New York Railroad Archive

Elma, NY

The Pennsylvania Railroad station in Elma, NY. The station was built in 1886 and was located on the west side of the tracks, north of Woodard road. The station was destroyed by a fire on June 18, 1895. Photo posted by Daniel Miller in the Facebook “Abandoned Rails – Buffalo & Western New York” group.

Elma was a station on the Buffalo Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the town of Elma, Erie County. In the 1870s is was known as “Woodards” station.

“The Centuries in Elma” (see Learn More below) notes that in 1868:

a rough board shanty with board roof was erected as the Elma depot, the company refusing to use the comfortable building, 18×30 feet, that the Elma people had built, and the board shanty was used for several years, a cold place in winter and wet inside when it rained as the roof leaked badly, the company refusing to put up a better building until complaints from the people reached the railroad Commissioners, who, on visiting the place in 1878, notified the company that unless they immediately put up a new and comfortable building they, the Commissioners, would build a depot at the expense of the railroad company. This order ended the matter, as the railroad company immediately erected a comfortable depot building on the west side of the railroad and on the north side of the Woodard Road.

The records of the New York State Railroad Commissioners show that the new station wasn’t actually built until 1886. A report from that year stated that “… the shanty depots at Ebenezer and Elma have been replaced with good one waiting-room frame passenger and freight depots combined . They are of good design, well-furnished, and are improvements that were much needed.”

On June 18, 1895 a fire destroyed the railroad station and nearby buildings. The railroad used an empty freight car as a station, then built a wooden shanty before building a new station on the east side of the tracks 200 feet south of the crossing of Woodard Road in 1898. That station was later moved and is still used as a residence.

History

The Buffalo and Washington Railway reached Elma in 1868. In 1872 the company was renamed as the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railway. The line was operated by the Buffalo and Washington (1870 – 1872), the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railway (1872 – 1887), the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad (1887 – 1895), the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railway (1895 – 1900), the Pennsylvania Railroad (1900 – 1968), the Penn Central Railroad (1968 – 1976), Conrail (1976 – 1999) and the Norfolk Southern Railroad (1999 – 2007). In 2008 Norfolk Southern leased the segment from Buffalo to Machias Junction to the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad.

In addition to long distance trains from Buffalo south to places like Washington, DC, the Pennsylvania Railroad operated a commuter train service between Buffalo and East Aurora. Passenger service on the line lasted until 1973 when the Penn Central Railroad stopped service on the line.

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