Trains Album of Photographs #9 New York Central Railroad Spiral Bound 1944 20 si
Trains Album of Photographs #9 New York Central Railroad Spiral Bound 1944
20 single side pages of photos. Measures approx. 10 X 14 inches.
Up the Hudson, along the Mohawk, the actionphotos in this book follow the railroadof the Central.
The practically gradeless main line of the New York Central between New York and Chicago is one of the greatest railroad routes in the world. Counting the West Shore line, this artery of traffic has six mainline tracks nearly all the way from New York to Buffalo, the greatest stretch of six-track railroad in the world; and, counting the Michigan Central line, on to Chicago stretches a line of from four to six tracks.
This trunk, with its roots firmly embedded in the traffic of the Eastern Seaboard at Boston and New York and with its branches spreading into the Midwest to Cairo, Ill., to St. Louis, Peoria, Chicago, and to Mackinaw City, Mich., is the creation of one of the greatest railroad statesmen of all time. For the New York Central basically as it stands today was conceived in the period around 1870 under the spacious beaver hat of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Today the Commodore's creation, with 11,000 route miles, is the largest railroad of the East in point of mileage and second largest in volume of traffic. It carries the largest share of both freight and passengers between Chicago and New York, and its proudest train, the Twentieth Century Limited, has become a synonym for the finest of rail travel wherever travelers congregate. The superbly efficient New York passenger station, Grand Central Terminal, which handles nearly 60 million passengers a year, is truly a part of the Manhattan heritage. New York Central freight tracks, the only ones entering directly upon Manhattan Island, handle about one-third of all freight between Manhattan and the West.
Mechanically the Central is characterized chiefly by the sleek, greyhound lines of its locomotives. The shapely Hudson is one of the best-known passenger-pullers in the world, a marvel of design efficiency. The larger Mohawk, used in both passenger and freight service, has the same general appearance, and some of both classes of engine are now equipped with boxcar-huge tenders carrying 43 tons of coal, "enough to run through from New York to Chicago with only one coaling stop, at Wayneport, the fast-acting coaling station near Rochester. The NYC's fleet of Diesel switchers is the largest owned by any road, and its electrification in the New York terminals and suburban zone was one of the first extensive mainline projects.
Behind the Mohawks, strings of freight rumble down the green reaches of the Mohawk Valley and across the Alfred E. Smith memorial bridge high above the Hudson, with a cargo far above the national average in percentage of manufactured goods. Passenger trains of 16 and 17 cars roll along the great tangent between Elkhart and Toledo at 80 miles an hour, steady as a church. Heavy trains of southbound iron ore and northbound coal go between the Pittsburgh area and Ashtabula on Lake Erie.
Strung out along the Central are many of the larger cities of the land. The Mohawk and Hudson valleys in New York State are an empire alone. Along Central rails lives 80 per cent of New York State population. Call off the names and you will see what made this consolidation of small railroads such a natural enterprise for the Commodore back in 1869: Albany, Schenectady, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. Add Chicago, South Bend, Toledo, Cleveland, and Erie-brought into the system with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern in 1873 - Peoria, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Dayton, Springfield, and Columbus on the old Big Four, Detroit, Jackson, Battle Creek, and Kalamazoo on the Michigan Central, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, and Connellsville on the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie, and it is easy to understand the strength of the Central's traffic position.
But for all the economics and all the mechanics, the traveler will longest remember the superb view of the Hudson River. When storm-tossed with whitecaps under a lead-gray sky, it is a majestic sight from the warm comfort of the observation lounge on the Empire State Express. It is ghostlike in early-morning fog from a bedroom on the Twentieth Century. Or, in late afternoon sunshine, from the diner of the Water Level Limited, it is an almost unreal Maxfield Parish canvas of deep purples and blues. This is the ever-changing Hudson which once carried the commerce of an inland empire into New York City. And on both shores are the tracks of the New York Central Railroad, which has become an even greater highway of commerce than the river ever was.
This album is an over-all glimpse, in photos, of the New York Central. In these limited pages there is not sufficient space to show, even briefly, all the ramifications of this large system, but we have selected the photos which we feel best portray the essence of the Central. They are reproduced on special paper by methods which give prints equal to actual photographic enlargements and are bound so any sheets can be removed for framing without damaging the binding.
All pictures are of the actual item. There may be reflection from the lights in some photos. We try to take photos of any damage. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.
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