Tonawanda Confusion

[Roadgeek Adam]

So, I am still in Kenmore with my parents for a few more days, but there seems to be confusion when it comes to a piece of ROW.

Between the Erie Main Street station and the North Tonawanda Erie freight depot, HA marks on topos that the Erie own the ROW (presumably for the Suspension Bridge & East Junction Branch) but there seems to be two structures at Sheridan Drive and Brighton Avenue. It seems kind of strange that the Erie would cross through Tonawanda without stopping, but right now I cannot find information to the contrary.

So, am I overanalyzing this topo or what? I keep Googling and going through the railroad.net archives, but I am unable to find any record of stations in Tonawanda.

[JoeS]

The International RR, the "high speed" trolley line between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, ran parallel to the Erie ROW in that area. I think there was a station for this line at Sheridan Drive, a fact I learned reading about a sabotage attempt on that line in the teens. There could have been another at Brighton.

My memory of those locations goes back to the early 1960s and I don't recall there ever being stations on the Erie.

[jimpellow]

Hello,

I am not a railroad guru, but I study the area history quite a bit and came across this thread doing a search on similar topics.

My two cents:

There PROBABLY was an Erie Railroad station early in the 1900's near Englewood and Kenmore. There are mentions of plans of it being built as real estate developers tried to build up the area of Ellwood, Kenmore.

I have, however, never seen it on an aerial or map, so hard to say if it was even completed. I have walked the tracks there and there is an undeveloped piece of land near Kenmore, behind Milanos restaurant, that has a the remains of two old buildings. or at least the foundations. If it did exist, I would wager that was it.

Near Lincoln Park there were one or two other stations. I have found two very vague references to the Davis Street Station. Davis Street ran from the Kenilworth area to the tracks. It is now called Decatur and stops before the tracks. Snooping around there I have not found any evidence of this station. There still exist a set of wooden stairs placed in the slope that are in remarkably good condition. The 1920's Erie County Aerial shows no station though, but a path that ran from Davis street over the tracks and continued into Ellwood, Kenmore. As you may know, that area was the Camp Kenilworth during World War I, which had a firing range right up against the tracks, and later a New York Firing Range. Hence, a lot went on at that time to cloud the matter.

There was most definitely a station-stand a bit further down towards Harrison that was for the IRC trolley. You can clearly see it on the 1920s Erie County Aerials. It was double tracked to Harrison and situated between them, and you can see footpaths leading to it. It was apparently bright orange. Not sure if this was the Davis Street Station or not.

If you google "Growing Pains In Ellwood" you can read a first hand account of the railroad in that area and where the station is mentioned. He has another article referring to the trolley if you go the index.

That building which still stands near Harrison was a flag station put up a bit later.

I do not think that there was a station at Sheridan, at least at that time. Sheridan was started through farmland in 1924 and completed in 1925. Almost all of the population was near the Buffalo line or near the river, with a couple small farming communities such as Brighton. The roads were constructed much to the disgust of the taxpayers in anticipation of a building boom in the 1920s which never materialized.

[jimpellow]

I have to correct my own response, it had been a while since I had read the material and seems that the station was built around 1893. I then ran another search and came across an article from a real estate builder claiming that the rail station had already been completed. It again states that it was in Ellwood Park, which was and is the name of the area that sprung up around Englewood and Harrison west of the tracks. I really can see no definite trace of the buildings I came across in either the 1920s or 1950s aerials I mentioned above, nor are they on any topographic maps to my knowledge. The 1920's aerial shows there was definitely some relationship between what is now Milano's on Englewood and the railroad, but none of the buildings shows appear to coincide with the concrete foundations which still exist there. It would be a logical location for a rail station considering its location to Ellwood, North Buffalo, Kenilworth and Kenmore. all of which were growing at the time. Following the 1920's tops, there is no nearby rail station in North Buffalo that can discerned.

