Erie Railroad

A map of Erie Railroad's rail lines
Overview
Headquarters	New York City, U.S. (1832–1931) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. (1931–60)
Reporting mark	ERIE
Locale	New Jersey Pennsylvania New York Ohio Indiana Illinois
Founder	Eleazar Lord
Dates of operation	1832–1960
Successor	Erie Lackawanna Railway
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Previous gauge	6 ft (1,829 mm) gauge
Length	2,316 miles (3,727 kilometers)

The Erie Railroad (reporting mark ERIE) was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 merger with the former Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, also known as the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad (NYPANO RR).

The mainline route of the Erie Railroad proved influential in the development and economic growth of the Southern Tier of New York state, including the cities of Binghamton, Elmira, and Hornell. The Erie Railroad repair shops were located in Hornell and was Hornell's largest employer. Hornell was also where Erie's mainline split into two routes with one proceeding northwest to Buffalo and the other west to Chicago.

On October 17, 1960, Erie Railroad merged with its former rival, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, to form the Erie Lackawanna Railway. The Hornell repair shops were closed in 1976, when Conrail took over, and repair operations moved to the Lackawanna's facility in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Some of the former Erie line between Hornell and Binghamton was damaged in 1972 by Hurricane Agnes, but the damage was quickly repaired and today this line is a key link in the Norfolk Southern Railway's Southern Tier mainline. What was left of the Erie Lackawanna became part of Conrail in 1976.^[1] In 1983, remnants of the Erie Railroad became part of New Jersey Transit rail operations, including parts of its Main Line, and most of the surviving Erie Railroad routes are now operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway.

The New York and Erie Rail Road was chartered on April 24, 1832, by New York governor Enos T. Throop 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.

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.^[2][3] 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.^[4]

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.^[5][6]

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.^[7] 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.

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.^[8] 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.^[9][10][11] 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.^[12]

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.^[12]

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.^[13] In 1889, it opened a new bridge across the Hackensack River improving service to its terminals.^[14]

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.^[1] 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.^[15] 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).^[16]

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."^[17]

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.^[15][18][19] 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.^[15][18][19] 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.^[20] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 2024. 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 became disbanded 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.^[15][16] The Erie's reorganization was deemed a success, since the railroad managed to pay dividends to their shareholders.^[1]

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.^[21] That same year, the Erie purchased a share of the Niagara Junction Railway, along with the New York Central and the Lehigh Valley.^[22] On March 17, 1954, the Erie completely dieselized their 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.^[23] Later that same year, the railroad launched trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC) services.^[24][25]

Erie Railroad prospered throughout the mid-1950s, but their 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 together to create the Erie Lackawanna Railway.^[1] 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.

A map from 1960 shows that the Erie had some control over the former Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway and the New York Central from Lawrenceville to Newberry Junction, near Williamsport, PA.^[39]

The Erie Railroad operated a number of named passenger trains, although none were as well-known or successful as others like the Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited or New York Central Railroad's 20th Century Limited. Some of the Erie's most well known trains included the Erie Limited, Lake Cities, Pacific Express, Atlantic Express, Midlander, Southern Tier Express and Mountain Express. All of these had their western termini in Chicago, except the Mountain Express which terminated in Hornell, in the Southern Tier of New York.^{[40]: 52–53}

The Erie operated an extensive network of commuter routes in northern New Jersey and the lower Hudson Valley of New York. Most of these routes became part of Conrail along with the rest of Erie Lackawanna's rail operations in 1976. The New Jersey routes are now part of NJ Transit's Hoboken Division, originating and terminating at Hoboken Terminal. The Hudson Valley routes are now part of Metro-North Railroad.

In addition to its steam and diesel services the Erie also operated an electric commuter rail line to its terminal station in Rochester, New York. The station was one of the Erie's few electrified railroad stations,^[41] and the railroad became one of the first to provide electric commuter services in 1907.^[42]

As part of the 30th anniversary of Norfolk Southern Railway being formed, NS decided to paint 20 new locomotives into the paint scheme of predecessor railroads. NS #1068, an EMD SD70ACe, was painted into Erie Railroad's green passenger scheme. It was released on May 25, 2012.

In October 2023, as part of the 40th Anniversary of NJ Transit Rail Operations, EMD GP40PH-2B No. 4210 was painted into the Erie Railroad's black-and-yellow scheme.

• List of Erie Railroad locomotives
• List of Erie Railroad structures documented by the Historic American Engineering Record

• Ackerman, Kenneth D. (2011). The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, and Black Friday, 1869. (excerpt)
• Halstead, Murat (1892). Life of Jay Gould: How He Made His Millions.
• Meyer, B.H.; MacGill, Caroline E. (1917). History of Transportation in the United States before 1860 (PDF). pp. 366–72. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-01-10. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
• Mott, Edward Harold (1908). Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie. New York: Ticker Publishing Co., 1908.
• Reynolds, William; Gifford, Peter K.; Ilisevich, Robert D. (2002). European Capital, British Iron, and an American Dream: The Story of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad. The University of Akron Press.
• Starr, Timothy (2022). The Back Shop Illustrated, Volume 1: Northeast and New England Regions.

• Daniel C. McCallum, "Superintendent's report: 1856" in Shafritz, Jay; et al., eds. (2015). Classics of Organization Theory. Cengage Learning. pp. 47–48. ISBN 9781305688056.; another copy in Chandler, Alfred D. Jr. (ed.). The Railroads: The Nation's First Big Business.
• Scanned issues of the Erie, Lackawanna, and Erie-Lackawanna magazines, primarily for employees
• Mott, E. H. [Edward Harold] (1882). The Erie route: a guide to the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railway and its branches, with Sketches of the Cities, Villages, Scenery and Objects of Interest along the Route, and Railroad, Steamboat and Stage Connections. Map and Illustrations. The author is identified as "Of the General Passenger Department of the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad". Taintor Brothers.
• Erie Railway Tourist, 1874. "The management of the Erie Railway Company presents the Tourist to its patrons, friends, and the general public, in this form, to introduce a more intimate and detailed knowledge of the beauties, advantages, and resources of its line. The route of the Erie Railway is peculiarly rich among American railroads in the variety and extent of its scenery."

• Erie page by the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society
• Presidents of the Erie Railroad
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. NY-124, "Erie Railway, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania"