BR&P Railway - Silver Lake, New York Station

The Silver Lake Station

Of The

Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway (BR&P)

Located On The Silver Lake Institute (Assembly)

The Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway was primarily a coal hauling railroad which ran from the coal fields of central Pennsylvania to the ports of Rochester & Buffalo. In Western New York, the lines formed a "Y" shape connecting Buffalo, Rochester, and Salamanca. The line ran north from Salamanca to Ashford Junction where it split and continued to Rochester and Buffalo.

The predecessors of the BR&P in Western New York began on October 6, 1869 when New York State granted a charter to the Rochester & State Line Railroad from Rochester south through Scottsville, Caledonia, Perry, Castile, Portageville, Belfast, Belmont and Wellsville on its way to the Pennsylvania state line. Shortly after it was chartered, vast coal deposits were discovered near Ridgeway, Pennsylvania. In 1872 the Rochester & State Line changed its charter to make Salamanca its southern terminus. In nearby Carollton it would connect with the Buffalo, Bradford & Pittsburgh Railroad which came north from the coal fields.

On January 20, 1881 the Rochester & State Line Railroad was sold to a New York syndicate which incorporated the Rochester & Pittsburg Railroad on January 29, 1881. The Rochester & Pittsburg Railroad ambitiously began building a number of linked railroad companies extending south from Salamanca with the ultimate goal of reaching Pittsburgh. The company was short lived and by 1885 was bankrupt.

The Rochester & Pittsburg Railroad was purchased on October 16, 1885 by Adrian Iselin, one of the Directors of the R&P, and was broken into the Pittsburgh & State Line Railroad Company, which operated in Pennsylvania, and the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad Company which operated the New York sections. On March 10, 1887 the two companies were reunited as the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway Company. The BR&P continued until January 1, 1932 when it was purchased by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

Much of the history of the Silver Lake and Perry Line can be read in Chapter 17 of the History of the Town of Perry New York, compiled and written by Frank D. Roberts, in collaboration with Carl G. Clarke, published by C.G. Clarke and Son, in 1915.