West Seneca is the town immediately to the south and east of the city of Buffalo and was criss-crossed with lines from all the major railroads coming into the city.
The Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway (later the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad), the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway (later part of the New York Central system), and the Buffalo and Southwestern Branch of the Erie Railroad all had passenger stations named West Seneca.
Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway
The Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh (BR&P) Railway West Seneca passenger station was actually located in the town of Tonawanda. It was located just east of South Park Avenue (Rt 62) and north of McKinley Parkway. The 1915 Sanborn fire insurance map and 2024 Google Maps map show the location of the station.
The 1899 map below shows the BR&P station farther south along the line, just south of Ridge Road. I don’t know if one of the maps is wrong or if the station moved between 1899 and 1915 (which seems the most likely).
The line between Buffalo and Ashford was built in 1883 by the Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad and was later operated by the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway, and the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad. Passenger service on the line ended on 15 October 1955 when the B&O ended its Buffalo – Pittsburgh service. Freight service dwindled over the years and different sections of line were abandoned and removed over the years. As of 2024 only two short segments of the line were still in use – from Buffalo south to Orchard Park and from Ashford north to West Valley.
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway
Erie Railroad
The map above shows two stations near the southwest corner of South Park, one is the the Lake Shore station and the second is probably the Erie Railroad station.
Digital Artifacts
