A Quesion About Branchlines

I was reading the book "Death of An American Railroad," when I came upon an interesting passage...

"(the Erie Lackawanna was) seeking ICC approval for abandonment of 169 miles of branch lines..."

This begs the question, which branchlines was the Erie Lackawanna planning to abandon? I read about how the Erie Lackawanna tried to abandon the Tioga branch in the aftermath of Agnes, but I couldn't find (nor recall) any other proposed abandonments. Does anybody know of some lines that the EL attempted to abandon or considered abandoning at one point? I can think of several possibilities, but I'm not actually sure if the Erie Lackawanna considered abandoning them. Please help...

I don't know about the dates he was talking about but the EL did abandon some trackage early on in upstate New York. This included nearly all of the ex-Erie Corning line from Painted Post to Wayland and the ex-Lackawanna main line from Wayland to Groveland. Sometime along there, they also abandoned the Lackawanna main line from Alexander nearly into Buffalo.

Not sure the time frame but I know for sure they targeted MP 244 - MP 264 (Sherburne - Sangerfield) on the ex DL&W Utica Branch.

In 1973 they sold the Richfield Springs branch

Also included in the 169 miles may have been:

Bath to Wayland
Mount Morris to Groveland
Honesdale Branch
maybe Baldwinsville to Oswego
Branch to Limestone, NY serving Bradford
Other parts of the Bradford - Brockway line ?
The B&SW ?
Salamanca to Gowanda and Dunkirk ?


just speculating

Insofar as I know, neither the Wayland Branch nor the former DL&W main between Mt. Morris and Groveland were on the list for abandonment during the EL era. I doubt the B&SW was on the hit list- it hosted two daily trains in each direction as late as 1975.

One item that was on the hit list was the old mainline between Dayton and Dunkirk. Very little was moving on that section of track so EL did tear it up in early 1976- not long before C-Day.

Another branch that may have been on the list for abandonment was the Lisbon Branch in Ohio. It was torn up in the late '70s.

So EL actually ceased service to Dunkirk prior to CR ? Good info, did not know that.

Who did they serve ?

Matt Langworthy wrote:Insofar as I know, neither the Wayland Branch nor the former DL&W main between Mt. Morris and Groveland were on the list for abandonment during the EL era. I doubt the B&SW was on the hit list- it hosted two daily trains in each direction as late as 1975.

One item that was on the hit list was the old mainline between Dayton and Dunkirk. Very little was moving on that section of track so EL did tear it up in early 1976- not long before C-Day.

Another branch that may have been on the list for abandonment was the Lisbon Branch in Ohio. It was torn up in the late '70s.

Thanks Matt. Well, now we know of four branches that the Erie might have wanted to abandon:

The Tioga Branch
The Lisbon Branch
The Dunkirk Branch
The Sherburne Branch