The Nickel Plate railroad’s establishment of two food terminal operations in Cleveland and Buffalo in the early 1930s was a bold and innovative step in the evolution of a fast freight operating strategy that had its genesis at the very beginning of the railroad’s operation in 1882. In preparation for the opening of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway (which would become commonly known as the “Nickel Plate”), the investors, known as the Seney Syndicate, struck an agreement to haul fresh meat from the Chicago Stockyards to Buffalo. The transportation of perishables by rail was a risky undertaking, necessitating a strategy that moved the meat trains to their destination as quickly as possible.

On October 26, 1882, a mere three days after trains began operating, William H. Vanderbilt purchased the Nickel Plate (NKP) to avoid competition with his other rail lines. But the “fast freight strategy” proved an immediate success, so the meat trains continued to roll even after the purchase. By the mid-1890s, the daily meat train departed Chicago with as many as 12 sections.

This fast movement of perishable meat quickly led to the Nickel Plate’s expansion into the Concord fresh table grape shipping business from shipping points along the south shore of Lake Erie between Harborcreek, PA, and Silver Creek, NY. While other lines had neglected the opportunities surrounding carload shipments of fresh grapes, the Nickel Plate not only worked with independent growers, packers and grower associations, but constructed dedicated grape tracks to supplement their sidings and team tracks. By the end of the 19th century, the line enjoyed a major share of the more than 4,400 carloads of grapes shipped from the Grape Belt during the nine-week season each fall.

In 1898, William Henry “Paddy” Canniff succeeded Samuel R. Callaway as president of the Nickel Plate. With delivery of new Class N 2-8-0 Consolidation locomotives from Dunkirk’s Brooks Locomotive Works in 1902 and Brooks Class P 4-6-0 Ten-Wheelers in 1905, Canniff began plans to take the Nickel Plate’s fast freight strategy to the next level. By 1909, his Chicago-to-Buffalo manifest freight trains were operating on a 31- to 34-hour schedule and the Nickel Plate became well-known for its handling of perishables. The line’s dominant share of the grape business continued to grow until total carloads shipped by the four railroads serving the Grape Belt surpassed 8,000 in 1915. Cars were regularly routed over the Nickel Plate to destinations as far away as Boston, New York, Chicago, St. Louis and Minneapolis. It was no surprise, therefore, that many carloads carried on the NKP were routed to the public markets in Cleveland and Buffalo.

Food distribution in the United States was tied directly to new modes of transportation that began to develop in the 19th century. In colonial times and through the first several decades of the 1800s, the vast majority of consumers grew their own food. While the Lancaster Central Market—America’s first farmer’s market—was established in 1757 and Baltimore’s venerable Lexington Market in 1782, it wasn’t until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and the subsequent growth of the nation’s canal system that commodities like flour, sugar and salt could be transported with efficiency and at cost-effective rates. As the nation’s transportation system improved, so did the distribution of these commodities.

The Erie Canal proved so lucrative that other states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland, rushed to compete with their own canals in the 1830s. The canal era was short-lived, however, as an even faster, cheaper and more expansive transportation system emerged in the 1840s. By 1860, the railroad had replaced the canal as the primary system for the transportation of agricultural goods.

A major step in the evolution of local food distribution was the establishment of public markets. As industrialization and urbanization brought more and more people to cities like Buffalo, Cleveland and Chicago, public markets provided a convenient means for growers and vendors to sell their produce and meats to consumers. During the second half of the 19th century, public markets would become a hub of activity for the citizens of Buffalo. The Elk Street Market, located near downtown, was established in 1845 and would remain a dominant food distribution center despite the opening of the Washington Market (also referred to as the Chippewa Market) in 1856 and the Broadway Market on Buffalo’s East Side in 1888. By 1904, the Elk Street Market was considered “the largest fruit and garden truck market in the United States,” and its traffic in commodities rivaled any similar market in North America.

