One Train a Day

Nicholson, Pennsylvania is a tiny town pretty much in the middle of nowhwere, in the mountains in the central part of that state. Not noteworthy for anything, except this massive concrete bridge, the Tunkhannock Viaduct. It was constructed in the early part of the twentieth century by the Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railway. It was part of their effort to rebuild their main line between New York City and Buffalo. The many million dollar expenditure (billions in today's dollars) turned a slow, winding, old timey railroad into a first class, fast, doubletracked expressway. A lot of earth was moved and a lot of concrete poured to make this 1900 era "super railroad" that cut straight across country, bridging the many valleys with soaring concrete arched viaducts such as this. And, it was all funded by the railroad out of earnings - the Lackawanna was rich hauling mountains of coal.

Fast forwarding in time to the 1980s, the railroads were in bad shape. The Lackawanna died in bankruptcy in 1976. Conrail was formed to consolidate the many redundant rail lines (all bankrupt) and rationalize the route structure into something more suited for the times. This line was determined to be surplus, as it was one of the dozen or so routes between the same places - Buffalo and New York City - and unneeded. The one northeastern railroad not bankrupt, the Delaware and Hudson, took over the line. But, the D&H didn't have much traffic either, running only one or two trains a day over this route.

In 1985 Steamtown National Park was created in Scranton, Pennsylvania, at the site of the former Lackawanna Railroad maintenance shops. The park is tasked with  preserving the industrial heritage of the northeast, and is a working railroad facility with steam locomotives. The park ran daily steam powered excursion trains out of Scranton on what was left of the Lackawanna mainline. It was the one train a day we knew would cross the viaduct in daylight.