1897 {TINY 3 INCH} *THE NEW YORK CENTRAL & HUDSON RIVER* VIGNETTE BOND COUPON!

Description

1897 ***SCARCE*** (TINY 3 INCH)  ~THE NEW YORK CENTRAL AND HUDSON RIVER BOND COUPON~ 155 NUMBER 55823   .50 {{{VIGNETTE}}} BOND COUPON!
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New York Central Railroad
New York Central Railroad
New York Central system in 1918
Overview
Headquarters
New York Central Building
,
New York City
Reporting mark
NYC
Locale
Northeast
to
Midwest
Dates of operation
May 17, 1853–January 31, 1968
Successor
Penn Central Transportation Company
Technical
Track gauge
4 ft
8
1
⁄
2
in
(
1,435 mm
)
standard gauge
The
New York Central Railroad
(
reporting mark
NYC
) was a
railroad
primarily operating in the
Great Lakes
and
Mid Atlantic
regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected
greater New York
and
Boston
in the east with
Chicago
and
St. Louis
in the
Midwest
along with the intermediate cities of
Albany
,
Buffalo
,
Cleveland
,
Cincinnati
,
Detroit
, and
Syracuse
. New York Central was headquartered in
New York City
's
New York Central Building
, adjacent to its largest station,
Grand Central Terminal
.
The railroad was established in 1853, consolidating several existing railroad companies. In 1968 the NYC merged with its former rival, the
Pennsylvania Railroad
, to form
Penn Central
. Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970 and merged into
Conrail
in 1976. Conrail was broken up in 1998, and portions of its system were transferred to
CSX
and
Norfolk Southern Railway
, with CSX acquiring most of the old New York Central trackage.
Extensive trackage existed in the states of
New York
,
Pennsylvania
,
Ohio
,
Michigan
,
Indiana
,
Illinois
,
Massachusetts
and
West Virginia
plus additional trackage in the Canadian provinces of
Ontario
and
Quebec
. At the end of 1925, the NYC operated 11,584 miles (18,643 km) of road and 26,395 miles (42,479 km) of track; at the end of 1967 the mileages were 9,696 miles (15,604 km) and 18,454 miles (29,699 km).
[1]
Early history
[
edit
]
Pre-New York Central: 1826–1853
[
edit
]
The main concourse of
Grand Central Terminal
, New York Central's most notable landmark
The
Helmsley Building
, formerly the New York Central Building, was the railroad's headquarters
Albany and Schenectady Railroad
[
edit
]
The
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad
was the oldest segment of the NYC merger and was the first permanent railroad in the state of New York and one of the
first railroads in the United States
. It was chartered in 1826 to connect the
Mohawk River
at
Schenectady
to the
Hudson River
at Albany, providing a way for freight and especially passengers to avoid the extensive and time-consuming locks on the
Erie Canal
between Schenectady and Albany. The Mohawk and Hudson opened on September 24, 1831, and changed its name to the
Albany and Schenectady Railroad
on April 19, 1847.
Utica and Schenectady Railroad
[
edit
]
The
Utica and Schenectady Railroad
was chartered April 29, 1833; as the railroad paralleled the Erie Canal it was prohibited from carrying
freight
. Revenue service began August 2, 1836, extending the line of the Albany and Schenectady Railroad west from Schenectady along the north side of the Mohawk River, opposite the Erie Canal, to
Utica
. On May 7, 1844, the railroad was authorized to carry freight with some restrictions, and on May 12, 1847, the ban was fully dropped, but the company still had to pay the equivalent in canal
tolls
to the state.
Syracuse and Utica Railroad
[
edit
]
The
Syracuse and Utica Railroad
was chartered May 1, 1836, and similarly had to pay the state for any freight displaced from the canal. The full line opened July 3, 1839, extending the line further to
Syracuse
via
Rome
(and further to
Auburn
via the already-opened
Auburn and Syracuse Railroad
). This line was not direct, going out of its way to stay near the Erie Canal and serve Rome, and so the
Syracuse and Utica Direct Railroad
was chartered January 26, 1853. Nothing of that line was ever built, though the later
West Shore Railroad
, acquired by the NYC in 1885, served the same purpose.
