Buffalo-Niagara Falls Service

Last September my girlfriend and I took Amtrak to Niagara Falls. On Train 281, after leaving Exchange Street in Buffalo, they announced that because of.......??? we would be pulling north past the turnout for Niagara Falls. We would then be making a backup move to the Niagara Falls station.

Anyone know what the track involved would've been? Who owns the track 281 used for the pull ahead move? It's undoubtedly CSX now but the heritage?

Btw, I expected we would only go a short distance past the switch but we jogged a long for quite a distance north before stopping and beginning the backup. We then made the backup move at a pretty good pace, too.

In trying to recall what they told us the reason was for the backup, I 'think' they might've said it was so they would not have to turn 281 for the eastbound departure in the AM.

I've been asked by a RR club I belong to, to write a brief report on my trip to Niagara Falls last September. The problem is, traveling with my girl I wasn't as attentive to the railroad side of things as I would be when I travel solo.

So any help anyone can give me will be much appreciated.

I belive that is the standard practice. There is no place to turn train in NF so they pull past the "wye" and then back it into the station. Then the train is good to go for its next run...it just pulls out and heads south to Buffalo.

That is the standard operating practice to wye the train and back into NFL. The wye is known as the tuscarora wye and the sub you pull onto is the lockport sub which has connections with the Somerset RR and the Falls Road RR.

Heritage I beleive is NYCRR and ELRR if I remember correctly Exchange St may have some Erie Lackawana markings, its been a while since Ive made the trip.

You know I allays wondered why CP-69 exists on the east switch on the wye to the Lockport Branch, now I know. it is used to turn Amtrak!

For the longest time I never could imagine why Conrail who would rip our any interlocking it could would not rip out a seemingly little used interlocking like CP-69. Now I know why!

Last spring there was an article in the Buffalo Newspaper about the new "Harriet Tubman International Train Station" to be located in a renovated former Customs House at the Whirlpool Bridge. Has any construction started on this station?

Around the same time there was speculation about what would happen to the Maple Leaf as CN had applied to discontinue use of the track across the bridge.

So all the westbound NF trains wye at CP69? That's interesting to know. The only other time I rode the line was on 64 from Toronto.

I Google Earthed the line from roughly Frontier yard to north of Exchange St. The track into and out of the Exchange St station (or platform) does seem to be slightly distinct from the main tracks there (which I'm fairly sure are/were the former NYC-TH&B route). A bit to the east. Maybe they did use a piece of the old EL line through there?

I have a friend though, who used the Exchange St station when she was attending college in Buffalo in the early 1970s while it was still Penn Central track. She semi-commuted to Syracuse where she lived. (Her father was an NYC/PC/Conrail employee at Dewitt yard.)

That Exchange Street station was on former NYC track. But maybe the one now is a newer version in a slightly different location?

Exchange Street station is ex-NYC, built in 1952 according to Mr. Woolever's Existing Railroad Stations in New York State web site.

All three legs of Tuscarora Wye are ex-NYC, also. The Erie-Lackawanna Lockport Branch went from North Tonawanda up to Lockport, on a completely different path than the ex-NYC Falls Road Branch, which forms the north leg of Tuscarora Wye.

When I went to school in Niagara Falls (a real long time ago....), most trains were Turbo, but occasionally around the holidays they'd substitute Amfleet. On those days, the train would back out of the station and run around the wye after departure, not on the way in at night.

Jim

So it's not only all ex-New York Central System, the pull ahead is done on the Falls Road Branch? Wow, wish I'd known that before hand.

Thanks very much Jim, I'm impressed at your formidable knowledge!

Now as to the Niagara Falls NY station being in a former LV freight station....

Otto asked (in another thread) what it's like on the inside. On the return trip on the Maple Leaf we sat there for a while while Customs cleared the train and it was nice. Nothing fancy, a small waiting area, with seating along the walls. Vending machines in a small alcove. Reminded me of a small regional air terminal. The kind that are served by commuter airlines. There was an agent on duty and he was very much in evidence as well.

Must be a crew room on the second floor. We saw various crew persons arriving. Access is via a stairwell reached through the waiting room.

When we arrived on 281 I had made sure my cell phone was charged and I had several numbers for local cab companies. When we got off the coach, however. we discovered there were cabs pulled right out onto the wide platform, with the drivers out of the cars waiting for fares off the train. Very convenient.