As for another station in the Township to the north, I cannot say personally as I have not researched that area as thoroughly. There is one hint that I came across that indicates there may have been one. It comes from researching the IRC trolly dynamiting in the early 1920s. Hard to definitively place this act as sources are vague or conflicting, but the consensus and the opinion of the former Town historian is that it occurred just north of Colvin and Belmont. News sources state that both tracks were targeted but only the trolley passing North was dynamited. (I must say this is odd as I do not remember seeing evidence that is was double tracked again at this point, but I may be wrong. On that line the foundations for the electrification system seem to be the giveaway). So the articles seem in agreement that it was the trolley moving north which bore the brunt of the labor conflict. But there was a freight train moving south which approached the area not too long after. Apparently they were warned and stopped and the perpetrators were spotted by a police man and a car chase ensued until the police car blew a tire. The freight train apparently then backed up to the station to the North. Where the location of this station was, or whether it was an Erie or IRC station, I do not know yet.

[colorado]

Odd this comes up now, just had an old friend come visit us that I hadn't seen in 30 years. We both were rail buffs back then, involved in NRHS, WNYRHS and model train club at Hoover Junior high as kids and lived near Colvin and Sheridan. Very familiar with the line in the area, we could hear the day falls miles before it got to us blowing for Kenmore ave or young street and would ride our bikes to Northwood Pharmacy at Colvin to get some Big Buddy Bubble gum and watch the train. Rode the day falls at least once, walked the line from Kensington to North Tonawanda many times. My Grandparents lived on Nicholson in North Buffalo so I recall seeing the branch at many crossings in the early sixties and from ShoShone Pool at Mains street, Bennett high and other places.

There was no evidence of any buildings in the early sixties and little in the early seventies when I stated to walk the line. Erie falls branch was built early, 1870, the mostly parallel trolley high speed cam in 1918 and there was no passenger need by 37 so it was torn up. In 1918 and prior anything north of Kenmore ave was sparse farmland other than North Tonawanda and the falls so it may be doubtful the Erie falls line ever had any passenger service thus passenger stations. NYC had already established their falls line so that probably took care of any Buffalo tot he falls passenger demand.

The only foundation I recall was at main street between the black rock line and the falls branch, I understood it was the High Speed line main street passenger station. It was converted to storage for a construction material operation and burned in the early sixties.

Buffalo News had an article about the high speed line in the early seventies and I walks a bunch of it one march back then, the right of way was in tact behind the Drive in Screen near the youngman and some concrete cantanary supports still existed. The high speed line swung east away from the erie in Tonawanda to cross the erie canal near where the Young Street extension is today. I think they had a bad accident there many decades ago where one car telescoped into another and there was a lot of injuries and fatalities, it might have helped lead to the demise of that line.

There was a large scrap yard at the Junction southeast of Bennett High, today it appears it is gone and the land developed, they used to take gons in the seventies. There were also a couple industries on either side of main street on the North side a creamery had a siding, on the south side there was a large 4 story stone industry I am told made bobby pins, it too had a siding. I left WNY over 2 decades ago so no idea what is there now, the Bobby Pin factory had 2 major fires in the early eighties and was leveled long ago. Memeory is fuzzy, last walked the line about 73....there might have been a sding into Bennet High to provide coal for a heating plant there, not sure anymore. No more evidence of any sidings until Sheridan drive where there was a team track and wood dock, some non rail served lumber yard took loads from Boxcars there right into the seventies. At Colvin there was a pool company that used to take boxcars of pool chemicals but after the sixties that siding fell into dis-use. Another gray cinderblock building between Colvin and Brighton had a siding but was long abandoned by the mid seventies. There used to be a concrete plant at Brighton that had a siding but I never saw rail cars in it ever in the early seventies. Continental Can North of Kenney Field off Colvin took boxcars right into the seventies at least. The last industry was a scrap yard between Fillmore in Tonawanda and Erie 3 Junction and the barge canal.

