Three Railroads - One Railroad Station
Many drive or walk past the old train station that now sits as part of the JCC campus in downtown Olean. Today the station is fenced off from the single track it once served.
Many remember when there were two tracks there. Before that there were three tracks there, plus passenger trains that would stop at the station as part of their schedule up until 1970.
But let’s go back even further…
The passenger station was receiving several passenger trains per day– From Buffalo, Rochester, Baltimore, Pittsburgh (via Oil City) and Bradford. And where the tracks crossed N. Union St, 4 hotels sprung up on each corner.
But let’s go back even further…
How about all the way back to 1878?
At that point the station that existed along the tracks was much different from the present station. The first station was entirely constructed of wood and was built as the Buffalo, New York & Philadelphia RR pushed through Olean in 1872. This BNY&P would eventually become the Pennsylvania RR and ultimately part of Conrail but we’ll leave that part of the story for another time.
It wasn’t long after this when the oil was found near Bradford, PA and the huge (for that time period) Bradford Oil Field exploded with development. With the massive amount of oil exploration and production taking place, railroads were quickly built to take advantage of the situation.
One of those railroads was the Olean, Bradford & Warren which was a narrow gauge line (measured 3’ between the rails) and ran between Olean and Bradford. The line was open in 1878 and for the first few years were very profitable hauling people and products between the two cities.
Of course the OB&W needed a passenger station in Olean– A station in a convenient location that was near other amenities.
The BNY&P passenger station along N Union Street was a great choice! However there was a minor problem. The BNY&P was a standard gauge railroad, meaning its rails measured 4’ 8 ½” from rail to rail and the locomotives and cars of the narrow gauge OB&W couldn’t travel on the BNY&P tracks.
What to do?
The solution was while the BNY&P tracks were already on one-side of the station; the OB&W ran its narrow gauge tracks on the other side of the station. This would enable passengers to easily move from one railroad to another.
And in 1881 another railroad would enter the picture!
This railroad was called the Olean RR, and like the OB&W, this was an “oil” road that was built to take advantage of the discovery of oil in the Bolivar area.
But the similarities with the OB&W didn’t end there; you see the Olean RR was also a narrow gauge line.
The Olean RR was built from Bolivar through Ceres, through Portville and into East Olean. From Portville into Olean this railroad was built along the former tow-path of the Genesee Valley Canal which was abandon a few years earlier.
This railroad entered Olean, crossed under East State Street and eventually ended up – at the BNY&P station on North Union Street. At the station the Olean RR tracks met the OB&W tracks (remember both railroads were narrow gauge or 3’ railroads).
Below is a drawing of the track arrangement at that station (courtesy of Larry Kilmer and the Sanborn Insurance Company):
This unique “3 railroads served by 1 station” arrangement would last until 1896, when the financially troubled OB&W shut down.
A couple interesting points here…
In this drawing the Olean RR is referred to as the L&P which was then known as the Lackawanna & Pittsburgh RR. The Olean RR would go through several name changes throughout its history and we’ll talk about those in another article.
The original station was similar in size to the present station, but a freight depot would occupy one end of the original station. It would not be long after this drawing was done when a new and large freight station would be built on the other side of the tracks next to the Luther complex.
A couple Olean “landmarks” show up in this drawing, one being the JH Luther and Sons Machine Shop which would serve Olean for several decades.
We also see the Grand Central Hotel which would become known as “The Central”.
