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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