'Empire Express' Leaves Central, Grand Era Fades
Buffalo Courier Express, October 28, 1979
Joan E. Given
At 9 Saturday evening, a bit behind schedule, Engineer Harlow Eldridge guided Amtrak's turbopowered No. 73, the "Empire State Express," beneath the complex of Buffalo's Central Terminal for the last time.
Ironically enough, as the train made the switch to Track 21, winking lights above and beyond signaled the approach of an incoming aircraft.
There weren't too many people on hand to witness one of the final moments in the Queen City's rail history.
Ms.Sharon Murray was on hand to meet a passenger on the New York to Niagara Falls run. She had driven here earlier in the day from her Town of Tonawanda home to make sure she could locate the terminal at night.
"It was even more deserted in the daytime," said Ms. Murray.
For a couple of persons on the platform, however, it was definitely a nostalgic moment. Conductors Paul Sutton and Charles "Buddy" O'Brian were waiting to "pick up" their train. They would ride to Niagara Falls and then travel with it back to New York today.
On the return run, however, the "Empire State Express" will stop at the Exchange Street Station in Downtown Buffalo, not at Central Terminal.
Central Terminal, an East Side landmark on Paderewski Drive for 50 years, closed its doors forever on rail traffic after the departure at 4:05 this morning of the westbound "Lake Shore Limited."
Built in the late 20s - when a dollar was really worth a dollar - at the comparitively stupendous cost of $14 million, the 16 story Art Deco terminal has seen both the best and worst of Buffalo times.
Shortley after its dedication in June, 1929, the stock market crashed and put a halt to the proposed expansion of the city's East Side. So the terminal never lived up to the high hopes of those who envisioned the handsome edifice as a core of a bustling neighborhood.
The terminal saw its best days during, and right after, World War II.
"When I came back from the Army after the war, it was really a busy place," said O'Brian, a brother of Courier-Express syndicated columnist Jack O'Brian and a veteran of 39 years with the railroad.
Conductor O'Brian recalled that necessary personnel alone was enough to fill the giant complex. Eighty passenger trains a day utilized the terminal in those days.
"We had 10 switch engineers in operation in the yards," he said.
Inside, on Saturday night, the terminal was virtually deserted. Ticket agent Bill McFeely Jr. reported he had sold only about 10 tickets all day, and a Courier-Express reporter's request for a ticket for the seven minute run from Central Terminal to Exchange Street station turned out to be kind of "a curve."
"We don't have many calls for that ticket, McFeely explained, with a smile. Since most of the ticket computer equipment has been moved out of the terminal, he had to figure out the fare (45 cents) by himself.
It didn't take long for Buffalo passengers to detrain; there were only a handful. In one of the brightly lighted cars, Sutton, an impressive 6 foot-plus veteran of 36 years with the railroad, who once tried out for the Pittsburg Steelers, chatted with Peter Benham of Kenmore.
Benham, camera slung around his neck, is a selfproclaimed train "buff" of no little dedication.
"I've been on a train since 5:30 this morning," he explained. Benham had ridden from Niagara Falls to Oakville, Ontario and back and had picked up the Empire State Express at Syracuse for its final run into Buffalo's Central Terminal.
As the train moved slowly toward Exchange Street, Benham predicted the lurches created by the various switches.
Disembarkment at the newly-renovated Exchange Street station, the reporter tried the station door. It was locked.
"It won't be open until tomorrow morning," advised Conductor Stutton as the Empire State Express glided away toward Niagara Falls.
Central Terminal itself won't remain deserted. Developer Anthony Fedele plans ot turn it into a shopping mall and restaurant-hotel complex. The only missing element will be the trains.
With the closing of Central Terminal, Amtrak has added a stop in Depew, where
a small, new station is to be built. Until the new suburban station is completed,
a trailer has been parked off Dick Road near Broadway to serve as the temporary
Depew station.