page_title: Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad
section_title: North to Buffalo
hierarchical_section_title: Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad / North to Buffalo
caption_attribution_description: Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad
context_page_description: The Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad was a railroad company that formerly operated in western and north central Pennsylvania and western New York. It was created in 1893 by the merger and consolidation of several smaller logging railroads. It operated independently until 1929, when a majority of its capital stock was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. At the same time, the B&O also purchased control of the neighboring Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh Railway. The Baltimore and Ohio officially took over operations of both roads in 1932.
  In 1954, the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad and its remaining subsidiaries were formally merged into the Baltimore and Ohio system. Then in 1956, the Baltimore and Ohio sold the remaining 97 miles of former Buffalo and Susquehanna track to the H. E. Salzberg Company, who organized the Wellsville, Addison and Galeton Railroad to operate the line. The line was finally abandoned in 1979.
  The Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad was created and constructed by Frank H. Goodyear, a Buffalo, New York fuel dealer, to move his lumber and coal from north central Pennsylvania to his businesses and companies in Buffalo.
context_section_description: As the Goodyear lumber and coal empire flourished, the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad did very well moving tons of coal, coke, logs, finished lumber, Hemlock bark, hides, finished leather products, and a small but steady number of passengers.  The brothers had a goal of getting everything to Buffalo, where they could create companies to use the products from Pennsylvania.
  By 1902, more than 140 miles (230 km) of spurs were reported. As coal and lumber supplies were exhausted in one area the track was pulled up and laid in another.  The Goodyear brothers continued to buy up timber properties, coal fields, and eventually ore fields throughout the area.
  In 1902, Frank Goodyear created the Buffalo and Susquehanna Mining Company, which leased 120 acres (0.49 km²) of Iron Ore land in the Mesabi Range, Minnesota, with an estimated 15 Million tons of ore.  To get this iron ore from Minnesota to Buffalo, he created the Buffalo & Susquehanna Steamship Company.  Two freighters, the Frank H. Goodyear and the S. M. Clement, were built to carry ore from the company's mines in Minnesota and Michigan down to Buffalo.
  To get the coal to Buffalo, the Goodyear brothers incorporated the Buffalo & Susquehanna Railway in 1902 to build north from Wellsville to Buffalo, a total of almost 90 miles (140 km). In order to raise the capital to get to Buffalo, the brothers went public with their company and raised $17,000,000 for the completion of their railroad.
  In 1901, a $15,000,000 mortgage on the property of the Buffalo & Susquehanna Railroad Company was filed in the Register and Recorder's office at Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. Fisk & Robinson, one of the best-known bond houses in Wall Street funded the bond.  This money helped the railroad fund the railroad's operations, and its expansions south to Sagamore and north to Buffalo.
  With this additional funding, in 1904 the brothers also built three large blast furnaces in Buffalo for their coal and ore, at a cost of over $4,000,000.  The Goodyear brothers created the Buffalo and Susquehanna Iron Company.  This new company was a joint venture between the Goodyears and William A. Rogers of Rogers, Brown & Company.
  In July 1903, the bond holders Fisk and Robinson stated that the 84-mile (135 km) extension to Buffalo would be completed by the summer of 1904 (the line was mostly completed in 1906), and that upon completion the line would be leased for 999 years for interest on the bonds and a 4% dividend.  The regular 4 percent dividend was issued for the 1903 year.
  Currently the coal from the Buffalo and Susquehanna Coal and Coke Company's mines were using the Pennsylvania Railroad connection at Keating Summit to get from the mines on the southern end of the line to the furnaces in Buffalo, since the extension to Buffalo was not complete yet.  The Goodyear brothers desperately wanted to control all of the transportation of the coal to their mines, so they needed to quickly finish the extension north to Buffalo.
  By this time, extensive terminals were acquired by the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railway in South Buffalo located on Lake Erie, right next to the furnaces of the Buffalo and Susquehanna Iron Company.
  A giant ship canal Union Ship Canal was jointly built and used by the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad, the Buffalo and Susquehanna Iron Company, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Lackawanna Steel Company.  This giant canal allowed more than enough room for the steamships to bring in the iron ore from Michigan and Minnesota to be reduced to pig iron.
  The Goodyear brothers incorporated the Buffalo and Susquehanna Terminal Railroad to do the daily switching of the coal and ore trains around the blast furnaces, the four large modern steel elevators and the foundry.
  With the opening of the mines on the southern part of the line, the need for cars and locomotives increased greatly.  In 1907, it was reported that the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad owned:
  40 locomotives
  32 passenger cars
  2498 freight cars
  87 service cars
  The line to Buffalo was almost completed in 1906 and linked the coal and timber lands
caption: The B&S route in 1903, with planned expansion to Buffalo and Sagamore started.
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