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AMERICAN STEAM LOCOMOTIVES


DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA & WESTERN RAILROAD NO. 565


locomotive

Owner(s):

Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R.R. 565
Dansville & Mount Morris Railroad 565

Whyte System Type: 2-6-0 Mogul
Class: 10c

Builder: American Locomotive Company (Schenectady Works)
Date Built: 1908
Builder's Number: 45528

Cylinders (diameter x stroke in inches): 20-1/2 x 26
Boiler Pressure (in lbs. per square inch): 200
Diameter of Drive Wheels (in inches): 63
Tractive Effort (in lbs.): 29,484

Tender Capacity:
    Coal (in tons): 10
    Oil (in gallons): Not applicable
    Water (in gallons): 6,000

Weight on Drivers (in lbs.): 140,000; Total Weight: 161,000

Remarks: Engine has Walschaert valve gear. A tired engine, it is missing its right and left oversheath, ash pan, and some small parts. It is one of only two D.L.&W. engines surviving.


Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad 2-6-0 Locomotive No. 565

History: For Steamtown NHS, the railroad company of the greatest historical importance is Scranton's home-grown Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. Like most sizable railroad systems, its long and complex history involved the absorption of numerous small predecessors. It began in its infancy as the Ligetts Gap Railroad, organized as early as March 19, 1849. That firm changed its name on April 14, 1851, to the Lackawanna & Western Railroad. A little over 2-1/2 years later on December 10, 1853, the Lackawanna & Western consolidated with the Delaware & Cobbs Gap Railroad, a company chartered on December 26, 1850, thus forming the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The track already extended from Scranton to Great Bend, and on May 27, 1856, the line reached from Scranton to the Delaware River. Lease of the Warren Railroad gave the D.L.&W. a junction with the Central Railroad of New Jersey, which provided a connection to the Hudson River.

In the years that followed, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western leased, bought controlling interest in the stock of, consolidated with, or otherwise acquired a plethora of short lines (some of them the D.L.&W.'s creations), including the Morris & Essex Railroad; the Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad; the Syracuse & Binghamton Railroad; the Valley Railroad; the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York Railroad; the Bloomsburg Railroad; the Sussex Railroad; the Passaic & Delaware Railroad; the New York, Lackawanna & Western Railway; and others. By January 1, 1883, it operated 930.58 miles of line, had 436 locomotives; 313 passenger, mail, baggage, and express cars; 30,855 freight cars (21,299 of them coal cars); and 821 work cars.

As suggested by the number of coal cars owned that early, coal comprised the bulk of the freight carried by the railroad, which itself owned extensive coal mines, and naturally it used coal-burning locomotives. Furthermore, by the turn of the century, its locomotives came to rely on hard coal--anthracite—for fuel, which burned cleanly, producing no soot, cinders, or ash. Early in 1899, Samuel Langhome Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, wrote the company after a trip to Elmira that he had worn a white duck suit and it was still white when he reached his destination. Advertising agent Wendle P. Colton, general passenger agent Thomas W. Lee, and president Willie Truesdale seized upon the idea of taking advantage of the line's clean-burning coal in advertising for passenger traffic and adopted the slogan for the Lackawanna Road as "The Road of Anthracite." As a symbol, probably for the first time in 1901, the railroad seized upon the image of a demure "Gibson girl" dressed head to toe in sparkling white, and published a seemingly endless series of jingles or poems:

Says Phoebe Snow, About to go
Upon a trip
To Buffalo:
My gown stays white from morn till night
Upon the Road of Anthracite"

Another:

Phoebe says
And Phoebe knows
That smoke and cinders
Spoil good Clothes —
'Tis thus a pleasure
And Delight
To take the Road
Of Anthracite

locomotive
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Mogul (2-6-0 type) Locomotive No. 565 posed on a turntable at an unidentified location on its home railroad, probably during the 1920s or 1930s.
Collection of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, California State Railroad Museum Library.

If the truth be known, the Lackawanna Road burned hard coal not because of its cleanliness or for passenger convenience, but because its mines yielded an abundant supply of hard coal for which, before the invention of automatic furnace stokers, no market existed. During the 1880s, the Reading Railroad had devised a method of burning this waste coal, technically called culm, by using a firebox that was unusually wide and shallow. Thus the Lackawanna managed to economize by turning a waste product into locomotive fuel, and then further capitalized on the practice by advertising it as a virtue that would benefit the traveling public. Eventually "Phoebe Snow" advertising extended to safety and other aspects of the railroad, and continued well after diesel locomotives began replacing coal-burning locomotives; ultimately the road's chief "name" train in the diesel era would be--one could easily guess--The Phoebe Snow.

Meanwhile, in 1903, the Lackawanna Road purchased the New York and Hoboken Ferry Company and two years later added to its stable the Harlem Transfer Company. It acquired with these purchases a valuable terminal on the Harlem River in New York City as well as ferryboats to serve it. In 1906 the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western bought the Brooklyn Dock and Terminal Company.

