Oneonta is located in
Otsego County 54 miles NE of
Binghamton along Interstate 88 on the banks of the Susquehanna River near Goodyear Lake in the
Central Region of the state. Oneonta is the
Oneida Indian word for "cliffs abound" or "exposed rock in side of hills". The town is on the western edge of the Catskills surrounded by hills. Oneonta became the site of a major railroad car building shop for the
Albany & Susquehanna line in 1863. Twenty years later a handful of train yard workers formed the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen, the embryo of today's Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.