Delaware and Hudson Railroad Bibliography

Books and Articles by S. Robert Powell

All of the items listed in this D&H Bibliography can be read on-line (do a Google search for each by its title) or via Internet Archive.

A. Books:

Twenty-nine volumes, illustrated, on the history of the Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad and the Delaware and Hudson Company by S. Robert Powell. There are 12,016 pages in the 29 volumes. Each volume is a separate book in an electronic format (one or more pdf files) on one archival DVD. To read, insert each disc into a computer and scroll through the text.

I. Gravity Railroad: 1829 Configuration: 271 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9903835-0-5

II. Gravity Railroad: 1845 Configuration: 267 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9903835-1-2

III. Gravity Railroad: 1859 Configuration: 493 pages, illustrated ISBN: 978-0-9903835-2-9

IV. Gravity Railroad: 1868 Configuration: 601 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9903835-3-6

V. Gravity Railroad: 1899 Configuration:  291 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9903835-4-3

VI. Waterpower on the Gravity Railroad: 144 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9903835-5-0

VII. Working Horses and Mules on the Gravity Railroad: 226 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9903835-6-7

VIII. Passenger Service on the Gravity Railroad: 360 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9903835-7-4

IX. Farview Park: 290 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9903835-8-1

X. The Steam Line from Carbondale to Scranton (the Valley Road): 341 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9903835-9-8

XI. The Jefferson Branch of the Erie Railroad (Carbondale to Lanesboro): 354 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9863967-0-0

XII. Reaching Out: D&H Steam Lines beyond the Lackawanna Valley: 687 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9863967-1-7

XIII. Troubled Times—the 1870s: 291 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9863967-2-4

XIV. Carbondale Stations, Freight Houses, and the Carbondale Yard: 241 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9863967-3-1

XV. Locomotives and Roundhouses: 465 pages, illustrated, ISBN: 978-0-9863967-4-8

XVI. Rolling Stock: Freight and Passenger: 475 pages, illustrated, ISBN 978-0-9863967-5-5

XVII. Anthracite Mining in the Lackawanna Valley in the Nineteenth Century: 741 pages, illustrated, ISBN 978-0-9863967-6-2

XVIII. Breakers: 710 pages, illustrated, ISBN 978-0-9863967-7-9

XIX. The Stourbridge Lion: 432 pages, illustrated, ISBN 978-0-9863967-8-6

XX. The Honesdale Branch of the D&H: 386 pages, illustrated, ISBN 978-0-9863967-9-3

XXI. The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902: 289 pages, illustrated, ISBN 978-1-5136-2662-8

XXII The People: the D&H, the Community: 518 pages, illustrated, ISBN 978-1-5136-2665-9

XXIII The Quality of Life in the Lackawanna Valley in the Nineteenth Century: 672 pages, illustrated, ISBN 978-1-5136-2664-2

XXIV The Birth and First Maturity of Industrial America: 634 pages, illustrated, ISBN 978-1-5136-2666-6

XXV Delaware and Hudson Railroad, 2018:   Addendum I (December 31, 2018) to S. Robert Powell’s Twenty-four Volume Series on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. 444 pages

XXVI Delaware and Hudson Railroad, 2019: Addendum II (December 31, 2019) to S. Robert Powell’s Twenty-four Volume Series on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. 412 pages

XXVII Delaware and Hudson Railroad, 2020:   Addendum III (December 31, 2020) to S. Robert Powell’s Twenty-four Volume Series on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. 400 pages

XXVIII Delaware and Hudson Railroad, 2021:   Addendum IV (December 31, 2021) to S. Robert Powell’s Twenty-four Volume Series on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. 334 pages

XXIX Delaware and Hudson Railroad, 2022:   Addendum V (December 29, 2022) to S. Robert Powell’s Twenty-four Volume Series on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. 247 pages

B. Articles:

All of the articles about the D&H by S. Robert Powell that are listed below have been published in the Bridge Line Historical Society Bulletin, the premier periodical at present on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad and Canal.

1. “The Four D&H Car-Building Contests” (May 2018, p. 7)

2. “The Four Carbondale D&H Roundhouses” (June 2018, pp. 8-10)

3. “More on Owney, the Celebrated Traveling Dog” (July 2018, p. 6)

4. “D&H Challenger #1502 on the Carbondale Turntable” (September 2018, pp. 12-13, 15)

5. “How Did Owney Die?” (October 2018, p. 6)

6. “Photos of the 1925 D&H Car-Building Contest” (October 2018, pp. 12-13)

7. “The D&H Gravity Railroad: Five Configurations (Part 1)” (November 2018, pp. 11-12)

8. “The D&H Gravity Railroad: Five Configurations (Part 2)” (December 2018, pp. 12, 14)

9. “The D&H Gravity Railroad: Five Configurations (Part 3)” (January 2019, pp. 8-10)

10. “The D&H Gravity Railroad: Five Configurations (Part 4)” (February 2019, pp.16-17, 20-21)

11. “The D&H Gravity Railroad: Five Configurations (Part 5)” (March 2019, pp. 12-14, 20)

12. “Industrial Archaeology 101: What Are We Looking At?” (April 2019, pp. 8-10). This is an article about the Honesdale and Clarksville Turnpike and the D&H Gravity Railroad.

