Torn-Down Tuesday: Fixing Buffalo’s streetcar tracks in 1928

       By Steve Cichon
       steve@buffalostories.com
       @stevebuffalo

The IRC, International Railway Company, was the forerunner of the NFTA in providing mass transit options in the City of Buffalo and some surrounding areas. Caring for more than 400 miles of track and several hundred individual streetcars left the IRC chronically in debt and left the transit rail infrastructure chronically in a poor state of repair.

Fixing Buffalo’s streetcar tracks in 1928

In 1928, The Buffalo Courier looked around the city at six different areas where the IRC was updating tracks and surrounding pavement around the city. Here’s what those areas looked like then and now.

Seneca Street at Mineral Spring Road:

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Seneca and Emslie streets:

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Grant and Bradley streets:

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Seneca and Buffum streets:

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Seneca Street at the Buffalo River:

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Seneca and Smith streets:

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Steve Cichon

Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News. He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.