Depew, New York

Depew was was a veritable spaghetti bowl of railroad tracks.  The 1905 topographic map above shows the lines running through downtown Depew.  The New York Central (highlighted in purple) was the northern-most set of tracks running east and west.  The Central also had a branch running southwest and exiting the map in the lower left corner.

The Lehigh Valley (highlighted in red) was the next set of tracks to the south on the eastern end of the map.  One branch went under the Central and is shown leaving the top of the map.  The mainline went under the DL&W and Erie tracks and ended up on the south side of the Erie tracks on the western (left) side of the map.

The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western (DL&W) tracks (highlighted in blue) are the next set to the south and go almost straight from one end of the map to the other.

The Erie Railroad tracks (highlighted in green) are the southern-most tracks entering from the east.

The 1898 map from the Library of Congress map collection shows the tracks looking west from Depew.  The large complex to the north (right) of the New York Central tracks is listed as the New York Central Locomotive Works.  The complex between the Lehigh Valley and DL&W tracks was the Union Car Company.  The factory between the DL&W and Erie lines is the Gould Coupler Company.  The main north-south road (running left to right on the map) is Transit Road.

For a much more detailed (8 MB) image, click here.

This 1909 photo shows the Erie station from one end.

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