C&O took turns running to Canada, either by the Black Rock Branch or on the falls branch. Enough Business on the EL in the seventies to warrant a day falls and a night falls. Anywhere from 75-100 cars was common, lots of orange Genessee and Wyoming covered hoppers full of salt for Hooker to convert to Sodium and Chlorine. That stuff moves by pipeline in latter years. Day falls usually came through Sheridan drive are NB 10-11:30 and and came back anywhere from 5 pm till 10 pm. Night falls ran after midnight NB and came back SB before 7 am.

Typical power was ABA F units, we were please when an F# would show in the consist. Sometimes an SW cut in to change out at the N Tonawanda yard. Occasionally we got GP35's U25b's Geep 7's or C425s on the line but not often. Rock Pullers on the Black Rock line were always a a pair of Geep 7's, mostly long strings of pig iron pellets from Canada for Republic Steel off Abbot and South park with no caboose. There was a daily N&W train to Windsor Every day over the Black Rock Branch, 1 each way with lots of Auto related traffic on it, It was normally hauled by multiple gray top f7's they got from the Wabash.

[AgentSkelly]

My grandfather lived off Sheridan Parkside...he seemed to remember there was a platform around Sherdian Dr and Gettysburg Av....

[jimpellow]

My grandfather lived off Sheridan Parkside...he seemed to remember there was a platform around Sherdian Dr and Gettysburg Av....

I have seen mention of some kind of platform-station at the Sheridan Drive crossing that one would have to assume there was something there at one point. But I have never found anything definitive about that crossing except a conflict over it being built, some subsequent gruesome deaths, and the power substation nearby. I have an old GE ad which shows off the interior of it if the source was accurate.

My problem with the Sheridan station being built earlier as I stated before is that the roads in the Town were laid out in anticipation that the swath of wealthy residential development in North Buffalo would naturally extend northwards. There was a lot of land speculation by the 1920s and developers pushed the Town to develop the infrastructure. Apparently back then the town manager and controller legally received a small percentage of any development project funds, and were happy to oblige. (This was a major impetus as to why the area near the river was developed for heavy industry). Naturally, the small and rural conservative community was aghast of all this and the tax burden it would cause. They were already storming around with their pitchforks as Buffalonians saw the Town in the first few decades of the 1900s as an area outside of the legal jurisdiction in Buffalo and hence found the Town a better place for the dirty and sinful; the velodrome, racetrack, car rallies, cross burnings, the piggery, speakeasies, brothels and so on and so on.

But the Depression hit before the development did, and then with the building material ban during World War 2, the Town did not develop until after WW2 as a more modest incarnation of what was originally envisioned. About the only thing the roads were used for was so Buffalonians with cars could drive around the countryside on the weekends (that by the way is the reason why the still brick section of Niagara Falls was built, as an access road for the rich between Main Street and the Town roads). Future cruising down Sheridan Drive in the 1940s of course has left us with the legacy of some of the tasty hot dog stands that existed to cater to this crowd.

So without any population there until the 1950s to speak of, I do not why a station would be built there. Then again, the 1893 article states that one was already in Ellwood at the time, though as the above poster states, the population was really not large enough to warrant one in that location until after WW1. To what extent railroads built in anticipation of development in that era I will leave to you railroad experts.

I should also add as regards the Ellwood Station, it seems a hundred plus years back that businesses were allowed to be a lot more leeway in stating untruths to the general public than they are now with all the laws and lawyers breathing down their necks. It is possible that the Erie Railroad 1893 Ellwood Park station was a convenient figment of their imagination.

[Roadgeek Adam]

Coincidentally I am back in WNY for the first time since January. I am planning to run the entire stuff from Walden Avenue to Ellwood Park.

More googling, bringing up such as http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 86#p741286" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; when it comes to a station at Sheridan, but topos point at something standing at the crossing, except 1899, which shows something near Center and Cable.

[jimpellow]

I am pretty sure that the 1899 topo is showing the same station that was between the Erie and IRC. It also shows on a 1900 Buffalo and the 1920s Erie County aerial, and is talked about in the article I quoted above. The well worn footpaths seen in the 1920s would indicate that that was the location for quite a long time.

