O. & W.: The Long Life and Slow Death of the New York, Ontario and Western Railway

by William F. Helmer

The Ontario & Western—the O&W, or, as both boosters and detractors referred to it in its later years, the "Old & Weary," operated from 1869-1957 and ran from Oswego on Lake Ontario to New York City, passing through the midlands and southern counties of New York State, with spurs to Utica, Kingston, Port Jervis, and Scranton, PA. Filled with colorful characters and miscellaneous machinery, O. & W. chronicles almost a century of alternating hope and heartache, prosperity and poverty, dignity and degradation. Her passing was mourned for a variety of economic and sentimental reasons, but the loss was deeply felt in an intangible way. The rambling, elderly, inefficient, accident-prone, irritating old railroad was a part of a way of life now gone from the American scene. 140 photographs, maps, illustrations, ephemera, and rosters

232 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1959

Reviews

[Delta]

Essential reading for anyone looking to learn more about the O&W. Tremendously well researched, from the large scale stories of construction, bankruptcies, & corporate maneuvering; to smaller scale details like employee names, crew assignments, & other everyday events. This book provides a fantastic overview of the railroad & its story, & keeps memories alive which otherwise would have surely been lost to the sands of time.

[Ralph]

I've had a copy of the first printing on my shelf since 1977 and have finally read it through. Being from Middletown and remembering seeing the last train pull into the station, I wonder why it took me so long to read this book. It was rewarding to gain an appreciation of how the very factors that the O&W a popular entity (e.g., the picturesque routes with steep grades, tunnels, mountain vistas, and high trestles) also made the operation and maintenance difficult, and ultimately, impossible to run economically. The personal accounts of conductors and engineers and their exploits made the book an enjoyable read. Also, the many pictures of the trains demonstrated the evolution from early steam to diesel locomotives along with depictions of the type of terrain that the railway had to deal with.