The Chautauqua Traction Company was an electric interurban company that ran for about 18 miles along the west side of Chautauqua Lake from a connection with the Jamestown Street Railway at Lakewood to Mayville, NY. The company was owned by the Broadhead family, who also owned the Jamestown Street Railway (and later the Jamestown, Westfield and Northwestern Railroad).

History

The company was chartered in 1903 and is described in the 1903 Report of the New York State Railroad Commissioners:

This company was incorporated to construct a railroad of standard gauge, to be operated by electricity or other motive power. for the transportation of passengers, mails, express or freight from the village of Lakewood. Chautauqua county, N. Y., (being the terminus of the Jamestown Street Railway Company in said village ) to the village of Mayville in said county, a distance of about 18 miles. The Board of Railroad Commissioners granted a certificate under section 59 of the Railroad Law on June 30, 1903. The company has been arranging for the construction of its road and expects to have it completed and ready for operation during 1904.

Newspaper accounts state that the line from Lakeville to Chautauqua Assembly was completed by late June 1904, that the line from Chautauqua to Mayville had been graded half-way by the middle of July. The line reached Mayville later that summer and regular service was established.

In 1906 the company built a line along Portage Road between Mayville and Westfield. The line was built on the right-of-way of the never-constructed Westfield, Mayville and Chautauqua Motor Railroad Company. The first trolley arrived in Westfield on September 24, 1906. In 1909 the Chautauqua Traction Company extended its line to the village of Barcelona on the shores of Lake Erie, a section known as the “Hop Toad.” This segment was not successful and was abandoned in 1920.

In May 1913 there was a strike by workers against both the Chautauqua Traction company and the Jamestown Street Railway company, both owned by the Broadhead family. Acts of vandalism were done against the company, including sawing power poles on the Lakewood line almost in half so they would fall when a car approached, tampering with the power lines caused the power station in Stow was disabled, switches were blocked to cause derailments, and the track was blocked. A. N. Broadhead was arrested for assault after allegedly throwing motorman William Smith down the stairs in front of the company’s headquarters.

By the late 1910s business on the railroad had decreased significantly and the road was barely making money. The segment between Dunkirk and Mayville was abandoned in 1925. The Jamestown, Westfield and Northwestern, another Broadhead railroad, also ran between the two villages, and there were plans to connect the two companies at Mayville to allow Chautauqua Traction to continue running to Westfield, but they did not materialize.

By early 1926 the company announced its intention to shut down the railroad. This caused an outcry from residents along the line. One of the groups affected was the Chautauqua school district because many of the students took the trolley to and from school because the roads were not adequate for school busses, especially in the winter.

There were numerous efforts to save the railroad, including the idea of having Chautauqua Institution contribute money to a fund to operate the line. In the end, none of them came to fruition and the company shut down in April 1926.

Operations

A 1907 article says that the Chautauqua Traction company utilized a block signaling system controlled from the station in Stow to control traffic on the line. Given the number of articles about crashes on the system it seems this system was far from perfect.

A few 1917 articles talk about the Chautauqua Traction and Jamestown, Westfield and Northwestern Railroad installing a system of signals and speed controllers

Stations 

Compiling this list of stations was particularly challenging because many of the “stations” were just places where the train stopped that didn’t have a permanent building with a ticket agent, etc.

Westfield (Nickel Plate Depot) * Westfield (Lake Shore Depot) * Westfield (Main Street) * Vineyard * Swartz * Button’s Switch * Plato’s Switch * Mayville * Mayville (PRR Depot) * Light House Point * Wahmeda * Chautauqua * Cole and Douglas * Sylvan Park * Woodlawn * Victoria * Stow * Cheney’s * Fardink’s * Ashville * Townsend’s * Lakewood or Erie Depot * Wood’s Switch * Celoron * Jamestown

A 1979 “Lookin’ Back to October 5, 1909” article quotes that “The Chautauqua Traction Company was erecting a fine new waiting station near the Sportsmen’s Club between Stow and Victoria.”

Equipment

News Clippings

When the line was originally built, it crossed the Chautauqua Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) at grade near Mayville, NY. In late 1905 or early 1906 the company built a long bridge to cross over the PRR. The bridge is described as:

The metal viaduct involved is 710 feet long, flanked on the ends by earth embankments. The northerly approach is 450 feet long; the southerly approach is 425 feet long ; both approaches being on 5 per cent grade. The width between railings on the superstructure is 30 feet, of this distance 5 feet is occupied by a sidewalk. The viaduct carries a single track of the Chautauqua Traction Company’s railroad.

Learn More

• Ebersole, Helen G. “Trolleys of Jamestown and Chautauqua Lake“