LwS S1, E5: Buffalo's Streetcars and Tower F in Black Rock
Living With Steam Episode 5 features recordings made by John Prophet of Buffalo's International Railway Company (IRC) streetcars at Hertel Avenue (near Elmwood) in North Buffalo. It was June of 1950 and the last month that the streetcars would be running. Up until the 1880s, Buffalo's streetcars were horse-drawn. Further reading can be found by checking out the following article: "Buffalo's 180-Year Streetcar History Linked to the City's Changing Fortunes."
Here is an image of the Buffalo-to-Niagara Falls High Speed Line that went from Downtown Buffalo up to the Falls. There are still traces of the line's roadbed especially in the North Tonawanda area.
Before the International Railway Company, there was the Buffalo Street Railway Company. Here are some images of the the cars the BSRC used. To some, these look more like the streetcars we picture when we think of the typical "trolley." Even the “horse car” looks like a typical trolley.
These pictures were taken by the late Al Kerr of the National Railway Historical Society. Both Al and John Prophet were in the Buffalo Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts together from the early days. While John was into trains as his specialty, Al was into Buffalo's streetcars and he took a multitude of photographs of the cars in and around the Buffalo area. The images below are of the #23 streetcar that ran on Hertel Avenue. It is the same type of car that John recorded and is featured in Episode 5 of Living With Steam. Interesting of note is that there is STILL a #23 bus that runs the Hertel/Fillmore line.
The photograph that shows the streetcar wrapped with the banner that reads "The Last Long Mile" was taken just prior to the Hertel line being shut down. If you look carefully, you'll be able to see the water tower for the DL&W's Black Rock yard in the top right of the picture.
The #9, which ran on Parkside Avenue, is shown going under the viaduct that carried the NYC’s Belt Line over Parkside. The #23 Hertel/Fillmore car is shown at the corner of Hertel and Parkside Avenues.
More reading can be found here at the Preservation Ready "Buffalo's Streetcar System" web page: https://www.preservationready.org/.../BuffaloStreetCarSystem
Here is an image of New York Central's Tower H, located on the South-bound Niagara Branch right where the Belt Line ends. This is actually one of the first images I ever shot of the tower.
I had actually written more about Tower H in the first draft of the episode 5 script, but it never made it into the final cut of the program. There were three towers; H was on the south end of the Belt Line as it ended at the Niagara Branch. Tower 55 was on the north end. While I'm not 100% certain, Tower I controlled the movements between the Belt Line and the Erie's yard that was across from H and parallel to the Niagara Branch. Tower's 55 and I were eliminated in favor of the small steel shacks that had automation from a CTS sometime in the 80s (not entirely sure... may have been earlier), but Tower H still hung on for whatever reason. It was renamed CP7 at some point... then eventually demolished.
Here are images of Tower FW. The tower was owned and operated by the Erie Railroad and served as a crossing guard for the Erie, Pennsylvania and Buffalo Creek Railroads.
Images courtesy of "A Railroad Slide Gallery" at http://www.twinplanets.com/rr/slides.html and various folks over at the "Abandoned Rails: Buffalo & Western New York" Facebook group.
These images, taken from Google Earths, shows the approximate location of where Tower FW was located and it's proximity to Tower 49-A. The railroad tracks currently at the location are only a fraction of what was there when John Prophet made his Tower FW recordings, and the tracks from 49-A were removed long ago.
Just before BayView Tower was demolished, I did my best to try and get some pictures of the interior even though it was all boarded up. Unfortunately, the pictures aren't the greatest, but at least you get an idea of how the first floor looked with the remnants of the "newer" circuitry in place before the building was leveled. A typical metal shack now holds the electronics to control the signals, switches, and grade crossing gates.
In 1949, during one of his BayView Tower visits, John brought along his sister and snapped this picture of her standing in front of the interlocking machine inside the tower.
For those who aren't familiar with the "pipes" that connected the switches to the interlocking machine on the inside of the tower, here is a view of how the pipes were typically brought into a tower. You can see the "troughs" that were used outside BayView Tower. I'm not sure where this other image is from.
Here is the inside of Tower 49, just outside Buffalo Central Terminal.
Images courtesy of Greg Lund and Matt Northern from the "Abandoned Rails: Buffalo & Western New York" Facebook group.
Here is a typical layout of the levers that may be found in an interlocking tower. It's levers like these that are heard operating in the “Interlocking Tower Montage” I created in Episode 5 of Living With Steam.
Image courtesy of https://www.chicago-l.org/operations/towers/wilson.htm
This is a great read. For more information about interlocking towers and how they work, please visit:
Here are some images of engine #502, the Hudson that pulled train #380 as heard in episode 5 of Living With Steam. The TH&B painted their passenger cars in a majestic burgundy. Perhaps the engine in this picture is pulling train #380.
Images courtesy of www.canadasouthern.com
As heard in episode 5 of Living With Steam, it's very possible that John Prophet made the recording of engine #502 pulling train #380 from the vestibule of the first passenger car behind the tender. That would have been QUITE the ride.
If John recorded train #380 from the vestibule of the first car behind the tender, this is a representation of what his view would have been. When John made the recording, he would have been looking at the back of the tender from engine #502, and the sound would have been deafening.
Image courtesy of Tim Evanson from Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/timevanson/38251416984
This view does a great job of conveying just how John Prophet might have made his recording of TH&B Train #380.
The image is courtesy of Mike Robbins' INCREDIBLE collection of rail photography on Flickr. Do yourself a favor and head over there and prepare to spend hours looking at his collection. It's really amazing.
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