Living overseas, my research is limited to online sources. I do know there was a very large stash of photos called the Carl H. Lind collection from the early 1920s that showed everything in the Town. It was donated to the Ken-Ton historical society. But when they shut down for some years, a lot of their better stuff was taken by other area museums and universities. When the society reopened, whoever had taken this collection refused to give it back. It is probably at the Buffalo History Museum. The answer to some of these questions, and many others about this pivotal time in the Town's history are probably in that collection. May want to stop in there when you are home.

I would also appreciate it as a railroad guru if you could check out the demolished buildings behind Milanos on Englewood in the wooded area that abuts the tracks for an opinion of what those buildings were used for. By the way, Milanos just closed so don't plan on having a super sub there during your journey.

[jimpellow]

Well, I have to correct myself again as I think it over and realize the obvious. I believe that IRC took over what had been the Thousand Islands line about 1918 or so as stated above. Hence, any station previous to that was extremely likely to have been constructed by the Erie Railroad. The article I have stated that the station was completed in 1893 and the topo, mentioned above, along with the 1900 Buffalo map, place a station there. This was most likely the Davis Street Station I have seen a couple vague references too. Today it could be found by following Decatur to the tracks.

It would be a logical location as there were roads at the time leading to it. Camp Kenilworth would have likely been placed near a station. The now recreational fields were the firing range, and I believe that the area next to the tracks in Englewood was leased from a farmer for the actual camp. The area just to the North of the former racetrack was for demonstrations and was called Kenilworth Field, which was also used by other early aviators before the Curtiss Flying Field officially opened near what is now NFB-Sheridan. Hence, there was some need in that location, besides the nascent communities and possibly transporting produce and dairy products to market.

The 1893 article stated the station more for the delivery of goods to the burgeoning neighborhoods on each side, then as a passenger service. What constitutes a station back in those days I do not know. But I am thinking it was a rather non elaborate loading platform for goods, with the bright orange passenger stand being built separately sometime thereafter to the north.

Looking at the 1920s aerial again, there does seem to be something in that location. But it is rather hazy and a map marking mars a complete view. There was a path over the tracks there, so obviously a likely hub for the area. I did find the set of steps as mentioned on the Davis side. There is a concrete slab or two that can be uncovered with some poking. Maybe the poster above, who is better versed in sleuthing railroads, could also check it out on his trek.

[AgentSkelly]

My grandfather lived off Sheridan Parkside...he seemed to remember there was a platform around Sherdian Dr and Gettysburg Av....

I have seen mention of some kind of platform-station at the Sheridan Drive crossing that one would have to assume there was something there at one point. But I have never found anything definitive about that crossing except a conflict over it being built, some subsequent gruesome deaths, and the power substation nearby. I have an old GE ad which shows off the interior of it if the source was accurate.

My problem with the Sheridan station being built earlier as I stated before is that the roads in the Town were laid out in anticipation that the swath of wealthy residential development in North Buffalo would naturally extend northwards. There was a lot of land speculation by the 1920s and developers pushed the Town to develop the infrastructure. Apparently back then the town manager and controller legally received a small percentage of any development project funds, and were happy to oblige. (This was a major impetus as to why the area near the river was developed for heavy industry). Naturally, the small and rural conservative community was aghast of all this and the tax burden it would cause. They were already storming around with their pitchforks as Buffalonians saw the Town in the first few decades of the 1900s as an area outside of the legal jurisdiction in Buffalo and hence found the Town a better place for the dirty and sinful; the velodrome, racetrack, car rallies, cross burnings, the piggery, speakeasies, brothels and so on and so on.

But the Depression hit before the development did, and then with the building material ban during World War 2, the Town did not develop until after WW2 as a more modest incarnation of what was originally envisioned. About the only thing the roads were used for was so Buffalonians with cars could drive around the countryside on the weekends (that by the way is the reason why the still brick section of Niagara Falls was built, as an access road for the rich between Main Street and the Town roads). Future cruising down Sheridan Drive in the 1940s of course has left us with the legacy of some of the tasty hot dog stands that existed to cater to this crowd.

