Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad "The Laurel Line" Logo Shirt
Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad "The Laurel Line" Logo Shirt
- Logo Printed on Front
- 100% Cotton
- Shirt Color = Red
The line was originally owned and built by Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Company, a subsidiary of The Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. The Westinghouse group also owned the Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon Railway, which was under construction in the same time period. Westinghouse interests controlled the railroad until 1914.
Electrification was decommissioned in 1953, as diesel operations began. It was purchased by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in 1957, but operated as an independent subsidiary under it and the Erie Lackawanna until its inclusion in Conrail in 1976.
Sections of the line operate today for both freight and tourists under local county ownership, with talk of future commuter expansion.
The railroad's main line ran from Scranton to Wilkes-Barre. Other cities served included Dunmore and Pittston.
At its peak, the line carried as many as 4.2 million passengers a year, but following World War II use declined dramatically. In 1964, the Central Scranton Expressway was built over a portion of L&WV right-of-way along Roaring Brook in Scranton.[1] Interstate 81 construction paralleled the north-south route in the 1960s and today the four-lane highway is overtaxed with heavy trucks and cars, local traffic between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton and a deteriorating structure, leaving county planners wishing the L&WV system was retained in its entirety.[2]
The Scranton freight station for the Laurel Line
Original sections of the line out of Scranton to Montage Mountain, Moosic, have been purchased by Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, and placed back in service with overhead electrified wiring and designated-operator Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad overseeing both freight operations and the county's tourist trolley runs, the Electric City Trolley Museum.
The Laurel Line Tunnel (also known as the Crown Avenue Tunnel) in South Scranton, constructed in 1904, remains one of the longest interurban streetcar tunnels ever built, at 4,750-feet. It was recently rehabilitated at a cost of over $3 million.
The cost to restore much of the original line today would be less than expanding Interstate 81, according to Larry Malski, president of the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority. "I think it's very feasible.
*Image is a representation and may not be exact