Auburn and Syracuse Railroad
[
edit
]
The Auburn and Syracuse Railroad was chartered May 1, 1834, and opened mostly in 1838, the remaining 4 miles (6.4 km) opening on June 4, 1839. A month later, with the opening of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad, this formed a complete line from Albany west via Syracuse to Auburn, about halfway to
Geneva
. The
Auburn and Rochester Railroad
was chartered May 13, 1836, as a further extension via Geneva and
Canandaigua
to
Rochester
, opening on November 4, 1841. The two lines merged on August 1, 1850, to form the rather indirect
Rochester and Syracuse Railroad
(known later as the
Auburn Road
). To fix this, the
Rochester and Syracuse Direct Railway
was chartered and immediately merged into the Rochester and Syracuse Railroad on August 6, 1850. That line opened June 1, 1853, running much more directly between those two cities, roughly parallel to the Erie Canal.
Buffalo and Rochester Railroad
[
edit
]
The
Tonawanda Railroad
, to the west of Rochester, was chartered April 24, 1832, to build from said city to
Attica
. The first section, from Rochester southwest to
Batavia
, opened May 5, 1837, and the rest of the line to Attica opened on January 8, 1843. The Attica and Buffalo Railroad chartered in 1836 and opened on November 24, 1842, running from Buffalo east to Attica. When the Auburn and Rochester Railroad opened in 1841, there was no connection at Rochester to the Tonawanda Railroad, but with that exception there was now an all-rail line between Buffalo and Albany. On March 19, 1844, the Tonawanda Railroad was authorized to build the connection, and it opened later that year. The Albany and Schenectady Railroad bought all the baggage, mail and emigrant cars of the other railroads between Albany and Buffalo on February 17, 1848, and began operating through cars.
On December 7, 1850, the Tonawanda Railroad and Attica and Buffalo Railroad merged to form the
Buffalo and Rochester Railroad
. A new direct line opened from Buffalo east to Batavia on April 26, 1852, and the old line between
Depew
(east of Buffalo) and Attica was sold to the Buffalo and New York City Railroad on November 1. The line was added to the
New York and Erie Railroad
system and
converted
to the Erie's
6 ft
(
1,829 mm
)
broad gauge
.
Schenectady and Troy Railroad
[
edit
]
The
Schenectady and Troy Railroad
was chartered in 1836 and opened in 1842, providing another route between the Hudson River and Schenectady, with its Hudson River terminal at
Troy
.
Rochester, Lockport, and Niagara Falls Railroad
[
edit
]
The Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad was originally incorporated April 24, 1834, to run from
Lockport
on the Erie Canal west to
Niagara Falls
; the line opened in 1838 and was sold June 2, 1850. On December 14, 1850, it was reorganized as the Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad, and an extension east to Rochester opened on July 1, 1852. The railroad was consolidated into the New York Central Railroad under the act of 1853. A portion of the line is currently operated as the
Falls Road Railroad
.
[2]
Buffalo and Lockport Railroad
[
edit
]
The
Buffalo and Lockport Railroad
was chartered April 27, 1852, to build a branch of the Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls from Lockport towards Buffalo. It opened in 1854, running from Lockport to
Tonawanda
, where it joined the
Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad
, opened 1837, for the rest of the way to Buffalo.
Mohawk Valley Railroad
[
edit
]
The Mohawk Valley Railroad was chartered January 21, 1851, and reorganized December 28, 1852, to build a railroad on the south side of the Mohawk River from Schenectady to Utica, next to the Erie Canal and opposite the Utica and Schenectady. The company didn't build a line before it was absorbed, though the West Shore Railroad was later built on that location.
Syracuse and Utica Direct Railroad
[
edit
]
The
Syracuse and Utica Direct Railroad
was chartered in 1853 to rival the Syracuse and Utica Railroad by building a more direct route, reducing travel time by a half-hour. The company was merged before any line could be built.
1853 company formation
[
edit
]
Map of the Water Level Routes of the New York Central Railroad (purple),
West Shore Railroad
(red) and
Erie Canal
(blue)
Bond of the New York Central Rail Road Company, issued 1 August 1853, signed by Erastus Corning
Albany industrialist and Mohawk Valley Railroad owner
Erastus Corning
managed to unite the above railroads together into one system, and on March 17, 1853 executives and stockholders of each company agreed to merge. The merger was approved by the state legislature on April 2, and by May 17, 1853 the New York Central Railroad was formed.
Soon the
Buffalo and State Line Railroad
and
Erie and North East Railroad
converted to
4 ft
8
1
⁄
2
in
(
1,435 mm
)
standard gauge
from
6 ft
(
1,829 mm
) broad gauge and connected directly with the NYC in Buffalo, providing a through route to
Erie, Pennsylvania
.
