Revising history
Somehow it had escaped my memory that Guilford (Springfield Terminal aka Pan Am Railways) bought the Delaware & Hudson for pocket change (US$500,000) in 1984. This explained why they so quickly kicked the railroad to the curb when the unions struck over changes in the work rules, and it also means that in a world that contains the PV&T some other suitor (with considerably better work rules, because life is too short for 2 person train crews & deferred maintenance) would step up and offer a bit more for a railroad that was a better fit (and was 50% – primarily 251'ed – Alco, which would make fleet maintenance easier for the MTRR shops.)
So, it turns out that when the D&H was collapsing dead on the floor in the early 80s and New York State (et al) were shopping around for someone to keep the railroad running, the PV&T could step up and offer a better price with better union protections, and thus on Jan 4th 1984 the D&H was pulled into the clutches of the Parsons Vale borg.
This brings the PV&T system up to about 2300 miles (plus another 700 or so in Conrail trackages rights that I need to add to the map), which pushes it right up to the edge of having class 1 revenues (eventually! The 1980s were not a good time for railroads in the NE, and bridge traffic can only bring in so much money.)
The map key is:
| Color | Owner |
|---|---|
| Red | PV&T |
| Green | LT&L |
| Pink | Montreal Terminal |
| Light blue | D&H |
| Dark blue | short lines of interest/subsidiaries/trackage rights |
| Black | abandoned |