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E-bikingBikingWalkingRunningHikingBirdingFishingHorseback ridingSnowmobilingATVand more
The O & W Rail Trail follows the former New York, Ontario and Western Railway for about 33 miles from Simpson, north of Carbondale, to Hancock, New York. Its first eight miles climb the east side of the Lackawanna River, parallel to the D & H Rail Trail, past Forest City and Stillwater Dam. Beyond the dam it crosses the high country of northern Wayne County through Orson, Poyntelle, Lakewood, and Preston Park to the restored Starlight Station, then drops to Hancock. The surface is the original graded rail bed, rough in places, so a mountain or gravel bike suits it best. The middle section is shared with ATVs and snowmobiles.
O & W Rail Trail
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the O & W Rail Trail has about 106 to 154 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, running, biking, walking, and birding, with May, September, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the O & W Rail Trail!
In half of past years, color along the O & W Rail Trail peaks October 12 to 21, typically around October 16. The trail has 52% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple, sugar maple, American beech, and northern red oak.
Anthracite built this line. The New York, Ontario and Western Railway, reorganized in 1880 from the failed New York and Oswego Midland, wanted its own route into the Lackawanna Valley coal fields. In 1888 it folded three short railroads, the Hancock and Pennsylvania, the Forest City and State Line, and the Scranton and Forest City, into the Ontario, Carbondale and Scranton. The 55-mile Scranton Division opened in 1889-1890. It climbed from Scranton and Carbondale up the Lackawanna River past Forest City, crossed the divide at Poyntelle and Preston Park, and dropped to the main line at Cadosia near Hancock. Starlight Station went up in 1889. Coal went north and east, and milk went south. A coal yard with a roundhouse followed at Mayfield in 1892-1893. Double tracking was not finished until 1912. Coal still made up more than half of the railroad's income in the 1930s, and when anthracite faded, the O & W faded with it. The last trains ran on March 29, 1957, and the whole railroad was dissolved. Buckingham Township bought the empty Starlight depot in 1968 and still uses it as its municipal building. The Rail-Trail Council of Northeastern Pennsylvania formed in 1991 to buy abandoned railbeds in the region. It controls the first eight miles to Stillwater Dam. The section from the dam to Poyntelle is privately owned and open with ATV passes, and Preston and Buckingham Townships keep the northern miles as low-maintenance roads.
