October 15th, 2022
The Stourbridge Line * Honesdale, PA

From Susquehanna, it was about a forty mile drive over to Honesdale. Prior to departing on this trip, I’d Google Mapped and printed out all the routes I’d need to drive. Well let me tell ya, Google Maps will get you there but you may be driving along some roads that would never show up on any Rand-McNally Road Map. Mind you, Google’s directions are indeed correct but you need to be extremely alert to the distances it indicates to drive.

For example, if it says to drive 4.7 miles on Mustachio Road and then turn left on Baldessa Lane, you need to turn left on whatever road shows up after 4.7 miles on Mustachio Road. As I discovered, it’s sometimes a leap of faith with Google Maps, especially when there’s no road sign indicating the Baldessa Lanes of your trip.

Bottom line, you’ve got to take a sense of adventure with you when you use Google Maps. And, you’ve gotta have faith that the directions are correct. I had a couple of times where I felt a twinge of concern with where I was heading, but I kept good tabs on my odometer and it all worked out in the end, every time. My trip to Honesdale involved one such leap of faith but I managed to arrive in town just fifteen minutes before train time.

So then, let’s talk about today’s train ride. Normally I tend to pass on the shorter excursions, as well as those that don’t offer either First Class, Parlor Car, lounge or dome accommodations. But I will make exceptions, and in today’s case my attraction to the Stourbridge Line is that it is considered to be the birthplace of railroading in America, or, as the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce put it, Honesdale is the site of "the first commercial locomotive on rails in the western hemisphere", that event having taken place in 1829.

The name Stourbridge comes the fact that the steam locomotive that first operated along what was then the Delaware & Hudson Canal was built in and imported from Stourbridge, England. The little locomotive was known as the Stourbridge Lion and a replica of it is on display in Honesdale to this day.

As I mentioned, I arrived in town just fifteen minutes before train time. Being as it was a gorgeous Saturday on a colorful autumn afternoon, this train was well patronized. As you might imagine, all of the best parking spots were long gone and I began to have real concern that I might miss this train if I couldn’t find a place to park soon. Imagine then my surprise and delight upon driving past the front of the Honesdale Depot and spotting the bright red tail lights indicating that someone was preparing to back out of a parking spot mere feet from the depot entrance! I cast my eyes skyward and said a little prayer of thanks to the powers that be and quickly pulled in to the newly available spot. There were no signs indicating limited time parking, so I headed into the depot where the lady behind the ticket window easily located my ticket envelope and bid me a good ride.



This scene at the Honesdale Station probably doesn’t look any different than it did in 1952


On board, I found a surprising number of open seats in the old 1950s era coach car. Seating was 2-2, but unlike today’s cheap, hard and skinny Slimline seats, these seats were well padded and comfortable. Shortly, I felt the first jolt as the locomotive powered up and eased us out of the depot.

The motive power for today’s train consisted of two 1950s era diesels, one of them quite unique. Leading us out of town and down the Lackawaxen River was a beautifully restored 1951 built EMD F7, one of the best-selling cab units of all time. In fact, more F7s were built than all other F-units combined. The classic “bulldog” nose has long since become iconic for railroad passenger engine imagery. Today’s locomotive, #9880, looked quite fetching in the Pennsylvania Railroad’s “Pinstripes” livery.



The EMD FP-7A on the front end of the train


On the other end of our train was a rare EMD BL-2 locomotive. Designed as a crossover between road switcher and passenger engine, the BL-2 was almost universally considered to be a colossal mistake by GE’s Electro Motive Division. Only 59 were ever built. Any of you desiring more detail on this interesting locomotive can find it by clicking HERE.



The Stourbridge Line’s rare EMD BL2 diesel locomotive


For my part, I was thrilled to see my first one ever and all the more excited that it would be pulling us back into town on the return leg of this excursion.

The Lackawaxen River is not a very large river, but where our train ran along it through colorful trees and afternoon shadows, it was quite pretty.



Rollin’ on a pretty afternoon along the Lackawaxen River


Afternoon shadows along the Lackawaxen


Our turnaround point was said to be a place called Hawley. It must be those buildings off in the distance because down here along the river it’s just us and nature. I did notice that the river grew a bit larger as we proceeded downstream, and there was a pretty trail alongside it on the other bank. We passed a few people out enjoying the day and of course they waved at us – and we waved back. There’s something about waving at a train…

As we made our way back to our starting point in Honesdale, I found it surprising that I was seemingly the only person taking advantage of the open Dutch door in the vestibule between cars. I find this the best place to photograph a rail journey for two reasons. One, I get a clear unfettered view with no reflection off window glass as happens sometimes when taking pictures from your seat and two, I like to get a bit of the train car in the photo as I think it really captures the fact that we’re actually traveling on a train as opposed to just a scenery shot out the window. So then, here’s a shot of the BL-2 leading us back to Honesdale.



The BL-2 takes us back home to Honesdale


Although this wasn’t a very long ride (Only two hours and fifteen minutes out and back) the historical context of the trip combined with the beauty of our journey along the river on such a nice autumn day made it one that I’m glad I booked and one that I’d recommend to any of you should you find yourselves taking in the fall colors on a nice autumn weekend in Pennsylvania’s northern Poconos.

Before moving on to our next train 140 miles down the road in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, I’ll leave you with this photo of an old time snow removal plow. It was parked next to our train at the Honesdale Depot and looks like it was built to handle some pretty deep snowfalls.



Old time snow removal equipment