Erastus Corning years: 1853–1867
[
edit
]
The
Rochester and Lake Ontario Railroad
was organized in 1852 and opened in
Fall
1853; it was leased to the
Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad
, which became part of the NYC, before opening. In 1855 it was merged into the NYC, providing a branch from Rochester north to
Charlotte
on
Lake Ontario
.
The Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad was also merged into the NYC in 1855. It had been chartered in 1834 and opened in 1837, providing a line between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. It was leased to the NYC in 1853.
Also in 1855 came the merger with the
Lewiston Railroad
, running from Niagara Falls north to
Lewiston
. It was chartered in 1836 and opened in 1837 without connections to other railroads. In 1854 a southern extension opened to the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad and the line was leased to the NYC.
The
Canandaigua and Niagara Falls Railroad
was chartered in 1851. The first stage opened in 1853 from Canandaigua on the Auburn Road west to Batavia on the main line. A continuation west to
North Tonawanda
opened later that year, and in 1854 a section opened in Niagara Falls connecting it to the
Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge
. The NYC bought the company at
bankruptcy
in 1858 and reorganized it as the
Niagara Bridge and Canandaigua Railroad
, merging it into itself in 1890.
The
Saratoga and Hudson River Railroad
was chartered in 1864 and opened in 1866 as a branch of the NYC from
Athens Junction
, southeast of Schenectady, southeast and south to
Athens
on the west side of the Hudson River. On September 9, 1876, the company was merged into the NYC, but in 1876 the terminal at Athens burned down and the line was abandoned.
Hudson River Railroad
[
edit
]
For current
Metro-North Railroad
operations, see
West Side Line
and
Hudson Division
.
A New York Central train running on the
High Line
through the
Bell Laboratories Building
, 1936
The
Troy and Greenbush Railroad
was chartered in 1845 and opened later that year, connecting Troy south to Greenbush (now
Rensselaer
) on the east side of the Hudson River. The Hudson River Railroad was chartered May 12, 1846, to extend this line south to New York City; the full line opened October 3, 1851. Prior to completion, on June 1, the Hudson River leased the Troy and Greenbush.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
obtained control of the Hudson River Railroad in 1864, soon after he bought the parallel
New York and Harlem Railroad
.
Along the line of the Hudson River Railroad, the
High Line
was built in 1934 in New York City as an elevated bypass to
street running
trackage on Tenth Ave. The elevated section has since been abandoned, and the tunnel north of 35th Street is used only by
Amtrak
trains to
New York Penn Station
(all other trains use the
Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad
to reach the
Harlem Line
). A surviving section of the High Line in
Chelsea, Manhattan
, reopened as a
linear park
in 2009–2014.
Heyday
[
edit
]
Vanderbilt years: 1867–1954
[
edit
]
New York Central system maps
1876
1893
1900
1918
In 1867 Vanderbilt acquired control of the Albany to Buffalo running NYC, with the help of maneuverings related to the
Hudson River Bridge
in Albany. On November 1, 1869 he merged the NYC with his Hudson River Railroad into the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. This extended the system south from Albany along the east bank of the Hudson River to New York City, with the leased Troy and Greenbush Railroad running from Albany north to Troy.
Vanderbilt's other lines were operated as part of the NYC; these included the New York and Harlem Railroad,
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway
,
Canada Southern Railway
and
Michigan Central Railroad
.
The Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad was chartered in 1869 and opened in 1871, providing a route on the north side of the
Harlem River
for trains along the Hudson River to head southeast to the New York and Harlem Railroad. Trains could head toward
Grand Central Depot
, built by NYC and opened in 1871, or to the freight facilities at
Port Morris
. From opening it was leased by the NYC.
The
Geneva and Lyons Railroad
was organized in 1877 and opened in 1878, leased by the NYC from opening. This was a connection between Syracuse and Rochester, running from the main line at
Lyons
to the Auburn Road at Geneva. It was merged into the NYC in 1890.
In 1885, the
New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway
, a potential competitor with trackage rights along the west shore of the Hudson River, was taken over by the NYC as the West Shore Railroad, and developed passenger, freight, and
car float
operations at
Weehawken Terminal
. The NYC assumed control of the
Pittsburgh and Lake Erie
and
Boston and Albany Railroads
in 1887 and 1900, respectively, with both roads remaining as independently operating subsidiaries. In 1914, the operations of eleven subsidiaries were merged with the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, re-forming the New York Central Railroad. From the beginning of the merge, the railroad was publicly referred to as the New York Central Lines. In the summer of 1935, the identification was changed to the New York Central System, that name being kept until the acquisition by the
Pennsylvania Railroad
.