13. “The Saratoga Express” (May 2019, pp. 7, 10)

14. “The Boston Express” (June 2019, p. 16)

15. “D&H Baseball: An Introduction” (July 2019, D&H baseball player on cover, article, pp. 16- 17, 19)

16. “Roebling’s System of Anchoring the Cables on the Four D&H Aqueducts” (September 2019, pp. 16-17, 21, 28)

17. “The Birth of the D&H as a Steam Railroad” (October 2019, pp. 16-17, 19)

18. “Compression and Tension in the Four Roebling D&H Aqueducts” (November 2019, pp. 16- 18, 20-21)

19. “Use of Conglomerate Rock in the D&H Canal and Gravity Railroad (Part 1)” (December 2019, pp. 16-18)

20. “Use of Conglomerate Rock in the D&H Canal and Gravity Railroad (Part 2)” (January 2020, pp. 16-18)

21. “The D&H Flat-Land Gravity Railroad” (February 2020, pp. 12-13)

22. “The Legal Battle between the D&H and the Pennsylvania Coal Company,” (March 2020, pp. 16-17)

23. “Regular Passenger Service on the D&H Began in 1860” (April 2020, pp. 16-18)

24. "It Wasn't Only Anthracite Coal that Was Transported on the D&H Canal" (May 2020, pp. 15-16, 30)

25. “The Seven Photographic Series of Ludolph Hensel” (June 2020, pp.16-17, 19)

26. “The Two Trestles on the Jefferson Branch of the Erie Railroad” (July 2020, pp. 12-15, 17, 21)

27. “D&H Gravity Railroad and Mines Shut Down by Horse Epidemic in 1872” (September 2020, pp. 16-18)

28. “The Ararat Cut on the Jefferson Branch of the Erie Railroad” (October 2020, pp. 16-18)

29. “A New Door Has Now Been Opened on the History of the D&H Canal” (November 2020, pp. 14-16)

30. “The D&H, Anthracite Coal, and the Dunmore Cemetery” (December 2020, pp. 12-14, 17, 21)

31. “The D&H Gravity Railroad: 1845 Configuration--Level No. 4, Plane No. 5” (January 2021, pp. 15-17, 22)

32. “The Telegraph and the D&H” (February 2021, pp. 15-17, 35)

33. “Huckleberries and the D&H Mining and Transportation Operations” (March 2021, pp. 6-7, 15)

34. “Passenger Service on the D&H Gravity Railroad, Carbondale to Honesdale (Part I)” April 2021, pp. 15-18)

35. “Passenger Service on the D&H Gravity Railroad, Carbondale to Honesdale (Part II)” (May 2021, pp. 15-17, 19, 29)

36. “Farview Park on the Moosic Mountain on the D&H Gravity Railroad” (June 2021, pp. 1, 15-18, 45)

37. “Lake Lodore Amusement Park on the Honesdale Branch of the D&H” (July 2021, pp. 15- 18, 19)

38. “Delaware and Hudson Bulletin Collection Donated to UAlbany Archives by Carbondale Historical Society” (September 2021, pp. 16, 18)

39. “Inclined Planes on the Delaware & Hudson Gravity Railroad and Canal” (October 2021, pp. 16-19)

40. “Maps of D&H and Pennsylvania Coal Company Operations” (November 2021, pp. 14-15)

41. “The 1824 Delaware and Hudson Canal Company Map” (December 2021, pp. 16-18)

42. “The Gravity-gauge Steam Engine Honesdale” (January 2022, pp. 11-12)

43. The D&H ‘Assembly Line’ from the Anthracite Coal Fields to Tidewater and Beyond (February 2022, pp. 15-16)

44. “D&H Coal Breakers and Collieries” (March 2022, pp. 15-17)

45. “Anthracite Coal Clarifications” (April 2022, pp. 16-18, 20-21)

46. “Coe F. Young and Horace G. Young: Father and Son: D & H Managers” (May 2022, pp. 16-18)

47. “Rollin Manville and C. Rollin Manville, Father and Son, Superintendents of the Pennsylvania Division of the D&H” (June 2022, pp. 16-18)

48. “The McMullen Family: D&H Pennsylvania Division Managers” (July 2022, pp. 16-18)

49. “Thomas Dickson, Empire Builder and Gentleman (Part 1)” (September 2022, pp. 16-19)

50. “Thomas Dickson, Empire Builder and Gentleman (Part 2)” (October 2022, pp. 15-16, 18)

51. “Thomas Orchard: Architect and Master Car Builder for the D&H” (November 2022, pp. 16-17, 23)

52. “White Pine and White Oak Lumber in Roebling’s Four D&H Aqueducts” (December 2022, pp. 16-17, 19)

53. “Waterpower on the D&H Gravity Railroad” (January 2023, pp. 16-17, 20)

54. “The Lease Question, 1873-1874”) (February 2023, pp. 15-18)

55. “Building a Railroad in the Wilderness, 1827-1829” (March 2023, pp. 15-17, 20)

56. “The D&H Bank, Fractional Currency, and Obsolete Bank Notes” (April 2023)

57. "William H. Richmond: Entrepreneur, Coal Baron, Philanthropist" (May 2023)

“Benjamin Wright and John Jervis and the Delaware and Hudson Canal and Gravity Railroad” (published on Internet Archive on February 5, 2022)

“The Switchback at Panther Bluffs on the Honesdale Branch of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad” (published on Internet Archive on May 25, 2022)

* * * * *

The Use of Inclined Planes on the D&H Gravity Railroad and Canal

By S. Robert Powell, Ph.D.

The inclined plane is one of the six classical simple machines--lever, pulley, screw, inclined plane, wedge, wheel and axle--developed by man to facilitate the performance of work. Those machines, each of which uses a single applied force to do work against a single load force, are all mechanical devices that change the direction or magnitude of a force. One of those simple machines, the inclined plane, was integrated in the transportation system that was designed for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company by both John Jervis (Gravity Railroad) and Benjamin Wright (D&H Canal).

