Fredonia, NY is a village in Chautauqua County near Dunkirk. It was a station on the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh (DAV&P) Railroad and was served by two electric railroads, the Dunkirk and Fredonia Railroad and the Buffalo, Dunkirk and Western Railroad.
Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh Railroad
The DAV&P passenger station and freight house were located on the east side of Prospect Street south of Main Street. The freight house still stands and can be found here.
History
The line was originally built by the Dunkirk, Warren and Pittsburgh Railroad, which on December 31, 1872 merged with the the Warren and Venango Railroad to form the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley and Pittsburgh Railroad. This company was leased to the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company on January 3, 1873 though it continued to operate under the DAV&P name for many more years.
Track was laid south from Dunkirk to Laona in 1870. By June 1, 1871 it had reached Sinclairville, and by June 17, 1871 to Falconer. The first passenger train ran over the line on June 22, 1871.
Dunkirk and Fredonia Railroad
I don’t know much about it, but there was a Dunkirk and Fredonia Railroad (sometimes referred to as the Dunkirk and Fredonia Street Railway) that ran between the towns. It appears to have started in 1865 or 1866 as a horse-drawn railway that ran from the Erie Railway station in Dunkirk to somewhere in Fredonia. The railroad apparently shut down in the winter, as evidenced by a February 1881 article mentioning that the cars had started running again after being shut down due to the snow in the prior November.
A December 12, 1891 article said that the company had installed the power poles and electric cars were expected to run on the line as early as that evening. When the railroad was horse-powered it had a gauge of four-feet, ten-inches but when it converted to electric power the gauge was narrowed to standard gauge, four-feet, eight-and-one-half inches. The 1892 report to the New York State Railroad Commissioners stated that:
The whole road has been changed from a 25 – lb. strap rail to one mile of 48 – lb. girder in Dunkirk north of the “Nickel Plate” depot, and 2 1/2 miles south to a center-bearing 42 – lb. rail. This year the company is changing another mile of 42 – lb. center- bearing rail to a 48 – lb. girder. The change is going on as the streets are being improved by paving or macadamizing.
The 1904 Centennial History of Chautauqua County had this description of the railroad:
Long before horse cars were in operation in Jamestown they had been in use between Fredonia and Dunkirk. As early as September 1866 the Dunkirk and Fredonia Railroad had been organized and horse cars run over its line a distance of about three miles. Thomas L. Higgins of Fredonia was its first president. In 1878, Milton M. Fenner obtained a controlling interest in the road and became its president. In 1880, he took the position of secretary, treasurer and manager. It has until the present time, principally through his enterprise and management, been successfully conducted. It afterward acquired an electric light and power plant, a steam heating plant, and the Fredonia Natural Gas Light Company. This year, (1891,) electricity was substituted as a motive power on this road. The first electric cars were run over it October 29, 1891, not four months after the electric cars were first used in Jamestown.
In February 1894 the company was authorized to offer light, heat, and power in Fredonia.
Early in the morning of January 25, 1900 a large fire swept through Fredonia that destroyed 19 buildings, including 2 hotels, a bank, and the powerhouse and all the cars of the street railway company. The company survived and by November of that year it announced that it had purchased a new rotary snowplow.
In the summers of 1905 and 1906 (and maybe after that, I don’t have any records) the Dunkirk and Fredonia Railroad operated the three mile long Dunkirk and Point Gratiot Branch of the Buffalo, Dunkirk and Western Railroad. This line operated from July 1 to October 1, 1905. Both companies were run by the same individuals and no rent was charged or paid for this service.
In 1906 the company was sold to H. W. Noble of Detroit following the deaths of the two largest shareholders, Dr. M. M. Fenner and S. Fred Nixon.
Clippings
Timetables
