West Valley is a town in eastern Cattaraugus County and was served by the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway on its line from Ashford to Buffalo.
History
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.
A letter from the railroad in the 1883/1884 Report of the New York State Railroad Commissioners, Vol 1., noted one of the problems building the railroad in the area around West Valley.
We have experienced the most difficult engineering problem in what is called the Buttermilk swamp, extending for about six miles between Ashford Junction and Springville. The clay soil has quicksand underlying it. The track was laid six months here, and we had four construction trains and two steam shovels at work the entire time, taking out the slides and bringing in gravel to build up the embankments which would disappear in a night.
Digital Artifacts
