A few days ago I posted some lovely illustrations showing the fancy cars that operated on the New York Central and Boston and Albany railroads, all done by the American Bank Note Company. Admittedly, I had never really heard about that company until I saw their signature on the bottom of several of those illustrations. It was an intriguing discovery – not only does the company have roots dating back to the founding of this country, they’re still around today! Over the years they have done the engraving and printing for currency, postage stamps, stock certificates, and even railroad timetables. This style of illustration is what makes me absolutely adore old timetables from the 1800’s.
Because of my love of these illustrations, I’m amassed quite a little collection of them which I would like to share with you all. Though there were other engravers that did similar work, this collection is comprised of railroad-related engravings exclusively done by the American Bank Note Company. Many railroads used their services – you’ll note illustrations for the New York Central, the Pennsylvania Railroad, Grand Trunk Railway, and many others. In some cases I’ve isolated the illustrations from whatever they were a part of, often in the case of stock certificates. Hopefully you’ll enjoy them as much as I do… Have a favorite? Tell us in the comments!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The etching of Grand Central is great! But were there really no buildings immediately southeast of it or was this an early version of “Photoshopping” out buildings that would have been in the way?
Image 25 (“etching, origin unknown”) is the Pennsylvania Railroad’s first Rockville Bridge across the Susquehanna River a few miles north of Harrisburg, PA. It was a single track wooden structure opened in 1849. It was later replaced with an iron bridge and then, in 1902, the landmark “longest stone-arch bridge in the world” that’s still in use today.
And speaking of stone arch bridges, the Red River Valley Line river-and-cityscape with the curved bridge and the terminal and suspension bridge in the distance is particularly wonderful.
It’s not a terminal, I see now, but a through station.
This is my company, great to see you have some historic notes, thanks for sharing.