They were ordered to improve service on the Lackawanna's express passenger trains west of Scranton, Pennsylvania, towards Buffalo, New York.
Apart from a six-mile helper district just west of Scranton and Dansville Hill between Groveland and Perkinsville, New York, this was flat, high-speed running.
Being the only DL&W locomotives dedicated to flat-land service, they had driving wheels of 80 inches (2,032 mm), which were the largest used on the system.
The five locomotives only lasted ten years in their original intended assignments, since the Lackawanna dieselized its express passenger trains in 1947.
Another was the Interstate Express (Train 1301), received from the Reading Railroad/Jersey Central at Taylor Junction, near Scranton, and hauled to Binghamton, New York.