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From: "J DOT Henry Priebe Jr DOT " root AT bluemoon DOT net
Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2010 12:24:19 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: (erielack) East Buffalo Livestock Facilities
"EastBuffalo1950USGS.jpg" - image/jpeg, 1856x904 (256c)

On Fri, 2 Jul 2010, Mike Oravec wrote:

> I am trying to better understand the Livestock Facitities at Buffalo. (I
> know we've talked about livestock many times on the list.) But, can
> someone please clarify.
>
> - ERIE built one of the largest "feeding in transit" stock facilities
> described in Railway Age (5-11-29). DL&W had their own large facility
> mentioned in 1952 'Directory of Facilities'. How close were these
> separate facilities to one another? Again, both were primarily for
> feeding and watering livestock in-transit ?? After the merger, which
> facility survived and was used by E-L ?

The Erie's stockyard (feeding in transit) was at the west end of SK Yard in
East Buffalo along Babcock St. I have attached a Sanborn map of the facility
dated 1940.

I don't know exactly where the the DL&W's stockyard was. Because the DL&W's
East Buffalo Yard was actually in Sloan, NY I don't have Sanborn maps for it
and I have not been able to find any detail maps of it from before it was
rebuilt as Bison. I think the DL&W's Stockyard may have been at the northeast
end of their yard with a connecting track to the NYC main line off the north
end. I have attached a blown up 1927 aerial photo of it. It is possible it was
at the west end of the DL&W's Yard, but I don't think so.

I don't know which one survived the merger, but I'd bet dollars to dimes that
it was Erie's.

> - Did NKP and other roads come in and use these facilities (or were cars
> transferred to the EL and predecessors for spotting at the pens)?

I have no idea, but my guess would be that they interchanged cars. NKP did
share the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal at the southeast end of Erie's east
Buffalo yards with the NKP, but I don't know what the running arrangements
were. It is entirely possible that they ran to the Erie's stockyard, but I
don't have any reference for that at hand.

> - How long into EL did the facility they were using continue to
> operate? (Did the construction and opening of Bison Yard have any
> impact on this facility?)

Again I have no idea, this is a subject I should know more about, but I have
never found any detailed info about the Erie/DL&W/EL Buffalo livestock trade.

> - Finally, the Buffalo Stockyards (Largest in the East) this was also in
> East Buffalo and primarily a NYC operation, correct? Did EL and
> predecessors go in there with cars?

The NYC had a very large facility across the tracks from Central Terminal and
across William St from Erie's yards. There was a connecting track between the
Erie yards and the NYC that went up and over William St. It's a pretty good
assumption that the Erie and NYC exchanged stockyard traffic with it. If my
guess on the DL&W's stockyard is correct, they also exchanged traffic with
the NYC directly from their stockyard. I have attached an annotated 1950 USGS
maps that shows the East Buffalo yards of the DL&W, Erie and NYC. My guess for
the DL&W stockyard is at the far right of this map.

My uncle told me about 15 years ago that Buffalo at one time had the largest
meat packing plant in the world. He said it was on the East Side near the
stockyards, which makes sense. Buffalonians who remember the East Side from
60 or so years ago all say it stank to high heaven of animals. Some people
thought it was unbearable, but people who lived near there said they got used
to it and didn't notice it until they came back from a trip to anywhere else.

It is an area of Buffalo's history that I would like to learn more about,
well not really the smell part :)

Henry

J. Henry Priebe Jr. Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
www.bluemoon.net Internet Access & Web Hosting
www.railfan.net Railfan Network Services


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