The Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad was one of the alphabet soup of New England railroads, this one extending 300 miles from Massena Springs, New York to Niagara Falls, with branches to Ogdensburg, Rome, Syracuse, Rochester, and other cities along the way. With connections to the New York Central, Michigan Central, and Grand Trunk at Niagara Falls and the Central Vermont at Norwood Junction, which was 13 miles short of Massena Springs, the RW&O formed an important link of travel between New England and the Midwest.

Click image to download a 7.0-MB PDF of this brochure, which is from the David Rumsey map collection.

The timetable shows that the railroad offered two unnamed trains a day on the mainline from Massena Springs to Niagara Falls, plus more trains that didn’t go all the way to Niagara Falls and several branchlike trains. The brochure also has four panels of “condensed time tables,” which are really suggested routings that would use the RW&O for journeys between the Northeast and Midwest.

One suggestion was to take the Boston & Maine from Kennebunkport to Portland; the Portland & Ogdensburg to Swanton, Vermont; the Central Vermont to Ogdensburg; the RW&O to Niagara Falls; and the Michigan Central to Chicago. Alternatively, passengers could take the New York Central from Niagara Falls to Buffalo and NYC subsidiary Lake Shore & Michigan Southern to Chicago.

It doesn’t appear that through cars were available on any of these routes, so several changes of trains were needed for longer journeys. This would be reduced somewhat in 1913 when the RW&O was merged into the New York Central.