A program to commemorate the anniversary of the opening of the Gravity Railroad in 1829 will take place in the Chamber of Commerce building in Carbondale on Friday, October 9. On that day, 186 years ago, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's Gravity Railroad from Carbondale to Honesdale became operational.
By means of that rail line, millions of tons of anthracite coal were shipped from Carbondale over the Moosic Mountain to Honesdale, where the coal was then loaded into canal boats for the 108-mile long journey to the Hudson River at Rondout.
This commemorative program will begin at 7 P.M. and will be under the direction of Dr. S. Robert Powell, the president of the Carbondale Historical Society. In the course of this program, which will adjourn at or before 8 P.M., Dr. Powell will speak briefly on (1) the importance of the D&H to the City of Carbondale and the surrounding area, and (2) the five new volumes on the history of the D&H that he has written during the past year and which were published on October 9, in commemoration of the anniversary of the opening of the Gravity Railroad on that day.
The subjects of these five new D&H volumes are waterpower on the Gravity Railroad, working horses and mules, passenger service on the D&H, Farview Park, and the D&H steam locomotive line between Carbondale and Scranton.
These five new D&H volumes are a component of the multi-year publishing program undertaken by Dr. Powell on the history of the D&H. Last year on the anniversary of the opening of the Gravity Railroad, the first five volumes in this series were published.
All of these volumes on the D&H have been published as DVDs. To read them, each disc is inserted into a computer, the reader then scrolling through the text at his own rate of speed.
For additional information on this program, contact the Historical Society at 570-282-0385.
