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Buffalo Line

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Buffalo Line
NS Buffalo-Line-Signal-304-3042-APPROACH.jpg
The Buffalo Line north of Rockville, Pennsylvania, with an old Pennsylvania Railroad signal bridge that has since been removed
Overview
StatusOperational
OwnerNorfolk Southern Railway
LocaleNew York and Pennsylvania
TerminiBuffalo, New York
Rockville, Pennsylvania
Service
TypeFreight rail
SystemNorfolk Southern Railway
Operator(s)Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad (Buffalo-Machias, New York)
Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad (Machias-Driftwood, Pennsylvania)
Norfolk Southern Railway (Driftwood-Rockville)
History
Opened1854
Technical
Number of tracks1-2
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Buffalo Line is a railroad line owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Buffalo, New York southeast to Rockville, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania along a former Pennsylvania Railroad line. Its north end is at Seneca Yard in Buffalo, with no direct access to the Lake Erie district, and its south end is at the Pittsburgh Line at Rockville. The line is operated by the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad between Buffalo and Machias, New York, the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad between Machias and Driftwood, Pennsylvania, and the Norfolk Southern Railway between Driftwood and Rockville.

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Norfolk Southern Railway

Norfolk Southern Railway

The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The company operates 19,420 route miles in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia, and had rights in Canada over the Albany to Montréal route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Norfolk Southern Railway is the leading subsidiary of the Norfolk Southern Corporation.

New York (state)

New York (state)

New York, often called New York state, is a state in the Northeastern United States. With 20.2 million people enumerated at the 2020 United States census, its highest decennial count ever, it is the fourth-most populous state in the United States as of 2021. Approximately 44% of the state's population lives in New York City, including 25% in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens; and 15% of the state's population is on the remainder of Long Island, the most populous island in the United States. With a total area of 54,556 square miles (141,300 km2), New York is the 27th-largest U.S. state by area. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to its south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to its east; it shares a maritime border with Rhode Island, east of Long Island; and an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to its north and Ontario to its northwest.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. Pennsylvania borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio to its west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest, New York state to its north, and the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east.

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York and the seat of Erie County. It lies in Western New York, at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, on the United States border with Canada. With a population of 278,349 according to the 2020 census, Buffalo is the 78th-largest city in the United States. Buffalo and the city of Niagara Falls together make up the two-county Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which had an estimated population of 1.1 million in 2020, making it the 49th largest MSA in the United States.

Rockville, Pennsylvania

Rockville, Pennsylvania

Rockville is an unincorporated community in Susquehanna Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. The community is home to the Rockville Bridge.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of 2021, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania Railroad, legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named for the commonwealth in which it was established. By 1882, Pennsylvania Railroad had become the largest railroad, the largest transportation enterprise, and the largest corporation in the world. Its budget was second only to the U.S. government.

Lake Erie

Lake Erie

Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. At its deepest point Lake Erie is 210 feet (64 m) deep.

Pittsburgh Line

Pittsburgh Line

The Pittsburgh Line is the Norfolk Southern Railway's primary east–west artery in its Pittsburgh Division and Harrisburg Division across the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Keystone Corridor, Amtrak-Norfolk Southern's combined rail corridor.

Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad

Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad

The Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad is a Class II railroad operating in New York and Pennsylvania.

Machias, New York

Machias, New York

Machias is a town in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. The population was 2,309 at the 2020 census. Machias is an interior town in the northeast quadrant of the county. It is northeast of the city of Salamanca.

Driftwood, Pennsylvania

Driftwood, Pennsylvania

Driftwood is a borough in Cameron County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 36 at the 2020 census.

History

The Buffalo Line in Montgomery, Pennsylvania
The Buffalo Line in Montgomery, Pennsylvania

The Sunbury and Erie Railroad opened from Williamsport, Pennsylvania south to Milton in 1854,[1] Northumberland in 1855,[2] and Sunbury in 1856.[3] Extensions west from Williamsport opened to Whetham in 1859,[4] Keating (as the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad) in 1862, reorganize in 1895 to Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway,[5] and finally reaching Emporium (also as the P&E) in 1863.[6] A cutoff bypassing downtown Williamsport to the south, from Allen's west to Nisbet, opened in the early 1870s,[7] and is now part of the Buffalo Line.

