The Waverly Sayre & Athens
Traction Company
1894 - 1930

 

 
     


The Waverly Sayre & Athens Traction Company was an electric streetcar (trolley) line that operated in "The Valley" from 1894 to 1930.

The Valley is essentially one community, comprised of four towns, that just happens to have a state border running through it! Waverly is in New York State, South Waverly, Sayre and Athens are in Pennsylvania.

The WS&ATCo served The Valley for  36 years, serving Waverly, South Waverly, Sayre & Athens. It  had stops at all of the Valley's railroad stations, (five of them!) it served all three downtown business districts, and carried workers to the LV Sayre Shops, IR, and all other major employers in the area. At the western end of Broad street in Waverly (At the present corner of Broad & Elmira streets) it connected with the  Elmira Corning and Waverly Railway, another streetcar line that headed west out of Waverly alongside the Erie railroad mainline, ran thorough downtown Chemung, Wellsburg and Elmira, then on to Corning. Then another line conencted Corning with Watkins Glen. At one time, it was possible to ride a trolley from Athens to Watkins Glen!

There were plans to hook up with streetcar lines to the east as well, so that the WS&ATCo would directly connect with streetcar lines that ran to Owego and on to Binghamton, but a connection to the east was never completed. (Streetcars did operate between Owego & Binghamton, but there was never a direct streetcar connection between Waverly & Owego.)

Below is a map showing the WS&ATCo routes..
the streetcar routes are in black, the lines in color are the three 20th Century Class-1 railroads of The Valley, The Erie, the DL&W, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad:




This webpage will have two main sections, below. First, a look at the roster of trolley cars that belonged to the WSA&TCo. Then a tour around the whole trolley route, with some "Then and Now" photos, showing the scene in the Early 20th Century, in the time of the Trolleys, and what the same locations look like today.




 

  







Roster of the WS&ATCo



The Waverly Sayre & Athens Traction company had 26 Street cars during its 36 year existance, 1894 to 1930. (not all operated at the same time however.)

The first eight cars were built new for the WS&ATCo by the J.G. Brill company of Philadelphia, Pa. in 1894. Sources for this roster information are from the book "Elmira and Chemung Valley trolleys in the Southern Tier" by William Reed Gordon, photos and information from Frank Evans of Sayre, and internet research.

(Accuracy and completeness of roster is probably not 100%, corrections and additions are welcome.)

WS&ATCo Numbers 1 through 4:

DE RR ST (Double End, Railroad Roof, Single Truck)
Built by the Brill Co in 1894.
18' long.
5 windows (mid window was larger)
Painted Red.


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Here is the 1894 builders photo of car No.1
Photo is of the brand-new car, just completed, at the J.G. Brill company works in Philadelphia, Pa.



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Car Number Three..notice the truck configuration changed at some point, and is different from the as-built configuration seen on the photo of No.1. Heavier sideframes have been added. (or it might be a completely new replacement truck.)



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Another view of Car No. 3.

At some point, Car No. 3 was rebuilt and modified. She was enlarged, recieved new, longer ends, and new doors. Originally she had doors on all four corners, after the rebuild she had only one door on each end..this presumably was done to create more seating room. Possibly some of her sister cars were also modified in this way, although we have no photos yet to show this, if it happened. Two photos of No. 3 after her rebuild:









  Car No. 4
WS&ATCo Numbers 5 and 6:

DE RR ST (Double End, Railroad Roof, Single Truck)
Open Cars.
Built by the Brill Co in 1894.
18' long.
Rebuilt to 22 foot, 7 window closed cars, about 1912.

In addition to the four "closed" cars 1-4, Two "open" cars were also ordered new from Brill in 1894. These "open" cars were used in the summer months, to provide an open and airy (and cool, before the days of air conditioning) riding experience. However the "open" design limited the car's use in the colder months, which is probably why they were eventually rebuilt into closed cars.

Although we cant make out the number, this photo:

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Is probably of car 5 or 6. We can tell by the "railroad roof", and the fact that it appears to have only 8 benches.

WS&ATCo Numbers 7 and 8:
DE RR ST (Double End, Railroad Roof, Single Truck)
Built by the Brill Co in 1894.
18' long. Heated by coal stoves.

These two cars appear to be similar to numbers 1-4, however their window arrangement is somewhat different. Cars 7 and 8 had six evenly spaced windows, as opposed to the wide center window of cars 1-4.


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Car 7 is seen at the corner of Ithaca Street and Cayuta ave. in Waverly, which for many recent decades has been the home of Soprano's market.




I believe cars 1 through 8 made up the original 1894 roster.

