Note that this article repeatedly refers to the “Buffalo, Lake Erie & Western” traction line. No such railroad existed and the railroad referred to as the “Buffalo, Lake Erie & Western” was actually the Buffalo and Lake Erie Traction Company.
Work Commenced on Electrifying the J., C. & L. E. Railroad —New Station in Brooklyn Square, Jamestown.
The first actual step in the electrifying of the Jamestown, Chautauqua & Lake Erie railway was taken Monday, May 16, when the rebuilding of the tracks between Westfield and Mayville to stand the traffic of the heavy cars used on the Buffalo, Lake Erie & Western traction line was commenced. The work will progress gradually down the line, ultimately reaching Jamestown. It is understood that the company will extend its line from its present terminus on Steele street to Brooklyn Square, which will be the terminus of the new electric railway.
The work started Monday, May 16, was epoch-making. It marked the beginning of the end of the steam railroad running along the eastern shore of Chautauqua Lake and the substitution therefor of a high speed electric line. Of course the freight traffic will be continued, so that the change will not affect the Jamestown manufacturers and business men. It has been a long time coming, but having completed the building of the Buffalo, Lake Erie & Western line all the way into Buffalo, the Mayer-Sheehan Syndicate that owns these companies prepared for the electrifying of the railroad.
The work will be continued right through the summer, for on account of the vast amount of work that remains to be done it is unlikely that the electrifying of the whole line complete will be finished before September. It means practically the rebuilding of long stretches of the railroad with the perfect roadbed required for the rapid transit that the road will give-new rails and new ties in many places.
All this is required because the same kind of high speed electric cars used on the line that parallels the Lake Shore railway will run between Jamestown and Westfield. These cars are said to be bigger and considerably faster than any now around Jamestown-cars that will run at a sustained speed of a mile a minute, with the smoothness of the finest passenger train. The Buffalo, Lake Erie & Western is already giving a sample of the speed possibilities of its electric lines between Buffalo and Erie, Pa.
The company will make a bold bid for the passenger business between Jamestown and Buffalo upon the completion of the new electric line. It is understood that some of its traffic men have figured on running cars between Jamestown and Buffalo flat, beating the time of the fastest Erie railroad train by ten or twenty minutes, although the route via the J., C & L. E. railway to Westfield and the Buffalo, Lake Erie & Western to Buffalo is fully 10 miles longer than the line of the Erie between Jamestown and Buffalo.
Niagara Falls electric power will run the cars on the electrified railroad. High tension wires carrying Niagara Falls power now furnish the power for the Buffalo, Lake Erie & Western, and wires will be strung to this city, where a transformer station to reduce the current to the proper voltage for electric car use will be built. It is a big project for Jamestown. It is very probable that the Niagara Falls power will also find commercial uses in this city.—Jamestown Post.
Source: Westfield [NY] Republican, 25 May 1910, p. 6, NYS Historic Newspapers.