This is a collection of photographs from Niagara Junction, part of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Niagara Junction is the point where East-West main line traffic could go North on the Niagara Falls branch to Tonawanda Junction, and then onto New York Central tracks over the suspension bridge into Canada.
Three of the photos were scanned from pictures I took in the Fall of 1980. The others were taken in April, 2008 after a friend in a far-away country put the idea in my head that I should take pictures of something during a weekend trip to Buffalo. Niagara Junction was my favorite railroad haunt growing up, so the choice to revisit it was an easy one. There's also a photo from 1907 (certainly not mine), and Doug Kroll contributed a couple wonderful photographs from the 1970s depicting Niagara Junction when it was operational.
I also scanned in an assortment of "Lehigh Valley Railroad documents," many of which were collected here at Niagara Jct.
The second map is actually a Google map, with selectable pinpoints to identify where each group of photographs were taken.
In April 2008, the tracks are long gone. However, the control box remains standing and the block signal is lying next to it on the ground (see the second photo). Also, have a look at the water drainage ditch that is partially uncovered along the right hand side of both photos. They did a remarkable job building that as evidenced by the fact that the water is still running through there today, with tadpoles and minnows swimming about.
The two bridges in the background belonged to
Erie and the
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroads, respectively.
And right between these two bridges is where Doug Kroll captured
these great photographs of the Westbound Apollo 1 and
Eastbound Apollo 2 leaving and entering the Niagara
Junction in 1973:
(photographs property of Doug Kroll, used with permission)
You can read more about these photographs on the
Fallen Flags/Lehigh Valley section
of Doug's award-winning
RR Road Trip web site!
Only once did I ever see a train come through here. I remember my brother and I were walking around the junction and heard a train coming from someplace. Surrounded by railroads, this was a frequent occurrence. However this one time, the rumbling sound was strangely muffled but growing louder. We couldnt figure out where it was coming from and it was becoming rather surreal because it kept getting louder.
Then, entering the junction from the West came a Conrail-blue switcher at no more than 10 miles/hour followed by some of the most dilapidated rolling stock I had ever seen. I seem to recall there was a Lehigh Valley caboose at the end of it, but I might be mixing up memories. My brother and I just stood there and watched as this rickety train poked along, rocking side-to-side around the curve and then North up the Niagara Falls branch.
Several years ago, I had to ask my brother to confirm this whole experience because it had an almost dreamlike quality in my mind (and I do have the occasional train dream, now and again :-)). When I asked him about it, he chimed right in with his recollection (whew!) and added one more thing: apparently, the engineer was shaking his finger at us as if to say we shouldnt be there!
After reading this web page, my brother reminded me of another Niagara Junction story. Supposedly, there was a railroad inspector with the nickname Big Ernie who roamed the junction trying to maintain its once pristine look. According to a photographer we met there, you did not want to run into this guy. Fortunately, we never did!
(photograph property of Doug Kroll, used with permission)
(As a frame of reference, the 1976 photograph was taken from about the end of the train in the 1907 picture, while the 1980 and 2008 photos were taken from the point where the two passenger cars are joined. The newer photos are all looking North, up toward the Niagara Falls branch.)
The second photo was taken on March 23, 1976 by Doug Kroll who writes:
This photo shows the Brick Block Station and the trailer that housed the Buffalo Division dispatcher after he moved from the Dingens Street Terminal when it was sold. Coming South off the Niagara Falls Branch is RS-3 #216 on NTT-1, the Tifft Yard to Niagara Falls and back local. The date is March 23, 1976, just days before Conrail would silence these tracks and use the Penn Central (formerly New York Central) line in the background as their main route to NY/NJ.
Four years later, in 1980, you can see the cement footings of the Brick Block Station directly behind the pair of (unused) main line tracks running across the bottom of the photo. In the background is the start of the Niagara Falls branch line, which heads North under the New York Central railroad bridge and then under Walden Avenue.
In April 2008, you can still kinda make out the cement footings of the Brick Block Station -- they are still there -- along with a couple rusty pipes coming out of the ground with wires in them. That's about it though. The New York Central bridge has been removed and filled in so this place is really not much a junction anymore. In fact, this is the one picture that I do not care to look at for very long, so let's just move on...
In April of 2008, the rails are gone, but you can still (barely) make out the middle control box between the weeds and see that the block signal was apparently replaced by a tree. The second photo is a close-up of the signal/box where, if you look closely, you'll notice the whole place is covered in several inches of water. Yes, the drainage issue has gotten worse and the dirt road has turned into a running stream. It was at this point I realized I should have worn boots.
The last two photos are taken a few steps further East, where a
(water? oil? fuel?) tank quietly rusts away. In the second-last
photo, there's a CSX freight train is running West over New York
Central track. And then the final photo provides one last look
back toward the Niagara Junction.
