The story
New York and Erie Railroad: 1832–1861
In December 1831, a group met for a "convention" to discuss growing transportation needs in the Southern Tier region of New York State. As a result of that meeting, a company was organized to build the New York and Erie Rail Road, which was chartered on April 24, 1832, by New York governor Enos T. Throop. It was to connect the Hudson River at Piermont, north of New York City, west to Lake Erie at Dunkirk. On February 16, 1841, the railroad was authorized to cross into the northeast corner of Pennsylvania on the west side of the Delaware River, a few miles west of Port Jervis, NY, as the east side was already occupied by the Delaware and Hudson Canal to a point several miles west of Lackawaxen, PA. Construction began in 1836 and was opened in sections until reaching the full length to Dunkirk on May 19, 1851. At Dunkirk, steamboats continued across Lake Erie to Detroit, Michigan. The line crossed the Kittatinny Mountains at 870 feet. The New York Legislature had forced the Erie to use a less populated route to spur economic growth in these less populated areas
When the route was completed in May, 1851, President Millard Fillmore and several members of his cabinet, including Secretary of State Daniel Webster, made a special, two-day excursion run to open the railway. It is reported that Webster viewed the entire run from a rocking chair attached to a flatcar, with a steamer rug and jug of high-quality Medford rum. At stops, he would step off the flatcar and give speeches.
The line was built at 6 ft (1,829 mm) wide gauge; this was believed to be a superior technology to standard gauge, providing more stability.
In 1848, the railroad built the Starrucca Viaduct, a stone railroad bridge over Starrucca Creek in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania, which has survived and is still in use today. In fact, current owner Central New York Railroad spent $3.2 million in 2021 centering its single remaining track, re-ballasting and repairing masonry. The viaduct is 1,040 feet (317 m) long, 100 feet (30.5 m) high and 25 feet (7.6 m) wide at the top. It is the oldest stone rail bridge in Pennsylvania still in use.
As stated in the introduction, the shops in Hornell, New York were the largest on the Erie system beginning in the late 1920s, processing about 350 locomotives per year with "classified" (heavy) repairs. However, the first major repair facilities were built in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania in 1848, which were enlarged in 1863 to employ 700 workers. The primary car shops were located in Meadville, Pennsylvania in the western part of the state, employing 3,500 in 1912.
Erie Railway: 1861–1878
In August 1859, the company went into receivership due to inability to make payments on the debts incurred for the large costs of building, and, on June 25, 1861, it was reorganized as the Erie Railway. This was the first bankruptcy of a major trunk line in the U.S.
In the Erie War of the 1860s, four well-known financiers struggled for control of the company; Cornelius Vanderbilt versus Daniel Drew, James Fisk and Jay Gould. Gould ultimately triumphed in this struggle, but was forced to relinquish control in 1872–73 due to unfavorable public opinion following his involvement in the 1869 gold-rigging scandal and to his loss of $1 million of Erie Railroad stock to the British con-man Lord Gordon-Gordon. Investors in the railroad were also weary of Gould's financial wars with Vanderbilt that caused wild stock price fluctuations and operating losses from rate battles. Upon leaving the Erie he managed to take $4 million, which he claimed was the railroad's "debt" to him.
In 1869, the railroad moved its main shop facilities from Dunkirk to Buffalo. Rather than demolishing the shops in Dunkirk, the facility was leased to Horatio G. Brooks, the former chief engineer of the NY&E who was at the controls of the first train into Dunkirk in 1851. Horatio Brooks used the facilities to begin Brooks Locomotive Works, which remained in independent business until 1901 when it was merged with seven other locomotive manufacturing firms to create ALCO. ALCO continued new locomotive production at this facility until 1934, then closed the plant completely in 1962.
Read the full text
The cost of breaking bulk cargo in order to interchange with standard gauge lines led the Erie to introduce a line of cars designed to operate on both broad gauge and standard gauge trucks. Beginning in 1871, the railroad interchanged traffic by means of truck exchange, including through passenger and freight connections to St. Louis, Missouri, using a Nutter car hoist in Urbana, Ohio. Beginning in 1876, the Erie carried out their plans to convert their trackage to standard gauge, since it was deemed that the standard gauge-broad gauge interchange operations could not justify the costs. By 1878, the Erie built a third rail along the entire mainline from Buffalo to Jersey City. The third rail installation and standard-gauge conversion projects were so expensive, that the railroad was forced into bankruptcy.
New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad: 1878–1895
The Erie still did not see profits, and was sold in 1878 via bankruptcy reorganization to become the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad. On June 22, 1880, the railroad's standard-gauge conversion process was completed.