Though operating extensive main line trackage, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western also had branch lines. It is believed that it was for service on these that in 1908 the railroad purchased 2-6-0 Locomotive No. 565 from the Schenectady Locomotive Works, equipped by its builder with Walschaert valve gear. Actually, it was part of a series of 2-6-0 locomotives apparently purchased to replace earlier locomotives that the company was scrapping.

By December 31, 1913, No. 565 operated as one of 770 locomotives on the railroad, which had 925 passenger train cars, 28,711 freight cars (a smaller number than the 1883 figure), and 836 work cars, to roll over 985.06 miles of railroad, 542.55 miles of which were double tracked. Therein lies a story of major modernization, work that was then in progress, for early in the 20th century the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad sought efficiency, profitability, and excellence by attempting and achieving 100 percent grade separation--that is, all city and town streets and country roads and highways would cross the railroad by either overpass or underpass totally eliminating grade crossings, costly grade crossing accidents, and many costly train-delaying slow orders.

Additionally, the company improved handling of traffic--principally freight traffic--on heavily traveled portions of the system by double-tracking much of the line, and even triple-tracking or quadruple tracking some portions of it. It also followed the practice common among other railroad companies around the early years of the 20th century of reducing curvature and grades and by building cutoffs where suitable. Then too, the company sought to replace all old frame depots with modern brick, stone, or concrete ones. In Scranton, it enlarged and remodeled its roundhouse into a modern brick structure and erected a vast modern erecting shop complex and a huge new depot and general office building. The work of William Haynes Truesdale (president 1899-1925), this modernization program also expanded the Lackawanna from a coal carrier to a carrier of mixed and diversified commodities. When Truesdale retired in 1925, he left his successor a thoroughly modern, efficient railroad.

At an unknown date, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western shopped Locomotive No. 565 and replaced its slide valves with a piston valve conversion and gave it a superheater. It served the Lackawanna for 28 years. Finally, in 1936, the company sold the locomotive to the Dansville & Mount Morris Railroad, a 9-mile short line railroad operating between Dansville and Groveland in New York State.

Incorporated on January 4, 1868, as the Erie & Genesee Valley Railroad to build a line from Mount Morris to Dansville, the company completed construction in 1871 at a cost of $191,302 and was immediately leased to Jay Gould's Erie Railroad. After about 20 years, the company ended up in bankruptcy, but was reorganized on October 21, 1891 as an independent locally owned road under the names of its termini, Dansville and Mount Morris. The new company was too weak to survive and entered into receivership on June 8, 1894--a receivership that continued for 31 years. The line experienced few profitable years, and in 1912 the surplus at the end of the year amounted to one dollar!

E.M. Harter and Clifford Hubbell became receivers on May 19, 1925, and through their aggressive approach to business sought to end the receivership, which they succeeded in doing on September 30, 1927. Despite the Depression, finances improved, and in 1936, the road cleared $10,632 even though hampered by a heavy snow in January, a damaging flood in March, and the purchase of Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Locomotive No. 565.

The Dansville & Mount Morris Railroad continued to operate its little Mogul from the Lackawanna for nearly a quarter-century. David P. Morgan, writing for Trains in 1956, described the company as having two locomotives, two stockholders, and 15 employees, and entitled his article "A story of small, elderly engines." At that time the D.&M.M. used each of its two engines (the other being No. 304, formerly Nickel Plate Road No. 44) for a single year, repairing and overhauling the one not in use. No. 565 was repaired in 1956, so Morgan did not see it operate, but he reported that both D.&M.M. locomotives had a reputation for steaming well on a very light fire, which accounted for the railroad not yet having acquired a diesel.

By 1961, however, the company had apparently acquired a diesel, and William Whitehead purchased the locomotive for the Black River & Western Railroad, a small tourist railroad operating between Ringoes and Flemington, New Jersey. John Maris bought the locomotive in June 1968 and in July sold it to Tony Citro at Wayne, New Jersey. In 1982 Citro sold it to John Meyers at New Hope, Pennsylvania. In 1983, Don Ball, the railroad photographer and author, bought the locomotive and moved it to Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he sold it to Horst Muller. In December 1985, Muller sold No. 565 to the Steamtown Foundation at Scranton.

Ultimately acquired by the Steamtown Foundation, Locomotive No. 565 is the only motive power at Scranton that is on its "home railroad," the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. It is one of only two D.L.&W. locomotives to survive, the other being "Camelback" 4-4-0C No. 952, now preserved at the National Museum of Transport in St. Louis, Missouri. The only surviving Lackawanna 2-6-0, No. 565 is one of two Moguls in the Steamtown collection, and one of only about 50 specimens of the type that survive nationwide. The 2-6-0 Mogul class of locomotive became popular as freight, and sometimes passenger or mixed train, engines during the late 19th century. Manufacture and use of the type continued well into the 20th century, during which they appeared especially on branch lines and short line railroads. Thousands of locomotives of this type once operated in the United States.

Condition: Locomotive No. 565 is in terrible condition, missing its road number plate, builder's plate, air pump, and many small parts. It has apparently been converted from a coal burner to an oil burner. Mechanically it is a very tired, worn-out engine, not suitable for restoration to operable condition. It is probably suitable only for static exhibit as a museum engine.