Btw, on the train someone asked the cafe car attendent about Niagara Falls. He laughed. He said, You know I been on this run for over a year and so far the only thing I've seen in Niagara Falls is the inside of a cab and a hotel room!

Tommy Meehan wrote:Otto asked (in another thread) what it's like on the inside. On the return trip on the Maple Leaf we sat there for a while while Customs cleared the train and it was nice. Nothing fancy, a small waiting area, with seating along the walls. Vending machines in a small alcove. Reminded me of a small regional air terminal. The kind that are served by commuter airlines. There was an agent on duty and he was very much in evidence as well.

Must be a crew room on the second floor. We saw various crew persons arriving. Access is via a stairwell reached through the waiting room.

I've always disliked that station. While there's nothing "wrong" with it from a paying passenger's perspective, I always thought it to be an ugly building, clearly a recycled freight station. While I was there in the early 80s, the old freight dock was still filled with 55-gallon drums of God only knows what, and unless you were lucky enough to be catching 74 (?? - maybe it was 65...my memory is failing me...), which departed at like 7 AM, you had to go out the side door and down the stairs to get to the platform. No. 74 platformed on the track closest to the station, and one or two of the freight doors matched up with the doors on a turbo, so you could walk from the station directly to the train. The unattractiveness of the station, plus the fact that it's so far from downtown, makes it a poor entrance to Niagara Falls. One could argue that it's in the same league as the city of Niagara Falls, NY....but that's a discussion best left for another time and place.

Of course, the station's proximity to the ever-bustling Niagara Yard made it a railfan's paradise, and it was less than 2 miles from campus...an easy walk on a nice day, and a quick bus ride if I was lazy. I spent more hours at that station than I spent in class, I think. I knew just about every Amtrak crew, and a good number of the day yard job crews, too. Got me a fair number of cab rides, which was really cool...a couple of times I rode the head end of the Chessie freight across the Michigan Central bridge, dropped off in Canada, and walked back over the Whirlpool Bridge. The Chessie crew taught me how to get on and off a moving locomotive without killing myself...today that's totally prohibited, but it was the way things were done until not long ago. ;-)

But I digress...The crew register room was located in the basement back in the 80s...don't know if they've moved it since. I don't recall ever seeing anyone go up to the second floor.

Jim

Jim the staircase I saw them using is to the left of the agent's window. I could see them going up a flight of stairs.

Question - Do Via crews come into that station or do they get off in Niagara Falls Ont.?

Tommy Meehan wrote:Question - Do Via crews come into that station or do they get off in Niagara Falls Ont.?

VIA crews get off at NFS (Ontario). Amtrak crews go on duty at NFL (NY) and then are taxied to NFS to pick up their train. Westbound is the reverse - Amtrak crews take the train to NFS and taxi back to NFL to go off duty.

Jim

Tommy Meehan wrote:So all the westbound NF trains wye at CP69? That's interesting to know. The only other time I rode the line was on 64 from Toronto.

I Google Earthed the line from roughly Frontier yard to north of Exchange St. The track into and out of the Exchange St station (or platform) does seem to be slightly distinct from the main tracks there (which I'm fairly sure are/were the former NYC-TH&B route). A bit to the east. Maybe they did use a piece of the old EL line through there?

I have a friend though, who used the Exchange St station when she was attending college in Buffalo in the early 1970s while it was still Penn Central track. She semi-commuted to Syracuse where she lived. (Her father was an NYC/PC/Conrail employee at Dewitt yard.)

That Exchange Street station was on former NYC track. But maybe the one now is a newer version in a slightly different location?

Both Empire Service trains will use the wye, but the Maple Leaf won't since its going on past N.F. to Toronto.

The Niagara Falls station can be seen here:
http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/niagarafallsny.htm.
It doesn't look very attractive, but the Buffalo Exchange looks even worse.

george matthews wrote:http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/niagarafallsny.htm.
It doesn't look very attractive, but the Buffalo Exchange looks even worse.

It's a former Lehigh Valley freight station. What's ironic is, if they had torn it down people would be saying, 'Why couldn't they have preserved it?' Only they DID preserve it, are reusing it and people are asking, 'Why did they bother?'

I have to admit, in pix it doesn't look so great, but I found it to be fine.

Btw, in the station interior pic you can see the stairwell door with the stairs leading to the second floor. To the left of the agent's window.