Delaware Otsego Corporation

The Delaware Otsego Corporation is an American railway holding company which owns the subsidiary New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway as well as other, smaller branch line railroads, collectively known as the DO System. It is headquartered in Cooperstown, New York in Otsego County.

History

The "DO Line", as it is often called, was formed when a Syracuse University law school student named Walter G. Rich started operating a former New York Central Railroad line out of Oneonta, NY as a tourist hauler, using a former Virginia Blue Ridge Railway/U.S. Army Lima steam locomotive 0-6-0 type. Rides were offered between the passenger station, located near the interchange with Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H), and end of track at Mickle Bridge, roughly three miles to the east. Arrangements for additional trackage could not be worked out.

With the construction of Interstate 88, and the state demanding for money for an overpass, the highway threatened to doom the line's future. At about the same time, the D&H was looking to abandon its Cooperstown branch, which ran 16 miles from Cooperstown Junction (near Colliersville, NY) to Cooperstown. After successful negotiations, the DO Corp. purchased the line and used an old name, the Cooperstown and Charlotte Valley Railroad. A former D&H RS-2 was purchased (#4022), and repainted and renumbered as #100. Diesel...
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