Erie Rochester Station

Check out info and photos of Erie Railroad Rochester Station.

http://www.s363.com/Railroads

Thanks

JS

The Erie ran along the Genesee River many years before the Lehigh Valley arrived in 1891 or 1892.
Interresting that the Erie crossed the Genesee and then ran along the west bank for its last mile.

Must have been a better connection with the NYC by doing that.

s4ny wrote:The Erie ran along the Genesee River many years before the Lehigh Valley arrived in 1891 or 1892.
Interresting that the Erie crossed the Genesee and then ran along the west bank for its last mile.

Must have been a better connection with the NYC by doing that.

The Erie ever connected with the NYC in downtown Rochester..
they did lots of other places though..
P&L Junction and Batavia being two nearby.

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad was built south out of Rochester in 1854, to connect with the Erie at Avon.
(it was essentially under Erie control when built..built to 6-foot gauge)

I dont know exactly why they chose the west side of the river, only to cross it a mile or so south..
probably because of the interchange with the Genesee Valley Canal..
(the PRR tracks didnt exist until 1882)

Also, in addition to the canal, the historic hub of Rochester's downtown was Main & Exchange, only two blocks from the Erie station..
the East side of the river was probably more "remote" and more removed from all the commercial action..
when the LV arrived decades later, they were forced to use the "less deseriable" side of the river.
(although that ended up being good for the LV, when the Barge canal terminal was later built on "their" side of the river)
but in the 1850's, the Erie clearly chose the "good" side..the most logical side..it was probably much more beneficial than the east side,
for multiple reasons..

http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/rochester/

Scot

Erie interchanged with the PRR at Violetta Street, just south of their terminal. Erie also interchanged with LV on the other side of the river. Erie's connection to the New York Central was with the West Shore at Mortimer Junction (Henrietta). Erie also interchanged cars with the Rochester Subway via the LV connection at Court Street, and I assume some NYC interchange traffic (to Kent Street) could have travelled in that direction, too.

Check out the April 2010 edition of Rochester Chapter NRHS' "The Semaphore" for photos of the Erie's Rochester station, plus a sample timetable from 1940 showing some of the last passenger service available...

http://rochnrhs.org/media/semaphore/RCN ... 201004.pdf

-otto-

See our November 2009 cover for a Baldwin-powered Erie fantrip in downtown Rochester!

The city of Rochester will be spending $1 million to convert the old Erie RR bridge over the Genesee River to a pedestrian bridge. This is the bridge by the U of R campus.
http://newyorkoutdoors.wordpress.com/20 ... ng-system/

I meant by "...connection with the New York Central" that passengers or mail could
easily be transferred from one station to another. I believe that when the Erie was built,
the NYC (or its predecessor) station was on the west side of the Genesee River.

Otherwise, there is no reason for the Erie to go to the expense of
building a bridge across the river. When the Lehigh Valley arrived
30+ years later, it stayed on the east side.

s4ny wrote:I meant by "...connection with the New York Central" that passengers or mail could
easily be transferred from one station to another. I believe that when the Erie was built,
the NYC (or its predecessor) station was on the west side of the Genesee River.

Otherwise, there is no reason for the Erie to go to the expense of
building a bridge across the river. When the Lehigh Valley arrived
30+ years later, it stayed on the east side.

but..as discussed earlier, there were plenty of other reasons for the Erie to build on the west side of the river..not just the NYC station.

1. NYC station nearby.
2. Genesee Valley Canal terminal on the west side of the river.
3. The heart of downtown Rochester, the main business district, is on the West side.

so the west side was the "happening" side back then..
im sure the building of the bridge was a minor concern, compared to the much larger benefits of being on the west side.
then the LV "stayed" on the east side, simply because they had no choice!
they didnt get to choose which side of the river they wanted..they had to stick to the east side by default, whether they wanted to or not.

Scot

The NY Central Depot was located on the west side of the river, south of the
tracks at Mill and Front Streets on an 1875 map of Rochester Ward 1. The
site of the former depot is now under the Inner Loop.