Re: (rshsdepot) Buffalo, NY

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

Oh boy, here I go again, I'll keep it short though, getting too close to
dinner!

Erie's station was stub ended. The Erie also had a number of Buffalo commuter
depots, at least 4 in Buffalo proper.

PRR used a small depot downtown while it was the Buffalo, New York and
Pennsylvania and maybe after becoming the Western New York & Pennsylvania.
possibly soon after the WNY&P came under PRR control it became an NYC tenant,
first downtown and later at Central Terminal in East Buffalo although PRR
maintained a freight facility and small yard downtown for quite a while.

Nickel Plate was a DL&W tenant as was the B&O datig back to the days of the
Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh. I beleve Wabash was also a DL&W tenant.

The NYS Thruway Authority paid $6.95 millon in late 1954 for 4.25 miles of the
LV passenger main into downtown Buffalo and the LV used part of that to build 
a replacement terminal near their East Buffalo Yard on Dingens St just east
of the city.

The Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo (CP and NYC owned) used NYC's downtown
station and later Central Terminal.

Canada's Grand Trunk (not GTW) had their own downtown terminal into the late
1800's and they would have used NYC's depot after that as they had to use the
NYC to get downtown. GT also had a depot in Black Rock near the International
Bridge to Canada which may have ended up under NYC's ownership, not sure
about that one.

Shortly after the EL merger they pulled out of downtown and abandoned the DL&W 
terminal in favor of using a no frills station in East Buffalo at the ex-Erie
East Buffalo Yard. The Erie never used DL&W's terminal.

I am still not sure what the Buffalo & Susquehanna used for a Buffalo depot,
I believe they ceased operation in 1917 and their Buffalo area line was
completely abandoned.

Little known is that the South Buffalo Railway also had passenger service
serving the Lackawanna steel mill commuters. It may have run into downtown at
some point, possibly to Exchange St.

NYC had over 20 commuter stations for its Belt Line commuter service. Trains
ran both ways around the Belt hourly until about WWI, eventually  it dwindled
to a few per day in only one direction and then ceased altogether in the early
1920's.

The New York, West Shore and Buffalo also had passenger service to downtown
Buffalo before it became an NYC property when J.P. Morgan intervened and told
the NYC and PRR to stop thir squabbling. NYC agreed to stop building the South
Pennsylvania RR and Pennsy let teh Central have the West Shore. IIRC the West
Shore had a little shack of a depot downtown near Exchange St. for a short
while. All the downtown depots were in the same general area which ended up
being a half mile wide by about a mile long area of yard trackage serving the
various downtown freight and passenger facilities. It never was really all
straightened out until Conrail abandoned everything they could just 
about everywhere. I called it their Scorched Earth Purge of 1983 :)

There was also a bunch of connecting service and through car arranmgments in
Buffalo between various roads. For instance the DL&W partnered with NYC's
Michigan Central for service to Detroit and Chicago via Niagara Falls and
Canada which meant that sleeping cars had to be shuffled between stations. It
varied over the years and the Official Guides are probably the best place for
puzzling out those arrangements.

Pere Marquette (C&O) had trackage rights over NYC via the MC through Canada 
and NYC's NIagara Branch fron Niagara Falls to Buffalo, but I don't know if
they had passenger service to Buffalo at one time or not, but I wouldn't be
surprised if they did.

Ok, that's enough for now, I'm hungry and it's quittin' time here :)

Henry

On Thu, 17 Apr 2003, Paul Luchter wrote:

> OK, time for a refresher course on Buffalo stations; where did Nickel Plate
> go? PRR? B&O?  interesting that Erie was stub and not through station..or is
> it?
> 
> Paul


J. Henry Priebe Jr.    Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
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