This is a continuation of Palmer's guest column on the New York Central's role in Auburn and surrounding areas since the 1950s. Part I was published Sunday.

At a public hearing on Oct. 2, 1957 in Auburn, railroad officials said that out-of-pocket losses resulting from operation of the trains in 1956 exceeded $126,000 and would probably top $200,000 in 1957. Opposition witnesses representing some of the 16 intermediate stations served by the branch accused the railroad of having failed to promote business. What was provided was considered sub-standard to the point area residents elected to use other means of transportation.

The hearing examiner reported to the Public Service Commission that no evidence was submitted as to the financial results from freight operations on the branch. He also said many of the communities on the line would be left without public transportation of any sort if the trains were discontinued.

The hearing examiner noted that the railroad had omitted reference to sleeping car service from the timetable. In December, the PSC ordered that the round-trip train be continued, citing the fact that the railroad had deliberately attempted to discourage patronage by failing to list the Pullman service in the system timetable. In the decades of the 1950s and 1960s, this was also the perception the traveling public had of the New York Central in general. The PSC ruling stated “If a company sees fit to deliberately not hold its service open to the public, it cannot be heard when it complains that the public does not patronize it. Unquestionably, the failure to include these trains in the current system timetable will have a tendency to further reduce the patronage of those trains.”

It was said that it was unfortunate that the New York Central did not show the same enthusiasm to promote passenger service as it did for discontinuing it. The Auburn Road service was completely omitted from the Oct. 27, 1957 timetable, but was subsequently included in the April 27, 1958 version where it listed a 10-6 sleeper. The railroad did not give up. It subsequently petitioned for a rehearing in the matter which was granted. At a hearing in March, 1958 it was claimed that expenses for providing passenger service had continued to climb and revenues had declined. It was also shown that patronage during the last half of 1956 was only about half of what it had been from January through June. In May 1958, the PSC relented and permitted the railroad to discontinue the service.

In discussing the New York Central's enthusiasm in the design and development of a shock free cart (made from a 70-foot open-end baggage car) to transport guided missiles, the editor of the Auburn Citizen-Advertiser noted on Oct. 3, 1958: “It seems too bad that the Central didn't come up with some such ‘shock-free' method before its passenger service on the Auburn road declined to such an extent that it was compelled to abandon it. It is a safe assumption that had more travelers been assured of a sound night's sleep en route - instead of regularly being jolted almost out of their berth in the Syracuse yards - they would have remained satisfied customers.”

With passenger service gone, the New York Central soon applied to abandon the Auburn branch between Victor and Pittsford, a little more than 10 miles, and pulled up the rails in 1960. Freight service would be provided out of Syracuse instead of Rochester. When Conrail took over in 1976, it abandoned another eight and a half miles from Canandaigua to Victor in 1978. More than once, operating officials questioned the wisdom of this abandonment, particularly in the 1960s when mainline derailments were becoming more the rule than the exception. The line was further cut back another eight and a half miles between Canandaigua and Victor in 1978.

The Auburn Road faced a bleak future until the Finger Lakes Railroad came to the rescue in 1995. Since then it has been transformed into one of the most successful regional operations in the Northeast, handling more than 18,000 carloads a year and has an extensive excursion business.

As an interesting side note, John “Tex” Rickard came to Auburn in 1919 to become the local agent for the American Railway Express Co. At that time, he said, there were eight passenger trains a day on the Auburn branch and “those trains carried a lot of passengers between Syracuse and Rochester. The first was the early 6:10 a.m. from Syracuse and a 7:30 a.m. from Rochester and an 11:30 a.m. from Syracuse; then 2 p.m. from Rochester, 3:45 p.m. from Syracuse and a 5 o'clock train from Rochester.” He said a sleeper was made up every night in Auburn. “You could board at 10 p.m. and wake up in New York City the next morning. It was switched in Syracuse to the main line and the overnight service was used by many before the days of 45-minute air trips to New York.”

Rickard said sometimes he took the sleeper or a coach to New York using his railroad pass, to attend a baseball game or a prize fight he especially wanted to see. When he was interviewed in 1975, he was 94 years old.

A New York Central timetable dated June 22, 1924 shows two daily passenger trains in each direction and six daily except Sunday in each direction. Although the Auburn branch was essentially single tracked, there were numerous passing sidings.

Palmer is historian for the Central New York Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. He is also a journalist and in the 1970s was Auburn correspondent or the Syracuse Herald-Journal. Currently he is the editor of the New York Canal Times. He has written several books and many articles on the history of local railroads.