An inclined plane is a simple machine that consists of a sloping surface connecting a lower elevation to a higher elevation. Using such a plane makes it easier/takes less force to move an object in an upward direction than it does to lift the object straight up, and this is because the inclined plane increases the distance that the object must be moved.

Raising and Lowering Freight and Passenger Cars on the Gravity Railroad: On the Gravity Railroad, the use of inclined planes has been well documented in the author’s 24-volume series on the D&H, notably in Volumes I-VI. As is well known, loaded and light coal cars, freight cars, and passenger coaches were pulled up or lowered down inclined planes by stationary steam engines. When the Gravity line opened in 1829, most “cuts” of loaded coal cars that were pulled up the planes by stationary steam engines consisted of four cars, each of which contained five tons of coal. Ironically, the inclined planes on the Gravity Railroad, in fulfilling their mission, were used to make work against gravity easier.

On the levels between the planes, as constructed in 1829, horses pulled those same loaded and light coal cars, freight cars, and passenger coaches up very gently sloping inclined planes from the head of one plane to the foot of the next. Across Rixe’s Level/the Summit Level, 1829-1845, a horse could pull no more than two loaded coal cars, in each of which were five tons of coal. When the 1845 configuration of the line was installed, those same levels were all graded so that the loaded and light coal cars, freight cars, and passenger coaches moved by gravity down very gently sloping levels/inclined planes from the head of one plane to the foot of the next.

Raising and Lowering Boats on a Canal: Raising and lowering boats as they move through a canal, as all the world knows, is made possible by the locks in the canal. The “work” performed by the locks in a canal is wholly analogous to the “work” performed by the inclined planes, in the raising and lowering of passenger and freight vehicles on a railroad such as the D&H Gravity Railroad. The locks on a canal, in other words, function like inclined planes. The stretches of the canal between the locks, through which the canal boats are moved by mules or horses are, for all intents and purposes, true levels.

A loaded canal boat, headed for Rondout, for example, is moved into a canal lock and snubbed securely, and the gate at the rear of the canal boat is then closed. The paddle gate in the lock at the head of the canal boat is then opened, causing the water level in the lock to decrease. The canal boat, accordingly, is thus lowered to the level between the lock that the boat is passing through and the next lock in the system. This lowering of a canal boat that takes place as the water in the lock is released through the lower paddle gate is analogous to the lowering of freight and passenger vehicles on the Gravity Railroad as they move down a plane.

Similarly, an empty canal boat, or any boat going up the canal, is moved into a lock and securely snubbed. The canal gate at the rear of the boat is then closed and the paddle gate at the head of the boat is opened, which raises the water level and the canal boat in the lock to the height of the level between the lock through which it is then passing and the next lock on the canal. This raising of a canal boat that takes place as the water in the level at the head of the canal boat enters the lock through the paddle gate at the head of the canal boat is analogous to the raising of freight and passenger vehicles on the Gravity Railroad as they move up a plane.

Shown here is a detail of the map of junction of the Lackawaxen River and the Delaware River (surveyed in 1854, map drawn in 1856 by E. W. Weston, Honesdale, and revised in 1865) on which are shown D&H Pennsylvania Lock No. 1, the Lackawaxen River, the location of the piers on both shores of the D&H rope ferry across the Delaware River, and the location of the Ferryman’s House on the New York shore.

Moving Canal Boats and Horses/Mules across the Delaware River: The several histories of the Delaware and Hudson Canal now in existence note that, in the period 1828 to the opening of the Delaware Aqueduct in 1849, the boats on the D&H Canal were moved across the Delaware River at Lackawaxen by means of a rope ferry. How does a rope ferry function? An excellent description of how a rope ferry was operated in the nineteenth century is presented in James Otis’ Benjamin of Ohio, A Story of the Settlement of Marietta. (James Otis Kaler, 1848 ?-1912, was an American journalist and author of children’s literature, who wrote under the penname James Otis).

On pages 27-28 in the December 9, 2019 edition of Benjamin of Ohio, we read the following about a rope ferry on the Lehigh River:

“And so we journeyed on without adventure until we came to the Lehigh River, and there I saw what I dare say no fellow in Massachusetts has laid eyes upon. It was called a rope ferry, by means of which we were to cross the river [emphasis added].

“Ben Cushing claims that there is nothing wonderful about this ferry, for it consists simply of a rope stretched from one bank of the river to the other; to this, attached by a noose, or, in other words, a hawser [Hawser is a nautical term for a thick cable or rope used in mooring or towing a ship. A hawser passes through a hawsehole, also known as a cat hole, located on the hawse], which will readily slip, the ferryboat is made fast in such a manner that the stern is lower downstream than the bow, and the current catching this, forces the boat along.

“Perhaps I haven't made this very plain to you, but it is operated on the principle of force applied to what might be called an inclined plane [emphasis added]; therefore, since the craft cannot be shoved downstream by the current, it must be urged toward the opposite shore.”

What is known about the rope ferry on the D&H Canal and how it operated? In Manville B. Wakefield’s Coal Boats to Tidewater, pp. 81-82, we read: “As the canal was originally built, the loaded boats drooped down through three locks, Nos. 3, 2 and 1 respectively, to the rope ferry crossing. On the New York side light boats moved out through a guard lock to the stilled pool of water above the dam [built in 1827 by the D&H across the Delaware River just below the confluence of the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers to create an area of still water for the floating across the Delaware River of canal boats]. [Wakefield then quotes John Willard Johnston, Reminiscences and Descriptive Account of the Delaware Valley and Its Connections Aiming to Extend from Pond Eddy to Narrowsburg, 1900] ‘A towpath was formed along the river edge [on the New York shore of the Delaware River] a distance of ½ mile. . . to a point where a ferry was erected; by means of a pier stationed at the opposite side of the river composed of four foot square pine timbers locked together at the corners and the interior thoroughly filled with stones. The piers were twelve foot square at the base, about fifteen feet high and contracted to about seven foot square at the top. These piers supported the ends of a ferry rope two inches in diameter stretched across the river from pier to pier. By means of this rope a ferry scow [emphasis added] was guided across the river as occasion demanded.’(p. 37) /

