The Erie-Lackawanna Railroad stretched from New York City to Chicago, with thousands of miles of both passenger and freight service. It was formed by a merger between the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western (DL&W) Railroad in the 1960s.
The Erie-Lackawanna tracks run largely parallel to the Chemung River and the NY State Thruway east of Corning. The tracks ran directly through Big Flats, Elmira, Corning, and Chemung, mostly built on the towpath of an abandoned feeder canal of the Chemung Canal.
All along the route, flood damage to the embankments and the tracks was severe in 1972. In total, Erie-Lackawanna reported the loss of 395 miles of tracks. The damage was estimated at $9.2 million (equivalent to $63.6 million in 2022). The company declared bankruptcy on June 26, 1972, the Monday after the flood.
Consolidated Rail Corporation (known as Conrail) bought out the eastern portion of the Erie-Lackawanna rails in the 1970s.
Erie-Lackawanna Map System Map, 1969. Courtesy of American-rails.com.
This 1969 map shows the lines of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad. Note the line running across the entirety of the Southern Tier of New York. The railway was already suffering financial difficulty due to competition from new interstates, including the Southern Tier Expressway.
Railroad abutment at Canal Street in Big Flats. Courtesy of the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society and the Steuben County Historical Society.
Here, at Canal Street in Big Flats, the concrete supporting a bridge for the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad has had large chunks gouged away.
Erie Lackawanna Railroad bridge over flooded Pennsylvania Ave in Elmira, looking north west. Courtesy of the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society and the Steuben County Historical Society.
Further east, the same tracks run over Pennsylvania Avenue in Elmira. These tracks had the supports under another bridge broken off by the flooding.
Erie Lackawanna Railroad bridge over the Chemung River just west of the town of Chemung. Courtesy of the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society and the Steuben County Historical Society.
This bridge outside of Chemung, New York, shows damage and debris where the river had risen over the bridge and left most of a tree lodged in the bridge’s structure.
Similar damage occurred along miles of tracks that had been built in close proximity with the rivers. The towns had been built along the rivers, and the tracks connected the towns, as the highway does today. This was essential to their function but made them vulnerable when the rivers overflowed.
Flooding in area of Erie-Lackawanna bridge over Little Valley Creek in West Salamanca. Flood: The Southern Tier's June 1972 Disaster: A Pictorial Review by W.H. Greenhow Co. Courtesy of the Salamanca Republican-Press and the Internet Archive.
Another Erie-Lackawanna bridge and stretch of tracks falling victim to flooding.