Thumbnail Sketch of the Rochester Branch, Pennsylvania Railroad
10/4/2006 – Researched & Contributed by Richard Palmer
This line, opened as the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad, was
opened in 1882 from Rochester to Hinsdale, near Olean, where it
connected to the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railway. Much of
the right of way was on the old Genesee Valley Canal, abandoned in
1878. The canal right of way from Hinsdale to Olean was not used as
it closely paralleled the BNY&P. The Genesee Valley Canal Railroad
was immediately leased to the BNY&P.
Also, the old 12-mile branch of the canal from Mt. Morris to
Dansville was not used by the railroad, as these places were already
served by the Erie and Genesee Valley Railroad and the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western Railroad.
Previously, the Rochester, Nunda and Pennsylvania Railroad had
built a line roughly parallel to the canal between Mount Morris and
Nunda, turning southeast to Swain's. In 1881 the part north of Nunda
was abandoned, and on July 11 of that year, the company was
consolidated into the Rochester, New York and Pennsylvania Railroad.
That company opened a new line in 1882 from Nunda northeast to the
new Genesee Valley Canal Railroad at Nunda Junction, and the Buffalo,
New York and Philadelphia Railway leased it that year.
At the north end, the Genesee Valley Terminal Railroad was
incorporated August 14, 1882, and in 1883 opened a branch from the
Genesee Valley Railroad southwest of Rochester north to a junction
with the New York Central Railroad main line at Lincoln Park, near
the city limits..
On September 1887 the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway
acquired the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railroad and with it
the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad. In 1900 the Pennsylvania Railroad
leased the WNY&P. A short branch from Scottsville west to Garbutt on
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Rochester and State Line Railroad
opened on September 16, 1907.
On November 15, 1912 the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad and
Genesee Valley Terminal Railroad merged to form the Pennsylvania and
Rochester Railroad. That company was absorbed on February 28, 1916
into the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway, still leased by
the Pennsylvania Railroad. Passenger service between Rochester and
Olean was discontinued in 1941. The line between Wadsworth Junction,
south of Rochester, to Hinsdale, a distance of 84 miles; and between
Nunda and Nunda Junction, was abandoned in 1963, but it was some
years before the rails were all removed. An earlier portion of the
line which had been three-foot narrow gauge was abandoned between
Nunda and Swains, a distance of 11 miles, in 1910. A three-mile
branch from Scottsville to Garbut was abandoned in 1944.
The connecting Allegany branch:
Olean-Allegany, 3 miles, 1972
Allegany - West Salamanca, 20 miles, 1975
West Salamanca - Struthers, Pa., 37 miles, 1962