Lehigh Valley Railroad Company

The Lehigh Valley Railroad Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company on April 21, 1846, the name being changed on Jan. 7, 1853. It was one of the major anthracite railroads and formed a secondary trunk line between Jersey City, N.J., and Buffalo, N.Y.

The railroad's original function was to serve as an outlet from the Lehigh Anthracite Region to tidewater by building along the Lehigh River from Mauch Chunk to Easton, Pa. At Easton it connected with the Central Railroad of New Jersey to reach New York City and with the Belvidere-Delaware Railroad to reach Trenton and Philadelphia. Construction began in 1851 under the management of coal operator Asa Packer and was completed in Sept. 1855. Packer became president in 1862 and served until his death in 1879 with control remaining in the Packer family. During the 1860s the company extended its control over several important feeder lines in the coal fields.

In 1867 the Lehigh Valley completed an extension into the Wyoming Coal Field at Wilkes-Barre. Packer purchased the flood-damaged North Branch Canal in 1865 and completed a railroad on its towpath from Wilkes-Barre to Waverly, N.Y. in 1869, connecting with the Erie Railway to Buffalo and developing a market for coal in the cities of the Great Lakes.

In 1871 the Lehigh Valley began to plan for its own route from Easton to New York Harbor. It purchased the Morris Canal, primarily to obtain valuable terminal properties in Jersey City. In 1875 the Easton & Amboy was completed to a coal terminal at Perth Amboy. An extension to Jersey City was not completed until the early 1890s.

During the 1870s and 1880s the Lehigh Valley secured control over a group of railroads in central New York State, extending its reach to Ithaca, Auburn and Geneva and to North Fair Haven on Lake Ontario, whence coal was shipped to Toronto and other Canadian cities. The Lehigh Valley completed its own line to the Buffalo gateway in 1892.

Many of the Lehigh Valley's predecessor companies in the coal regions also had mining privileges. Between 1867 and 1875 the company greatly increased its acreage of coal lands and leases in the Lehigh, Mahanoy and Wyoming Coal Fields. Most of these operations were centralized under the subsidiary Lehigh Valley Coal Company, which for a time was the second-largest anthracite mining firm. Control of the coal subsidiaries was relinquished in the early 1920s following government prosecution of the anthracite railroads under the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Hepburn Act. The company also owned a fleet of ships operating on the Great Lakes which it disposed of in 1917 under the provisions of the Panama Canal Act.

The Morgan interests acquired control of the Lehigh Valley from the Packer heirs in 1897 as part of their reorganization of the anthracite roads. With the breakup of the coal trust and the growth of the railroad consolidation movement in the 1920s, L.F. Loree of the Delaware & Hudson attempted to buy the Lehigh Valley for inclusion in his proposed fifth eastern system in 1927. Failing in the attempt, he sold his substantial minority interest to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1928. The PRR made no attempt to absorb the Lehigh Valley but held the stock to keep the company out of unfriendly hands.

The company suffered from the collapse of the anthracite industry that began in the late 1920s and accelerated after 1945. The Lehigh Valley was one of the first large railroads to eliminate all passenger service (1961). In 1962 the PRR increased its interest in the Lehigh Valley to 90%, but it was unable to provide any meaningful support. With the failure of Penn Central, the Lehigh Valley entered bankruptcy on June 24, 1970. The viable parts of the line lying east of Waverly were sold to Conrail on April 1, 1976, and the rest were abandoned. A reorganization plan was approved on July 16, 1982, under which the company was liquidated by sale and distribution of assets.