Editing Hornell, New York (section)

== Railroads and Hornell ==
[[Image:Hornell NY LOC 123223pu.jpg|thumb|left|Former [[Erie Railway]] repair shop in Hornell. View is looking north towards downtown Hornell. Note the rotating train turntable and the [[Canisteo River]]. Photo from 1971.]]

Hornell had four rail lines, though the companies operating the railroads often changed names, routes, and ownership:
* The main Erie Railroad line, connecting New York City (terminal in [[Hoboken, New Jersey]]) and [[Dunkirk, New York]].
* Erie's Buffalo line. This began as the Attica and Hornellsville Railroad (1845–1851), which became part of the [[Buffalo and New York City Railroad]], which extended the line to Buffalo and operated it from 1852 to 1861, when it was acquired by Erie. Hornell was the junction and transfer point for the two main branches of the Erie.
* A line running to the northeast, from a separate depot on Seneca St. near Adsit,<ref name=Go>{{cite news
|title=It's a Go! The Street Railway Contract All Finished. - It Will Be a First-Class Road and Equipments—Cars Every 10 Minutes. The Contractor Here
|newspaper=[[The Evening Tribune (Hornell)|Hornellsville Weekly Tribune]] ([[Hornellsville, New York]])
|date=April 8, 1892
|page=3
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33092169/construction_of_the_hornell_traction/
|access-date=June 21, 2019
|archive-date=June 21, 2019
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621150924/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33092169/construction_of_the_hornell_traction/
|url-status=live
}}</ref> connecting Hornell via [[Wayland, New York|Wayland]] with [[Geneva, New York|Geneva]]. The company was the Geneva Southwestern and Hornellsville Railway (1872–1875), then the Geneva and Hornellsville Railway (1875–1876), and the Geneva, Hornellsville and Pine Creek Railway (1876–1879), and the Rochester, Hornellsville and Lackawanna Railroad (1886–1889), then the [[Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western]], or Lackawanna for short. Later the [[Pittsburg, Shawmut and Northern Railroad]] ran on this route one train in each direction per day, connecting Hornell with [[Angelica, New York|Angelica]] to the west and [[Wayland, New York|Wayland]] to the north.
* The Hornellsville Electric Railway Company and Hornellsville & Canisteo Railway Company, consolidated in 1909 as the [[Hornell Traction Company]], provided service to [[North Hornell, New York|North Hornell]], [[Canisteo (village), New York|Canisteo]], and within the city, linking the Lackawanna and Erie depots, from 1892 until 1926.

Some grading was done in 1872–1873 for a proposed but unbuilt Rochester, Hornellsville, and Pine Creek railroad.<ref>{{cite news
|title=States Items
|newspaper=Buffalo Weekly Courier
|date=June 25, 1873
|page=4
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32965431/grading_for_the_unbuilt_rochester/
|access-date=June 17, 2019
|archive-date=June 17, 2019
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617194015/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32965431/grading_for_the_unbuilt_rochester/
|url-status=live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
|title=Steuben
|newspaper=[[Democrat and Chronicle]]
|date=November 25, 1887
|page=3
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32965677/more_on_grading_for_unbuilt_rochester/
|access-date=June 17, 2019
|archive-date=June 19, 2019
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619212015/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32965677/more_on_grading_for_unbuilt_rochester/
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

The most important railroad in Hornell was the [[New York and Erie Railroad]], or Erie for short. It arrived in Hornell in 1850 and began public service on May 14, 1851. President [[Millard Fillmore]], himself a native of western New York, and Secretary of State [[Daniel Webster]] rode through Hornell on the inaugural train.<ref name=Cornish>{{cite web
|title=Time Line History of Hornell, New York
|year=2015
|first=Collette
|last=Cornish
|others=Author is City of Hornell Historian.
|access-date=May 20, 2019
|url=https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/7937b567/files/uploaded/city-timelinehistoryofhornell2015.pdf
|archive-date=July 10, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710204140/https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/7937b567/files/uploaded/city-timelinehistoryofhornell2015.pdf
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

