Buffalo’s Short Line Railroad Legacy

Explores the rise of short line railroads in Buffalo, New York, amid major industry changes.

By the 1970s, the diesel locomotive was the king of the American Railroad mainline, and the age of steam had ended almost a decade prior. America's railroad scene was changing rapidly and the railroads that served Buffalo, New York, were at the center of it. Between the formation of Amtrak, the increasing popularity of transportation through airplanes, automobiles, buses, and trucks, increasing labor costs, declining industrial business, and the resulting formation of Conrail, the writing seemed to be on the wall for these railroad lines that were deemed unprofitable. Despite being abandoned or sold off by their former owners, some of these railroad lines got a second chance at economic prosperity under the ownership of smaller companies known as "the short line railroads." Operating in a modern world where business practices and core values have changed, and big business caring little for the little guy, these short line railroads have forged a legacy of their own connecting the small communities they serve to the outside world.