Delaware Otsego Corporation

History

The Delaware Otsego Corporation (DO) was established in 1965 as the Delaware Otsego Railroad by a group of businessmen and railfans, led by Syracuse University law school student Walter G. Rich. DO was formed, in response to the New York Central Railroad's (NYC) abandonment of their Ulster and Delaware Branch. The NYC cut back operations to Bloomville, and DO subsequently acquired a 2.6-mile (4.2 km) section of the branch between Oneonta and Mickle Bridge. Delaware Otsego was named as such, since the section lay on the border between the New York counties of Delaware and Otsego.

The company acquired former United States Army 0-6-0 steam locomotive No. 2 from the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway, and they began using it for their tourist excursion operations. Their tourist trains operated on the branch between the passenger station near their interchange with Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H), and Mickle Bridge. Occasional freight service was also provided. In 1970, the state of New York condemned the right-of-way, in favor of construction of Interstate 88 through Oneonta. With settlement money, Walter Rich and his fellow Delaware Otsego executives searched for another branch to acquire and operate.

In 1971, the D&H decided to abandon their Cooperstown Branch, which lies for 16 miles (26 km) between Cooperstown Junction near Colliersville and Cooperstown. Following some successful negotiations, Delaware Otsego purchased the Cooperstown Branch from the D&H and revived the route's original name, the Cooperstown and Charlotte Valley Railroad (CACV), and they relocated their tourist operations there. The Delaware Otsego Railroad was quickly renamed as the Delaware Otsego Corporation to reflect their new status as a holding company. Concurrently, they acquired their first diesel locomotive, ALCO RS-2 No. 100, to supplement 0-6-0 No. 2. DO also established their new headquarters at the two-story Cooperstown depot.

In 1975, DO discontinued their steam operations, and No. 2 was left in indoor storage in Milford. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, DO acquired and established additional short line companies for freight operations, including the Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad (FJ&G), the Lackawaxen and Stourbridge Railroad, the Staten Island Railway, and the Rahway Valley Railroad. In 1980, Delaware Otsego established the Kingston Terminal Railroad (KTER) to operate a 2-mile (3.2 km) section of the former NYC Catskill Mountain Branch between Kingston and Rondout, New York. Before operations were planned to commence, the branch's sole customer, a cement plant, shut down, and the KTER was quickly dissolved. That same year, DO purchased their largest subsidiary, the New Jersey-based New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYS&W), and they reconditioned their trackage and expanded their operations into New York state, resulting in DO becoming classified as a regional system.

On October 3, 1997, DO Acquisition LLC announced that it had completed the short-form merger of Delaware Otsego with a wholly owned subsidiary via a stock tender offer of $22 per share. The merger brought the Delaware Otsego Corporation and their subsidiaries under control of Norfolk Southern (NS) and CSX, with CSX and NS each obtaining 10% of DO's shares, while Walter Rich obtained 80%. On August 9, 2007, Rich died at the age of 61, following an eight-month struggle against pancreatic cancer. Shortly thereafter, the NYS&W reduced their operations, with lucrative traffic being siphoned-off to CSX and NS, and all commercial passenger operations were discontinued. As of 2025, the NYS&W railway continues to operate freight trains between Syracuse, New York and North Bergen, New Jersey. The railway also hosts occasional detour of trains, when derailments or overflowing traffic block the CSX's River Subdivision.

Delaware Otsego railroad ownership timeline

Current

New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (1980)

Central New York Railroad (1973)