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 branch of the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, the the Buffalo and Southwestern Branch of the Erie Railroad, and the Chautauqua Branch of the Pennsylvania 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 Lackawanna. 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
The Buffalo and State Line Railroad completed its line through West Seneca in February 1852. The line was later operated by the Buffalo and Erie Railroad (1857 – 1869), Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway (1869 – 1877), New York Central and Hudson River Railroad (1877 – 1914), and New York Central Railroad (1914 – 1968).
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.
Pennsylvania Railroad
The first predecessor of the Pennsylvania Railroad to operate through the town was the Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Western Railroad, which built the line from Brocton to Buffalo in 1881/1882. It was later operated by the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railroad Company (1883 – 1887), the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad (1887 – 1895), the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway (1895 – 1900), and the Pennsylvania Railroad.
I don’t know where the station for these companies was located or it they shared a station with another company.
Timetables
