Re: (rshsdepot) Buffalo, NY

["J. Henry Priebe Jr." <root_@_net.bluemoon.net>]

http://Central.Terminal.Railfan.net

I started that site in the mid-90's and occasionally add more photos although
the flow of progress news has been somewhat slow for the past couple of years
despite requests to the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation to be kept in
the loop. 

The site has over 200 photos of the terminal and surrounding area. Central
Terminal has been an interest of mine since I was a kid.

It was more of a through station than a terminal. While some trains terminated
there and it was even the terminus of a couple of the tenants' passenger
service, as far as the NYC goes it was much more a through station than a
terminal.

I'd never forget that place and did mean to mention it in the previous post
even though I was focusing on the downtown stub-end terminals.

If one goes further back into downtown Buffalo's history there were at least
three other stub-end terminals. Today's CSX Niagara Branch route was once
owned by two different NYC predecessors which each terminated on either side
of downtown at stub-end terminals. After the NYC affiliates connected their
lines through downtown the primary Buffalo passenger station was on Exchange
St and was sort of a union station for quite a while. 

From 1890 up until WWI there were various grand union station proposals for
downtown Buffalo which all fizzled for one reason or another. The city
fathers, the local businessmen and the railroads just couldn't find one single
plan upon which the all agreed. DL&W gave up waiting and built their
replacement for thier 30 or so year old downtown terminal and completed it in
1917. LV built their own not long after and signed the Erie on as a tenant
later on. NYC's ancient and much modified Exchange St station was a source of
considerable consternation for the city fathers as they did not deem the old
barn fitting for their fine city, which had been known as the Gateway to the
West for almost a century. The NYC and the City dickered back and forth about
where the NYC's main Buffalo station should be built until the NYC finally got
their way and the East Buffalo terminal site was agreed upon in 1925. NYC
promised the City that they would build a suitable downtown depot replacement
in addition to the main terminal on the east side, but they basically reneged
on that promise for another 30 years. The downtown depot site was actually on
the Niagara Falls branch and the connection between NYC's NYC&HRR New York
City line and Lake Shore & Michigan Southern's Chicago line actually missed
downtown by about a mile which had required time consuming and dangerous back
up moves for all through trains. There were virtually no grade separated
crossings in the city before those projects were started after 1910. NYC
expected Buffalo to expand outward similar to how New York City had grown
toward Grand Central Station (before it was a terminal) at 42nd street. It was
not to happen in Buffalo and it was particularly bad luck that the grand new
Buffalo New York Central Terminal was completed in 1929 right on the eve of
the Wall Street Stock Market Crash.

While Central Terminal did see some high wartime traffic levels it never saw
traffic close to what it was designed to handle. It was a grossly overbuilt
facility and its high cost of operation would forever be a millstone around
the NYC RR's neck. Being over two miles from the downtown business district
sure didn't help.

Bad timing would again haunt the Terminal on December 7, 1941 when the brand
new Empire State Express streamlined trainset debuted. Complete with a
streamlined and stainless clad 4-6-4 Hudson on the head end, its inaugural run
wasn't the big news for that dark day.

Around 1935 NYC's old Exchange St station was razed and downtown travelers had
nothing but bare platforms for about 20 years until the NYC finally built a
small brick station which survives today and is still in use by Amtrak. NYC
locals and trains bound to and from Niagara Falls and Detroit stopped at
Exchange St, but all mainline through trains used Central Terminal and blew
right on by downtown Buffalo.

It was actually put up for sale in 1955 along with some 500 or so other
Central passenger stations. I'm not sure even a single one was ever sold.

This is all from memory so I might be off by a year or so here and there in
the above and it's but a thumbnail sketch of Buffalo's downtown passenger
station history. The Grand Trunk even had one in the early years and there
were several commuter stations in the downtown Buffalo area, but that's
another story.

Henry

On Thu, 17 Apr 2003, James Kelling wrote:

> Don't forget the huge New York Central terminal, which opened in 1929 and 
> is still standing, though derelict and devoid of trains.
> 
> >>> root_@_net.bluemoon.net 04/17/03 02:31PM >>>
> On Thu, 17 Apr 2003 Don Dorflinger related:
> 
> >
> > If my recollection serves me correctly, the DL&W Passenger station is
> > long gone, and only a portion of the trainsheds remain. Are we talking
> > about the freight house???
> >
> 
> The headhouse is long gone and what remains was the trainshed above and 
> the
> baggage/express/freight area below. In the photo Jim attached the 
> headhouse
> was in the foreground and attached to the trainshed where the mirrored 
> windows
> are.
> 
> I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to explore the abandoned ruins 
> of
> the terminal area in the mid 70's as a teenager when I used to go on 
> frequent
> day trip safaris around the Buffalo area on my bicycle. It was quite a 
> place
> in its day and it's a shame (like so many others) that it was demolished.
> 
> Buffalo had three good sized stub end passenger terminals downtown at one
> point, DL&W, Erie and LV. The Erie's was the first to go, in the 30's I 
> think,
> then the LV in the middle 50's and finally DL&W's, a couple decades after 
> the
> 1962 abandonment.
> 
> There are some good photos and data pages at the LOC website:
> 
> http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=3Dhhphoto&fileName=3Dny/ny0100/
> ny0199/photos/browse.db&action=3Dbrowse
> 
> That's the shortest functional URL to get right to the pages (LOC's URL 
> scheme
> is an abomination) so beware of wrapping lines when doing a copy and paste 
> to
> a browser.
> 
> Henry
> 
> J. Henry Priebe Jr.    Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
> www.bluemoon.net       Internet Access & Web Hosting
> www.railfan.net        Railfan Network Services
> 
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
> railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
> 
> =================================
> The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
> railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
> 


J. Henry Priebe Jr.    Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
www.bluemoon.net       Internet Access & Web Hosting
www.railfan.net        Railfan Network Services

=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

------------------------------