WS&ATCo Numbers 9 and 10:
DE RR ST (Double End, Railroad Roof, Single Truck)
Built by the Brill Co in 1896.
6 windows.
Car 10 later rebuilt as a parlor car.

These two cars were built in 1896, two years after the WS&ATCo began service.


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I believe the photo above probably shows Car No. 10 in its later, rebuilt configuration.



WS&ATCo Numbers 11 and 12:
DE RR ST (Double End, Railroad Roof, Single Truck)
Built by the Brill Co in 1894.
Open cars.
 10 Benchs.
Peckham trucks.
Color Yellow.

This these cars are said to have been built in 1894, and since cars 9 and 10 arrived in 1896, it is safe to assume that 11 and 12 arrived second hand. I currently have no photos of car 11 or 12.

WS&ATCo Numbers 13, 14 and 15:
DE DR ST (Double End, Deck Roof, Single Truck)
Built by the Brill Co in 1896.
Open cars.
 10 Bench.
18 feet length.
Red & Yellow color.

These are the first cars to arrive with a "deck roof", as opposed to the earlier "railroad roof" style.





And another beautiful photo of car No. 13.
(If anyone recognizes that house, please let me know! I would love to do a "then and now" photo of this scene.)


WS&ATCo Numbers 16, 17 and 18:
DE DR ST (Double End, Deck Roof, Single Truck)
22 Foot cars.
Open cars.
No. 18 had a closed vestibule.



Here is a beautiful colored postcard of "a" Number 18..but is it the first, original Number 18? perhaps not. Because this car clearly has a railroad roof, not a deck roof. There is the possibility that some cars were renumbured at some point; this postcard, and a photo in the section below for cars 54 and 55, reflect that possibility. So this postcard might show the "second number 18"..This possible renumburing is still not fully understood.


WS&ATCo Numbers 52 and 53:
DE DR DT (Double End, Deck Roof, Double Truck)
11 windows.
GE 67 Motors.

These were the first of the large double-truck cars.

WS&ATCo Numbers 54 and 55:
DE RR DT (Double End, Railroad Roof, Double Truck)
11 windows.
(Printed rosters say these cars had 9 windows, but the photo below shows that is incorrect, its actually 11 windows)
Possibly built in 1908 by Stephenson.
33' long.






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  This photo is interesting, because the car is numbured No. 17!
But it clearly cant be the *original* number 17, none of the features match, It is instead clearly number 54 or 55! Some re-numburing of cars must have happened at some point, which is not reflected in any known writings on the WS&ATCo.


WS&ATCo Numbers 56:
DE DR DT (Double End, Deck Roof, Double Truck)
12 windows, end windows longer than others.
Built by Kuhlman (shop No. 676)
Originally from Cleveland area.
Was Single-end when new, and an open car.
I have no photos of No. 56.

The five cars in the "50 series" were the largest cars on the WS&ATCo, and the only double-truck cars on the roster.

WS&ATCo Numbers 101, 102 and 103:
DE AR ST (Double End, Arch Roof, Single Truck)
One man Birney "safety cars"
Built by Wason.
28' long
Br. 79 E (I dont know what that means)
Electric heat.
Color Green.
Purchased in 1926 from Keene, N.H. Electric Railway Co.
(a 4th car was believed purchased for parts)

These were probably the last cars to operate, purchased in 1926, and presumably ran until the end of operations in 1930.




 



  

 





 
A Tour of Waverly, Sayre & Athens Traction Company.
This section will take us on a tour around the Valley! taking a ride on the trolley. For some of the scenes, there is a "then and now" comparision, showing the same location "Then" (early 20th Century) and "Now" (early 21st Century!) Those photos will be marked on the side with a Victorian Gentleman pointing at the photo with his cane:
                                                               
When you see him, hover your mouse cursor over the photo, and the scene will change! take away the cursor, and it will change back.




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First stop, The headquarters for the line was the South Waverly "car barn".(photo above) this was where the trollys were kept, where repairs and maintance work was done, and where the offices of the railway were located. This building was on Spring street, nearly across from today's Guthrie Inn. Some of this building still exists! and is today incorporated as part of the Penelec building.














 





















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(Notice the square doors..this is probably the back of the barn.)



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The W.S.&A.T.Co. lettering at the top of the car barn.

Let's start at the car barn, and do a tour around the system. Leaving the barn, we turn right and head north on Spring street, up toward Waverly.

We enter Waverly (and New York State) by passing under the Erie Railroad bridge at the corner of Broad Street and Cayuta Ave in Waverly.

