I’ve been a little bit under the weather recently and rather busy, so I haven’t had the time to put a proper post together for this week, however I did want to share a somewhat recent acquisition of mine. This 1867 New York Central timetable is the second oldest in my collection (my oldest is from 1864), and is a little bit of a curiosity as it includes descriptions of some of the cities found along the rail line. For example, it describes Rochester as, “having risen from a wilderness in less than half a century,” and explains that, “the first white child born in Rochester is still living near by, in the prime of manhood.”
At this time the New York Central was a mere double track railroad, but it boasts that it is, “regarded in both this country and in Europe, as one of the most important, best managed, and safest lines of iron roads now in existence,” where “so few casualties occur.” Well, that’s one way to market your railroad…
Enjoy this little bit of history, nearly 150 years old.
Thanks for posting this. As a Syracuse University alum, I was especially interested in the description of the “Salt City”, whose main N-S drag is Salina Street (US 11). The main E-W drag is Erie Boulevard, built on top of the Erie Canal when the railroad put it out of business.
The SU mascot used to be the Saltine Warrior until that became politically incorrect.
Interesting to see that much of the main line from Cleveland to Chicago was there, but not yet affiliated with the NYC. Also the Michigan Central mainline went across the state, but very little of the north/south trackage existed.