So without any population there until the 1950s to speak of, I do not why a station would be built there. Then again, the 1893 article states that one was already in Ellwood at the time, though as the above poster states, the population was really not large enough to warrant one in that location until after WW1. To what extent railroads built in anticipation of development in that era I will leave to you railroad experts.

I should also add as regards the Ellwood Station, it seems a hundred plus years back that businesses were allowed to be a lot more leeway in stating untruths to the general public than they are now with all the laws and lawyers breathing down their necks. It is possible that the Erie Railroad 1893 Ellwood Park station was a convenient figment of their imagination.

I'm wondering if the station was built apart of the road system during that time and well, never used...My grandfather said he remembers the platform being there in the 40s and 50s; now, it being used is a different story as he never saw anyone standing there waiting for a train.

As for Ellwood station, he says it rings a bell but he thinks it was gone by the 40s. ...and I ran across this: https://books.google.com/books?id=jpM1A ... on&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jimpellow]

Ok, so I am back stateside for a month and have done a little more exploring to try to solve this great mystery.

I went to the Buffalo Museum which was rather disappointing, but they did have a 1928(?) Sanborn map that covered the southern half of the area in question, but not the northern. It cut off at Davis Street. It did not show a station in this section and even included a building or two on the northern side of Davis, now Decatur. This is getting me to to think that the station was not there, despite hints mentioned previously why I thought it might have been.

The Sanborn map did show a waiting station to the eastern side right on Englewood next to the IRC tracks. Does not mention what company(y) it served but one would think due to its location the IRC. My limited knowledge of railroads is that companies did not like to share stations so it was built for the trolley.

So I walked the tracks again. Summer of course not a good time of year to sleuth due to the vegetation and all the insects which seem very fond of me. I did find the remnants of the base of the waiting station in the fielded plot that now sports an ugly billboard. I found nothing more where the Davis location is save the other set of old wooden stairs on the western Kenmore Ellwood side.

I then headed a bit north to the area where I thought the IRC station was. This was referred to in "Growing Pains in Ellwood" as the bright orange station a bit south of Harrison. The platform I believe is seen in the middle of the tracks in the 1927 aerial attached along with a mention of a station there in a circa 1900 map. Like my trip last November I found nothing. However, before I went I looked at the attached map again and saw something that I had not seen before. If you look closely to the right of the tracks to the south of the footpath there appears to be a dark roof to a fairly large building. In fact it looks like it overhangs that path a bit.

So moving my search away from the tracks a bit I found four little odd mounds that MAY have been part of a foundation of some building. They are now in a backyard extension as seen in the second attached photo. This roughly corresponds to the object in the photo in terms of location and how it was situated (but not perfectly). It looks in the photo like the owners have something on them.

If that building was the Erie Railroad station will require further investigation. It would not seem logical in some ways, but in others it does.

The 1893 articles state that the "already in use station" was to the near side of Ellwood. But another article states that it was in the midst of the soon to be developed Ellwood Park which was 72 acres on both sides of the tracks. A map exists from that time which shows street planned out for that area that were never developed. Hence, putting a station there would have been logical at that time.

A map circa 1900 also shows that Erie was using the eastern tracks at the time so putting a station there would make sense.

I do find it odd that despite all my searching for references the only mentions (besides the good detective work above) are all from the developer at the time of development. People were trying to unsuccessfully sell many of the lots they purchased for years after that, and think a station would show in at least a few of the pitches.

It is also possible that the building was built near the simple platform in the middle to store something. Most likely for Camp Kenilworth during the War or for the New York Rifle range nearby after the War. I found it odd in Growing Pains in Ellwood that the station was stated to have been painted bright orange. Was that common with stations at the time railroad gurus? Perhaps it was due to the fact that they fired towards the tracks just slightly to the south, and hoped the bright orange would deter recruits from inadvertently picking off unsuspecting waiting passengers and/or blowing up the ammo depot?

I really don't know what to think of the platform at Sheridan. Lots of digging but not one reference to it can I find despite the fact that it was at a rather infamous grade crossing. You cant see it on the map though a house and barn show clearly nearby. I would think it was a loading platform for agricultural products from before Sheridan was constructed in 1924-25.

