By now, you readers are all well aware of my problem. I love old printed (and usually railroad-related) materials. Timetables, brochures, posters… you name it. Although I love having the real thing in-hand, most times I’m quite content to have just digital copies – which is part of the reason SmartCat came about. Somehow, I came across a website this weekend that I had never been to before – it is called the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. The site pretty much operates in the same vein as SmartCat – historical artifacts, digitized and available to everyone for free over the internet. But this site really blows SmartCat out of the water. The quality of the artifacts, many of which are available in super-high resolution, are phenomenal. Although the site primarily archives maps, the collection does include some railroad timetables and brochures, which is where I found this 1918 guide to New York City, printed by the New York Central…

Hey, wait a second! Remember my introduction to the Hudson Line? How I mentioned the competition between the railroad and steamships traversing the Hudson River? And how the cold winters filling the river with ice was the primary reason the railroad got built?

Soooooo… about those steam ships… If you look very closely you can see the engineer on the train looking out the window shouting to the ice boats, “So long, suckers!”

In case you missed it, check out the page of the guide that says “Optional Ticket Privileges.” Apparently by 1918 the railroad wasn’t quite competing with the ships – New York Central train riders had the option to take a steamship along the river as opposed to the train. Folks heading eastbound could exchange their tickets with the conductor for a ride on a ship and change at Albany. This applied to people riding on the Hudson River Railroad side, or the West Shore side… and this, of course, was “an advantage offered by no other route.”

Although quite a bit earlier than the above guide, timetables for the steamships were also quite attractive. Below is an example of an 1885 timetable for the Peoples Line, one of the lines you could trade your train ticket for in 1918. It includes a nice little map with the various railroad connections made in Albany.

And for random kicks, here’s a 1862 ad for two different steamships on the Peoples Line.