Moosic Mountain, rising over 1,200 feet above Carbondale's anthracite coal mines, blocked an easy route to the markets of New York City. Although the Delaware and Hudson Canal system could move coal from Honesdale to Kingston, New York, carrying it over the mountain by canal lift locks would have been prohibitively expensive. Instead, the Wurts brothers built a railroad, and in 1827 John Jervis surveyed a route between Carbondale and the Delaware and Hudson canal terminus at Honesdale. His design used stationary steam engines to pull coal cars up steep inclined planes, while between the planes the cars moved along gently graded levels drawn by horses or locomotives or descended by gravity. The first load of coal crossed the summit of Moosic Mountain on the gravity railroad in October 1829. Jervis also hoped that steam locomotives, newly introduced in England, could pull coal cars on gentler upgrades. The Stourbridge Lion was brought by canal to Honesdale and performed as expected, but it proved too heavy for the rail system and was never used. By its final configuration, the Delaware and Hudson gravity railroad had 28 engine houses, and operations on its planes included loaded coal cars being towed uphill and runners disconnecting tow cables at the top so cars could descend the next level.