[jimpellow]

So after posting I thought I would be concentrating on my online business, but something freed me up and I decided to research the Ellwood Station from the point of the trolley rather than the railroad. Sure enough it made a huge difference. There are 1916-1918 real estate ads with reference to it. They ask the bungalow seeker to take the Lockport trolley one mile North of Buffalo to Ellwood Station, and then walk the cinder path on the right that leads to the bungalows. There were several on Harrison built in this location at the time. So I think looking at the path on the map that this was it. Would love to find out what that big building was. There is a small historically marked house circa 1907 on Darlington right beyond where the station was that was not a farmhouse. It may have been for a station master or such. It is currently on Zillow for sale.

It would seem at some point ownership of the station passed from the railroad to the trolley. The lack of mention about the Elwood Station in regards to the railroad post 1900 would seem to indicate they discontinued service. It is possible they had service at a new "Davis Street Station" which better served their needs once they switched to exclusively using the western tracks. But so far I have been unable to locate anything beyond a few fleeting references to this.

Also knowing this the dynamiting stories say something about a couple things. For one, the passengers were taken to the nearest station to the south which they stated as Ellwood. No mention of a Sheridan station. Also, it seems in 1925 that some knuckleheads placed discarded beams from the Erie ties on the IRC tracks, resulting in another derailment, at the same location of the dynamiting a couple years previous. They state "north of the Ellwood Station just beyond the Falls Junction".

[jimpellow]

Ok, I got back to digging and realized I had the Ellwood Station (at least the one for the trolley, or rather electric high speed line, a little too far South by remembering the local history article of the neighborhood, rereading the developer's directions for the bungalows on Harrison and realizing that Harrison was actually the street to the north. Then one can clearly see the station on the may and the paths leading to it. I went by and matching up the location did some poking about the Northern clump of trees in the picture. The foundations of the electric poles are definitely different there, and one can still see them on the other side of the tracks. A bit to the north and between the tracks is a concrete foundation that is still bared in places.

Of course to get back to the original question of the Ellwood Station I really don't think they are the same. The location does not match the marking of the railroad station in the 1899 map which is a few hundred feet to the south. Plus, there really was no population there whatsoever in 1893. When the high speed line was put in 1918 or so, there was speculation in that area for development. Plus the IRC had built the Englewood Station to serve the line in the southmost part of the TOT, so placing it a bit further north near a more major road at the time, Harrison, would make sense.

Now, the 1893 map shows a station called Loretta Station which I included below. That was a couple streets south to the west side of the tracks. However, I can find no references to a Loretta Station, and nothing shows on subsequent maps or the 1920s aerials. Since the roads were never developed as planned in the 1893 map, it probably follows that the station was never built. If this and the Erie Railroad station were actually one in the same, that would explain why no references to the Erie Ellwood station exist past 1894.

I found out that there is an older gent who lives on that street (Stoneleigh) that knows some things about the parcel of land in question, and the history of the railroad in that area. So far he has not been home when I have stopped by, but hopefully he can clarify some things to me before I head back overseas.

I am also thinking the Erie Station may have been the large building to the right of the tracks in the picture provided in the previous post. There are no paths leading to it save the one to the still standing house on Darlington. But if it had not been in use for a while that may have explained. The 1907 house may be the key. I have a new contact who can look up TOT property records, but apparently they only go back to 1918, and many from 1918 to 1947 were lost in a flood or fire. The historical society has a marker on it so John or Ed may know something about it. I was hoping to get that info when I was able to visit the historical society, but so far they have been closed Sundays while I have been home.

Also funny when you include Ellwood Station and the high speed line in searches how many articles state that the dynamiting was near the Ellwood Station due west of Curtiss Aerodrome. That would place it between Harrison and Sheridan which I have heard and read before, but is different from other articles and informed opinions that place it to a couple points further north.

[SST]

Looks like a bike trail will be going through the area.

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/ ... e-20150612" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;