While farmers from all over northern Erie County brought hundreds of wagons loaded with fruits and vegetables to the Elk Street Market, paying a nominal fee to sell their wares, the market was also home to vendors of meat, poultry and dairy products as well as wholesalers and commodities brokers. The proximity to rail transportation eventually provided the Elk Street Market with a constant supply of produce and perishables from other parts of the country, something that expanded its food distribution base even further.

In July 1916, Cleveland real estate developers Mantis J. and Oris P. Van Sweringen purchased the Nickel Plate Line from the New York Central. The new management team headed by President John J. Bernet brought extensive experience on the Central with them, and the Nickel Plate’s new H-5 2-8-2 Mikado locomotives were built to the Central’s drawings and specifications with only a few modifications. By the end of August 1917, a total of 35 “Mikes” were operating in revenue service on the NKP—ten from the Lima Locomotive Works and 25 from Alco’s Brooks Works in Dunkirk.

Bernet’s strategy was to double the length of freight trains, thus handling the Nickel Plate’s normal volume of business with greater efficiency and at a reduced cost. The new Mikados would serve that purpose perfectly. While the confiscation of the nation’s railroads by the United States Railroad Administration on December 28, 1917, forced some severe setbacks to Bernet’s operating strategy, one positive aspect of USRA control was development of a highly successful USRA Light Mikado locomotive design. Ten of these, numbered 601-610, were delivered to the NKP at Buffalo in October 1918 and assigned Class H-6a. By December 1920, the Nickel Plate had received 46 more H-class locomotives from the Lima Locomotive Works and the road’s fast manifest freight service began moving to the next level.

The Nickel Plate’s reputation for fast manifest freight service faced intense competition from the New York Central, Pennsylvania and Erie railroads for the lucrative Chicago to New York freight market. The largest source of revenue was the forwarding of manufactured goods and perishables. By the early 1920s, with their Shaker Heights real estate project nearing completion, the new rapid-transit line in operation and their plan for a downtown Cleveland Union Terminal assured, the Van Sweringens undertook an expansion plan that would ultimately result in the consolidation of the Nickel Plate and several other lines to create a new New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company. This would expand the geographical base, but more importantly, provided them trunk-line access to two new gateways to America’s agricultural heartland: St. Louis and Peoria.

Construction on the Cleveland Union Terminal—with its landmark tower—began in early 1922. Meanwhile, the demolition of most of the structures in Cleveland’s food distribution center just east of downtown resulted in the Nickel Plate’s decision to construct a huge, ultramodern produce terminal just north of its new East 55th Street yard. This would be the first step in the line’s innovative and visionary approach to integrating transportation and distribution through cooperation and collaboration with the local produce trade.

The railroad went about the project quietly and bought up a large tract of low-grade residential land adjacent to its right-of-way, near the geographical center of population of greater Cleveland. The commission merchants of the city were then invited to form an association for the purpose of developing a new wholesale produce center with adequate facilities to serve Cleveland and northern Ohio.

A simple and fair agreement was struck. The railroad would assume the entire cost of developing the yard and trackage. It would turn over to the merchants, at cost, the land necessary for the market area and its streets and would underwrite the buildings and improvements. It also consented to absorb the yard costs and all legal and engineering fees. For their part, the merchants agreed to form a company and construct the buildings and improvements and to guarantee the down payments, interest and amortization due the railroad. On this basis, the Northern Ohio Food Terminal, Inc. was formed and the project bearing that name was planned and constructed.

At the time it was incorporated, its members were handling over 90 percent of fruit and vegetable shipments coming into Cleveland. The location was served directly by the Nickel Plate Railroad, while offering access to other railroads on the basis of a fixed charge per car.

Once general building plans were complete, association members chose their locations by lot, each taking from one to four units, according to the size and needs of his business. Certain changes were then made to accommodate individual owners, such as omitting elevators and changing partitions, but executed in such a way that changes could be reversed when desired. A growers’ market, located on an adjacent four-and-one-half-acre parcel, operated three mornings each week during the local growing season. Its covered sheds could accommodate up to 375 local farmers and growers, providing a wide range of local produce.

