Railroads Servicing Rochester in 1904

The map of Rochester in 1904 I recently talked about is as detailed as I have seen for that period.  I have some earlier but they are sometimes difficult to read such as the map of Rochester in 1871 that I copied from the City Directory for that year.  In the 1904 map I am especially interested in the railroad stations and their locations. Some of these locations still exist in the city although not as a train station.  The railroads and stations listed in the City Directory for that year are as follows:

• Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway Co. - Passenger and freight stations are located at 62 West Avenue and on Oak Street although I find no stations on Oak Street on the 1904 map.
• Rochester, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad - One station located  on Brinker Place near Hart Street and another 434 State Street. The Brinker station was just south of the railroad tracks that cross the river.  Hart Street is still there. The State Street station was located between Jay Street and Brown Street.
• New York Central & Hudson River Railroad - Stations located at Brown Street opposite Wilder, the Central Station on the corner of Central Avenue and St. Paul Street, Centre Park Station on Allen Street near Chamberlain, and the Otis Station on Lyell Avenue near Warner Street.  
• West Shore Railway - Shares station facilities with New York Central & Hudson River Railroad at the Central Station on Central Avenue.
• Erie Railroad - Station located on Court Street near Exchange Street.
• Rochester & Sodus Bay Railway - Station located at Main Street East at the corner of Chamberlain.
• Lehigh Valley Railroad - Station located on Court Street and South Avenue. The station building is still standing and is the Dinosaur Bar-B-Q place.  
• Pennsylvania Railroad - Station at 81 West Avenue across the street from the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh station.

In addition to those listed above, the following operated in Rochester but I can find no detailed information concerning them:

• Genesee Falls Railway Co.
• Northern Central Railway
• Rochester, Charlotte & Manitou Railroad Co.
• Rochester Electric Railway Co.
• Rochester Railway Co.
• Rochester & Eastern Rapid Railway

My Train Travels

Last week I was reading the Rochester Subway blog about the New York Central station on Central Avenue.  The station was demolished in the late 1960's and has been replaced by a 'modern' Amtrak station.   The original was a classic building and listed by the Infrastructurist blog as one of the most beautiful rail stations to hit the wrecking block. 

 

 I remember the station and can recall my first acquaintance with it.  It was probably in 1948 or 1949 when my Aunt Mae (Mary Eagan O'Brien) took me on my first train ride.  We rode to either Buffalo or Syracuse and then back to Rochester. The high point of the ride - after just being in that huge station - was lunch in the Dining Car.  I don't recall anything about the ride itself but I do recall that lunch.  Imagine eating on a train!

After that inaugural ride from the Central Avenue station there are a few rides that I do remember.  There was a ride to Cleveland when I was in the Little League to see a double header between the Indians and the Yankees.  This was probably in 1951.  Another was a trip from Rochester to Erie, PA to see an Aquinas football game.  (In those days Aquinas did not play any of the Rochester public high schools.)  I seem to recall that the game was called after we were in Erie because of the weather.

My most memorable ride happened in the late 1960's when I was working for IBM in the Rochester branch office.  In addition to programming support I gave to local IBM customers, I also provided area support for customers in western New York with specialized computers (IBM 1800 data acquisition and control system).  The specialist for the eastern portion of the state was in Syracuse but was away at the time.  The customer with the problem was IBM in Poughkeepsie and the weather was terrible.  It was snowing, windy and portion of the NY Thruway was closed so I decided to take the train to Poughkeepsie.  The ride to Poughkeepsie and back was uneventful until we were nearing Rochester late at night.  The conductor talked to me and let me know that the train was late and they would sure like to make up the time before the train reached Buffalo.  He also noted that I was the only passenger scheduled to get off in Rochester.  Then he asked me, "Do you mind when we reach the Rochester station if the train just slows down rather that stop?"  At the time I was in my late 20's so I said, "Sure, I can handle that."  I don't know how slow the train was going when I jumped off but I do recall that I kept running when I hit the platform before I could slow down.