 
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This is a well known intersection among Valley residents! To the right is the Erie Railroad bridge over Cayuta ave. We are standing on Broad street, looking East. The trolley on the left was heading south on Cayuta ave, and is turning west onto Broad street. The two trolleys on the right have headed North on Spring street from South Waverly, and are also turning onto Broad street. Broad street extension today heads "straight" out from the view above, however it appears it did not yet exist when the photo above was taken.


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A close-up of Car number 3, from the photo above.



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and a close-up of the unidentified open car, from the photo above.

From this intersection, we could go in two directions, depending on which car, and which "route" we are on..we could continue North up Cayuta ave, or turn onto Broad street.

Lets continue north up Cayuta ave first..We would go up to Ithaca street, where we would turn right and cross the creek, heading over the LVRR East Waverly passenger station, located where Ithaca street meets the tracks, near today's East Waverly baseball fields. Then we would turn around, and travel all the way down Ithaca street to Chemung street.


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Corner of Ithaca street and Cayuta ave. The trolley is headed West on Ithaca
street. The building above is on the site of the parking lot of the
present Soprano's market.



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We could then travel west down the middle of Chemung street, (above)
or take the "belt line" up through the northern Waverly streets, via William st, Center St, Clinton ave and Pine street.


Another view of Chemung Street, looking east.


Now we arrive on the west side of Waverly, at the intersection of Broad street and Elmira street. At this spot, we could change cars and transfer to the Elmira, Corning & Waverly Railway! a second streetcar line (this one called an "interurban" line since it connects several cities and towns) and take a trolley westward to Chemung, Wellsburg, Elmira and Corning!


Streetcar of the Elmira Corning & Waverly railway, at Wellsburg, NY.

And! you could travel even further.. A third streetcar line interchanged with the EC&W. The "Glen Route", also known as the Elmira and Seneca Lake Railway Company, traveled from Elmira up to Watkins Glen.


Streetcar of the "Glen Route"

Today one trolley car survives from these three systems. There are no (known) surviving trolley cars from the Waverly Sayre & Athens, but one car from the Elmira Corning & Waverly Railway survives! It is at the New York Museum of Transportation in Rush, NY. (South of Rochester) Which has operating trolleys from Rochester's streetcar lines! http://www.nymtmuseum.org/

At one time you could take a trolley car from the Valley, to Chemung, Wellsburg, Elmira, Corning, Horseheads, Mountour Falls, and Watkins Glen! And as I said above, there were plans in the works to also connect to the Binghamton area's streetcar line, which extended as far west as Owego..but the connection between Waverly and Owego was never made.

Today we arent going to travel west of Waverly however, we are going to stick to riding only within the Valley, on our own WS&ATCo.

From Elmira street, we turn onto Broad street and travel down the middle of downtown Waverly.


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A view of Broad street in Waverly, 1895. Near the corner of Broad & Fulton streets, looking east. The old Waverly clock tower is visable. (I remember the clock tower from my childhood..it burned to the ground in 1980) Today a small replica of the clock exists in the small park at Broad & Waverly street.


 











 























 


Some more views of Broad street in the Trolley Days:


A colorized postcard made from the same photo as above.









From Waverly we can head back south to visit the rest of the Valley. We leave Broad street by travling south on Elmira street, then zig-zag our way through South Waverly streets, arriving at Keystone Avenue in Sayre in the vicinity of today's McDonalds resturant. Then we head south on Keystone Ave.

Soon we pass by Keystone Park. As a trolley patron, Keystone Park might have been our destination! The park was built by the WS&ATCo as a destination, which many trolley and interurban lines did during this era. Keystone park was located at, and behind, what is today the Keystone Roller Rink and the Cider Mill, on Keystone ave just south of Pitney Street. During the parks heyday, it had a dance hall, a shooting range, picnic grounds and several amusement rides.



Keystone park opened in 1908, and was operated by the Trolley company until 1919. Then we have records that a Mr. Earl Knickerbocker of Binghamton bought and re-opened the park in 1921, and perhaps added more rides. (I suspect the roller coaster dates from this later era.) But it is currently unknown how long the park operated into the 1920's, and the exact date the park closed is still uncertain. I believe some original structures from Keystone park are still out behind the roller rink! A future goal for this webpage project is to ask for permission to take a look out there, and see if any surviving structures can be identified and photographed. If so, I will add more "then and now" photo pairs to this site. Meanwhile, some information and views of Keystone Park:

An article from 1909, read down the left column first, then the right:







 


The "Keystone Central" - the park's miniature railroad.
(I wonder if that locomotive still exists somewhere? it might!)
It is a "Cagney" locomotive, built by the "Miniature Railway Company" of Jersey City, NJ, and built at their shop in Niagara Falls, NY . The Miniature Railway Company was a joint venture of the Cagney and McGarigle families, who built and provided "park railroads" for the Herschell-Spillman company of Tonawanda , NY . (Buffalo area.) Herschell built amusement park rides, and is most famous for building carousels. Herschell did not build the Cagney locomotives themselves, but sold them as part of their line of products for amusement parks. Based on the features of the Keystone Central's locomotive, it was built sometime after 1904. (thanks to Keith Taylor for the Cagney information!)

