BR&P East Salamanca Yard

East Salamanca was a major freight yard on the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway in Western New York. Northbound trains from Pennsylvania were broken in the yard to be added to the appropriate train heading to Buffalo or Rochester. Likewise, freight cars from those cities were combined into trains in East Salamanca before heading south.

Roundhouse and Turntable

The yard featured a roundhouse and turntable just south of the large locomotive repair shop.

The photo above shows the yard sometime between 1904 and 1913. The original passenger station can be seen in the distance on the left. This structure was moved to the north end of the freight yard in late 1912 to make way for the brick station and office building which were completed in the spring of 1913. The old passenger station was then used as the yard office.

The Repair Shop

The BR&P had a large locomotive repair shop in the yard to perform everything from minor repairs to major rebuilding of locomotives.

The Yard Office

In 1912 the BR&P built a new passenger station in East Salamanca. The former passenger station was moved to the north end on the other side of the yard to be used as the yard office, as seen in the photo above. The yard office survived into the 1980s.

The Masonry Shop

Among the facilities in East Salamanca was a masonry shop that constructed a variety of items like signal bases, telephone/telegraph cabins, mileposts and property markers out of concrete.

Wreck Train

The East Salamanca yard was home to a wreck train that we dispatched anytime there was a need for a high lift capacity train, including train derailments.

Work Trains and Supply Trains

When doing large projects railroads often needed to house groups of workers for long periods of time. These self-sufficient camps included dormitory cars as well as cars to prepare and serve food to the workers. The photo above shows a set of camp cars in East Salamanca in 1913 and was likely used by company workers building the new passenger station after the original contractors backed out.

East Salamanca was home to a large storehouse for common supplies used by the railroad. The railroad would periodically dispatch trains to deliver needed items to stations up and down the line. The train shown above was probably based out of East Salamanca.

Snowplows

The BR&P traveled through the Western New York snow belt and keeping the line open in the winter was a constant effort. To accomplish this, the railroad kept snow plows based in East Salamanca to be dispatched were they were needed along the line.