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Re: (erielack) EL working the Buffalo DL&W Terminal area in 1971
On Tue, 6 Feb 2007, Mike Oravec wrote:
> The second passenger shift was as Mike Conners noted above. With the
> new schedule on 7-01-62, all passenger trains were transferred to the
> Erie between Hornell and Buffalo. Warsaw was added as a stop in
> between. The Lackawanna terminal was still being used by all trains.
> The new East Buffalo freight yard (Bison Yard) was under construction
> and these passenger trains could somehow navigate through the yard and
> reach the terminal. (Maybe someone can explain that routing.) When the
> new freight yard would later open, the passenger trains could no longer
> use these freight yard tracks. In order to reach the Lackawanna
> terminal, a track connection would have to be constructed at William
> Street between the Erie and Lackawanna tracks.
>
> The closing of the Buffalo Terminal occurred with the schedule change
> (Sunday) 10-28-62. According to Gary White, EL's reasoning in closing
> the terminal and moving to Babcock Street was the expense of building
> the track connection, the high maintenance cost associated with
> continuing to use the terminal (the heating system required extensive
> repairs), and the general decline in passenger traffic.
>
> Mike Oravec
>
Mike,
That doesn't make any sense because the same access to the City Branch was
used to reach the Abbott Rd Yard and that continued through the EL years and
into Conrail. There was a wye at the west end of Bison which connected on one
leg to the City Branch and on the other end to the branch to Black Rock and
Niagara Falls. The two branches were elevated above grade, the City Branch
crossed over top of the Erie on a massive steel bridge and the Black Rock
branch crossed over top of NYC's East Buffalo/Frontier Yard. In the center of
the wye was a reservoir that was probably used as a water supply for steam
locomotives at one time. I would think both btanches would have to be
accessible before, during and after construction of Bison. I don't know why
passenger trains couldn't use the same tracks freight trains used to get to
the terminal. In that aerial shot I sent yesterday, there's an EL train right
under the terminal that used the same route to get there that passenger trains
used! It sounds like EL just wanted to manufacture as many excuses as possible
to get out of the old terminal.
The routing through Bison would be on either the south or north side of the
yard. See the map at http://www.railfan.net/maps/1950usgs/bison50.jpg for a
1950 representation of the DL&W yard layout. Black Rock is up to the left and
the City Branch is down to the left. DM Tower where the DL&W crossed the PRR
at grade is under where the LV crosses both at the lower left. That tower was
in service into the early 80's. Erie's SK/QX/Canada yards are at middle left.
Henry
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