Recommendation: This engine is of exceptional importance to Steamtown NHS because it is the only locomotive in the Steamtown collection that is on its home ground--a yard of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad.

The NPS should commission a report on this locomotive. This report should recommend a decision on what period prior to 1936 during its career on the Lackawanna the Park Service should restore the locomotive to for indoor and occasional outdoor exhibit. Because of the conversion from Walschaert valve gear to piston valves by the Lackawanna, restoring the engine to its "as built" condition may not be feasible, but it should certainly be possible to restore it to its appearance during the early 1930s after the installation of the piston valves but before its sale to the Dansville and Mount Morris Railroad.

route map
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad route map


BIBLIOGRAPHY


Beebe, Lucius, and Charles Clegg. Mixed Train Daily: A Book of Short-Line Railroads. Berkeley: Howell-North Books, 1961: 244, 246, 247, 250, 251, 253, 339.

Casey, Robert J., and W.A.S. Douglas. The Lackawanna Story: The First Hundred Years of The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1951.

"Coal Smoke over Scranton: Steamtown Pulls In." Railpace Newsmagazine, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Feb. 1984): 39. Photo of No. 565 newly arrived.

Conrad, J. David. The Steam Locomotive Directory of North America, Vol. 1. Polo: Transportation Trails, 1988.

Cunningham, John T. "Route of the Phoebe Snow." Trains, Vol. 10, No. 8 (June 1950): 18-26.

Graham, F. Stewart. "Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Locomotive Classification." Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, No. 70, Aug. 1947: 61-69.

________. "Locomotives of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad and its Subsidiary Lines." Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, No. 72 (July 1948): 5-143. See especially p. 117.

"Interstate Commerce Commission Valuation Docket No. 695, Dansville and Mount Morris Railroad." Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States. Interstate Commerce Commission Reports, Vol. 116. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1927: 274-294.

King, Sheldon S. The Route of the Phoebe Snow: A Story of Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. Lyons: Author, 1986.

Krause, John, and Ed Crist. Lackawanna Heritage, 1947-1952. New York: Railroad Heritage Press, 1978.

"Lackawanna Cast-Off." Short-Line Railroader, Vol. 1, No. 8 (Jan. 1955): 5.

LeMassena, Robert A. "Steam out of Scranton." Trains, Vol. 25, No. 11 (Sept. 1965): 29.

Locomotives of Four New York State Roads." Railroad Magazine, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Jan. 1941): 136-137.

Lowenthal, Larry, and William T. Greenberg, Jr. The Lackawanna Railroad in Northwest New Jersey. Morristown: The Tri-State Railway Historical Society, Inc., 1987.

McDonnell, Greg J. "Is There Life After Lackawanna?" Trains, Vol. 45, No. 9 (July 1985): 36-46. "Is There Life After Lackawanna?" Trains, Vol. 45, No. 10 (Aug. 1985): 40-49.

Morgan, David P. "Steam in Indian Summer, 7; A story of small, elderly engines." Trains, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Dec. 1956): 26.

"Outdoor Overhaul." Steel Rails, Vol. 6, No. 1 (May 29, 1953): 2.

Pennypacker, Bert. "100 Years of Lackawanna Steam." Railroad, Vol. 77, No. 2 (Feb. 1965): 13-28.

_______. Eastern Steam Pictorial. River Vale: D. Carleton, Rail Books, 1975.

Reich, Sy. "U.S. Common Carrier Steam Power." Railroad Magazine, Vol. 72, No. 2 (Feb. 1961): 56, 64.

Scull, Theodore W. Hoboken's Lackawanna Terminal. New York: Quadrant Press, 1987.

"Spotlight on: The Dansville & Mount Morris." Short-Line Railroader, Vol. 1, No. 6 (Nov. 1954): 4-6.

Taber, Thomas T. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in the 19th Century. Muncy: Thomas T. Taber, III, 1977.

Taber, Thomas T., and Thomas T. Taber, III. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in the 20th Century. Muncy: Thomas T. Taber, III, 1980 and 1981, 2 vols. [See p. 611 for roster. The three Taber books are the best published source on this railroad to date.]

White, William. The Lackawanna; "The Route of Phoebe Snow," 1851-1951; A Centenary Address. New York: The Newcomen Society in North America, 1951.

Wilde, Edwin A. "Ithaca Branch of the Lackawanna." Bulletin of the National Railway Historical Society, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Second Quarter 1958): 12-16.

Young, William S. "Great White Bridge: The Tunkhannock Viaduct and the Rebuilding of the Lackawanna, 1, 1899-1915." Steam Locomotive & Railroad Tradition, Nos. 19-20 (Aug. 1967), front cover, 8-43.

_________. "Great White Bridge: The Tunkhannock Viaduct and the Rebuilding of the Lackawanna, 2, 1915-1967." Steam Locomotive & Railroad Tradition, Nos. 21-22 (Feb. 1968): 2, 26-45, back cover.

__________. "The Lady and the Train: A Short History of Phoebe Snow." Steam Locomotive & Railroad Tradition, Nos. 21-22 (Feb. 1968): 14-25.


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Last Updated: 14-Feb-2002