Lehigh Valley West End / NY&OM question

Can anyone substantiate or deny if the LV used the survey alignment of the New York & Oswego Midland between the Geneva area and Buffalo ?

Apparently the NY&OM may have completed, although perhaps not filed?, a survey west from their end of track at Scipio, NY towards Buffalo or the Niagara River. There is some conjecture that this alignment is what the LV used to build their Western Extension.

The Midland plan was to build west from Norwich through DeRuyter and to Cortland, which they did, and connected with the Ithaca & Cortland Railroad, later Utica Ithaca & Elmira (then to Elmira, Cortland & Northern and finally to Lehigh Valley. Midland ran rights over the UI&E from Cortland to Freeville and UI&E had rights over the Midland to DeRuyter with plans to bridge to the CC&D building south from Canastota and Cazenovia.

Midland then branched off at Freeville towards Auburn in 1872 ending up at Scipio, NY south of Auburn which incidentally refused to bond itself to build the road into the City. Midland surveys then projected a route bypassing Auburn, as they had bypassed Syracuse and taken the north shore of Oneida Lake and headed for Mudlock up by the Seneca Canal. Surveys were reported to have been made to Buffalo area when the whole Midland line fell into bankruptcy in 1873 ending any plans of westward expansion.

hmm..good question! and I dont know..
we know the NY&OM ended at Scipio Summit, that part isn't in doubt..
map and info:

http://www.nyow.org/Articles/Auburn/auburn.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

but there are really three different unknown questions here:

1. Did the NY&OM (New York & Oswego Midland) ever do an actual survey, in the field, for their ROW west out of Geneva?
that isnt even known, as far as I know.

2. Then, if they did, how far did it go? (if they did go west of Geneva, it probably wasn't far..I doubt they got all the way to Buffalo..)

3. Then, assuming 1 and 2 are true and known, did the LV then later use any of that survey?

Personally im not convinced 1 and 2 ever even happened..but I dont know.
let the research commence!

Scot

Poor's Manual 1874 makes no mention of this proposed extension.

NY&OM was in receivership at that time.

There are numerous proposed extensions mentioned for other railroads,
including many that were only surveyed.

In 1871 the NY&OM was authorized to build a Western Extension from Auburn to any point on Lake Erie
or the Niagara River.

There was a lawsuit involving the town of Genoa which is discussed in detail on Google Books.

I don't see anything mentioning other towns along the proposed route. I don't think it was surveyed.

Search new york oswego midland.

Food for thought:

An 1873 NY&OM guide claims construction was started from Scipio to the Niagara River on September 3, 1873.

Middletown Daily Evening Press:

1-13-73 - Extension to be built Auburn to Buffalo to be completed by July 1874

7-7-73 - Midland has let contracts for building its extension to Buffalo from Scipio in ten mile sections

9-15-73 - Scipio to Buffalo line determined and construction started.

9-18-73 at 2pm Abram S. Hewitt appointed Receiver, all construction stops. It is not like any work authorized on the Extension could have gotten very far or even fully mobilized.

The lawsuit pertaining to Genoa seems to indicate that no surveys were actually filed but there is enough news chatter that a route was being surveyed, if not actually let to contract. How much of that was a smokescreen I do not know. The lawsuit also claims the Midland Board of Directors had not formally authorized a route or survey and even that bonding for the line within Tompkins County was not authorized under the charter of March 31, 1869 (I think that is the correct date).

Just makes me wonder what the real story might have been or if anyone has information on how the LV survey was done or obtained.

In Archer's Lehigh Valley book he makes no mention of a previous survey in
his chapter on the extension from Geneva to Buffalo.

While the "act" allowed the NY&OM to sell bonds along the proposed route, only Genoa
is actually mentioned.

When the Lehigh Valley decided to build from Geneva to Buffalo, it was
a wealthy trunk line about to be gobbled up by the even wealthier Reading.

They likely would have preferred their own survey.