“When the water was at low mark the boatmen [in exiting from Lock No. 1] would urge his horses to an extra burst of speed so as to establish sufficient headway to cause the boat to shoot across the river. This avoided the tedious process of being pulled across by rope. / ‘Many times the loaded boat crossing from the Pennsylvania side would pass over the river and enter the canal in New York before the horse and driver crossing by ferry would overtake it. When, however, the river was swollen by rains, the boats, horses, and all must be crossed by the ferry… Even this was possible only at certain levels of water above which boats could not cross at all and the business of the canal suspended for a time’ (Johnston, pp. 38-42) (end of Wakefield citation).

That material from Wakefield and Johnston is seconded by statements in Volume III of the eight volumes of testimony in the court case between the Pennsylvania Coal Company and the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. Therein, on pages 1809-1904, the testimony by Peter P. Yaple is reported. Yaple was a boatman on the D&H Canal, who was 45 years old when he testified. He began working on the D&H Canal in 1833 as the captain of a boat. At the time of his testimony, he resided in the town of Rochester, Ulster County, NY. In that testimony, on p. 1834, we read the following:

Question by attorney: “In what manner were boats passed across the Delaware River before the [Delaware] aqueduct was built?” Yaple: “If the river was low, we would give headway to the boat with our horses, and shoot across it, as we call it; and take the horse in a scow and draw it over by a line or cable crossing the river; if the river was high we would run our boat to the scow, and take a line out on the scow and haul the boat over by hand.” Attorney: “Do I understand you, in your preceding answers, to say that this process of crossing was prevented during time of severe freshets until the water should subside sufficiently?” Yaple: “Yes.”

On this same question, we read, on page 443 in Volume I of the account of the PCC/D&H court case, the following statement by Russel F. Lord, who was the Superintendent of the D&H Canal: “…on the old canal [before the Lackawaxen and Delaware aqueducts were opened in 1849] the boats crossed the Delaware River in a pool created by the Delaware dam, using a rope ferry to transfer the horse from one side to the other; by the erection of the aqueduct, the boats now pass direct through it [Delaware aqueduct] over the river, and the horse on a towing-path on the side of the aqueduct.”

Summary statements, based on the data presented above, on how D&H Canal Company boats and the horses that pulled those boats along the D&H Canal crossed the Delaware River at the rope ferry at the junction of the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers in the period 1829-1849:

Crossing the Delaware River from the Pennsylvania shore to the New York shore of the Delaware River: If the Delaware River was low, a D&H canal boat captain, in departing from Lock No.1, would give headway to his boat and shoot across the Delaware River. The horse or horses assigned to that boat would be transported across the Delaware River on a scow attached to the rope ferry. If the river was high, the canal boat would be moved across the Delaware River by means of the rope ferry; the horse associated with that boat would be taken across the Delaware by the scow on the rope ferry.

Crossing the Delaware River from the New York shore of the Delaware River to the Pennsylvania shore of the Delaware River: Canal boats, loaded and light, would be taken across the river by means of the rope ferry. The horses associated with those boats would be taken across the Delaware River on the scow that was part of the rope ferry system.

Rope Ferries, Physics, and Geometry: How does a rope ferry function? The rope ferry across the Delaware River, which used the power of the river to tack across the current, was what is known as a “reaction ferry”, which is a cable ferry that uses the reaction of the current of a river against a fixed tether to propel the vessel across the water. Such ferries operate faster and more effectively in rivers with strong currents, such as the Delaware River. Reaction ferries are numerous at the present time in Germany and Poland.

Some reaction ferries, like the D&H rope ferry across the Delaware River, operated using an overhead cable suspended from towers anchored on either bank of the river. Other reaction ferries use a floating cable attached to a single anchorage that may be on one bank or mid-channel.

At the rope ferry pier on the Pennsylvania shore the Delaware River, two ropes (hawsers), both in the form of a noose, were hung on the rope across the Delaware River. These hawsers on the rope across the Delaware River were movable (they are sometimes called “travelers” on rope ferries) and could easily slip/move. The two hawsers were securely attached to the ferry scow (or to a canal boat), one at the bow and one at the stern. The two hawsers were not of equal length. The one at the bow was directly below the rope across the river (the shortest distance between the rope across the Delaware and the canal boat); the one at the stern was longer, perhaps by a third, than the hawser at the bow.

With the scow thus positioned at the pier on the Pennsylvania shore of the Delaware River, the down-river current of the river would push the stern down the river as far as the hawser at the stern would allow. This down-river force on the stern of the boat would cause the hawser at the bow of the boat to slide along the rope across the Delaware, in the direction of the New York shore. The forward motion of the boat would thus cause the stern of the boat to return to a position more or less under the rope across the Delaware. The river would again push the stern downstream, which would again cause the hawser at the bow of the boat to slide along the rope across the Delaware and guide the boat as it moved in the direction of the New York shore. A rhythm would quickly be established, as the canal boat, using the power/the current of the river, in a series of pulsing movements, tacked across the current and moved across the Delaware River.

The distance that the stern of a boat attached to a rope ferry is pushed downstream by the river (from its initial position directly under the rope across the river to the point where the hawser at the stern of the boat is fully extended) is completely analogous to the distance up or down which loaded and light coal cars or passenger cars were moved on a plane or level by a stationary steam engine on the Gravity Railroad. The current of the river (on the canal) and the stationary engines (on the railroad) are the sources of the power (work performed) that caused forward movement.

