The Stourbridge Line, Honesdale, Pennsylvania

The town of Honesdale in the mountains of the northeastern region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania is not a town that is well known to travelers.  The only major road through here is U.S. Route 6, famously called the ‘Grand Army of the Republic Highway’.  As you pass through the town of Honesdale, you will pass by the town’s little treasure.  What is this little treasure?

Although the railroad did not begin in Pennsylvania, the state has many railroad sites.  Among these sites is the Stourbridge Line in the town of Honesdale.  What is the Stourbridge Line?  Not many people in America or the world or even in Pennsylvania even know about this place, but it has a significance in the history of the railroad in the United States of America.

Let us begin in the U.S. state of Maryland in the city of Baltimore.  The month is February.  The year is 1827.  Just blocks away from the harbor and miles away from Fort McHenry, railroad tracks were laid, and the first railroad in the Western Hemisphere began.  The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was born.  The railroad in the United States of America had begun.

Now we go back to the town of Honesdale, Pennsylvania.  It was here where the first railroad was built in the state of Pennsylvania.  What is significant about this rail line?  Although the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Baltimore was the first railroad in the nation, the trains were powered by a specific locomotive.  What is that locomotive?  Instead of feeding coal in the firebox, you fed it… hay.  Yes, the kind of hay that you would feed a horse.  Why?  America’s first trains were powered by horses.  The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad really began with ‘horsepower’.  The railroad did not use steam power until the first American built locomotive, the ‘Tom Thumb’, was began on August 28, 1830, taking the train from the Mount Clare Station in Baltimore to the town of Ellicott Mills, Maryland.  (It is now Ellicott City.  The train station is the oldest surviving train station in the U.S. and is now a museum.)

Now we go back to Honesdale, Pennsylvania.  Yes, it is not the first railroad in the nation, but it was the first railroad in the nation… to have a steam locomotive.

As mentioned, the first steam locomotive was used on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in August of 1830.  In August of 1829, the ‘Stourbridge Lion’ arrived from Great Britain to the town of Honesdale.

Now some of you are saying, “Wait a minute.  I have never seen a lion pull anything.  The only thing I have seen a lion do anything but eat other animals and sometimes people.  How is was a lion going to do better than a horse that was made to pull carts and to be ridden?”

The ‘Stourbridge Lion’ is the name of a steam locomotive that was built in Great Britain.  It was then brought to the town by canal boats, and it began its first run in August of 1829 predating the ‘Tom Thumb’ in August of 1830.  This makes the Stourbridge Line the first railroad to use a steam locomotive.

Sadly, the ‘Stourbridge Lion’ was eventually dismantled, but a replica is on display in a local museum.  However, you can ride the Stourbridge Line which runs along the Lackawaxen River between Honesdale and the town of Hawley.  You can board the vintage passenger cars.  You can look out over the Lackawaxen River and see remnants of the old canal where barges brought goods to and from the town of Honesdale.  The train may not roar like a lion, but you can still enjoy the sounds of the train horn as it passes each stop.

The Stourbridge Line runs different excursions between Honesdale and Hawley.  The main station is located at 812 Main Street (U.S. Route 6 East/ Pennsylvania Route 191) in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.  You can get more information about their different excursions and purchase tickets at https://www.thestourbridgeline.net/.

The U.S. state of Pennsylvania has many railroad treasures.  The Stourbridge Line is one of them.  Take a ride.  You will treasure it for years to come.