On this day, April 27, 1897, Buffalo businessman Herbert P. Bissell and partners obtained a charter for the Buffalo & Depew Electric Railway. Trolleys already abounded in Buffalo – throughout the city with links to then ‘burbs such as Black Rock. The choice between a horse or a trolley-car ride brought citizenry to embrace the quick pace of the future that was arriving rapidly.
The Age of Streetcars was a lure to investors, and these fellas were going to be part of its future. After approvals, codes and financing, construction began in 1899 and was completed in 1900 – except for a few minor details. The expensive ordeal convinced Bissell and his partners to take up an offer and then sell off to the Philadelphia Railroad Company (acquired and completed the B&D in early 1901).
Known as the North Line Electric Trolley to Lancaster, the B&D Electric Railway was opened for passengers on May 8, 1901. She followed a new right-of-way. One end was at the intersection of the Buffalo city line and Genesee Street. The other terminus was at Ellicott Road (today’s Walden Avenue) and Burlington Avenue, just east of the NY Central Locomotive Shops in Depew.
Its passengers would have to continue their trips by walking across the main lines of four railroads before they could catch a trolley of the Buffalo, Bellevue, or Lancaster trolley lines. Eventually the B&D extended its tracks to Central Avenue in 1915. The B&D trolleys spanned a stone-ballasted right-of-way, and, “best of all, it crosses no railroad tracks at grade.”
The seven-mile, thirty-minute ride from the city line to Depew cost only a dime – or 15 cents for the round-trip. You could go swiftly from Buffalo to Union Road for a nickel. The electric trolleys ran through farmland on their own right-of-way. And cars ran every fifteen minutes. Each of the cars was painted olive green and then covered with high-gloss varnish.
Some may romance the idea that Buffalo should have kept her trolleys, but truth be told, there were many accidents. The crisscrossing of pedestrians racing for catch-ups, cars and trucks, not to mention a carry-over of horse and buggies transitioning to the new world… sometimes they leant havoc and tragedy. While trolleys initially crawled city streets and sped open trails, and their expanse eventually heated up the law of averages for disaster.
The Buffalo & Depew trolley bound for Depew left the tracks on July 1, 1905 at Wiebel’s curve, rolled over, killing a passenger. The motorman, Arthur Pim, had taken the curve at too high a speed because he did not see it coming in a dense fog. Among the six passengers on board was Anthony Miller and his wife of five months, on their way home from a day at the Buffalo zoo. Miller was thrown from the car as it rolled, and was found beneath it with his head crushed. Other passengers took on serious injuries.
Many more accidents followed. Improvements made to the trolleys and the line were no help. On June 6, 1931, the last trolley left Buffalo for Lancaster. Its owners were too long at odds with complaints and requirements to fix roads and tracks – the future was certainly fading out their value.
Trolleys were born of the horse and buggy alternative. By the 30’s it was increasingly clear folks in Buffalo and outer-parts were switching to automobiles. The traffic congested on the streets rendered the decreasing passenger attended trolleys into the lore of yesteryear.
Old photos of Buffalo’s Niagara Square circa 1901 show a fanciful European flair of trolleys circling the square. They still do so in Amsterdam, and several other Euro cities. We gave them up for progress, cost, and congestion. Maybe it was right. Maybe it was wrong that we rid of them. But to look at the old photos is to long for a Buffalo streetcar named Desire.
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