The Buffalo Line is a railroad line owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Buffalo, New York southeast to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania along a former Pennsylvania Railroad line. Its north end is at Seneca Yard in Buffalo, with no direct access to the Lake Erie District, and its south end is at the Pittsburgh Line at Rockville, Pennsylvania.
The Sunbury and Erie Railroad opened from Williamsport, Pennsylvania south to Milton in 1854,[1] Northumberland in 1855,[2] and Sunbury in 1856.[3] Extensions west from Williamsport opened to Whetham in 1859,[4] Keating (as the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad) in 1862,[5] and Emporium (also as the P&E) in 1863.[6] A cutoff bypassing downtown Williamsport to the south, from Allen's west to Nisbet, opened in the early 1870s,[7] and is now part of the Buffalo Line.
The Northern Central Railway opened a line from Dauphin, Pennsylvania north to Millersburg in 1856,[3] extending it north to Herndon in 1857[8] and Sunbury in 1858.[9] In 1882, the Pennsylvania Railroad opened their Rockville Branch from Rockville (on their main line) north to Dauphin on the Northern Central.[7]
From the Buffalo end, the Buffalo and Washington Railway opened its line to East Aurora, New York in 1868[10] and South Wales in 1870.[11] In 1871 its name was changed to the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railway,[12] and it was extended to Emporium, Pennsylvania in 1872, completing the line between Buffalo and Harrisburg.[13] The newest piece of the Buffalo Line, opened in 1909, is at Buffalo, running from the old main line at Gardenville southwest to Seneca Yard.[14]
The line became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad and Conrail through leases, mergers, and takeovers. In the 1999 breakup of Conrail, it was assigned to Norfolk Southern.
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