Scranton’s Steamtown is a museum of North American railroading. But it is also a citadel of Lackawanna heritage. It is the respository of Lackawanna equipment and artifacts.
In its heyday more than a century ago, Lackawanna was an increadibly busy and very profitable railroad. In 1915, some 32 freight and passenger trains in each direction would work the mainline east of Scranton on a daily basis. Today these rails still host the occasional freights operated by Genesee Valley Transportation’s Delaware-Lackawanna, but its a far cry from the busy thoroughfare it was once.
Outside of Scranton, fragments and vestiges of the Lackawanna survive, but decades have passed since these represented a cohesive and vital transportation network. West of Binghamton, New York, little remains of the Lackawanna main line.
We were hundreds of feet below ground on the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour. We were led by John, our guide, and much of the tour was conducted on foot through the maze of subterrainian tunnels. We had ample opportunity to inspect the old mine and learn about the perils of anthracite mining.
I made all of these photos hand-held using my Nikon Z7-II with the ISO set at 8000 to 12,800 ISO.
Although shadows and highlights have been adjusted in these image, the files are converted directly from the camera RAW images, and not processed using PureRaw. At some point I will convert a few images using this advanced processing software for comparision.
I work with different cameras to make various types of photos.
For this post I’m displaying a few photos made with my Panasonic Lumix LX-7 of the Radisson Lackawanna Hotel in Scranton. Using the Lumix lent to a distinct view point and the photos exposed offer an alternative to those that I previously made of the same building with my Nikon Z7-II.
These are not better or worse, just different.
Playing with myriad camera systems allows for a continued exploration of familiar subjects.
Last week, Kris and I stayed at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel in Scranton.
I remember when this architectural masterpiece was but a forlorn ruin.
Today, it is a testimony to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and architect Kenneth Murchison.
I’ve previously written about this station in my book Depots, Stations & Terminals, published by Voyageur Press ten years ago. Below is an excerpt:
Murchison, was a respected New York architect who earned several important commissions for railroad stations in the early twentieth century. Murchison had studied in Paris and made prominent use of the Beaux-Arts style in his railway architecture. Among his significant early projects was Delaware, Lackawanna & Western’s new Hoboken Terminal on the west shore of the Hudson River across from New York City. This elaborate station complex replaced an earlier facility that had succumbed to fire and made prominent use of copper sheathing believed to be left over from the erection of the Statue of Liberty in nearby Upper New York Harbor.
Murchison followed up his success with Hoboken with an impressive five-story station for the DL&W at Scranton, Pennsylvania, constructed in 1908 . . .
. . .The importance of Scranton to Lackawanna, and to the competition from a host of other railroads here, mandated magnificence on the part of DL&W’s new Scranton station. Murchison was the right man for the job. Working in French-Renaissance style characteristic of the Beaux Arts movement, Murchison imparted Continental elegance on this Pennsylvania coal capital. He used massive colonnades on both the street and track sides of the station, and maintained classic symmetry. At the center of the roofline an enormous clock was flanked by stone eagles. The building was faced with Indiana limestone. An unusually deep hanging canopy encircled the structure to protect passengers when arriving and boarding trains, while Bush-style smokeless sheds, originally designed by DL&W chief engineer Lincoln Bush for Hoboken, were installed trackside. In the 1920s an additional story was added.
It was in this 1920s addition that we stayed on our recent visit. Our room was immediately behind the fifth story clock that faces the parking lot. (See below).
Photos exposed in July 2025 using my Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm lens.
The old Reading truss bridge is long abandoned, while the former Lackawanna plate girder bridge is now used by the North Shore Railroad short line.
Working with my FujiFilm XT1, I exposed this view as a RAF (RAW) image. Below are four variations of the same file that aim to show steps toward achieving a final image.
First I converted the RAF file into DNG format using Iridient X-Transformer. Then I made some nominal corrections with Lightroom.
Out of curiousity, I then returned to the original RAF file and converted it DNG using DxO PureRaw, a program with which I’ve been experiementing recently.
Note: in this excercise I made two distinct conversions from the RAF (RAW) image to the DNG format using the two different conversion programs. I did not re-convert the already converted image.
