Welcome to the Erie Lackawanna west end page
The area covered here will be from Binghamton, NY west to Buffalo, NY and also west to Indiana.
Since I live on the east end of the railroad, this page will be a little sparser than the previous pages. However, since the material below is new to the web so I hope you enjoy nevertheless.
There will be some links on the bottom to other sites that have much more in depth coverage of the E-L in western New York, Ohio, Indiana and the Chicago area.
The first major city west of Binghamton is Elmira, NY.
These
pictures date from 1992 so it is technically Conrail, but not much had changed
aside from the deteriorating station.
Just
north of Elmira is the small town of Horseheads. The Pennsylvania RR had
line that ran down from Oswego and Watkins Glen. It used the Erie from
Horeseheads through downtown Elmira before splitting off to their own yard on
the south end of Elmira.
The
former Erie station at Corning, NY
Beyond Elmira and Corning, the railroad ran along the beautiful Canisteo River area. Here are few shots from along the line enroute to Hornell, NY. All taken in 1974.
Hornell was a former Erie shop and became the main diesel shop for the railroad after the merger. Usually many out of service units could be found here.
At
Cass St tower, the line to Buffalo and the passenger main via Alfred
split. Again this is a 1992 picture, but it is an Erie tower.
Some stations along the Erie line that remains in service today for NS and CP.
Silver Spring, NY Attica, NY
Bison
yard engine facility, Buffalo, NY. March 1976. Note that N&W F7!
After the merger, the Lackawanna mainline from Binghamton west to Buffalo was downgraded and in some places removed altogether. Here are some Lackawanna stations that remained.
Atlanta Wayland Perkinsville Mt. Morris Leicester Greigsville
From Hornell the Erie headed west through several southern tier towns.
Andover Wellsville Olean Salamanca
Jamestown,
NY station and the 371 serving as the local switcher. Jamestown was
Lucille Ball's hometown.
A
classification yard was located in Meadville, PA. Due to track work, I was
unable to get anything other than this eastbound passing through the old coaling
tower. Meadville yard was abandoned by Conrail very soon after the
takeover in 1976.
Youngstown, Ohio was a good source of traffic for the E-L with a large steel mill located here.
C425
2451 moves a hot car just outside the plant. March 1976.
Along the east side of downtown Youngstown was a large yard used by the B &
O, E-L, P & LE and the Penn Central (NYC). Here several E-L Alco's are
in their yard while a B&O empty hopper train heads east to the left.
The P&LE is to the right. Other than the B&O main (now CSX)
everything you see here is gone.
Several
Alco's gather at the engine facility. By 1992 almost everything was gone.
On a
sunny day in 1974, 1200 with an odd steam era headlight passes by VY tower.
"VY"
tower, 1974
In
the same location in March 1976, 3681 leading train CNW-97 passes the
tower.
A
little northwest of Youngstown is Levittsburg, Ohio. Here the line from
Youngstown joins the freight line that bypasses Youngstown to the north.
Just past "SN" tower the line to Cleveland splits off the mainline to
Chicago.
Westbound
train CNW-97 with 3681 passes the tower and heads west on the main.
By
1992, the tower and much of the track was gone. The E-L lines did not fare
well after the Conrail takeover.
A good railfan spot was Sterling, Ohio. Here the E-L main and the B&O main crossed.
3657
leads a westbound over the diamonds in 1974.
By
1992, the tower remained, but the E-L was pulled up entirely.
Kent,
Ohio station, 1992. The B&O (now CSX) is the other lower line.
Marion,
Ohio, 1992. A very busy crossing which I unfortunately never got to in E-L
days.
George Elwood has some good material on this area on his site. See the link at the bottom of this page.
At
Huntingdon, Indiana a quartet of former passenger E8 units get ready to depart
with an eastbound freight. Huntingdon was a crew change point.
Here are a few pictures of an eastbound with U25B 2512 leading in March 1976. The end is near.
First
is at Uniondale, IN.
Splitting
the semaphores near Kingsland, IN
Here
is Kingsland, IN. The E-L crossed a N&W secondary line, which I
understand today is now a main through route for NS. A classic Erie wooden
tower.
Unfortunately, I missed the Chicago area entirely as far as the E-L was concerned. I always wished to have gotten to Griffith interlocking where the GT crossed. Sadly it is all gone today.
Thanks for visiting my Erie Lackawanna pages.
To the E-L first page Mostly Lackawanna, Hoboken to Binghamton
To the E-L second page The Erie side from Secaucus, NJ to Binghamton
Links to other E-L related sites:
Walt Fles's EL page ( some broken images )