No.10141 Alco PA-1 ABA Diesel Locomotive, heading up the "Black Diamond" Streamlined Passenger Train

Lehigh Valley Railroad

The Lehigh Valley Railroad was born out of the need to have reliable transportation of anthracite coal from the mines of Pennsylvania to the industrial areas in the East. Its lines eventually stretched from Lehighton, Pennsylvania to Buffalo to New York City. The Lehigh Valley was one of America’s oldest railroads, established in the 1840s and operating successfully until dismantled by Conrail in the 1970s.  The main line was its 450-mile route between New York (Jersey City) and Buffalo.  
 
Lehigh Valley purchased 14 powerful 16-cylinder 2000 horsepower per unit Alco PA-1 diesel locomotives in March, 1948, to head up its fastest trains.  No. 10141 represents an accurate scale model of Lehigh Valley’s Alco PA-1 ABA diesel  locomotive in “O” gauge by MTH, heading up its 7-car streamlined train the “Black Diamond” (Nos. 10142 and 10143) on its way from Buffalo to New York City in the late 1940s and 1950s. This model train, while quite handsome, is incorrect. The “Black Diamond” was never fully streamlined, only semi-streamlined (see Nos. 10614 and 10616).
 
The “Black Diamond” was Lehigh Valley’s premier train, inaugurated in 1896 as a daytime express, Jersey City-Buffalo. Then sleepers were added, and the train terminated more conveniently at Pennsylvania Station in New York City, eliminating the ferry ride to Manhattan from Jersey City (1918) (see No. 10417).  Industrial designer Otto Kuhler assisted in the streamlined redesign of the train in 1940 (see No. 10614), and it peaked with the arrival of the handsome Alco PAs in 1948, replacing steam power.  But the wartime traffic boom could not be sustained, and the “Black Diamond” expired in May, 1959; subsequently all Lehigh Valley passenger service was discontinued two years later - the Lehigh Valley was freight only after 1961.
 
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was known as one of the northeast’s “coal roads.”  Other small roads sharing this role in the area were the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Reading, Delaware and Hudson, and Lackawanna Railroads.
 
Many rail fans will agree that the Alco PA is one of the most beautiful diesel locomotives ever produced. The PA-1's 16 cylinder, 2000 horsepower motor provided ample power for even the longest passenger trains. The PA was designed by General Electric’s talented Ray Patten.
 
Introduced at the beginning of the diesel era in the mid-1940s, these reliable locomotives powered distinguished passenger trains on many railroads for many years. They could be run as a single unit for short trains (“A” unit), twin units for longer trains (”AA”), or as three units for the longest trains (“ABA”).
Railroads.