By the end of its first decade, the total volume of business generated by The Northern Ohio Food Terminal was approximately $75 million. Over and above income from lease payments and administrative fees, the Nickel Plate was handling approximately 18,000 cars annually in the food terminal yard, thus generating an additional stream of revenue.

Meanwhile, 184 miles to the east in Buffalo, a complex competitive situation was evolving that would ultimately prompt Nickel Plate management to establish a second food terminal facility in that city—this time in partnership with another Van Sweringen railroad, the Erie.

During the last half of the 19th century, Buffalo’s Elk Street Market had become the area’s major food distribution center. Prior to the Nickel Plate establishing itself as a major shipper of perishables from Chicago, the Vanderbilts had controlled market distribution through their several constituent railroads that served Buffalo and Western New York. However, the NKP had become more and more of a competitor in the early 20th century, and thus with the creation of the New York Central System on December 22, 1914, a new competitive strategy was implemented.

To control the rail distribution of food products in Buffalo and Western New York, the New York Central constructed its own Elk Street Terminal Market a short distance away from the original market, immediately drawing away many of the latter’s vendors, brokers and commission merchants. By the early 1920s, discussions began about developing a “union terminal market” for Buffalo that would include not only the NYC, but the Nickel Plate, Erie and the Pennsylvania. Discussions collapsed, however, when the NYC refused to share management control with any of the other railroads.

Undaunted, the Nickel Plate moved forward with its own plan, using the Northern Ohio Food Terminal project as a model. Due to the enormous cost of such a major development on top of its Cleveland projects, the Nickel Plate Development Company worked jointly with the Erie Railroad and its Erie Real Estate Development Company on property acquisition and construction for the Buffalo facility.

Thus, the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal was jointly constructed by the Nickel Plate and the Erie Railroad. But the vast majority of meat and fresh produce arrived in Buffalo via the Nickel Plate’s fleet of high-speed, manifest freight trains from the railroad’s western gateway cities of St. Louis, Peoria and Chicago. Completed in the spring of 1931 (less than two years after the opening of the Northern Ohio Food Terminal), the new terminal was located on a 100-acre tract of property at the intersection of Clinton Street and Bailey Avenue—two major thoroughfares providing easy access to and from the entire Buffalo area. The property was also adjacent to the Erie’s East Buffalo Yard, providing direct access from the Nickel Plate’s Tifft Street receiving yard by way of its Abbott Road Yard.

Architectural and engineering details for the new Buffalo food terminal project were handled by the Geo. S. Rider Company of Cleveland, while all the construction work, with the exception of the track work and the incinerator construction, was handled by the John W. Cowper Company of Buffalo. The total investment in land, buildings, and track facilities at the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal came to approximately $7.5 million.

On March 30,1931, the NKP received approval from the Interstate Commerce Commission for trackage rights over the Erie between its Abbott Road Yard and the food terminal facility using its own power and crews at a rental fee of 50 cents for each loaded car “moved thereover.” However, the ICC issued a report severely criticizing the Erie, Nickel Plate and New York Central for conducting a “produce war” in Buffalo by constructing two produce terminals when one would have been sufficient and avoided unnecessary competition and serious waste.

While constructed by the two railroads, the Market District (as the terminal property was called) was owned by the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal, Inc., a consortium of vendors, brokers and commission merchants who made up the tenant base. It was similar to that of the Northern Ohio Food Terminal with approximately the same facilities, with the exception of Cleveland’s on-site auction house and cold storage plant.

The initial construction included five steel, brick and concrete buildings and three large warehouses on approximately 12 acres. The five main buildings were two-story structures, with full basements and receiving platforms 20 feet wide. There was also an incinerator plant with a capacity of 25 tons per day, a 20-ton truck scale and a large, modern garage facility for the convenience of the tenants. Given Buffalo winters, concrete booths were provided at the west ends of the team track driveways to provide shelter for car checkers in inclement weather. For night switching operations, two floodlight towers were positioned near the east end of the yard. The original plans also provided for eventual expansion.

