THE RAILWAY ERA -Buffalo, N.Y.

1884. The Lehigh Valley. During some years previously, the Lehigh Valley Railroad had been delivering coal in its own cars at Buffalo, by use of the tracks and engines of the Erie Railway from its junction with the latter. In 1884 it arranged to run its own coal trains on the tracks of the Erie. It had already, in 1882, acquired in Buffalo a right of way from the tracks of the Erie to a terminal of its own, at the corner of Scott and Washington streets. In 1885 it acquired further rights of way to junctions with the Buffalo Creek Railroad and the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway. In 1890, by a consolidation of several subsidiary organizations, a corporation having the name of the Lehigh Valley Railway Company, distinct from the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, was formed, which opened a new line of rails to Buffalo in September, 1892. In 1891, the Lehigh Valley Railway Company had leased this line to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company for 999 years. The organizations consolidated in the Lehigh Valley Railway Company were the Geneva and Sayre, the Geneva and Van Ettenville, the Buffalo and Geneva, and the Auburn and Ithaca. Long before the construction of its own line to Buffalo, while still reaching the city over the tracks of the Erie, the Lehigh Valley had begun immense terminal improvements, covering in all about five hundred acres of ground.

1897. The Toronto, Hamilton, and Buffalo. Organized in 1892; opened through in 1897. Successor to Brant, Waterloo, and Lake Erie Railway. The majority of stock owned by the New York Central and Hudson Railroad Company, but the road controlled jointly by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, the Michigan Central and the Canadian Pacific railway companies.

1898. The Wabash. Under an operating agreement with the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, the Wabash Railway Company extended its train service to Buffalo, using the tracks of the Grand Trunk from Detroit to Black Rock and from Welland junction, Ontario, to Suspension Bridge.

The railway expansion during the last decade has been more in the modernizing terminal facilities than in the opening of new routes to and from Buffalo. The magnificent passenger stations of the Lehigh Valley Railway Company and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company are of recent construction and the New York Central is contemplating building a station commensurate with its standing among American railway companies. The station is urgently needed, for that company has been handicapped in that respect for some years. On February 3, 1917, the Exchange Street station of the New York Central was partly burned. Four days later, the new passenger station of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company was opened at the foot of Main street. The Lehigh Valley Company had opened its new passenger terminal on Main street about six months earlier, namely on August 27, 1916. "All three have been expedited by the Terminal Station Commission of the City of Buffalo, which has been insistent in its efforts to secure adequate railway passenger stations for Buffalo," wrote Senator Henry W. Hill. in his "Buffalo Annals," contained in his presidential report for that year to the members of the Buffalo Historical Society. The New York Central Railroad Company has, however, not even yet completed its plans.

Like most railway-pioneering efforts, the two Buffalo companies were operated at a loss for some years. Citizens who had been wont to cover city distances on foot without serious inconvenience, could not at once cultivate the habit of riding with consequent "half-dime" expenditures. And this conservatism or thrift or parsimony on the part of leading citizens, brought the street-railway companies eventually into and impoverished state. The Niagara Street Company was the first to succumb to the adversities of the situation, and the Buffalo Street Railroad Company was able to acquire the Black Rock line in 1868, though its own exchequer was at the time low. It was saved from insolvency mainly by faith-the faith its president had in the future of Buffalo: he seemed able to inject, from time to time his confidence to save enterprise from expiring. And he fathered the road through the uncertainties and shocks of infancy, childhood, youth, and nonage, only to fail himself physically, when his protege was developing into sturdy manhood.

The facts were made public by the Hon. Eben Carleton Sprague in a speech he delivered in 1890 at a gathering in Buffalo of members of the American Street Railway Association. He was referring to the two early Buffalo companies

"I do not know how much money was originally invested in either of those enterprises, nor am I familiar with the financial operations of the Niagara Street Railroad Company, but so far as the Buffalo Street Railroad Company is concerned, I know that from 186o to 1867 it was constantly laying more tracks than it had means to pay for, and borrowing all the money it could on bonds and promissory notes. Substantially the entire concerns of the company were in the hands of Mr. Watson, and so continued until the year of his death. He also gave his own personal oversight to every detail of the purchase, construction, and management of the company's property.

