South Buffalo

Company History: South Buffalo Railway received this group of hoppers from their parent company Bethlehem Steel in 1949. The SB was a busy 60 mile line serving heavy industry in the Lackawanna, New York area. It merged into Buffalo & Pittsburgh in 2001.

The SB was established in 1901 to be a neutral switching line serving the steel mills and neighboring industries in the Lackawanna, New York area. For most of its history, SB was owned by Bethlehem Steel and their diesel fleet wore a variation of the yellow and black used on other shortlines owned by Bethlehem. Three dozen switchers were typically required to run SB’s 60 miles of track. In addition to the steel mill, SB also serves a Ford Motor Company plant, the docks at Buffalo and a number of smaller industries. The Genesee & Wyoming group had wanted to add the SB to their family of shortlines since the 1980s and the deal was finally made in 2001. SB slipped to the status of paper railroad with G&W’s Buffalo & Pittsburgh now handling operations.

Successor/Parent History: Known today as the largest of the shortline holding companies, Genesee & Wyoming began as a shortline by that name in 1899 with a 15 mile line between Retsof and Caledonia, New York, just south of Rochester. In 1982, they extended southward to Greigsville by buying a former Lackawanna line from Conrail. In 1985, another purchase extended their reach north to Rochester and southwest to Silver Springs. This brought the mileage up to about 90. The Wyoming in the name is a reference to the Wyoming Valley.

In 1977, the railroad set up Genesee & Wyoming Inc. as a parent company. In 1985, they began to buy other shortlines and launch new ones as various Class One routes came up for sale or lease. Each of these lines operates under their own names but share the orange, yellow and black GNWR paint scheme, variations of which have been used by GNWR for decades. The logos of these related lines also use the GNWR style but with different wording and the occasional personalized element.

As of this writing, the Genesee & Wyoming family includes 121 shortline and regional railroads spread across North America, Europe and Australia. As of 2019, G&W became a subsidiary of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners. G&W has also bought other shortline groups, notably Rail Link in 1996, Summit View (the Ohio Central System) in 2008, Rail Management in 2005,.CAGY Industries in 2008, and largest of all RailAmerica in 2012.

Ironically, the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad was merged into the Rochester & Southern in 2003. The GNWR exists as a paper railroad but the logos on the diesels patrolling the old GNWR now say Rochester & Southern or the neighboring Buffalo & Pittsburgh.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.