Hornell was a central location on the Erie, making it a favorable location for the railroad's repair yards. According to an 1882 traveler's guide to the Erie Railroad, in Hornell "There are an immense amount of side-tracks, ample engine-houses, repair-shops, and other railroad structures, as the village is the dividing-point of the Susquehanna and Western Divisions, and the point of junction of the Buffalo Division of the Erie Railway.... It has banks, newspapers, a nourishing library association, which maintains a course of popular lectures, and is one of the most efficient and attractive institutions of the kind in the interior of the State. There are churches of various denominations, and a population of about 9,000. The cars destined for Buffalo, Niagara Falls, etc., are here detached from those going west via Salamanca or Dunkirk. At the station is a spacious dining-saloon, where meals are served to travelers at regular hours."<ref>{{cite book
|page=[https://archive.org/details/erierouteguideto00mott/page/42 42]
|title=The Erie route: a guide to the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railway and its branches, with Sketches of the Cities, Villages, Scenery and Objects of Interest along the Route, and Railroad, Steamboat and Stage Connections. Map and Illustrations
|others=The author is identified as "Of the General Passenger Department of the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad" 
|last=Mott
|first=E. H. [Edward Harold]
|date=1882
|publisher=Taintor Brothers
|url=https://archive.org/details/erierouteguideto00mott}}</ref>

In 1895 the Erie constructed "at the foot of Pine Street...an immense stock barn" for the large number of cattle being shipped east on its trains.<ref>{{cite news
|title=The Erie Establishes a Feeding Station at Hornellsville
|newspaper=Buffalo Courier
|date=February 14, 1895
|page=9
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32978976/the_erie_railroad_built_a_stock_barn_in/
|access-date=June 18, 2019
|archive-date=June 18, 2019
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190618021431/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32978976/the_erie_railroad_built_a_stock_barn_in/
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

=== Hornell during the railroad period (1860–1960) ===
[[File:The trolley passing under the Erie Railroad tracks, Hornell, NY.jpg|thumb|The Canisteo Street underpass of the Erie Railroad tracks, early 20th century. View is looking north towards downtown.]]

For the next hundred years Hornell enjoyed prosperity, with its steam engine shop doing the repairs for the entire Erie line. The most important point in town was the train station, which survives and since 2005 houses the Hornell Erie Depot Museum. Next to it were the police station and fire department, at the beginning of Broadway, a wide street with stores, a luncheonette, and the Steuben and Majestic Theaters. Heading south, Broadway ended at Canisteo Street just before it passed under the tracks, a route served for some decades by the [[Hornell Traction Company]]. The underpass was closed, save for a pedestrian passage, when the Route 36 arterial was built.

At the five-way intersection just north of the underpass, where Broadway began, Canisteo Street ran northwestward. Near its southern end (now covered by the Route 36 arterial), was Hornell's largest hotel, the New Sherwood, the offices of the [[The Evening Tribune (Hornell)|Hornell Evening Tribune]] and above it those of its radio station [[WHHO|WWHG]]. On the east side was a storefront [[Greyhound Lines|Greyhound]] station (service Elmira – Corning – Bath – Hornell – Batavia – Buffalo, no direct service to [[Rochester, New York|Rochester]]); on the west side was Hornell's main park, Union Park, destroyed by the Hornell Arterial, with the city's high school (middle school after new high school built), containing the city's largest auditorium, and other businesses. Main Street, with the Hornell Theater, [[WLEA]]'s studios, Koskie's music store, and other businesses, connected the two now-separated streets (Broadway and Canisteo/Seneca). Main St. extended east to Hornell's [[Carnegie Library]] (the [[Hornell Public Library]]), Hornell's largest grocery store, [[Loblaw's]], the [[YMCA]], with the only public swimming pool in the city, various medical and dental offices, and finally (turning south and crossing the Canisteo River), the Erie repair shops. North of Main Street the downtown area extended another block with the city's pharmacy, Jacobson's, a shoe store, the [[United States Post Office (Hornell, New York)|United States Post Office]] (all now [2009] vacant), and the [[Steuben Trust Company]] (bank). In the block north of Main Street, Church Street had Hornell's synagogue, [[Temple Beth-El (Hornell, New York)|Temple Beth-El]] (closed), and at the intersection with Genesee Street four churches, one on each corner; two survive today (2017). Further north on Seneca Street were Hornell's best restaurant, The Big Elms, Hornell's baseball field (from 1942 to 1957 Hornell had a minor-league team), and car dealers. The current high school is adjacent to the baseball field. The city ended at the [[Canisteo River]], where a bridge led to the village of [[North Hornell, New York|North Hornell]].