When I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1961 (I already knew that I was going to be drafted but did not want to go in the Army) my trip to Boot Camp in Parris Island, SC and when Boot Camp finished I took the train from Jacksonville, NC to New York City.  I was with a Boot Camp friend from Kingston, NY and his folks picked us up in NYC and I spent the night at his home in Kingston and then went on to Rochester.  I'm not sure how I got to Rochester.  I may have hitchhiked.  After my leave in Rochester I had to go to San Diego for electronics school so I took the train cross-country to California.  Six days if I recall.  Six days of boredom and beer.  Not an enjoyable trip.

Since those trips I have not taken a train ride (with the exception of the south Florida Tri-Rail) in the US.  My lovely wife and I have had a number of train rides in Europe. In Europe you can go anywhere, at any time and at a reasonable price. Not at all like the States.  Maybe one of these days we will catch up with the Europeans when it comes to transportation systems.

Rochester and the Railroads

 

I guess that all boys (and old men) are fascinated by trains. I remember my first train set I received on Christmas probably about 1948. It wasn't a new set. It had belonged to my cousin, Jack O'Brien, but he grown out of the set. (Jack was 17 years older than I.) For a number of years the trains - a Lionel set - was set up around the Christmas tree for a number of years. I suspect that when we moved to Trafalgar St. in 1950 the train set was packed up and was among the 'junk' in the attic there.

My grandson, Liam, had a train set around their Christmas tree when he was about three years old or so. My grandson, Will, has probably every train and accessory possible with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. In addition to my Lionel train set on Flint Street, I also had a grandfather, Frederick Maloney, an engineer on the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad. Here is my grandfather, second on the right. The fellow on the right was my grandfather's fireman, Harry Hook.

I guess that today there are a few short line railroads in the Rochester area but not at all the number of main railroads that once served the Rochester area.  An interesting web site showing the Railroad History of Rochester from 1825 up to 2009.  The Rochester City Directory for 1900 shows 16 railroads, some sharing the same tracks and the same stations.  These were:

• Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway Co. - Passenger and freight stations, West Avenue and Oak Street.
• Erie Railroad Company - Passenger station on Court Street.
• enesee Falls Railway Co. (Inc. 1886) - Road leased in perpetuity to the N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R.
• Irondequoit Park Railroad Co. (Inc. 1896) - Station Main St. E. corner Chamberlain
• Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad (Inc. 1852) - Road leased to Erie Railroad Co.
• Rochester & Suburban Railroad Co. (Inc. 1900) - Office and station Portland Ave. opposite Bay Street
• Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad - Station 434 State St. Road leased in perpetuity to the N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R.
• West Shore Railroad - Station Central Ave. Road leased in perpetuity to the N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R.
• Western New York & Pennsylvania Railway - Station 81 West Ave.
• Lehigh Valley Railroad - Passenger station South Ave.  corner Griffith Street.  City office 13 Main St. E.
• New York Central & Hudson River Railroad - Passenger station Central Ave. corner St. Paul St.
• Northern Central Railway - Penn. System - Trains arrive and depart from N.Y.C. & H.R.R.R. station Central Ave.
• Rochester, Charlotte & Manitou Railroad Co.
• Rochester Electric Railway Co. (Inc. 1888) - Leased to Rochester Railway Co.
• Rochester Railway Co. (Inc. 1890) - (Street) - 267 State St.
• Rochester & Sodus Bay Railway C. (Inc. 1898)

It certainly changed in the last 109 years.

Coming Attractions

I have found that unless I put in writing what I plan to do I will keep putting it off. My off-and-on work on this blog is a good example of what I mean. I have a number of items that I want to work on but just keep putting it off to tomorrow (and the day after that, . . .). Let's see if this works. In the near future you will be seeing some of these:

• Railroad service in Rochester in the 19th century.
• Correspondence to and from Josephus Requa, a Rochester dentist, member of the 54th Regiment and inventor of a machine gun during the Civil War.
• Famous persons buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.
• The Catholic cemeteries in Rochester before the opening of Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.
• The history of Rochester's Shop School, my father's high school.
  

Let's see if this works!