In 1886, it was reported that the Erie and the Philadelphia and Reading Railway shared ferry services between their two Jersey City terminals, the larger being Pavonia Terminal, and Fulton Ferry in Brooklyn, New York for 11 round trips on weekdays and Saturdays, and four round trips on Sunday. In 1889, it opened a new bridge across the Hackensack River improving service to its terminals.
Erie Railroad: 1895–1960
By 1893, the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad went into bankruptcy reorganization again, and then the company emerged in 1895 as the Erie Railroad. By that time, the company began to obtain financial support from J. P. Morgan. In 1898, the Erie obtained a subsidiary, the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad (NYS&W), after Morgan purchased the majority of their shares, on the Erie's behalf. The control of the NYS&W allowed the Erie to gain access to anthracite coal mines south of Scranton, Pennsylvania, competing with coal operations from the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W).
George W. Perkins brought Frederick D. Underwood into the Erie Railroad in 1910. During the eastern railroad strike of 1913 Underwood agreed to accept any ruling made by mediators under the Newlands Reclamation Act. One of the demands made by Erie employees was a 20% increase in wages. Erie management had refused a wage increase, but compromised by asking employees to wait until January, 1915 for any advance. Union leaders agreed to make this an issue which Erie management would settle with its own men. However, W.G. Lee, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, asserted that the only way "to deal with the Erie is through J.P. Morgan & Company, or the banks". Underwood responded from his home in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, stating "I am running the Erie Railroad: not George W. Perkins, nor J.P. Morgan, nor anybody else."
In the mid-1920s, the Van Sweringen brothers of Cleveland, Ohio, assumed control of the Erie, and they installed a new president for the railroad, John Joseph Bernet. Bernet only served as the Erie's president from January 1927 to May 1929, but during that time, he initiated a reorganization and cost-cutting program to improve the company's operations and finances. He also arranged for the Erie to replace most of their steam locomotives and rolling stock with newly built standardized equipment to speed up their freight operations, and it involved the introduction of the Erie's fleet of 2-8-4 "Berkshire" locomotives. In the mid-1930s, both Van Sweringen brothers died at an early age, before they could carry out any further plans they had for the Erie and their other railroads.
Despite the ravages of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the Erie managed to continue operations on their own, until they filed for bankruptcy again, on January 18, 1938. That same year, the Erie was involved in the U.S. Supreme Court case, the Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins. The Erie doctrine, which governs the application of state common law in federal courts, is still taught in American law schools, as of 2026. By December 1941, the Erie emerged from bankruptcy, following a reorganization process, which involved the purchase of the leased Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railroad, swapping high rent for lower interest payments, and the purchase of formerly-subsidized and leased lines. In 1940, the NYS&W was spun-off from the Erie's control, as part of their own bankruptcy reorganization, and in the process, the Erie was entrusted ownership of their Susquehanna Connecting Railroad. The Erie's reorganization was deemed a success, since the railroad managed to pay dividends to their shareholders.
On September 15, 1948, the Cleveland Union Terminal Company allowed the Erie to use the Union Terminal adjacent to Terminal Tower in lieu of its old station. That same year, the Erie purchased a share of the Niagara Junction Railway, along with the New York Central and the Lehigh Valley. On March 17, 1954, the Erie completely dieselized its locomotive roster, when K-1 class 4-6-2 No. 2530 hauled the railroad's final steam-powered commuter train between Jersey City and Spring Valley, New York. Later that same year, the railroad launched trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC) services.
Erie Railroad prospered throughout the mid-1950s, but its profits were simultaneously on a decline. The company's 1957 income was half of that of 1956; by 1958 and 1959, Erie Railroad posted large deficits. The Erie's financial losses resulted in them entering negotiations to merge with the nearby Delaware, Lackawanna and Western. The proposed merger led to the abandonment of duplicate freight facilities in Binghamton and Elmira, New York. Between 1956 and 1957, the Erie shifted its passenger trains from its Pavonia Terminal to the DL&W's newer Hoboken Terminal. The DL&W also abandoned most of their mainline between Binghamton and Elmira, in favor of the Erie's parallel mainline, in 1958. The merger negotiations subsequently accelerated, and they briefly considered including the Delaware and Hudson Railroad (D&H); on October 17, 1960, the Erie and the DL&W merged to create the Erie Lackawanna Railway. However, the merged railroad only operated for sixteen years, before their financial decline forced them to be absorbed into Conrail in 1976. Some former Erie trackage between Hornell and Binghamton were damaged in 1972 by Hurricane Agnes. The Erie's large repair facility in Hornell was closed following Conrail's takeover, and operations were consolidated at the Lackawanna's Scranton facility.
From Wikipedia’s article on Erie Railroad, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4