Yet things were not idyllic in Hornell. In 1922, after a recruitment talk by "[[KKK]] organizer C. S. Fowler... at the local [[Grand Army of the Republic]] hall, the Klan announced its existence by igniting a huge cross on the side of a mountain, a demonstration evidently intended to intimidate the community's sizable immigrant population."<ref>{{cite book
|page=48
|title=Hooded Knights on the Niagara: The Ku Klux Klan in Buffalo, New York
|first=Shawn
|last=Lay
|year=1995
|publisher=[[NYU Press]]
|isbn=9780814752661
|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/15771
|access-date=2020-09-28
|archive-date=2021-07-10
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710204142/https://muse.jhu.edu/book/15771
|url-status=live
}}</ref>

=== Hornell in the post-railroad period (1960–present) ===
Hornell has struggled to regain its former prosperity. The population is half what it was in 1960, and still declining. Passenger service, in severe decline, ended completely by 1970. (The former station has been refurbished and, since 2006, is the Hornell Erie Depot Museum.)  The railroad came upon further hard times as trucking picked up more and more of the freight business. In October 1960, the Erie merged with the [[Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad|Lackawanna]] to form the [[Erie Lackawanna Railway|Erie Lackawanna]]. Diesel engines, replacing older steam engines, required less maintenance;<ref name=Cornish/> consequently, many of the staff were laid off. The Erie Accounting Office, in Hornell, was closed and its work transferred to the Lackawanna headquarters in [[Scranton, Pennsylvania]]. In 1972, flooding from [[Hurricane Agnes]] destroyed about {{convert|200|mi|km}} of roadbed along the [[Canisteo River]], removing all hope of reoperating the railroad line southeast of Hornell. The Erie Lackawanna filed for bankruptcy soon after.

[[File:Hornell station - July 2013.jpg|right|thumb|The Hornell Erie Depot Museum, photographed in July&nbsp;2013]]

The former Erie repair shops were completely closed for years. They were later reopened to service [[Electro-Motive Diesel|EMD]] diesels and perform bodywork and painting. Yet later, they were operated by [[General Electric]] for a short time, followed by [[Morrison-Knudsen]].

Today, the Hornell shops are a major employer, serving as [[Alstom]]'s main North American assembly and manufacturing site, at which AC traction motors, railway cars, and passenger locomotives are produced. Car bodies are shipped [[Complete knock down|disassembled]] from [[São Paulo]], [[Brazil]], and assembled in Hornell. Alstom won a contract worth $194 million to completely overhaul [[PATCO Speedline]]'s [[light rail]] fleet, beginning in 2011.<ref>{{cite press release |title=PATCO's entire metro fleet to be modernised between Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey |date=June 2, 2011 |publisher=Alstom |url=http://www.alstom.com/press-centre/2011/2/A-contract-valued-at-around-140-million-euros-in-the-US/ |access-date=2013-06-16 |archive-date=2013-04-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130414162742/http://www.alstom.com/press-centre/2011/2/A-contract-valued-at-around-140-million-euros-in-the-US/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2013, the facility was contracted to build 34 light rail vehicles for [[OC Transpo]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Vantuono|first1=William C.|title=Alstom finalizes Ottawa LRT contract|work=[[Railway Age]]|publisher=Simmons-Boardman Publishing Inc.|date=February 14, 2013}}</ref>  In 2020, the plant began production of [[Amtrak]]'s second generation [[Acela Express|Acela]] high-speed trains.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Amtrak puts $2 billion On the Line
|first=Ted
|last=Mann
|newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]]
|date=May 13, 2019
|page=A3}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| title=FRA approves move of high-speed train from Hornell to Colorado for Testing| newspaper=[[The Evening Tribune (Hornell)|The Evening Tribune]] |date=Jan 22, 2020 |location=Hornell, NY | url=https://www.eveningtribune.com/news/20200122/fra-approves-move-of-high-speed-train-from-hornell-to-colorado| access-date=February 1, 2021| archive-date=September 22, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922051515/https://www.eveningtribune.com/news/20200122/fra-approves-move-of-high-speed-train-from-hornell-to-colorado| url-status=live}}</ref>  In January 2021, the plant won a $1.8bn contract to build new passenger railcars for [[Metra]], which is expected to create 250 additional jobs.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Alstom awarded $1.8 billion Metra contract, hundreds of new jobs coming to Hornell
|date=January 13, 2021
|url=https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/corning-bureau/alstom-awarded-1-8-billion-metra-contract-hundreds-of-new-jobs-coming-to-hornell
|newspaper=My Twin Tiers
|access-date=February 1, 2021
|archive-date=February 3, 2021
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203061848/https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/corning-bureau/alstom-awarded-1-8-billion-metra-contract-hundreds-of-new-jobs-coming-to-hornell/
|url-status=live
}}</ref>