Phoebe Snow was loved in Allegany County. She rode proudly through the County.
The real Phoebe Snow ended in the merger between
the DL&W and the Erie in 1961. The name was later
revived briefly during the E-L days, but it was not the
same train.
Phoebe Snow was the invention of the advertising department of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, which has long since been merged into Conrail, etc. She
was created in 1900 and her name and garb--always white from heat to foot--were chosen to symbolize the cleanliness of DL&W trains, which burned "smokeless"
anthracite coal instead of the soft bituminous coal used by most other roads at the time. The ad campaign--a very famous one--also employed actresses who appeared as Phoebe at special events and
civic celebrations as well as jingles that eventually became so popular they were sung from the Broadway stage:
"Says Phoebe Snow about to go
Upon a trip to Buffalo
My gown stays white from morn 'til night
Upon the road of anthracite."
(If the truth be known, the Lackawanna Road burned hard coal not just because of its cleanliness or for passenger convenience, but because its mines yielded an abundant supply of hard coal
for which, before the invention of automatic furnace stokers, no market existed. During the 1880s, the Reading Railroad had devised a method of burning this waste coal. Thus the Lackawanna managed to economize by turning a waste product into locomotive fuel, and then further capitalized on the
practice by advertising it as a virtue that would benefit the traveling public.)
The Phoebe Snow was more then just the marquee train for the DL&W, she was the image of the railroad. Even during the time that the train wasn't running, the name and face
still appeared in advertising and on box cars.
When the government prohibited the use of anthracite coal in steam locomotives during World War I, Phoebe was retired, but she reappeared in white military garb during World War II to dramatize
the Lackawanna's contributions to the effort. In 1949 the DL&W inaugurated its first streamliner passenger run--Hoboken, N.J. to Buffalo, N.Y.--and the train was named the Phoebe Snow. After
merger with the Erie railroad in 1960, Phoebe's run was extended to Chicago; she died of the disappearing railroad blues in 1966.
Phoebe Snow
I owe my fame, and wide acclaim, to Lackawanna's splendid name . . .
(Above picture borrowed from the website of Mohawk &
Hudson Chapter
of the National Railway Historical Society)
tap the name to view their website.
Want to learn more about Poebe? Go to a search engine and type "Phoebe Snow Railroad" and see how many websites you find! Including:
Women in Railroading