The
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway
, also known as the Big Four, was formed on June 30, 1889 by the merger of the
Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway
, the
Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago Railway
and the
Indianapolis and St. Louis Railway
. The following year, the company gained control of the former
Indiana Bloomington and Western Railway
. By 1906, the Big Four was itself acquired by the New York Central Railroad. It operated independently until 1930, it was then referred to as the Big Four Route.
Topography
[
edit
]
The generally level topography of the NYC system had a character distinctively different than the mountainous terrain of its archrival, the Pennsylvania Railroad. Most of its major routes, including New York to Chicago, followed rivers and had no significant grades other than West Albany Hill. This influenced a great deal about the line, from advertising to locomotive design, built around its flagship New York-Chicago Water Level Route.
[3]
Bypasses
[
edit
]
A number of bypasses and cutoffs were built around congested areas.
The
Junction Railroad
's Buffalo Belt Line opened in 1871, providing a bypass of Buffalo to the northeast, as well as a loop route for passenger trains via downtown. The West Shore Railroad, acquired in 1885, provided a bypass around Rochester. The
Terminal Railway
's Gardenville Cutoff, allowing through traffic to bypass Buffalo to the southeast, opened in 1898.
The Schenectady Detour consisted of two connections to the West Shore Railroad, allowing through trains to bypass the steep grades at Schenectady. The full project opened in 1902. The
Cleveland Short Line Railway
built a bypass of Cleveland, Ohio, completed in 1912. In 1924, the
Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge
was constructed as part of the
Hudson River Connecting Railroad
's Castleton Cut-Off, a 27.5-mile-long freight bypass of the congested
West Albany
terminal area and West Albany Hill.
An unrelated realignment was made in the 1910s at Rome, when the Erie Canal was realigned and widened onto a new alignment south of downtown Rome. The NYC main line was shifted south out of downtown to the south bank of the new canal. A bridge was built southeast of downtown, roughly where the old main line crossed the path of the canal, to keep access to and from the southeast. West of downtown, the old main line was abandoned, but a brand new railroad line was built, running north from the NYC main line to the NYC's former
Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad
, allowing all NYC through traffic to bypass Rome.
Trains
[
edit
]
The streamlined
20th Century Limited
departs Chicago's
LaSalle Street Station
behind a
NYC Hudson
locomotive, 1938
A full
Mercury
train, 1936
Steam locomotives
of the NYC were optimized for speed on that flat raceway of a main line, rather than slow mountain lugging. Famous locomotives of the system included the well-known
4-6-4
Hudsons
, particularly the 1937–38 J-3a's;
4-8-2
World War II–era L-3 and L-4
Mohawks
; and the postwar S-class
Niagaras
: fast
4-8-4
locomotives often considered the epitome of their breed by steam locomotive aficionados (
railfans
). For two-thirds of the twentieth century the New York Central had some of the most famous trains in the United States. Its
20th Century Limited
, begun in 1902, ran from Grand Central Terminal in New York to
LaSalle Street Station
, Chicago, and was its most famous train, known for its red carpet treatment and first class service. In the mid-1930s many railroad companies were introducing
streamliner
locomotives; until the New York Central introduced the
Commodore Vanderbilt
, all were diesel-electric. The
Vanderbilt
used the more common steam engine.
[4]
The
Century
, which followed the Water Level Route, could complete the 960-mile trip in 16 hours after its June 15, 1938 streamlining (and did it in 15½ hours for a short period after World War II). Also famous was its
Empire State Express
through upstate New York to Buffalo and Cleveland, and
Ohio State Limited
from New York to Cincinnati. NYC also provided the
Rexall Train
of 1936, which toured 47 states to promote the Rexall chain of drug stores.
Despite having some of the most modern
steam locomotives
anywhere, NYC's difficult financial position caused it to convert to more economical
diesel-electric
power rapidly. All lines east of Cleveland, Ohio were dieselized as of August 7, 1953. Niagaras were all retired by 1956. In 1957, H7e class
2-8-2
Mikado type steam locomotive #1977 is reported to have been the last steam locomotive to retire from service on the railroad.
[5]
But, the economics of northeastern railroading became so dire that not even this switch could change things for the better.
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