[1][2] A passenger traveling between Buffalo and Cleveland was forced to change trains twice: once in Erie and once at the Pennsylvania–New York border, because of the different gauges.
[7] That evening, 7 miles (11 km) away, the citizens of the town of Harborcreek, decided to pass their own ordinances, then proceeded to tear up tracks along the highway.
"[9] The most serious incident occurred on December 27, 1853, when a train of railroad officials and workers on the new line was stopped outside of Harborcreek by a crowd of people ripping up the tracks.
[11] Townspeople were assaulted, the local newspaper's building was torn down and the ruins burnt, and the Presbyterian church split in two.
[12] Pennsylvania Governor William Bigler sympathized with Erie saying, "Pennsylvania holds the key to this important link of connexion between the East and the West, and I most unhesitatingly say, that where no principle of amity or commerce is to be violated, it is the right and the duty of the State to turn her natural advantages to the promotion of the views and welfare of her own people.
Most people had to walk the 7-mile (11 km) gap left by the Rippers, even in the dead of winter "with icy winds sweeping across Lake Erie...Many had feet, hands and faces frostbitten.
One man was frozen to death....Embittered tourists stumbled through the snow afoot, dragging their luggage with them whenever it was humanly possible rather than buy anything in Erie.
[16] In January 1854, with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise by the Kansas–Nebraska Act, the Erie Gauge War stopped attracting attention.
[17] On January 28, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed legislation maintaining "the break at Erie" and repealing the charter for the Franklin Canal Company.