The distance between the position of a boat at the point of maximum extension of the hawser at the stern of the boat to the position of the boat at the point of minimum extension of the hawser at the stern of the boat (under the rope across the river) is wholly analogous to the length of a level on the Gravity Railroad. In geometrical terms, the shape of the movement of a canal boat across the Delaware River, by means of the D&H rope ferry, is, therefore, essentially triangular, as is the shape of an inclined plane or level on the Gravity Railroad.

Structurally, then, the D&H rope ferry can be seen as a series of nautical inclined planes by means of which canal boats (which carried from 30 to 50 tons of coal in the period from 1829, when the D&H Railroad and Canal became operational, to 1849, when the Roebling Delaware Aqueduct was put in service and the Rope Ferry across the Delaware River was no longer needed) and the rope ferry scow on the D&H Canal were moved across the Delaware River from the Pennsylvania shore of the Delaware River to the New York shore, and from the New York shore of the Delaware River to the Pennsylvania shore.

If John Jervis and Benjamin Wright, both of whom had engineering credentials of the highest order and who, therefore, understood the importance of using the classical simple machines that were developed by man to facilitate the performance of work, had not integrated one of those machines, the inclined plane, in the D&H Gravity Railroad and the D&H Canal, respectively, would the D&H have been able to accomplish, efficiently and in a cost-effective manner, the “work” that it did in the nineteenth century? Possibly, but it seems more than likely that they could not have done so. We’ll never know. One thing that we know for certain is that the D&H accomplished, efficiently and in a cost-effective manner, an astonishing quantity of “work” in the course of the nineteenth century. They did so by integrating in that transportation system that John Jervis and Benjamin Wright designed and which the D&H constructed from the Lackawanna Valley to Honesdale and from Honesdale to the Hudson River, a simple machine, the inclined plane.

* * * * ** *

Thomas Dickson, D&H Empire Builder and Gentleman (Part 1)

By S. Robert Powell, Ph.D.

In 1836, James and Elizabeth (Linen) Dickson of Berwickshire, Scotland, and their six children, came to Carbondale, where James Dickson entered the service of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company as a machinist (named master mechanic following resignation of John H. McAlpine, and served as such until his death in 1880). In 1837, their son Thomas, age 13, got a job as a mule driver (working under George A. Whiting, who was then in charge of the D&H horses and mules) at the “sweep” (a lifting device) that was used to lift coal out of the D&H mine at Carbondale. Thirty-two years later he was elected President of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. Let’s take a look now at the path that he followed to that high office.

Following his work as a mule driver, he worked in various commercial enterprises until 1852, when he purchased an interest in the foundry and machine shops of Joseph Benjamin & Co. in Carbondale. In 1856, together with his father, brothers, and friends, he established, in Scranton, the firm of Dickson & Co. (manufacturers of mining machinery and steam locomotives), which, when reorganized in 1862, became the Dickson Manufacturing Company, with Thomas Dickson as president and sole manager. The principal customer of the company was the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. (In 1857, Dickson & Co. made 16 stationary steam engines, of 75 horse power each, for the D&H.) On January 1, 1860, Thomas Dickson stepped down as president of the Dickson Manufacturing Company, and his brother George became president.

In 1860, Thomas Dickson was appointed Superintendent of the D&H Coal Department, at an annual salary of $4,000. Immediately, he set about acquiring coal lands, especially those on the east side of the Susquehanna River, extending north from Nanticoke to the Pennsylvania Coal Company property near Wilkes-Barre. In 1864, he was promoted to the newly created office of General Superintendent of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. As such, he was in charge of all operations from the Lackawanna Valley to Rondout, including mining, the railroad, the canal, and the telegraph departments.

The D&H mining-transportation-marketing system—from the coal fields of northeastern Pennsylvania to the Hudson River—was then a fully mature and very profitable industrial enterprise. In 1864, the D&H shipped 852,130 tons of coal to market. The 1866-1868 revisions to the Gravity Railroad resulted in significant increases in shipments of coal. In 1868, 2 million tons of coal were shipped to market. On October 1, 1869, the D&H shipped to market 12,000 tons of coal, the largest amount ever shipped in one day; during 10 hours on the same day, they hauled 2,000 cars over the mountain. At one point in 1870, there were 350,000 tons of coal piled up at Honesdale.

On January 16, 1866, Thomas Dickson was elected Vice president of the D&H. At that time, a concerted program of market expansion for D&H coal was initiated by D&H President George Talbot Olyphant and Thomas Dickson. An important feature of those market expansion plans included (1) buying new coal lands, and (2) expanding the D&H rail network beyond the Lackawanna valley.

In order to buy additional coal lands, the D&H had to get a supplement to its charter to allow it to hold additional acres of coal lands. The D&H did so, and then bought 3,500 acres of Union Coal Company and Baltimore Company lands. Here is what they bought: “…over three thousand acres of coal lands owned in fee, and eleven hundred acres held under favorable leases; four coal breakers with all appurtenances, capable of turning out more than two thousand tons of anthracite daily, and seventeen miles of railroad connecting with the [D&H] company’s line in the Lackawanna valley near Scranton. The properties of the two companies (Union and Baltimore) also included four locomotives, five hundred and fifty coal cars and one hundred canal boats.” (Century of Progress, p. 197). To access those new coal lands, D&H Gravity-gauge tracks were laid from Providence to Green Ridge to the Baltimore mines in Wilkes-Barre.

With the acquisition of those new coal lands, additional markets for anthracite coal were necessary. The D&H, accordingly, focused on the development of new markets to the North, to the South, and to the West, in Albany and beyond, in Baltimore, in the Great Lakes region.

