August 31, 1959

On this date, I believe that DL&W trains moved over to the ERIE between Binghamton and Gibson.

However, varios portions of this trackage survived into the early 1960's notably serving Nichols for instance.

Was there any train that traversed this whole trackage after Aug '59 but before it was severed ?

What was the last train through on Aug 31 ?

This doesn't answer your question, but on or about August 15 I rode the Phoebe Snow from Buffalo to Summit. I had the last seat in the observation car all the way. From Buffalo to Binghamton I was the only passenger in the car. A trainman sat back there with me, except while in stations, and he pointed out all the rail related sights. I remember the track signals in Elmira and Binghamton that were set up for the switchover, but they were turned away indicating that they were not yet in use.

Before August 31 1959, the last passenger train ran on DL&W iron between Binghamton and Gibson (not just Elmira). I don't know if any freights traversed them after August 1959 - there were still customers on DL&W rails in Nichols, Owego, Johnson City, Vestal, Elmira, and Big Flats. They wouldn't have used the main line much more as the primary purpose of merging was to reduce expenses, so eliminating maintenance on parallel tracks was a priority.