World Famous 20th Century Limited all-private-room overnighter be• tween New York and Chicago . flagship of New York Central's great fleet. • 1= THEY'RE ALL FREEDOM TRAINS THIS YEAR, New York's own Freedom In that story, New York State has played Train is touring the Empire State. With• a vital part. Our earliest rails pushed in its blue and gold cars are the historic through the Mohawk Valley . the low documents on which rest our everyday level, water level path between East and liberties. West. And over those rails poured the But in another sense, any train that tide of settlers to build the mighty em• travels the rails of America can be called pire of the Middle West. a freedom train. From the little DEWITT Today, the same Mohawk Valley forms CLINTON of 1831, down to the stream• the key rail link in the Water Level Route lined 20TH CENTURY LIMITED, each has joining that midwestern empire with the helped give Americans unequaled free• Atlantic Coast. And in two World Wars, dom of movement. when foreign enemies threatened Amer• The nation itself grew up along the lines ican freedom, these strategic tracks car• laid by pioneer railroaders. Today, ried armies of men and mountains of America depends on its railroads for supplies for defense. more passenger mileage, twice as much Yes, in war and peace, the railroads of freight movement and nine times as New York State have earned the right much mail service between cities as all to be called "OUR STEEL PATHWAYS OF other carriers put together! FREEDOM." The American locomotive is born! Cars changed—hut so did passengers! How Central's "Depots" used to look A horse car line with a big future In 1831, engines followed English models with four By 1840, Yankee ingenuity had changed the stage• In the early days, people called stations "depots." The Meantime, a horse car line from New York to Harlem wheels, all drivers. But John B. Jervis, the Mohawk coach-like cars into long eight-wheelers that rounded New York Central "depot" at Rochester was espe• began extending its tracks through Westchester & Hudson's great engineer, tried putting a light, curves easily. But passengers still changed cars too cially fine in its day. For Central was a proud giant County toward Albany. In 1847, the Hudson River swivel truck under the front to guide an engine often. Travel from Albany to Buffalo meant changing of a railroad. It was nearly 300 miles long. It had R. R. too, started toward Albany. Eventually, under around curves. His new engine, "THE EXPERIMENT," cars between many little railroads. However, these 154 woodburning locomotives. And its capital was that great railroader, Commodore Vanderbilt, the actually ran 70 miles an hour! It set the style for roads formed a natural chain. First they tried through thought huge—$23,000,000! Most important of all, two made a perfect route ... at water level along the American locomotives. And it led a parade of progress trains. Then, in 1853, the 12 little roads became one its tracks ran through the Mohawk Valley—still the east shore of the Hudson, then down the Harlem that New York Central has kept up for over 100 years. big one . the New York Central. key link in the famous Water Level Route. tracks to the heart of New York City. -CZZZ^^B B^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ THIS MIGHTY RAIL C II.%f *ME MEN WHO FOBCBO TH1» »• *W v ) EDWARDS J CLIFTON MINES LAKE PLACID G. W. FEATHERSTONHAUGH, ERASTUS CORNING COMMODORE VANDERBILT WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT J. of Duanesburg, the Albany iron master who who entered railroading who shared in the Com• fhmg Uke The Hudson River Railroad's scholarly squire who built the Utica & Sche• at 63, and welded to• modore's work, and car• was the first to dream nectady Railroad and gether the great rail ried it forward to create FWATERTOWNl most historic train SACKETS / of and work for a rail• became New York Cen• network that is now the one of the world's great• HARBOR 1 The magazine woodcut of 1865 shows the historic road in New York State. tral's first president. New York Central. est railroads. funeral train that took President Lincoln's body home. Leaving New York on the Hudson River R. R., the train went on west over New York Central tracks. The two roads were still separate. But in 1866, Com• [OSWEGO modore Vanderbilt connected them with a bridge at .ROME I Albany . clearing the way for one great railroad •DOLGEVILLE between the Great Lakes and New York Harbor. 10CKPORT UROCHESTER JtTrKIMER krhiAGARA FALLS . HJTTLE FALLS Si vol Linlis that hvvamv TOHAWAND* SYRACUSE • 0RAN J BATAV1A SCHENECTADY' CANANDAIGUA/1 I ^^Skaneafeies Lake NEW YOIIK STATE'S BUFFALO! 