Delaware and Hudson Railway

The Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) is a railroad that operates in the Northeastern United States. In 1991, after more than 150 years as an independent railroad, the D&H was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). CP operated D&H under its subsidiary Soo Line Corporation which also operates Soo Line Railroad. D&H's name originates from the 1823 New York state corporation charter listing "The President, Managers and Company of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co." authorizing an establishment of "water communication" between the Delaware River and the Hudson River. Nicknamed "The Bridge Line to New England and Canada," D&H connected New York with Montreal, Quebec and New England. D&H has also been known as "North America's oldest continually operated transportation company." On September 19, 2015, the Norfolk Southern Railway completed acquisition of the D&H South Line from CP. The D&H South Line is 282 miles (454 kilometers) long and connects Schenectady, New York, to Sunbury, Pennsylvania. The D&H South Line consists of two rail lines, the Sunbury Line and the Freight Line. The Nicholson Cutoff is located on the Sunbury Line, which was the former mainline of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. By the 1790s, industrializing eastern population centers were having increasing troubles getting charcoal to fuel their growing kilns, smithies, and foundries. As local timber was denuded, efforts to find an alternative energy source began. During a fuel shortage in Philadelphia during the War of 1812, an employee at the direction of industrialist Josiah White conducted a series of experiments and discovered a number of ways that 'rock coal' or anthracite could be successfully ignited and burned. The fuel, theretofore, had been seen more as a way to put out a fire than a fuel to build one up, so its use also had to overcome prejudice. White and his partner Erskine Hazard founded the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, creating the Lehigh Canal, and inspiring the exploitation of the anthracite deposits found by William Wurts around Carbondale, Pennsylvania, which led to the development of Scranton.