky, while commanding the 71st Indiana Regiment. In 1881, Truesdale accepted a job as traffic manager of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway and soon became vice president. In 1887, he was hired as the president of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway. Following a brief tenure in this role, Truesdale served as the first Vice President and General Manager of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, a position he kept through the last decade of the 19th century.

Truesdale became president of the DL&W in March 1899, replacing an ailing Samuel Sloan. He immediately cemented his reputation as a relentless visionary by launching one of the most ambitious railroad modernization programs in American history. Until the dawn of the twentieth century, the DL&W — like most railroads dealing with adverse geography — generally followed the contours of the land when laying track. Steep climbs and long hours aboard a train remained commonplace.

Truesdale's efforts to rebuild his 900-mile system set the standard for U.S. rail construction. Heavier bridges and track were installed to permit heavier locomotives and cars to travel over them faster. Dozens of new stations were built. Many curves were straightened. Where conditions demanded, entire stretches of track were replaced by new alignments. One example was the Lackawanna Cut-off, a 28.45-mile (45.79 km) stretch of fast track with no grade crossings. Built to replace the DL&W's "Old Road", this enormous construction project involved huge amounts of cut and fill through the Pequest Valley of northwest New Jersey. It shortened the route by only 11 miles, but enabled trains to travel at speeds approaching 100 miles an hour. (The Cut-off was eventually decommissioned by Conrail and abandoned in 1983. The state of New Jersey later purchased the abandoned corridor and began reconstruction in 2011 to host New Jersey Transit commuter trains.) Under Truesdale's leadership, the railroad also constructed the Nicholson Cutoff north of Scranton, including the Tunkhannock Viaduct, the largest concrete bridge and one of the largest concrete structures in the world. The Tunkhannock Viaduct is still in use.

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