'ATTICA Canaitduigua l^kAi pi««.t* ALBANY 1 Uvval lluilroml Chain ... f PENKYANCI Kni. Lair W NEW YOIIK CENTRAL 0NE0NTA si CATSKILL j HUDSON , KINGSTON J Key to Map of Railroads Now Comprising New York Central—Showing Dates of Charter Grants and First Operations iPOUGHKEEPSIfl 1. Mohawk and Hudson R.R. 1826-1831 11. Schenectady and Troy R.R. 1836-1842 16 Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg 1875 22. Hudson and Berkshire Railroad 2. Utica and Schenectady R.R. 1833-1836 A consolidation of several lines of North• 1832-1838 (Boston and Albany) 12. Rochester and Syracuse 1850-1853 3. Syracuse and Utica 1836-1839 ern New York dating back to the Water- MONTGOMERY « (Consolidated with Auburn and Roch• 23. Corning and Blossburg Railroad 4. Auburn and Syracuse R.R. 1834-1838 town and Rome 1832-1852. 1833 (First named Tioga Co.) became ester and Auburn and Syracuse) NEWBURGHj 5. Auburn and Rochester R.R. 1836-1841 17. West Shore Railroad 1885 Syracuse, Geneva and Corning 1875. Additional After 1853 6. Tonawanda Railroad 1832-1837 A development of several pioneer lines. 13. Canandaigua and Niagara Falls 24. Ulster and Delaware Railroad WEST POINT I The first Grand Central 7. Attica and Buffalo R.R. 1836-1842 18. Mohawk and Molone Railway 1892 1851-1853 (Acquired 1858) 1902 (Acquired by NYC 1932) (Present Adirondack Div.) In 1867, the owners of New York Central invited 8. Buffalo and Rochester R.R. 1850 First predecessors operated in 1875. (Consolidation of Tonawanda and 14. Hudson River Railroad «rn47-1 84V 19. Buffalo and State Line 1849-1852 25. Walkill Valley Railroad Commodore Vanderbilt to head their line. Thus, three Attica and Buffalo) (Consolidated 1869 with first New 20. Dunkirk, Alleghany Valley and York Central, forming New York 1866-1872 (Acquired by NYC 1899) 9. Rochester, Lockport and Niagara Pittsburgh group 1867 pioneer railroads of New York State . the New Central and Hudson River RR) Falls R.R. 1834-1838 21. Albany and West Stockbridge 26. Little Falls and Dolgeville 1891-1893 (Acquired 1906) York Central, the Hudson River and the New York 10 Buffalo and Lockport R.R.—Buffalo 15. New York and Harlem Railroad Railroad 1836-1841 (Main line of the 1831-1832 (Leased to NYC 1873) Boston and Albany) 27. New York City and Northern R.R. 1869 and Harlem . came under one management. And, and Niagara Falls.1 852-1 853 WEEHAWKEI YORK as if to mark the event, the Commodore and his son, I Grand Central William H. Vanderbilt, began building the biggest JERSEY CITY, Terminal terminal ever seen . the first Grand Central Depot, with a vast iron and glass roof over its 12 tracks. '999Vspeed record stood for many years Mile-a-minute merchandise Grand Central Terminal today The streamlined Empire State Express After the Commodore's death, his son carried on the Between dusk and dawn, this freight Dieseliner races At the heart of New York . amid great hotels and This stainless steel streamliner upholds a name work. When he died, in 1885, New York Central between New York and Buffalo. Its red and gray office skyscrapers . stands Grand Central Terminal. Central has made famous for half a century. Beside had reached its westward goals of Chicago and St. PACEMAKER cars have special trucks, rubber-cushioned Begun 40 years ago, it remains one of the world's parlor cars, it carries air-conditioned coaches with Louis. From then on, progress was mainly in finer couplers, alloy springs ... all designed for easy rid• most perfectly planned terminals. At busiest hours, lean-back seats and sightseeing windows. The smart service. Trains such as the EMPIRE STATE EXPRESS of ing at mile-a-minute speeds that clip a business day a train enters or leaves its underground tracks every diner and observation car are open to coach passen• 1893, which set a world's record of 112% miles an from regular freight schedules. It's the queen of 45 seconds. Through it flow 60,000,000 passengers a gers, too. It's a long, long way from the little DEWITT hour behind Engine 999 . and the first 20TH CEN• Central's 750-train freight fleet that moves more than year. A fitting gateway for today's vast 11,000-mile CLINTON and those stagecoach cars that started New TURY LIMITED of 1902, a new high in travel comfort. 200,000,000 tons of goods a year. New York Central System. York railroading 118 years ago! New York's first railroad picture was done with scissors! AMONG the passengers on the first trip of forefathers were among the earliest Amer• the first train in New York State was a ican railroad builders. Inside this leaflet, famous artist, William H. Brown. With you'll find the picture story of how New scissors and black paper, he cut out this York's first rail line..