It was destiny that placed Thomas Dickson, an enthusiastic and skilled promoter of railroad expansion (acquisition, construction, and improvement), at the head of the D&H, as president, on May 13, 1869. Under his inspired leadership as President, D&H rails and markets were expanded significantly, and the D&H mining and transportation enterprise ascended to yet new heights. Consider the following seven D&H railroad expansion and enrichment achievements, all of which were orchestrated under the direction of Thomas Dickson:

1. Albany and Susquehanna Railroad Leased for 99 Years: The officers and managers of the D&H, having recognized the potential usefulness of the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad in marketing D&H coal at Albany and north of that city, negotiated a contract with the A&S, in July 1866, providing for completion of the A&S to Nineveh within a year, and for moving 500,000 tons of D&H coal over the A&S in A&S cars "from any point where tendered for loading." Under that agreement, the D&H bought $500,000 worth of A&S second mortgage bonds. Remarkably, the D&H entered into this agreement with the A&S four years before D&H rails could connect with the A&S, knowing, of course, that one day in the not-too-distant future that they would.

On January 12, 1869, the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad (a 6-foot gauge line, from Albany to Binghamton) opened with a commemorative excursion. On February 24, 1870, Joseph H. Ramsey and the A&S Board of Directors leased to the D&H for 99 years "the property and franchises of the Albany & Susquehanna Railway Company at an annual rent of $490,000 or 7 per cent upon its capital, and bonded debt of $7,000,000." (Hollister, p. 179) With a lease arrangement on the A&S and all of its branches in place, the D&H then took an important step to make that rail line D&H user-friendly. On June 8, 1871, President Dickson submitted a letter on this subject to the Managers in which he declared that placing a third rail on the line, so as to permit the handling of equipment of the standard gauge, was of the highest importance and would place the railroad “in direct and close communication with the whole railroad system of the country.” The 143-mile long line between Binghamton and Albany would become known as the Susquehanna Division of the D&H.

2. Albany Became a Second Rondout: Remarkably, the D&H, as early as 1866, had plans to erect at Albany an immense coal depot and to make Albany, in effect, a second Rondout. That fact we know from an article that was published in the Albany Evening Post and reprinted in the March 24, 1866 issue of the Carbondale Advance. In that remarkable article, we read: “…A few days since certain gentlemen connected with the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, contracted with the Directors of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad to bring to Albany as soon as the road is opened to Binghamton 500,000 tons of coal per year [emphasis added]. This is an immense contract, and will give the road an amount of freight, that will soon force them to put down a double track the whole length of the road. / To carry out the designs of the Coal [sic] Company, an immense coal depot is to be erected at this city, one of the largest in the State, for it is the intention of those interested, to make Albany a second Rondout in the way of anthracite coal movements. [emphasis added]. Albany Eve. Post." (Carbondale Advance, Saturday, March 24, 1866, p. 2)

3. PA Coal Fields Connected with New York and New England Railroad System: The D&H entered into a contract, in September 1868, with the Erie Railway Company by which they engaged to construct a steam railroad—the Jefferson Branch—from Carbondale to the Erie main line at Lanesboro, to be completed June 1, 1870, the Erie, thereafter, to transport coal for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company to Rochester and Buffalo. The Jefferson Branch of the Erie Railroad (Carbondale to Lanesboro Junction: line opened in October 1870; five days later, on October 15, 1870, the D&H advertised for proposals to construct the Lackawanna and Susquehanna Railroad from Lanesboro to Nineveh. On October 28, 1870, the first coal train ran on the Jefferson Branch. The Jefferson Branch was the link between the coal fields in Pennsylvania and all markets for coal north of Carbondale. As such, its importance in the history of the D&H can not be over-stated. To strengthen and unify the D&H transportation system in the Lackawanna Valley, the D&H constructed the Valley Road, a standard-gauge rail line between Scranton and Carbondale, which opened on July 4, 1871, and purchased the Union Railroad, between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton.

4. D&H Coal Transported to Weehawken by Erie: The D&H entered into a contract, in September 1868, with the Erie Railway Company to transport D&H coal from Honesdale to Weehawken Dock during the winter months. Marketing coal during the winter months in New York City was now possible.

5. Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad Leased: Incorporated on April 14, 1832, the R&S, and all of its branches, together with the line of steamers on Lake Champlain, leased ($750,000 a year in perpetuity) to the D&H on May 1, 1871. D&H coal could now be marketed as far north as Whitehall, via Albany. This sprawling line, 181 miles in length; was merged into the D&H on July 2, 1945.

6. Lackawanna and Susquehanna Railroad Constructed: 23.3 miles from Jefferson Junction to Nineveh. The line opened on January 1, 1872. D&H coal could now be marketed in upstate New York without having to pass through Binghamton.

7. New York and Canada Railroad Constructed: Whitehall to Rouse’s Point, Canada. The line was opened for business on November 26, 1875. The New York and Canada railroad was originally chartered with a capital stock of $3,000,000, and was designed for two distinct purposes: (1) To enable the Delaware & Hudson Canal company (which controlled a line of railroads from its coal fields to Whitehall) to ship its anthracite beyond that point to Canada over its own rails; and (2) To reach and develop; the magnificent iron ore interests of Essex, Clinton, and adjoining counties on the western shore of Lake Champlain. The length of the road from Whitehall to the Canada line is 114 miles. This rail line gave the D&H access to Montreal and all of Canada year round. (The D&H had, therefore, an advantage over all its coal-mining rivals in that it could ship coal to Canada without using water communication.) To commemorate the completion of this line, the D&H hosted a commemorative excursion from Albany to Montreal on November 16-19, 1875. Among the prominent individuals invited by President Dickson to join the D&H managers on this excursion were John Jacob Astor, J. Pierpont Morgan, Samuel Sloan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Chester A. Arthur, Samuel J. Tilden, and U. S. President Ulysses S. Grant. The train consisted of a baggage car, hotel car, seven Wagner Palace coaches, a directors’ coach, and at the rear an open “Baldwin” coach.

