Location of Tonawanda Jct.?

does anybody know the location of tonawanda jct. was it where the LV met the NYC or by EL-2 in North Tonawanda. Is there any remnents left of this spot.

Tonawanda Jct. was 10.5 miles west of Niagara Jct. on the Lehigh
Valley Railroad Niagara Falls Branch. It was where the LVRR entered the New York Central via trackage rights. I believe that the NYC at this point was a remnant of the East Peanut line and the junction was just compass south of the New York State Barge Canal. E-L 3 was 1.8 miles west of Tonawanda Jct. Haven't been in the area since the 1970s. Possibly someone from the North Tonawanda area can furnish information on the present status of the Tonawanda Jct. locale.

gilly327 wrote:does anybody know the location of tonawanda jct. was it where the LV met the NYC or by EL-2 in North Tonawanda. Is there any remnents left of this spot.

If you exit Ellicott Creek park where it meets the canal you turn left and head towards Tonawanda . About a quarter mile up you'll take the first left . You'll see a rail sticking out of the ground . If you walk the ROW a few yards in you'll see the old shanty where the switching levers once were . That's the exact point where the Peanut & LV met .The shack was pretty well rotted the last time i was there ( 05 ) but it was still easily found . If your into biking , the Peanut ROW was converted to a great bike path just west of Transit road . It takes you through Clarence , Clarence center and right into Akron where the Peanut crossed the West Shore Line . Along the way you'll see a few old telegraph poles and some whistle posts . But pretty much everything else is gone . Happy hunting .

thanks for the reply. the peanut line is at the end of my street and i have walked it before never noticed that spot. usually ive walked it at night but ill have to look for that spot.

As far as I can make out, the LV wanted to team up with the "Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg" in about 1896 and build something called the "Buffalo, Thousand Islands & Portland" from Tonawanda Junction to Niagara Falls and Suspension Bridge. This would have given LV its own route to Canada, and the RWO its own route into Buffalo via the LV Tonawanda line. When the scheme busted, primarily because the RWO became part of the NYC, the chartered route of the BTIP was used by the "International Ry" for its fast interurban bypassing Tonawanda to just east of Niagara Falls.

if you really want to see some good pics of tonawanda jct, check out the pics at the erie.gov site

http://www.erie.gov/aerials/1920s/atlas ... _phot.html

picture # 5 shows the old truss bridge crossing ellicott creek as well as the nyc tracks/row crossing niag falls blvd.

you can see st christophers if you really look closely. would be neat to go back in time to see it!

I visited this location many times since I was a kid. I had lived in an apartment complex about a mile west of Tonawanda Jct. One word of warning: During the warmer months (April-October), the shack which housed the levers is home to yellowjackets, hornets, wasps. whatever, I never wanted to get a good look at them! On one visit here in 1995, myself and a friend were walking along the cinder trail and these pests were making there presence known as we were about 50 feet away from the shack.

I had a similar experience there, maybe about the same time. My curiosity overcame my fear of the insects, though. I went inside. I didn't get stung, and they turned out to be honey bees. They were living between the inside wainscoating and the outside wall. Honey was oozing out of the cracks in the wall. I didn't have the nerve to try to take any home, though!