 

Leaving Keystone Park. we continue south down Keystone avenue:


(does anyone recognize this specific location?)

Then we turn left onto Lockhart street, pass in front of Sayre High School, and arrive in downtown Sayre, Pennsylvania.


Looking north up Keystone ave, from the ramp of the old walkbridge.

 A colorized postcard from the same location.

At the intersection of Lockhart street and Desmond street, we turn right (south) onto Desmond Street.










 



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Looking at Sayre's Desmond Street business district from Desmond Street Park. Today this location is *inside* the Newberrys building! There is much interest in restoring Desmond Street park and returning downtown Sayre to its original, much nicer looking configuration. There is a the link for a webpage about Desmond Street park at the bottom of this page.

 











 



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Restore Desmond Street Park! :)
Imagine how nice downtown Sayre could look again.

 

 

Leaving Desmond street, we turn west onto Packer ave, then turn again and head South on Elmer ave, pass in front of the Sayre theatre, go down two blocks then turn West on Chemung street, and back to Keystone avenue. Turning south on Keystone, we head down to Athens.


In the postcard above, the trolley has just descended the hill on North Main street, at Walnut, and is headed south toward downtown Athens. The houses on the left no longer stand, and the land they once occupied is today IR parking lots..and all the buildings on the right are also gone today! and the area to the right is today the Dandy Minimart, and just behind the photographer on the right, the Agway.

Continuing south, we reach downtown Athens, PA:















 



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From downtown Athens, we continue south down Main street, past the Athens library, past the bridge over the Chemung river, and all the way down South Main street as far south as it goes..then there is a loop, and have we reached the southern end of the system..we turn around, and re-trace our steps back North again..here is the system map again for reference:



 Now we travel back up through Athens, and over again to downtown Sayre..now we can take the last remaining section that we havent yet traveled, from downtown Sayre, up Elmer ave to Spring street, and back to the car barn, where we started..

From Desmond street in downtown Sayre, we turn onto Lockhart street, but this time, instead of heading back to Keystone ave, we turn and travel north on Elmer avenue:


From North Elmer ave, we turn onto Mohawk for one block, then we come to the largest structure built by the trolley company; The Spring Street Bridge!

This bridge spanned the LV tracks from the corner of Spring street and North Lehigh ave, at the intersection that today has the "Original Italian Grille" resturant in the old LV freight house..The bridge went up and over multiple tracks, then back down to street level again between Croft lumber and the Milltown bridge..

Looking at the site today, you might wonder why a bridge was needed at all.. today there is only one track crossing Spring street, and it only gets one or two trains a day. But in the late 19th century there were as many as seven or eight tracks crossing spring street, and some were "yard tracks"..It was a very busy railroad site, so the LV demanded that the trolley company build the bridge over the tracks, which benefited everyone. Automobile and pedestrian traffic also used this bridge during the 36 year run of the WS&ATCo.

















 




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Above is the intersection of Spring street and North Lehigh avenue, looking up Spring street. The Lehigh Valley freight station is to the right, which is today (in 2013) the location of the Original Italian Grille resturant.

 










 



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North of the bridge, the buildings of the large Cayuta Wheel Foundry are visable in the background.
















 



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This last photo (above) is from the top of the bridge, looking south into the LV Sayre yard.  I was not able to get the exact same position, because the bridge no longer exists! so instead I had to use the approximate position from ground level.
And now we cross over the bridge, return to street level between Croft Lumber and the Milltown bridge, and head back up to the Spring Street car barn and offices of the Trolley company, where our journey began. We have done the full loop all the way around the Valley!


 



And that concludes this look at the Waverly Sayre & Athens Traction Company.
I still plan to update this page a bit! I would like to get some "then and now" comparisions of Keystone Park, and a few other areas around the system. If anyone has anything to add, please let me know! :)
thanks,
Scot


Scot Lawrence, Rochester, NY.
(Valley native, born in Sayre, grew up in Waverly! WHS class of '87)
This page started in August 2013.
Last updated March 3, 2016.
Link to the "Restore Desmond Street Park!" webpage.

Feel free to email me at: sscotsman at yahoo dot com

Return to Scot's main page.