The Northern Central Railway opened a line from Dauphin, Pennsylvania north to Millersburg in 1856,[3] extending it north to Herndon in 1857[8] and Sunbury in 1858.[9] In 1882, the Pennsylvania Railroad opened their Rockville Branch from Rockville (on their main line) north to Dauphin on the Northern Central.[7]

From the Buffalo end, the Buffalo and Washington Railway opened its line to East Aurora, New York in 1868[10] and South Wales in 1870.[11] In 1871 its name was changed to the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railway,[12] and it was extended to Emporium, Pennsylvania in 1872, completing the line between Buffalo and Harrisburg.[13] The newest piece of the Buffalo Line, opened in 1909, is at Buffalo, running from the old main line at Gardenville southwest to Seneca Yard.[14]

The line became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad and Conrail through leases, mergers, and takeovers. In the 1999 breakup of Conrail it was assigned to Norfolk Southern. The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad has leased and been operating the part of the line between Machias, New York and Driftwood, Pennsylvania since 2007. By 2008, Norfolk Southern no longer used the line into Buffalo and leased it to the Buffalo & Pittsburgh,[15] which now uses it to reach its Main Line in Machias, NY; this allowed the B&P to abandon and remove its old Third Subdivision (ex B&O) line between Orchard Park, NY and Ashford Jct. By 2009, NS had taken the portion from Gardenville Junction to Seneca Yard out of service; this left its Ebenezer Running Track from CSX's Buffalo Terminal Subdivision to Gardenville as the only connection between Buffalo and the line.[16]

In 2009, the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad portion of the Buffalo Line was used to film scenes in the film Unstoppable. Filming took place over three months during the daylight hours while the railroad ran its regular services at night.[17]

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Montgomery, Pennsylvania

Montgomery, Pennsylvania

Montgomery is a borough in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,570 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Keating, Pennsylvania

Keating, Pennsylvania

Keating is an unincorporated community in East Keating Township, Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States.

Philadelphia and Erie Railroad

Philadelphia and Erie Railroad

The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania between 1861 and 1907. It was subsequently merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR).

Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway (1895–1955)

Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway (1895–1955)

The Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway was a railroad in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania.

Nisbet, Pennsylvania

Nisbet, Pennsylvania

Nisbet is an unincorporated community in Susquehanna Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

Northern Central Railway

Northern Central Railway

The Northern Central Railway (NCRY) was a Class I Railroad connecting Baltimore, Maryland with Sunbury, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River. Completed in 1858, the line came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1861, when the PRR acquired a controlling interest in the Northern Central's stock to compete with the rival Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). For eleven decades the Northern Central operated as a subsidiary of the PRR until much of its Maryland trackage was washed out by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, after which most of its operations ceased as the Penn Central declined to repair sections. It is now a fallen flag railway, having come under the control of the later Penn Central, Conrail, and then broken apart and disestablished. The northern part in Pennsylvania is now the York County Heritage Rail Trail which connects to a similar hike/bike trail in Northern Maryland down to Baltimore, named the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail. Trackage around Baltimore remains in rail service as well as most of the trackage in Pennsylvania which is operated by Norfolk Southern and the southernmost section in Pennsylvania is operated by the Northern Central heritage railway.

Dauphin, Pennsylvania

Dauphin, Pennsylvania

Dauphin is a borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 796 at the 2020 census. Dauphin's ZIP code is 17018. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Herndon, Pennsylvania

Herndon, Pennsylvania

Herndon, formerly Trevorton Junction, is a borough along the Susquehanna River in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Herndon was first founded by Robert A. Parrish in 1840. The town was later named for Naval commander William Lewis Herndon, who died in 1857 while trying to rescue passengers from his sinking ship. The population was 324 at the 2010 census.

Pennsylvania Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania Railroad, legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named for the commonwealth in which it was established. By 1882, Pennsylvania Railroad had become the largest railroad, the largest transportation enterprise, and the largest corporation in the world. Its budget was second only to the U.S. government.

Main line (railway)

Main line (railway)

The main line, or mainline in American English, of a railway is a track that is used for through trains or is the principal artery of the system from which branch lines, yards, sidings, and spurs are connected. It generally refers to a route between towns, as opposed to a route providing suburban or metro services. It may also be called a trunk line, for example the Grand Trunk Railway in Canada, the Trunk Line in Norway, and the Trunk Line Bridge No. 237 in the United States.

