RonRail
Pictures is owned and operated by Ronald
Wallace a retired New Jersey Transit worker and avid
fan of trains and railroad. With over 30 years of experience
working in the railroad industry and many side
excursions to historic train and railroad sites, Ron
has become an "amateur expert" on the subject
of trains.
A full-time enthusiast, Ron welcomes your comments
and questions!
History of the Erie Lackawanna
Railroad, Courtesy of Encyclopedia.com
Erie Railroad
A train and railroad transportation line designed to
connect the mouth of the Hudson River with the Great
Lakes region. The New York and Erie RR Company was enfranchised
and incorporated in 1832, and train and railroad construction
was begun in 1835 near Deposit, N.Y. The year 1851 saw
446 mi (718 km) of trunk line across New York state
completed to Dunkirk, N.Y., on Lake Erie at a huge cost.
The trains and railroad were extended to Jersey City,
N.J., and to Buffalo, N.Y., but in 1861 the company
failed and was reorganized as the Erie Railway Company.
The company gained sound financial footing during the
Civil War before it became the subject of a tremendous
financial battle.
Daniel Drew , Jay Gould , and James Fisk allied themselves
and from 1866 to 1868 outmaneuvered—with the aid
of unauthorized stock issues, political chicanery, and
incessant litigation—Cornelius Vanderbilt to keep
control of the Erie Railway Company. After further financial
trickery, the Erie Railway Company went bankrupt and
was reorganized (1878) as the New York, Lake Erie and
Western Railway Company.
By 1880 branch train and railroad lines were built
to Chicago. The railroad went into receivership after
the Panic of 1893 and was reorganized (1895) as the
Erie RR Company. Under the presidency (1901-27) of Frederick
D. Underwood, the Erie continued to suffer losses, and
after a major reorganization (1941) it yielded (1942)
a dividend for the first time in 69 years.
In 1960 the Erie merged with the Delaware, Lackawanna,
and Western RR to form the Erie-Lackawanna. In 1976
this organization and five other lines that had gone
bankrupt were merged to form the Conrail system, which
in 1999 became part of the CSX and Norfolk Southern
railroads.
Bibliography: See C. F. Adams, Jr., and H. Adams, Chapters
of Erie (1886, repr. 1967); F. C. Hicks, ed., High Finance
in the Sixties (1929, repr. 1966); H. R. Grant, Erie
Lackawanna (1994).
Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, Copyright (c)
2005.
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