Building No. 1 was occupied by egg and poultry dealers and wholesale grocers. It was divided into 24-foot units, a number of which had refrigerators. A portion of the second floor was occupied by brokers and allied food distribution interests and about 60,000 square feet was occupied by The Lederer Terminal Warehouse Company, which provided the grocers and dealers in the terminal with immediate and economical service.

Buildings Nos. 2 and 3 each housed a dozen 24-foot units occupied by fresh fruit and vegetable dealers, who received their car lot produce in the adjacent terminal yard. The office of the Railway Perishable Inspection Bureau was located on the second floor of building No. 2. Building numbers 4 and 5 each contained ten 24-foot units, occupied by dealers in perishable goods receiving car-lot shipments in the yard. Brokers, selling agencies, telegraph company and railroad offices and banking branches occupied the second floors of these buildings, while the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal offices were located in Building No. 5.

The terminal yard and adjacent receiving yard had a capacity of about 600 cars and provided additional space for expansion as business increased. The former featured 60-foot concrete driveways to permit efficient and economical handling of perishable products. While the yard was owned by the Erie Railroad, it was jointly operated with the Nickel Plate and open to all railroads for cars in reciprocal movement on a per-car-charge basis.

During its first seven years of operation, the terminal received approximately 10,000 carloads annually. Much like the Northern Ohio Food Terminal, the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal also provided space for a modern farmers’ market, located across Clinton Street on eight acres of land. This market was leased to the Niagara Frontier Growers Cooperative Market, Inc. and provided accommodations for up to 500 growers, with an adjacent 10-acre parcel available for future expansion.

As in Cleveland, the Buffalo terminal facilities attracted a number of associated food interests. These included wholesale grocers Danahy-Faxon Stores, Becker-Prentis, Inc., The Becker Company, S. M. Flickinger Company, Granger & Company and Canadian food giant Loblaw Groceterias, as well as nationally known meat packers, Wilson & Company.

The Great Depression took a heavy toll on the Nickel Plate’s profitability, and the road’s merchandise traffic suffered, but shipments of produce, meats and perishables kept the manifest fleet substantially intact and provided a constant flow of carloadings to the Cleveland and Buffalo food terminal operations. Despite the Depression, the annual volume of business during the terminal’s first decade of operation was between 50 and 60 million dollars. The economic impact of the NFFT on the local food distribution business was enormous and a constant demand for space in the Market District resulted in an ever-increasing waiting list.

The Van Sweringen brothers built their success on a combination of visionary and creative ideas, seeing opportunities where others did not, a willingness to take risks to obtain results and calculated stubbornness. Their transportation empire may have never reached its greatest potential during their lifetimes, but the legacy of the Nickel Plate Road and its innovative and successful approach to integrating high-speed manifest freight service with perishable food distribution in both Cleveland and Buffalo also remain as an important component of each community’s history.

With major changes to food distribution resulting from the introduction and spread of supermarkets in the 1950s, transportation by refrigerated trucks and the advent of frozen foods, coupled with the merger of the Nickel Plate Road into the Norfolk & Western Railway in 1964, the demise of the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal as the region’s centralized food distribution center was inevitable. As companies dealing in fresh produce became less common, tenants in later years shifted to larger freezer-focused distributors.

Both the Nickel Plate and Erie are gone, as are the manifest trains and the extensive rail yards that served them. The Niagara Frontier Food Terminal still stands, however, as a monument to Buffalo’s food distribution history. Today, Niagara Frontier Terminal, Inc. continues to serve Western New York. The multi-faceted venue combines wholesalers with producers of local food and beverages, as well as a variety of shops and retailers, plus second-floor space devoted to artists and small business.

A frequent contributor to Western New York Heritage, John Thomas Slater is the author of Legends of the Chautauqua-Erie Grape Belt (see page 2). He is also director emeritus of the Nickel Plate Road Historical & Technical Society.