"From the start, and always, be had faith in the growth of the city and in the ultimate success of its street railroads. He was a man of large ideas, looking far into the future; of a sanguine temperament, public spirited, great-hearted, and the most indefatilrabdustrious man whom I ever met. …He was always pushing the Buffalo Street Railroad and its equipments to the utmost, and for that purpose was an enormous borrower, and- was constantly pledging his individual credit to sustain the credit of the company. No dividends were declared. All the net earnings went into to the railroads. But in those years Buffalo was a slow city.-It's recovery from the Panic of 1857 was very gradual.

In about 1868, it seems, Mr. Watson became the owner substantially of all the stock of the Buffalo Street Railroad Company, and in 1870 procured the incorporation of the East Side Street Railroad Company. Mr. Sprague continued:

"I remember talking with him about this enterprise, and asking him how he expected to raise the money to carry it on. He said that as long as there was a cent on this earth which could be borrowed he should borrow it and he would look to the future for his pay. But the future the he spoke of was much further away then he anticipated. The Panic of 1873 struck the city and the shadow was no9t entirely dispelled much before 1880… Ultimately every past due cent of the company's debt with interest in full was paid. No man ever lost a dollar of principal or interest by trusting Mr. Watson or the Street railroad companies; but Mr. Watson was broken down by the continual toil, finally fell victim to his devotion of the Buffalo Street railroad companies. At the annual election on the 7th of June, 1880, he was elected president of the Buffalo Street Railroad Company for the last time, and on the 17th day of June, 1880, the board of directors of that company adopted resolutions lamenting his untimely death, which had occurred between those two dates. He never reaped the rewards of his) labors. He never enjoyed even the sight of the promised land, except through the telescope of his imagination."

The president of the East Side Street Railroad Company, from its establishment to 1879, was Joseph Churchyard, Mr. Henry M. Watson being secretary and treasurer. In 1879 he succeeded Mr. Churchyard and in the following year, upon the death of Mr. S. R. V. Watson, became president of the several companies under which the general system had grown up.

The lines built during the 'seventies and 'eighties include the Exchange Street line, built in 1873; the William Street line to East Buffalo, and the Michigan Street line from the Docks to Goodell street, built in 1874; the extension of the Michigan street line to Main street in 1875; the extension of the Main street line to Delaware Park in 1879; the laying of lines in Connecticut, in Allen, and in Virginia streets in 1880; in Jefferson and Emslie streets in 1884; in Broadway, in Carlton, Ferry, and Chenango streets, in 1885. The West Avenue line was opened in 1886; the Forest Avenue line was opened to the Park in 1888, in which year the Jersey and Baynes streets lines were carried through.

Introduction of electric power occurred in 1889 on the line to Delaware Park. It was successful, and two years later it was decided to electrify the entire system. The electrification was completed within the next few years.

A corporate reorganization was effected in 1890, the Buffalo Street Railroad Company, the Buffalo East Side Street Railroad Company and the Buffalo West Side Street Railroad Company being merged in a new company which had been given a charter in 1890 under the name of the Buffalo Railway Company. Another and rival corporation was absorbed by the Buffalo Railway Company. This opposition company, the Buffalo Traction Company, had obtained a railway franchise to operate in many streets not then served by the Buffalo Railway Company, and opened a line from Erie street to and through Walden avenue in 1897; and in the next year opened another line, the route of which was from Erie street to the Union Iron Works in South Buffalo. It was merged with the older company in 1899, but in 1902 the Buffalo Railway Company went out of existence, the International Railway Company being then organized. The company had an ambitious plan; it sought to develop such a system of urban, interurban and suburban electrified light railways that Buffalo would have easy communication by trolley with all territory that might be considered within its trading zone and residential area. The company has extended its connections far beyond what had originally been considered feasible limits. What the system that has been developed during the last twenty years means to Buffalo may be understood by a statement made in 1920 by William H. Whiteside, traffic agent of the International Railway Company. He said, in part:

