Kenneth Springirth 128 pages softcover
The 6 foot broad gauge New York and Erie Railroad, later Erie Railway, completed in 1851 from Piermont to Dunkirk, NY was not the first railroad, but it was the longest railroad in the United States at that time, and the second longest railroad in the world, with Russia's Moscow to St Petersburg the longest. It became the Erie Railway in 1861, converted to 4 foot 8.5 inch standard gauge, and by 1895 was reorganized as the Erie Railroad. During and just after World War 2 the Erie Railroad was prosperous but by the 1950s trucks and planes eroded its traffic. The 1960 Merger of the Erie Railroad with the Delaware Lackawanna & Western Railroad into the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad could not solve the revenue problem as manufacturing in the area served by the railroad declined. Following the devastating Hurricane Agnes of 1972 the railroad filed for bankruptcy and became a part of Conrail in 1976. Portions of the railroad were abandoned. By 2002 the Western NY and Pennsylvania Railroad acquired the former mainline from Meadville, PA to Hornell NU. A railroad that was almost lost has been reclaimed.
