Aficionados of Northeastern railroading are probably familiar with the Lehigh & New England Railroad. It was the second big Northeastern railroad to go out of business, thus serving as a canary in the mineshaft for the problems that would come to a head in the early 1970s with the Penn Central and almost every other railroad up there.

The L&NE Railroad went into the history books on 31 October 1961, but was resurrected, sort of, the following day by the Central Railroad of New Jersey, which continued operations on parts of the line it deemed profitable as the Lehigh & New England Railway. This isn't to say that the L&NERR died as a bankrupt ruin in the manner of the New Haven or the Penn Central. No, it was sent into history by its corporate parent, the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company. The LC&N was an anthracite mining concern dealing in the particular type of coal found in Pennsylvania that burned cleaner than other types, such as bituminous.¹

The LC&N took a look at the declining anthracite market---replaced in its home-heating use by oil---in the late 1950s and decided to cut its losses before they happened. The L&NE's other major customer, the cement industry, was switching over to trucks because of modal efficiencies that the railroads were incapable of matching at the time. I had read somewhere that the parent, known as the "Old Company", went into oblivion not too long after its railroad. The end, right? Wrong.

While researching the L&NE recently, I decided to look up its parent, and lo, I found the website of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company. Surprised, I went there expecting a historical thing. Boy, was I wrong! The LC&N, reformed in 1989 after a period of 24 years, still operates its anthracite mines in Pennsylvania.

No word on whether they'll be re-establishing in-house rail service . I think I'd like them better if they put the L&NE herald on their trucks and other equipment.

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¹ Clean enough that the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western sent its mascot, Phoebe Snow, forth to proclaim that she could wear white upon the Road of Anthracite and not get filthy. I'm told that it was the fuel of choice for vessels seeking to evade the United States Navy's blockade of the Confederate States of America's ports during the Late Unpleasantness, because when you mixed anthracite's low-visibility smoke with a low-slung hull and a low-visibility paint scheme, the USN might not see your vessel until you were out of position for them to effect an intercept.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 04:31 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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