There was a Pullman "line" (or route) between Rochester and Washington. A sleeper went from Rochester to Canandaigua via the New York Central Auburn branch. At Canandaigua the sleeper was switched to the Pennsylvania Railroad eastward Elmira branch train 596/598, the night train to Williamsport arriving in the wee hours of the morning. At Williamsport the sleeper was transferred to train 580, the Southern Express from Erie to Washington. The reverse trip between was via Washington to Harrisburg, Harrisburg to Williamsport on PRR train 575, the Dominion Express, PRR train 595, the night train Williamsport to Canandaigua, and Canandaigua to Rochester via the New York Central.
Working on the Railroads
By Lynn Paulson
[Canandaigua Messenger July 22, 2013]
Railroading was big business by the time Canandaigua became a city in 1913, providing significant freight transport, passenger service — and local employment
The first train to come into Canandaigua was on Sept. 12, 1840 via the Rochester-Auburn Railroad [later known as the Auburn Branch of the New York Central Railroad]. Henry B. Gibson, a prominent Canandaiguan at that time, was its first president and invested heavily in the enterprise.
In addition to the New York Central Railroad main line that served traffic between cities east of Auburn and the city of Buffalo, a “Batavia Branch” of the New York Central began in 1853 between Canandaigua and Niagara Falls. After it was leased by the New York Central by 1858 it was affectionately dubbed “the Peanut Line,” as its directors felt the price of leasing was too high for “a peanut of a line.”
In addition to the New York Central, the Northern Central Railroad served Canandaigua and cities to the south, including Elmira and eventually Washington D.C. by 1858. This road transported thousands of tons of coal through Canandaigua from the Pennsylvania coal mines. During times of war, trains of soldiers from east and west would transfer at Canandaigua on both the New York Central and Northern Central on their way to their wartime assignments.
While not servicing Canandaigua directly, a third service provided railway service by 1892 between New York City, cities in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania via Geneva, Manchester, and Rochester all the way to Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Canada. The Lehigh Valley Railroad that was first organized in 1853 provided a critical link between the eastern manufacturers and the cities of the Great Lakes.
The railroad business had reached tremendous proportions in freight tonnage and passenger service by the time Canandaigua became a city in 1913. Before the private automobile, the buses, the trucks, and the airplanes, Canandaigua’s busy railroad center located in the Niagara, Ontario and Pleasant Street area employed hundreds of men the year round, who owned their homes, paid taxes and reared their families. The railroad center included freight houses and a roundhouse.
Canandaigua was quite a manufacturing center, contributing much tonnage to the railroads. Space will permit naming but a few: The Davidson Lumber and Coal Co., Thompson Lumber and Coal Co., the Robinson Chilled Plow Factory, and the L.H. Adams Coal Co. Lisk Manufacturing Co. was also a big shipper. The New York Hydraulic Pressed Brick Co. received hundreds of cars of clay from Pennsylvania, and reshipped the pressed bricks. Smith Bros. Mill shipped a car a week of “A” flour to New York and Boston.
John Flanigan’s Oyster House, formerly on South Main Street, received thousands of casks of oysters from the Atlantic oyster beds. In the fall of each year a full trainload of fruit — apples, grapes, and pears — from the farms and vineyards along the lake would leave the pier each day for the markets of the eastern cities. J & A McKechnie Brewing Co. shipped hundreds of cars of its brews yearly.
At its peak, 36 passenger trains entered and departed Canandaigua in a single day. In 1890, the New York Central Railway Depot was built in Canandaigua. It was held to be the most beautiful depot on the Main Line or any of its branches, in its architectural design, in equipment and layout of the large waiting room, and the attractive flower beds in the rear. It was through the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Ferris Thompson, who built their summer residence of Sonnenberg in Canandaigua, that the depot got built.
It was their custom to entertain guests of prominence from their main home in New York City. Before the depot was built, the station and the waiting room were located in the basement of the Canandaigua Hotel. Since Mr. and Mrs. Thompson were people of considerable influence, they convinced the owners of the New York Central, the Vanderbilts, to build a depot in keeping with the beauty and dignity of Canandaigua, where guests could be properly received.
On Sept. 29, 1968, a major fire consumed the Canandaigua depot. Most of the structure was lost except for much of the original stoneware [which interestingly is the same stoneware used to build the mansion at Sonnenberg] and some of its historic features. In 1971, the Hickory Ridge Developers of Rochester did a major renovation of the depot into a professional building.
By that point, passenger rail had been eclipsed, as seen in the following item in the Daily Messenger on May 19, 1958, titled “Curtain Falls on 117 Years of Local Service.”
“A sizeable crowd was on hand as the last passenger train [Old 108] on the Auburn branch of the New York Central came into Canandaigua at 8:22 last night [May 18, 1958], on its way to Syracuse and the end of the line.
The historic old line will remain a freight link between the Finger Lakes cities and the main line of the New York Central. The once-thriving passenger service has become a victim of the motorcar, the bus, the main line express trains, and the airlines. The once oft heard ‘all aboard’ call at the Canandaigua terminal is now an echo of days gone by. Old 108 made its final run last night, ushering out an era sadly, but with dignity and pride.”