Such then are the primary accomplishments of Thomas Dickson as a D&H officer (Coal Superintendent, General Superintendent, Vice President, and President) in the first fifteen years of his service to the D&H, 1860-1875 (with nine additional years still ahead of him as president of the company). About Thomas Dickson and his accomplishments as an officer of the D&H in those first fifteen years of service to the D&H, Horace Hollister, M.D., in his History of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company (1880), said the following:

“He rose from the ranks of the people by no other reason than that of his own inspiration. A man of talent and character, prudent in speech, excellent in judgment,…estimating time too highly to permit an hour to go by in idleness, he rigidly practiced the industry himself which he desired others to imitate for he considered that no man unwilling to assist himself deserved aid from others. He has given his whole heart to the interests of the Company in all its progressive developments as if they had been his own and thus has become the moving spirit in its modern progress and history,…occupying every intermediate position from a driver boy to the presidency of this great Company, which, by its immense capital of twenty millions and its ramifications of nearly one thousand miles of railway, underground and overground, has become established as a commonwealth of itself. The advancement of Thomas Dickson as a railroad magnate may be attributed to two simple facts, first, he never abandoned what he had considerately undertaken without accomplishing it; second, he dealt with all men in good faith and fairness and never broke his word. He said what he meant and meant what he said, as thousands of employees of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company and others can attest.”

(End of Part 1)

Anthracite Coal Clarifications

By S. Robert Powell, Ph.D.

“Anthracite coal is heavier than all rocks.” “Anthracite coal will float in water.” “Anthracite coal is blue.” “Scatter tags were randomly mixed with coal when it came from the breakers.” “Everyone who worked in the mines was a miner.”

Anyone associated with an historical organization in the anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania invariably collides with some remarkable “facts” about anthracite coal that are voiced by present-day visitors to those organizations. Those among us who are interested in establishing a factual account of history and who are affiliated with an historical organization must, therefore, filter out and/or clarify what they are told by well-meaning but imperfectly educated visitors to those organizations.

Anthracite Coal Is Not as Heavy as a Rock: In one of the displays at the Carbondale Historical Society there is a large chunk (maybe 10 pounds) of anthracite coal. When visitors stop at this display, we always ask them to pick up that chunk of coal, and state whether that chunk of coal is lighter or heavier than a rock of the same size would be. Not surprisingly, almost everyone gets it right: “A rock that size would be heavier. Wow, that’s amazing. I always thought coal was much heavier than a rock.” (Little boys, who usually have a lot of first-person experience in picking up and throwing rocks, always get it right.)

Anthracite Coal Will Float in Water: Yes and No: Under “normal” conditions, a shovel full of anthracite coal, for example, when dumped into a pail of water, will immediately sink, as we all know. So where and when did the popular belief that coal will float in water originate? Answer: In Scranton, PA and in the Northern Coal Field in Pennsylvania in the early twentieth century. There, beginning in 1916, experiments with machines using an upward current of water to separate crushed anthracite coal from rock and for cleaning coal for market were carried out. And then, in the early 1930s, remarkably, the Hudson Coal Company began, with great success, to cone-clean anthracite coal, and in so doing, anthracite coal floated in water. In a pamphlet titled “Mining and Preparation of Anthracite” that was published by the Hudson Coal Company in Scranton, PA in 1931 we read:

“D&H Anthracite is Cone-Cleaned. Innumerable manual and mechanical methods have been used to prepare coal. The most modern, most effective and most reliable process devised for cleaning coal is the amazing new invention adopted by The Hudson Coal Company for cleaning D&H Anthracite. It is known as Cone Cleaning. The run-of-mine coal enters huge metal cones, filled with a mixture of sand and water. This mixture of sand and water is kept agitated by revolving paddles and the density of the mixture actually floats the pure coal . . . impurities sink and are discarded. Just as simple as separating wood and stone in water, yet a remarkable scientific discovery that has revolutionized the preparation of Anthracite. Burn D&H cone cleaned anthracite to insure home comfort.

PURE COAL FLOATS---THE REST SINKS.” In 1932, W. C. Menzies, a mechanical engineer from Scranton, installed an experimental cone unit at the Nottinghan Colliery, owned by the Glen Alden Coal Company, in Plymouth, PA, and in that Menzies cone, coal floated in water. Why does coal float when placed in such a cone? How does a Menzies cone work? Crushed run-of-the mine coal enters huge metal cones, filled with a slurry mixture of water and magnetite. This slurry has a high specific gravity. The mixture is kept agitated by revolving paddles and the density of the mixture makes it possible for the lighter coal to float and the rock and the coal with a lot of rock in it to sink to the bottom, where it is discarded.

In 1934, Menzies formed the Menzies Separator Company and began selling the cones comercially. Fourteen units, each with a capacity of treating one ton per hour per square foot of area at the top of the cone, were installed in the Huber Breaker(operated by the Blue Coal Corporation) in 1939, and those cones were the principal coal washing units at the Huber Breaker unti the late 1950s, when new technology complemented their use. So, yes, anthracite coal in plain water will sink, but if you put anthracite coal in a cone-cleaning devise, such as a Menzies cone, it will float.

