Arcade And Attica
The Arcade and Attica began back in the 1800's. The rail line was owned by many different owners in the beginning. The Tonawanda Valley Railroad was the first railroad to run a train on this line and did so on September 11, 1880. The line was originally a three foot gauge line, but was converted to standard gauge around 1895. The Arcade and Attica was formed in 1917 to take over the line that had gone through a few more ownerships. The railroad bought its first diesel in 1941 and less then ten years later had retired all their steam locomotives. In 1957 a major washout on the Tonawanda Creek spelled the end of service for the line to Attica. Today the railroad is 15 miles long and operates from Arcade to North Java.
The 1960's brought about a drop in freight traffic and the railroad decided to start running steam train excursions to increase revenue. They bought an Alco/Cooke consolidation #18 from the Boyne City Railroad and soon after a baldwin ten wheeler #14 from the Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad. The two engines have continued to alternate service on the excursion trains. #18 has been in charge of the excursion train for a while now and #14 needs a lot of work to get back in operating condition. The excursion trains run from the Arcade Station to the Curriers depot and back. They usually run on the weekend, but the railroad continues to run freight during the week.
I have been to Arcade several times, I try to visit at least every other year in order to support the railroad. The pictures on this page were taken in the past few years, most likely between 1998 and 2000. The train trip is a nice casual ride through the country side. Chasing the train is fairly easy because the train speed is low, many good locations can be shot in just one trip.
Click here to see the Arcade and Attica from above on Terraserver. There isn't too much to see here, the shop and yard area are in the center of the picture and the tracks lead off to the left to go to the passenger station or you can follow them down to the railroad's connection with the outside world.
