Hamburg, NY is a town in Erie County and is part of the Southtowns, a southern belt of suburbs around Buffalo, NY. The Erie Railroad was the main railroad serving the village of Hamburg. The short-lived Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad had a station in the village for about 10 years and an electric trolley (about which I know nothing) came into the village from the north.
Erie Railroad
The Buffalo and Jamestown Railroad was the first railroad to reach Hamburg in the fall of 1874. This company failed and in 1877 was reorganized as the Buffalo and Southwestern Railroad. In 1800 it became the Buffalo and Southwestern Branch of the Erie Railroad.
First Passenger/Freight Station
The first station built in Hamburg was located about 400 feet north from the Union Street station. When that first station was described as a “shack” and declared woefully inadequate by Supervisor George Abbott, the Public Service Commission ordered that a new one be built.
Union Street Station
I don’t have any photos or information about the early railroad station in Hamburg. Around 1909 the Erie built new stations across the company, including in Hamburg. The photos below (and at the top of the page) show different angles of the station.
Sometime after 1909 and before 1922 the Erie added a covered area on the south end of the station, as shown below.
This station wasn’t torn down when the Erie built a new passenger station in Hamburg (see below) and the building survives. It is currently the home of a hobby shop and the Buffalo Cattaraugus & Jamestown Scenic Railway, which operates railroad excursions on the line.
Pleasant Street Passenger Station
By the start of the 1920s the combined volume of freight and passenger business became too great to be handled efficiently by the Union Street station. As a result the rail company decided to build a new passenger depot a few hundred yards north at the Pleasant Avenue crossing. The station was constructed in 1922-23 and opened for its first passengers on June 24, 1924. It remained open until March 1952 when the last passenger train ran through the village. It still stands and is used by the Town of Hamburg.
Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad
Hamburg was a station on the short-lived Buffalo Extension of the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad. The railroad built a line to Buffalo around 1906 which was abandoned by 1915 and torn up and used for scrap steel in 1918.
The line ran to the east of what is now Rt 62 and the few remaining traces of the line are hard to spot. The aerial photo below shows the B&S route through Hamburg.
The passenger station was constructed in 1865, and originally stood in the middle of what is now Dudley Ave (south of the area shown in the map above). In the 1920s the station was moved to another location on the same street. It is still used as a residence and largely looks the same as when it was used as a station.
Digital Artifacts
Learn More
- “Erie Railroad Train Stations” Hamburg Historical Society.
Cover: The Erie Railroad station in Hamburg, NY circa 1909. J.E. Bailey, Photographer, Erie Railroad. Collection of Jim Hutzler found on RootsWeb.com.