"The trolley freight service now operating between Buffalo, Lockport, Rochester, Syracuse, Auburn, Oswego, New York, and the many towns and villages along the lines of the International Railway Company, the Rochester, Lockport and Buffalo Railroad, the Rochester-Syracuse Railroad, and the Empire State Railroad Corporation, affords to a community within a distance of 169 miles east and 36 miles north of Buffalo a service whereby within a few hours after placing an order for goods the shipment is ready for delivery.

"The trolley freight service, as well as the fruit train operated by the International Railway Company between the Lake Ontario fruit belt and Buffalo, has brought, from the fruit grower during the night, ready for delivery to the consumer for his breakfast table the next morning, fresh fruit and vegetables, which prior to the inauguration of this service was impossible, owing to lack of quick transportation.

"This fast freight service, while practically in its infancy, is growing and will benefit Buffalo and its neighboring towns and villages by bringing the grower, manufacturer and merchant in closer touch with the consumer, making larger production of products possible and with a greater demand, owing to the frequency of freight-train service, and deliveries to the consumer."

So that the street-railway system, which originally was designed to serve passengers only, has now become literally a railway system linking Buffalo with rural sections to which the heavier railways could not cater. All such effort aids materially in community development within the Buffalo sphere.

The outer lines absorbed by the International Railway Company at the time the Buffalo Railway Company passed to the new company, included the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Electric Railway, the Buffalo and Lockport, the Buffalo, Bellevue and Lancaster, the Elmwood Avenue and Tonawanda, the Buffalo, Tonawanda and Niagara Falls, the Electric City (Niagara Falls) system, the Lockport and Olcott, the Niagara Falls and Suspension Bridge, and the Niagara Falls Park and River system. To connect with the International Railway Company's lines at Lockport, tracks from Rochester to Lockport were laid in about 1908-09 by the Buffalo, Lockport and Rochester Railway Company, which was chartered in 1905. Other connections owned by the International Railway Company at that time included the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the Lewiston Connecting Bridge, and the Queenstown Heights Bridge. The Frontier Electric Railway Company was incorporated in 1906 to build a line from Buffalo to connect with a through line to Toronto, Canada; it was soon merged with the International Company.

Other electric lines running out of Buffalo at about that time included the Buffalo and Williamsville, which was incorporated in 1892, and eventually affiliated with the Buffalo, Batavia and Rochester Electric Railway Company, incorporated in igo4 to extend the Williamsville line through Batavia to Rochester; the Buffalo Southern Railway Company, which was incorporated in 1904, and acquired the property and franchises of the Buffalo, Hamburg and Aurora and the Buffalo, Gardenville and Ebenezer Railway companies, and was expanding the systems to Orchard Park, Lein's Park, and East Aurora; the Buffalo and Lake Erie Traction Company, which was incorporated in 1906, to consolidate several former companies, and complete a line from Buffalo to Erie, along the lake shore. Its line was opened to Angola early in the summer of 1908, and rapidly carried to completion.

Within the city limits in 1920 Buffalo had 223 miles of street railways. and the street cars carried 191,200,048 passengers in 1919. Buffalo communicates with twenty suburban villages, all of which have materially owed their development to the street railway systems of Buffalo.

Reference should also be made to the Belt Line of track and trains which the New York Central Railroad Company established in 1882, when it obtained the right to run through the Terrace and down the Niagara River shore to Black Rock, to a connection with its former tracks to Niagara Falls. The running of frequent regular trains on this nearly complete circuit of the city has been of much convenience to industries on the outskirts.

Excerpted from the book: Hill, Henry Wayland, Ed. Municipality of Buffalo, New York, A History. 1720-1923. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc. New York. Chicago.

Part I