[3] The Erie was at that time still a broad-gauge railroad, which made interchange with the standard gauge Southern Central difficult.

[15] In the last years of Lehigh Valley operation, the line north of Owego was split into two secondary tracks: The remaining Auburn Branch between Sayre and Owego was not included in Conrail, given the parallel Erie Lackawanna Railway main line, and was abandoned after April 1, 1976.

[16][17] Although the New York Department of Transportation spent $832,000 to rehabilitate the line north of Owego, neither of the two secondary tracks was included in Conrail.

On January 1, 1980, the Delaware and Hudson Railroad replaced Conrail as the operator of the line north of Owego.

In 1981, the Tioga County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) acquired the line from the trustees of the Lehigh Valley Railroad; then leased it back to the D&H.

[26] The Tioga Central Railroad operated both freight and excursion service on the line from 1986–1992, when the IDA replaced them with the Owego and Harford Railway.