The Buffalo and Rochester Railroad was a railroad company formed on December 7, 1850 by the merger of the Tonawanda Railroad and the

Attica and Buffalo Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

. The company remained in business for three years before it was merged with other companies into the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

History

Initially, the idea for this line came from the perceived need for a rail line to serve Steuben and

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

Counties in New York. Farmers and merchants in the area proposed a route along the Cohocton and

Genesee river The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides h ...

valleys up to Avon. The route would thence go west to the Tonawanda Railroad at

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

. This would have been an alternative to the

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie ...

's plan to end its line at Dunkirk. The Erie declined, and the projected line became the Buffalo and Cohocton Valley Railroad. The side line from Avon to Batavia, however, became part of the Buffalo and Rochester Railroad. The primary accomplishment of the railroad was the construction of a new route between Buffalo and

. The original route went from

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

to Batavia to

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...

and then to Buffalo. In April 1852, the railroad opened a new line from Buffalo to Batavia. This shortened the distance between the two cities and became part of the

's famed "Water Level Route". The Buffalo and Rochester sold its line between Attica and Depew (east of Buffalo) to the Buffalo and New York City Railroad, part of the

New York and Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie ...

system. The new owners converted the line to their six-foot gauge. The railroad was one of ten that merged on May 17, 1853 to form the

References

External links

Western New York Railroad Archive - Buffalo and Rochester RailroadAll Railroads of New York as of 1850
Defunct New York (state) railroads Transportation in Buffalo, New York Predecessors of the New York Central Railroad Railway companies established in 1850 Railway companies disestablished in 1853 {{US-rail-transport-stub