WWPCM07993
decks "New York Central System" (USA)
1. WWPCM07993/01: edition by "USPCC"
d07993j01 | d07993j02 | d07993a01 | d07993sA | r09extra |
edition 1940, sA: A1915 |
d07993r01 | d07993r02 | d07993r02b | box |
sA: R1827 - 1932 U1933 - 1935 |
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edition 1949, sA: L6932 |
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d07993j03 | d07993j04 | d07993r04 | r04box | r12b_sA/1927 | d07993r12b | d07993r12/1938 |
edition 1930 ?, j04 |
r05sA | d07993r05 | r05box | r04+r05box | ||
edition c.1961 |
d07993j05 | d07993j06 | d07993r06 | d07993r13 |
2. edition by "Arrco"
d04263j04 | d04263r048 | r048/1941 |
3. edition by "Brown&Bigelow"
d04271j01a | d04271r1189 | d07993r07 | d07993r08 |
HISTORY OF THE NEW
YORK CENTRAL
The
New York Central Railroad (AAR reporting mark NYC), known simply as the New York
Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the North-Eastern United
States. Headquartered in New York, the railroad served a large proportion of the
area, including extensive trackage in the states of New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts and much of New England and in the Canadian
provinces of Ontario and Qu. Its primary connections included Chicago and
Boston. The NYC's Grand Central Terminal in New York City is one of its best
known extant landmarks.
The New York Central
was known as the "Water Level Route" as its mainline to New York City ran along
the Hudson River.The famous Water Level Route of the NYC, from New York City to
upstate New York, was the first four-track long-distance railroad in the world.
In
1968 the New York Central merged with its former rival, the Pennsylvania
Railroad, to form Penn Central (the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
joined in 1969). That company soon went bankrupt and was taken over by the
federal government and merged into Conrail in 1976. Conrail was broken up in
1998, and much of its system was transferred to the newly-formed New York
Central Lines LLC, a subsidiary of CSX. That company's lines include the
original New York Central main line, but outside that area it includes lines
that were never part of the New York Central system.
The
oldest part of the New York Central was the first permanent railroad in the
state of New York and one of the first railroads in the United States. The
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was chartered in 1826 to connect the Mohawk River at
Schenectady to the Hudson River at Albany, providing a way for cargo on
steamboats to avoid the Erie Canal. The Mohawk and Hudson opened on September
24, 1831, and changed its name to the Albany and Schenectady Railroad on April
19, 1847.
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.
The
Syracuse and Utica Railroad was chartered May 1, 1836 and similar 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. Mothing of
that line was ever built, though the later West Shore Railroad, acquired by the
New York Central in 1885, served the same purpose.
The
Auburn and Syracuse Railroad was chartered May 1, 1834 and opened mostly in
1838, the remaining 4 miles (6 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
Railroad was chartered and immediately merged into the Rochester and Syracuse on
August 6, 1850. That line opened June 1, 1853, running much more directly
between those two cities, roughly parallel to the Erie Canal.
To the
west of Rochester, the Tonawanda Railroad was chartered April 24, 1832 to build
from Rochester 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 was 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 with the completion of the Tonawanda
Railroad. 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 foot (1829 mm) wide gauge.
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.
The
Lockport and Niagara Falls Railroad was chartered in 1834 to build from Lockport
on the Erie Canal west to Niagara Falls; it opened in 1838. 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
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 junctioned with the
Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad, opened 1837, for the rest of the way to
Buffalo.
In
addition to the Syracuse and Utica Direct, another never-built company - 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 West Shore Railroad later built on that location.
Albany
industrialist and Mohawk Valley Railroad owner Erastus Corning got the above
railroads together into one system, and on March 17, 1853 they agreed to merge.
The merger was approved by the state legislature on April 2, and ten of the
remaining companies merged to form the New York Central Railroad on May 17,
1853. The following companies were consolidated into this system, including the
main line from Albany to Buffalo: Albany and Schenectady Railroad ~ Utica and
Schenectady Railroad ~ Syracuse and Utica Railroad ~ Rochester and Syracuse
Railroad ~ Buffalo and Rochester Railroad.
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 New York Central, before opening. In 1855 it was merged into
the New York Central, providing a branch from Rochester north to Charlotte on
Lake Ontario.
The
Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad was also merged into the New York Central 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 New York Central in 1853 and
merged in 1855.