Working with the PureRaw DNG in Lightroom, I found that this conversion gave me much greater latitude to improve detail and color in the sky. While the sky appears nearly white in the unadjusted files, using the highlights slider in Lightroom I was able to draw in considerable detail.
Overall, I found that the PureRaw-created DNG file was easier to adjust in Lightroom and allowed me to create a better end-result.
I plan to continue these experiments.
Iridient X-Transformer created DNG file, scaled without cosmetic adjustment.Iridient X-Transformer created DNG file, scaled following adjustments to shadow-areas, highlights and color balance. Note the sky.PureRaw created DNG file, scaled without cosmetic adjustment. This software corrected for a variety of lens defects among other transformations.PureRaw created DNG file, scaled following significant cosmetic adjustment, including nominal cropping. Notice the differences in the sky detail compared with the other variations.
Last Sunday, we exited Interstate 81 at New Milford, PA to get gas. This was the last leg in our big move, and our third drive from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania in the last month,
My plan was to follow old Route 11 toward Clark’s Summit. This avoids the traffic on I-81 and largely follows the old alignment of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. In fact in many places Route 11 is built on the old right-of-way.
We had Boomer-the-Dog with us and this was his first trip to Pennsylvania.
As I was fueling the car, I heard the unmistakable roar of modern EMD diesels. It was a southward freight on the Lackawanna!
I concluded pumping gas before the tank was filled, and we headed south after the train.
Several miles south of New Milford, Route 11 runs adjacent to the Lackawanna, now operated by Norfolk Southern. We pulled over to roll the train by at milepost 637.
Here, Kris made a video with her phone, Boomer got to witness his first BIG freight train, and I exposed this sequence of digital photos.
Milepost 637 as measured from Mattawamkeag, Maine, dating from the brief period in the 1980s, when Guilford Transportation controlled the Delaware & Hudson, which then own this section of DL&W line.A wink of sun at just the right moment made for an even better image.NS 1021 is an EMD SD70ACe.
Soon we were off after an even bigger prize . . . (stay tuned).
Yesterday on our drive to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, used highway 11 from Milford to Clarks Summit. Much of this route is on the old Delaware, Lackawanna & Western right-of-way, a line that was largely abandoned after the Nicholson Cut-off was completed.
At Nicholson, PA we paused so that I could make a few photos of the old DL&W station that remains located adjacent to the former railroad bed. In the distance the massive Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct rises above the town.
I wrote about this bridge in my book Railway Masterpieces published in 2002 Krause Publications.
” . . . the colossal neo-Roman Tunkhannock Viaduct [is a] great bridge, named for the Tunkhannock Creek Valley. . . completed in 1915. This gargantuan bridge seems out of proportion with its surroundings. It is nearly one half mile long (2,375 feet) and rises 240 feet over the valley floor, towering over the houses and shops in the village. “
Highway traffic rolls along the olf DL&W right-of-way with the famous Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct on the relocated 1915-era line looming in the distance. An old DL&W building is preserved along Route 11. Photo exposed using a Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm lens set to 190mm.
Thick haze, partially attributed to high-level smoke from Canadian wildfires, made the enormous viaduct appear ethereal and more mystical than it would on a very clear day.
In December 1982, my father and I visited the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Hoboken Terminal on the Hudson River waterfront opposite Manhattan.
I thought this ancient decaying relic of the Golden Age of American railways was just about the most fascinating place on the planet.
Rotten, yet grand, elusive, yet filled with intrigue. I exposed a series of Kodachrome slides using my 1930s era Leica 3A with Sumitar lens.
There’s no doubt; I was born in the wrong era. At age 16, my interests lay in the world decades before my birth.
Lackawanna Terminal has been tidied up since that day. Today, one of the old DL&W electric multiple unit cars serves as Conway Scenic Railroad’sdining car Chocorua, while another former DL&W car is coach 3202 Hurricane Mountain. Oddly enough, I write this in the shadow of Hurricane Mountain in North Conway, New Hampshire.
I scanned the slide portrayed here just a little while ago. I offer two versions. One is a scaled RAW scan without interpretation, the other is an ‘improved’ version of the same scan. I lightened this, adjusted the contrast and color temperature.