East Aurora, New York

East Aurora, New York

East Aurora is a village in Erie County, New York, United States, southeast of Buffalo. It lies in the eastern half of the town of Aurora. The village population was 5,998 per the 2020 census. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2015, East Aurora was rated the third-best town to raise a family in New York State by Niche. According to the National Council of Home Safety and Security, it is also among the safest places to live in New York State.

South Wales, New York

South Wales, New York

South Wales is a hamlet in the towns of Aurora and Wales in Erie County, New York, United States.

Named passenger trains

The Buffalo Day Express stands ready to depart Williamsport, PA on July 20, 1969. Passenger service along the line would end soon after.
The Buffalo Day Express stands ready to depart Williamsport, PA on July 20, 1969. Passenger service along the line would end soon after.

When passenger trains ran on the line Lock Haven (west of Williamsport) was a transfer point for trains to Pennsylvania State University: 38 miles to the southwest of Lock Haven. The Pennsylvania Railroad ran several trains on this run between Buffalo and Washington, with major intermediate stops being Emporium, Williamsport, Harrisburg, York and Baltimore. The last passenger train on the line was the Penn Central's unnamed Buffalo-Harrisburg successor to the Buffalo Day Express. Service ended on April 30, 1971 when Amtrak declined to pick up the route.[18]

  • Buffalo Day Express (Washington and Philadelphia -- Buffalo train) / Baltimore Day Express (southbound train)
  • Dominion Express (overnight train of the above route)

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Pennsylvania State University

Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State became the state's only land-grant university in 1863. Its instructional mission includes undergraduate, graduate, professional and continuing education offered through resident instruction and online delivery.

Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, the fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a estimated population of 595,218 in 2023. Baltimore was designated an independent city by the Constitution of Maryland in 1851, and today it is the most populous independent city in the nation. As of 2023, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be 2,921,051, making it the nation's 20th largest metropolitan area. Baltimore is located about 40 miles (64 km) north northeast of Washington, D.C., making it a principal city in the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA), the third-largest CSA in the nation, with a 2023 estimated population of 10,042,122.

Buffalo Day Express

Buffalo Day Express

The Buffalo Day Express was a long-distance north–south Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train from Washington, D.C. to Buffalo, New York. It had a second branch that originated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and at times, from New York, New York. In the southbound direction, the train ran by the name, Washington Express. It was the longest running of trains on the Washington-Buffalo route, north through central Pennsylvania on the Buffalo Line, operating from 1900 to the latter years of the 1960s, with a shortened segment until 1971.

Source: "Buffalo Line", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, May 1st), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Line.

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Further Reading

Rockville Bridge

Northern Central Railway

Harrisburg Transportation Center

Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad

Harrisburg Subdivision

Trenton Subdivision (CSX Transportation)

Harrisburg Line

Lurgan Branch

Enola Branch

Sunbury Line

Main Line (Pennsylvania Railroad)

Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad (2001)
References
  1. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1854" (PDF). (79.1 KiB), March 2005 Edition
  2. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1855" (PDF). (47.0 KiB), March 2005 Edition
  3. ^ a b "PRR Chronology, 1856" (PDF). (52.4 KiB), March 2005 Edition
  4. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1859" (PDF). (60.9 KiB), March 2005 Edition
  5. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1862" (PDF)., March 2005 Edition
  6. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1863" (PDF)., March 2005 Edition
  7. ^ a b PRR Corporate History, Development of Fixed Physical Property Archived 2007-12-29 at archive.today
  8. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1857" (PDF). (54.1 KiB), March 2005 Edition
  9. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1858" (PDF). (56.8 KiB), March 2005 Edition
  10. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1868" (PDF). (93.8 KiB), June 2004 Edition
  11. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1870" (PDF). (57.0 KiB), January 2005 Edition
  12. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1871" (PDF). (72.9 KiB), January 2005 Edition
  13. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1872" (PDF). (86.1 KiB), February 2005 Edition
  14. ^ "PRR Chronology, 1909" (PDF). (56.8 KiB), March 2005 Edition
  15. ^ Norfolk Southern Harrisburg Region Timetable 1, August 4, 2008
  16. ^ Norfolk Souther Harrisburg Region Track Charts, 2009
  17. ^ Zimmermann, Karl (2012). "Where Alcos Tough It Out". Trains. Kalmbach Publishing. 72 (6): 44.
  18. ^ Trains magazine, 'Passenger trains operating on the eve of Amtrak' https://ctr.trains.com/~/media/import/files/pdf/f/7/7/passenger_trains_operating_on_the_eve_of_amtrak.pdf
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