New York and Lake Erie Railroad
|
The Gowanda station in May 2015, with NYLE equipment on the tracks to the left | |
| Reporting mark | NYLE |
|---|---|
| Locale | New York |
| Dates of operation | 1978–Present |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Headquarters | Gowanda, New York |
The New York & Lake Erie (reporting mark NYLE) is a class III railroad operating in Western New York. The NYLE was formed in 1978 to operate a portion of former Erie trackage that Conrail no longer wanted. Today, the railroad operates between Gowanda to Conewango Valley, New York with a branch between Dayton, New York and Cattaraugus, New York. A 12-mile stretch that ran from Cattaraugus to Salamanca, which connected the railroad to the Southern Tier Line, was torn out in the 1990s and replaced with a pedestrian trail. The NYLE is also the owner and operator of Oil Creek and Titusville Lines, Inc. NYLE was used as the setting for railroad scenes in the 1987 film Planes, Trains & Automobiles.
Due to the 2009 flooding of the Cattaraugus Creek in 2009 and the subsequent damage the flooding did to the railway, passenger service on the New York & Lake Erie Railroad was suspended until late 2012. Operations south of South Dayton remain suspended, with service to Cherry Creek in the process of being restored.