The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western was chartered in 1815. The DL&W was made to transport anthracite coal in Pennsylvania's Lackawanna Valley. Eventually it ran from the Lackawanna Valley in Pennsylvania west to Buffalo, New York, north to Lake Ontario, and east to Hoboken, New Jersey.

The DL&W also ran thru Scranton where there is a restored rail yard, Steamtown NHS, and south thru Sunbury. It also used the Nicholson Viaduct which is a huge arched bridge crossing the valley floor over Nicholson, Pennsylvania. The viaduct 240 feet high and 2,300 feet long and still stands today.

The Lackawanna prospered in the early 20th century, but with the decline of coal heating and the rise of competing modes of transportation, its revenues fell.