Also
in 1855 came the merger of 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 New York
Central; it was merged in 1855.
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 New York Central 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 New York Central from Athens Junction, southeast of Schenectady,
southeast and south to Athens on the west side of the Hudson River. On September
9, 1867 the company was merged into the New York Central, but in 1867 the
terminal at Athens burned and the line was abandoned. In the 1880s the New York,
West Shore and Buffalo Railway leased the line and incorporated it into their
main line, taken over by the New York Central in 1885 as the West Shore
Railroad.
The
Troy and Greenbush Railroad was chartered in 1845 and opened later that year,
connecting Troy south to East Albany 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 the 1930s in
New York City as an elevated bypass to the existing street-running trackage on
Eleventh Avenue, at the time called "Death Avenue" due to the large number of
accidents involving trains. The elevated section has since been abandoned, and
the tunnel to the north, built at the same time, is only used by Amtrak trains
to New York Penn Station (all other trains use the Spuyten Duyvil and Port
Morris Railroad to access the New York and Harlem Railroad).
1867
Vanderbilt acquired control of the New York Central, with the help of
maneuverings related to the Hudson River Bridge in Albany. On November 1, 1869
he merged the New York Central 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 New York Central Railroad;
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 towards
Grand Central Terminal or the freight facilities at Port Morris. From opening it
was leased by the New York Central.
The
Geneva and Lyons Railroad was organized in 1877 and opened in 1878, leased by
the New York Central from opening. This was a north-south connection between
Syracuse and Rochester, running from the main line at Lyons south to the Auburn
Road at Geneva. It was merged into the New York Central in 1890.
Harold S.
Vanderbilt stock certificateOn July 1, 1900, the Boston and Albany Railroad was
leased by the New York Central, although it retained a separate identity. In
1914 the name was changed again forming the modern New York Central Railroad.
The
New York Central had a distinctive character; unlike its arch rival the
Pennsylvania Railroad's mountainous terrain, the NYC was best known as the Water
Level Route; most of its major routes, including New York to Chicago, followed
rivers and had no significant grades. This influenced many things, including
advertising and most notably locomotive design.
Steam
locomotives of the New York Central 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, and the postwar Niagaras, fast
4-8-4 locomotives often considered the epitome of their breed by steam
locomotive aficionados.
Despite having some of the most modern steam locomotives anywhere, the NYC
dieselized rapidly, conscious of its by then difficult financial position and
the potential relief that more economical diesel-electric power could bring.
Very few New York Central steam locomotives still exist. All Hudsons and
Niagaras were sent to the scrapper's torch. In 2004, the only surviving big
modern steam locomotives are two 4-8-2 Mohawk dual-purpose locomotives.
The
financial situation of northeastern railroading soon became so dire that not
even the economies of the new diesel-electric locomotives could change things.
The
Junction Railroad's Buffalo Belt Line opened in 1871, providing a bypass of
Buffalo, New York 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, New York. 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, New York. 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 Albany terminal area.
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 Rome 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 Watertown and
Rome Railroad, allowing all NYC through traffic to bypass Rome.
The
Vanderbilt interests, having steadily reduced their shareholdings, lost a proxy
fight in 1954 to Robert Ralph Young and his Alleghany Corporation. Unable to
keep his promises, Young was forced to suspend dividend payments in January 1958
and committed suicide that month.
After
his death, Young's role in NYC management was assumed by Alfred E. Perlman, who
had been working with the NYC under Young since 1954. Although much had been
accomplished to streamline NYC operations, in those tough economic times,
mergers with other railroads were seen as the only possible road to financial
stability. The most likely suitor became the NYC's former arch-rival
Pennsylvania Railroad.
The
New York Central became a fallen flag on February 1, 1968 when it joined with
its old enemy, the Pennsylvania Railroad, in the ill-fated merger that produced
Penn Central. Slightly over two years later, on June 21, 1970, the Penn Central
Transportation Company filed for bankruptcy.
Conrail, officially the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was created by the U.S.
Government to salvage Penn Central, and on April 1, 1976, it began operations.
On
June 6, 1998, most of Conrail was split between Norfolk Southern and CSX. New
York Central Lines LLC was formed as a subsidiary of Conrail, containing the
lines to be operated by CSX; this included the old Water Level Route and many
other lines of the New York Central, as well as various lines from other
companies. CSX also assumed the NYC reporting mark.