1953:
This photo shows the DL&W tracks and train shed adjacent to the railroad’s grand passenger station on Lackawanna Avenue. At the height of the railroad’s usage, 12 passenger trains left the station daily. The colonnaded enclosure kept passengers waiting to board dry. Carts containing boxed goods wait along the tracks for shipment to various wholesalers.
2017:
As passenger cars grew in affordability and popularity, the fortunes of the DL&W declined. The railroad merged with the Erie Railroad in 1960 but it wasn’t enough to save the company from bankruptcy. The last passenger train left the station Jan. 5. 1970, and the company declared bankruptcy in 1972. The station was renovated and reopened as a hotel on New Year’s Eve 1983. It is today the Radisson at Lackawanna Station hotel. Part of the space shown in the original photo was built in, and is today Trax Platform Lounge and the Platform Ballroom.