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RE: (erielack) Jefferson Division
Rick - The sale of the "Jefferson Division" was made on 1 January 1955 when
the D&H purchased from the Erie the 34.5 mile line between Jefferson
Junction and Carbondale which the D&H had operated over under a Trackage
Rights Agreement dated 1898 (though D&H operations, under different
agreements, predated that). Of the $3,500,000 purchase price $1,000,000 was
paid in January 1955 whith the balance in annual $500,000 payments starting
1 January 1956. Under the agreement the Erie retained Trackage Rights over
the segment until 2015. On 6 December 1955 the Interstate Commerce
Commission approved the purchase and title to the property was transferred
on 1 February 1956.
It is my understanding that by the 1955 sale of the Jefferson
Division to the D&H the Erie was very much a minority of traffic. Subject
to digging into my archive I believe the Erie's principal Jeff traffic was
westbound anthracite coal, which was in a long-term decline, and bridge
traffic, principally to/from the CNJ. Remember that the D&H had always
owned the segment south (east) of the Jeff from Carbondale to Avoca, 24.35
miles, which the Ere had Trackage Rights over. While the Erie was a
significant player in the Anthracite coal traffic much of it went east via
the Wyoming Division getting on the Delaware Division Main Line at
Lackawaxen. The D&H still carried Anthracite Coal out of the
Scranton-Wilkes Barre area but increasingly had transformed itself into a
Bridge Road focused on connecting the PRR at Wilkes Barre with the B&M at
Mechanicville NY and the CN and CP near Montreal. I would expect that an
interest in getting Dispatching control of the Jeff and making sure it was
maintained to "fast freight" standards may have motivated the D&H's interest
in what clearly would not have been an Erie priority line.
Soon after the sale the Erie, D&H, and DL&W began investigating the
proposed three-way merger which ultimately became the EL when the D&H backed
out. William White, then President of the D&H, was a central figure as he
had also served President of the DL&W (1941-1951 IIRC) and Assistant
GM-Western District of the Erie (left c. 1938 to go to the VGN as GM and
later VP-O).
A little known strategy that the Erie entered into as a consequence
of the sale of the Jeff and, I suspect, to push its erstwhile merger
partners along, was to secure trackage Rights over the Lehigh Valley from
near Avoca PA to Waverly NY (the EL Annual Reports for 1960 and 1961 still
showed this as Trackage Rights). I can find no record that these rights
were ever regularly exercised but I do recall seeing some correspondance
about how the Susquehanna and Jefferson Division trainmen and enginemen
would split the work on what was planned as an Avoca PA-Hornell NY crew
assignment. It is interesting to consider what the impact of this would
have been had it been introduced at the time of the Jeff Div sale and
therefore had a few years of operational history. The LV from Avoca to
Waverly was about 100 miles of basically water level railroad versus the
Erie's 128 mile route via Susquehanna which also involved Ararat Summit.
Hope this answers your question and some more. Mike Connor
>From: Njricky2_@_aol.com
>Reply-To: Njricky2_@_aol.com
>To: erielack_@_lists.railfan.net
>Subject: (erielack) Jefferson Division
>Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 01:39:40 EST
>
>I know that Erie eventually sold the Jeff to Delaware & Hudson, which had
>operated over the division. Can anyone tell how much traffic Erie sent over
>the
>Jeff before and after the sale? Was it pretty much an equal ratio of
>traffic
>(Erie/D&H) or otherwise?
>
>Rick
>
L
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