East Aurora NY is the home of Fisher Price Toys and the Roycroft Inn. I had the Fisher Price barn that goes moo when you open the door and Ellbert Hubbard was a freind of Frank Lyolld Wright and part of the "Arts and Craft" Movement. East Aurora had regular commuter train service to Downtown Buffalo untill the 1960s I think? to the LVRR Station. Train Service today is via a Coach USA Bus Connection to Amtrak Exchange Street Station. BTW beer and food here are rather pricey so I can only buy you one draft.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/15947776@N06/11615887155
And just what does this have to do with the price of Donald Trump's toupee??
CSSHEGEWISCHAnd just what does this have to do with the price of Donald Trump's toupee??
It was used as the floor mop for the restaurant that was operating out of a former railroad station.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD CSSHEGEWISCH And just what does this have to do with the price of Donald Trump's toupee?? It was used as the floor mop for the restaurant that was operating out of a former railroad station.
CSSHEGEWISCH And just what does this have to do with the price of Donald Trump's toupee??
Johnny
Let’s keep this thread railroad related until it gets locked. How about that guy who got the PTC deadline extended?
https://twitter.com/SenJohnThune/status/784798261781598208
wanswheelHow about that guy who got the PTC deadline extended?
And what kind of root beer does he favor, especially if he railfans?
wanswheelLet’s keep this thread railroad related until it gets locked. How about that guy who got the PTC deadline extended? https://twitter.com/SenJohnThune/status/784798261781598208
You extend the PTC mandate or the Class 1's shut down. The choice is yours.
I still have a small, one-sheet, pre-Amtrak passenger train schedule that a high school friend and I obtained from that station back in 1968 when the mighty Pennsylvania RR was still running passenger trains in and out of Buffalo. There was still an agent sitting at a window which faced the tracks (you had to take an elevator in a separate structure to get to track level). The passenger trains were few and far between by then, pulled by two tuscan Pennsy E-units and three to five cars in length.
East Aurora had quite a number of sidings in those days. Tenney Lumber, Godfrey mill or whatever it was called, Griggs & Ball grain elevator, and a double-track siding at Fisher-Price on the east side of the main. We didn't know of that one until we walked the tracks from Elma to East Aurora one fine Fall day after school, because it's almost impossible to see from Girard Ave. There was also a siding on the west side that came down and ended a bit back of the old post office. Not sure what industry that siding was laid to serve, but in the late 60s Pennsy would park MOW equipment there, most of it painted yellow. It was quite a show when a way freight out of Ebenezer Yard switched the town. There could be as many as 20 cars in the consist. Vast majority were for Fisher-Price, but there was usually a Santa Fe boxcar full of lumber for Tenney, and a boxcar or two -- or centerflow hopper -- for Griggs & Ball. There was also a seldom-used gang siding behind Riley Read Mix, which ended just north of the passenger station. Way freight power was generally an Alco RS-2. Once in awhile when Griggs & Ball wanted a car moved, you would see a Riley Ready Mix cement truck carefully shoving a boxcar across the street next to Griggs & Ball. I think the two companies were under common ownership.
Walaleims Restaraunt and Grill has 2-3.00 drafts and 2.50 Kessler between 230 and 600 pm. Heck of lot cheeper then the 6-7 doller drafts up the street. Fisher Price made its last toys in the US in 1990. BTW I looked up Ebenezer Yard and its got a roundhouse and coal tower. Yes there were commuter trains but what terminal did they use in downtown buffalo? NYC Central Union Terminal was too far from the urban core. Also when were the tracks elevated? BTW a East Aurora town councilman wants to repaint the bridge back to PRR
According to one source, tracks through E Aurora were elevated in 1934:
http://www.ble-t.org/pr/news/headline.asp?id=21007
I think PRR had an agreement with Lehigh Valley to use its Dingens St station. Still a hike to downtown, but there were always NFT busses to hop. Some of those commuter "trains" to and from E Aurora were one- or two-car Puddlejumpers. Once saw a picture of that somewhere -- may have been in an article in The East Aurora Advertiser.
And yup, as I understand it most or all of Fisher-Price manufacturing went to Mexico. That was being plotted and schemed in the early 1980s when I still lived in Elma.
I assume the nearest trolley line was Hamburg. I am at the East Aurora Station and its in good shape with tracks and some old B&O railroad cars
Back in the day, closest a trolley line got to E Aurora was the intersection of Transit Rd and Seneca St. There were plans to run a line down Seneca St to East Aurora, but it never materialized before the trolley era came to an end.
Went through Ebenezer hamlet yesterday. Few People refer to it has such they just refer to the hood here as "Southtown" and "Southtown Plaza" I I then went over the tracks. Double Tracked PRR mainline that must have been big up untill the 1970s. There is a big yard with a roundhouse and a coaling tower that must be well hidden but I will try and get over there. Heading down the thruway there is a right of way with the Telegraph poles still in place from Cheektowoga. Also the Gardenville sub has just been ripped out.
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