Caption: Operating Montreal – New York, Delaware & Hudson train 34, The Laurentian, pauses in front of the Napierville Junction Railway station at Lacolle, Quebec. Built in 1930, this structure served as a station and customs office for the NJR and later the D&H.

The D&H had operated passenger service into Montreal since 1923 with both its Laurentian by day and Montreal Limited overnight. These operated into Canada over D&H subsidiary, Napierville Junction Railway, running 27 miles from Rouses Point, New York - Delson and into Montreal via CPR trackage rights. Endangered by declining ridership by the 1960s, new management in the D&H's passenger department sought to revitalize the operation after negative public response to the potential cancellation. To do so, the D&H acquired four ALCO PA-1 locomotives in 1967, numbered 16 - 19, from the ATSF. Wearing a modified ATSF Warbonnet scheme, with D&H blue replacing the red, they would handle the trains of second hand equipment until their final runs on April 30, 1971, as neither The Laurentian or Montreal Limited were included in Amtrak's start up. In 1974, passenger service over the D&H was to be resurrected by Amtrak as The Adirondack, funded by the New York Department of Transportation. With limited equipment available to Amtrak at the time, the D&H, then led by Carl Sterzing, provided its PAs and passenger equipment for the runs. For their return to passenger operation the PAs would be rebuilt from their original ALCO 244 prime mover to ALCO 251s in 1974 by Morrison-Knudsen, and designated ALCO PA-4s. The rebuilt units served until 1977 when Amtrak replaced the D&H equipment with Rohr Turboliners. It is also noted, the D&H had acquired a fifth PA for parts in the 1960s, former New Haven 0783. It was scraped in 1972.

The last passenger train to stop at Lacolle would be in April 1985, when Amtrak’s Adirondak was rerouted from CP Windsor Station to CN/VIA Rail Gare Centrale, taking CN’s Rouses Point Subdivision through Cantic a few miles to the east. Lacolle station still stands today, designated a heritage railway station in 1991.

More D&H PA Canadian action:
D&H 16 near Montreal West
D&H 18 at Montreal West
D&H 18 at Westmount
Windsor Station 1975

Scan and editing by Jacob Patterson.