Vintage Railroad Pictures: The Erie Railroad at Avon, N.Y.

Views of Erie Railroad at Avon, N.Y. in the 1870s in the Days of the Broad Gauge

Avon is a former stop on the Erie Railroad's Rochester branch. One of the more active hubs of the Erie, Avon served as the terminus of four different Erie lines: the Rochester Division (Painted Post–Avon), the Rochester Branch (Rochester–Avon), the Mount Morris Branch (Mount Morris–Avon), and the Attica Branch (Avon–Attica, where connections were made to the Buffalo Division).

Railroad service in the village of Avon began on July 25, 1853 with the extension of the Buffalo, Corning and New York Railroad from Wayland to Caledonia.

The current station depot, built in 1879, was designed by Bradford Lee Gilbert as an 80 by 24 feet wooden frame station. On June 18, 1907, the station was one of the few stops on the Erie Railroad to be electrified when service to Rochester became an electric service. The electric service ended on December 1, 1934 when the Erie switched to gas motorcars for passenger service to reduce costs.

Passenger service in Avon began to discontinue before and after electric service ended. Service between Attica and Avon ended on April 30, 1933. The branch to Mount Morris lost its service first, occurring on January 20, 1940. Service to Rochester ended on September 30, 1941. The Rochester Division passenger service ended on September 28, 1947.

What remains of the Erie trackage in Avon is today's Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad, headquartered at Lakeville.

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Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

October 1, 1941

Last Passenger Train Runs On Erie Railroad Avon Line

The whistle gave two plaintive toots.

Faces obscured by the dusk, a small crowd watched silently as the little electric train slid out of the station yard and diminished to nothing by a tiny red taillight.

That was the passing of the last passenger train out of Rochester on the Erie Railroad at 6:15 last evening, a moment which instilled a mournful hush on the platform.

Aboard the train was a handful of Rochester-Avon commuters, including Miss Louise Driscoll, secretary to J. H. Hagans, Erie division freight agents, who had ridden the train to and from work for 30 years. Another passenger was Thomas Lorton, 3, grandson of a former engineer on the line, Harry Haight. Mrs. Haight took her grandson on the last trip last night because she wanted him "to remember the Erie."

Among those who waved farewell from the station was Mrs. Helen Redmond, 69, of 751 Seward St., who deserted her kitchen at supper time and hurried down to the station to see the train leave. "It was on the Erie that I first came to Rochester on my way from Ireland, 52 years ago," said Mrs. Redmond. "It was a grand train then, and the station was new and all shining and wonderful - nothing like it is now. It was right here that I first sent foot in Rochester."

Mrs. Redmond remembered that she was 17 years old and that the date of her arrival was May 15.

The last ticket was purchased by Dr. Henry Ward Williams, railroad hobbyist and secretary of the Genesee Valley Railroad which owns the tracks over which the Erie trains approach Rochester. Some other last tickets were held by Charles A. Banks, members of the Model Railroad Club of Rochester, who said he would place them in the club's museum.

The passing of the Erie train, explained Hagans, was forced by the increasing heavier loads of freight which must be hauled over the road for the nation's defense, coupled with the ever increasing inroads of the automobile into the commuter traffic. Once upon a time the Erie Railroad was second only to the Long Island for commuter trade, he recalled. Now the only commuter trains in the state operated by the Erie run out of New York City.

A few of the yardmen and bosses, who stood watching on the fringe of the crowd, talked about the Erie of 25 years ago, 30 years ago, before the steam engines gave way and the electrics, save one, finally gave way to automobiles. There was Foreman Ed. Wemett, whose service went back a quarter of a century, and section foreman James A. Acarrio, who kept shaking his head and repeating "It's too bad."

The jobs of all the men will be saved, according to Hagans. The passenger crew will be absorbed by the freight division.

Joseph L. Skelly, the engineer, and Fulton W. Darrow, conductor, will go to work Monday on the Avon-Attica line. Skelly has been working for the Erie 42 years and Darrow 36 years.

Even as the train was pulling out the ticket office staff was counting the money, packing up the yellow tickets that won't be used any more, and packing up the books, with an auditor will scan today. When they finished the station was empty. They turned out the lights and locked the door. That was the end of the Erie passenger service. (Note: Passenger service to Mount Morris had been discontinued on January 24, 1940.)