Anthracite Coal Is Near-Black or Very Dark Gray, Very Shiny, and Has a Glass-like Consistency: Anthracite coal, the highest grade of coal, as it comes from the mines, is not blue, but because of its high carbon content, anthracite coal does produce a blue flame when it is burned. (As air flows over hot charcoal, the carbon is partially oxidized, forming carbon monoxide. This then burns with a classical blue flame.) Capitalizing on that well-known fact that anthracite coal does produce a blue flame when it is burned, the Blue Coal Corporation, a subsidiary of the Glen Alden Coal Company, in order to develop a market niche, sprayed its processed coal with a blue irridescent chemical and marketed it as “Blue Coal”.

Our Coal is Better than Your Coal: There are different grades of anthracite.The higher the carbon content, the better the quality of the coal, Most anthracite coal from northeastern Pennsylvania was very high quality coal, and the difference between the coal that was mined and marketed by the various coal companies was slight, and yet the various coal companies made a special effort to let customers know that their coal was better than that offered for sale by their competitiors. And so the coal companies made a conscious effort to distinguish their coal from all other coal on the market and to let potential customers know that their coal was the coal to buy by naming their coal: the D&H / Hudson Coal Company, for example, marketed their coal as “Lackawanna Anthracite” and “Hudson” coal; the Pennsylvania Coal Company marketed their coal as “Jet Black Anthracite” and as “Pittston Coal”.

Scatter Tags: Another way that coal companies operated to encourage potential customers to buy their coal was by the use of scatter tags. Shown here are two Hudson Coal Company scatter tags (1 ½” in diameter), on which re-order information for Hudson Coal is given.

Some people believe, erroneously, that these tags were randomly mixed in the coal as it came from the Hudson Coal Company breakers. That is not true. These tags were scatered about on the floor of empty or nearly empty domestic coal bins by Hudson Coal Company dealers before they filled those bins. That way, when the customer’s supply of coal got low, the customer would come across these tags, pick one up, and be reminded that it was now time to contact his Hudson Company dealer and order a load of coal. Advertising in the bottom of your coal bin! What an astonishing idea! (As a young boy in a house heated by anthracite coal and whose job it was to make sure that there was a good supply of coal at all times at the front end of the coal bin where it could be easily fed into the furnace by an adult, I well remember the excitement of finding the first scatter tag on the floor of the coal bin, and the quick trip up the cellar stairs to report the find.)

“To Keep Everybody Honest”: An interesting corollary to the spraying of coal for market/customer identification purposes developed over the years in the anthracite coal fields--spraying the surface of loaded coal cars for security purposes. To wit: Loaded coal cars from the breakers, especially when those cars are stored in great numbers in the railroad yards and awaiting shipment to customers, were easy targets for pilfering by the general public. In darkness, petty thieves would climb up on top of a loaded coal car/hopper, push off some or all of the top of the load onto the ground beside the car, and take it home.

To identify coal cars from which coal had been pilfered, many coal companies instituted the following procedure: They sprayed the surface of loaded coal cars as they came from a breaker with a chemical that defined the surface of the loaded coal car. If any pilfering from a car that had been so sprayed took place between the time when that car left the breaker and the time when it was sent to market, the surface color pattern would have been compromised and the customer would immediately see that he was not getting a full car.(We learned many years ago about this procedure of spraying for security purposes from the late Jack Gillen of the Gillen Coal Copmpany, Carbondale, who, in response to my question (“Why did they spray the surface of the loaded coal cars at many of the breakers with a colored chemical?) replied: “To keep everyody honest.”

Everyone who worked in the anthracite industry, many people erroneously believe, was a miner. In the March 2022 issue of this publication, we took a look at Loree Colliery No. 5 in Larksville, PA, and listed the job titles (approximately 200) for all of the inside and outside employees at that colliery at that time, and in that list we do not see Miner. Yet, if you were to ask a descendant of any of those colliery workers where their grandfather worked and what he did, they would, more likely than not, declare that he was a miner and worked “in the mines in Larksville.”

Just because you worked in the mines or in a colliery did not make you a miner. To become a miner, one had to be certified by a board of mining examiners. There were three classifications of miners (contract miners, consideration miners, and company miners) in the anthracite industry of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Contract Miner: The contract miner worked on a piecework basis, being paid a fixed rate per mine car or mine ton of coal produced and, in some cases, a lineal yard rate. In the anthracite industry, most miners were contract miners/piece workers. The contract miners were the elite of the laboring class.

Miners' helpers (“labourers”) were hired and paid by the miners. The helpers handled and loaded the mine cars at the breast, split blocks of coal, sorted out waste material, and aided the miner in setting props and other tasks. The skilled miner was at the top of the underground hierarchy. He generally worked as an independent contractor, supplying his own tools, powder, and helper, and being paid a fixed price per carload of coal. The miner directed the opening and advancing of the breast, determined how to cut the coal and when and how to prop the roof.

Consideration Miner: Under abnormal condition, such as a diminution in the thickness of the coal and an undue increase in the amount of rock to be handled, it was impossible for the contract miner to earn a fair day's wage by the exertion of reasonable efforts. In such instances he might be placed on "consideration" basis and paid a fixed daily or hourly rate of wages so long as those conditions exist.

Company Miner: The company miner was paid on a daily or hourly basis. He did various kinds of work of a general mining nature, such as blasting rock, driving gangways through caved ground, and so on.

Be it known, therefore, that a chunk of anthracite coal is not as heavy as a rock of the same size, that it will/will not float in water, that it is near black/very dark gray and not blue, that it burns with a blue flame, that regardless of what it was named by the companies that produced/marketed it that it was still anthracite coal, and that it was processed for market by a lot of anthracite coal workers, some of whom were miners, some of whom were not.

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