What's Left of New York's Central Railroad | LOST FOREVER 

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highline and the bronx terminal are imo two of the most fascinating railroad facilities. the interface between rail and urban environment and maritime service is just very cool

Much of the west side High Line has been turned into a great urban park over the past 15 years or so. Remarkable turnaround in the neighborhoods.

4:45 Extra facts: Vanderbilt got the nickname Commodore as a kid. He had a boat and ran a small scale ferry service, shuttling passengers and cargo across the river. There were a lot of people doing this and the adults started jokingly calling Vanderbilt The Commodore because of how seriously he took his business and the maintenence of his boat. Compared to them he seemed like a navy man, obsessed with the cleanliness and orderliness of his operation and holding himself to a fast higher standard than most other ferry operators. Even though it was originally a joke, he came to take pride in the nickname and carried with him for the rest of his life. Bonus fact: among the surviving descendents of the Vanderbilt family is Anderson Cooper, whose grandmother was the granddaughter or great granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the original Cornelius Vanderbilt's grandson. That's not really significant in any way, but you know, interesting bit of trivia that I picked up while going down an industrial revolution wikihole.

In my home town, there's an active railway run by CSX, and there's a bridge the tracks go over that say "New York Central" on the side. I don't know how many of those bridges are left, but I can confirm one of them is still there and in use

The railroad system built by New York Central and its predecessors linking New York City, Buffalo, Cleveland and Chicago are still very important freight and passenger rail lines, even if the New York Central Railroad no longer exists. The railroad line along the west shore of the Hudson river is an important CSX freight rail line and the line along the east shore is well-used by Metro North and Amtrak trains. West of Albany, the former New York Central line continues to be one the nation's most important freight rail lines with a few Amtrak trains using it. In other words, the New York Central may be lost forever, but its successor rail carriers are very much alive.

I live in Rome. Utica still has an old New York Central Railroad Steam Engine on display. The Railroad played a huge role in Upstate New Yorks development. Thank you for this video!

Geezus, I must be the first positive comment here. You're doing a great job, I listen to your videos in the background and watch some of the footage when you're talking about a place I've been. Apparently, it means a lot to some persons to use accurate footage throughout the video, so maybe replace sections where you can't find accurate films, with your face narrating the history. Maybe it would calm those subscribers down?

The New York Central crossed the Niagara River on the Suspension Bridge, the first railroad suspension bridge. This bridge was a few miles north (downstream) of the Falls. The site of this bridge is still used as a rail and road crossing. Passenger trains from Toronto to NYC, among others, cross the river and the international border there.

As a senior in high school my class took the New York Central Railroad From Ohio to NYC. It was fabulous! Loved your segment 9:29 .

I was a Special Agent back in the day for Conrail in Chicago. On one of the NY Central properties is an old railroad building still being used as a yard office. On the building is a plaque which explains that at this location Abraham Lincolns' body laid in State during the funeral tour. 😁

Interesting video. As a born and bred New Yorker though I would have personally liked to know the exact locations of the train depot buildings and for context some modern footage of what stands there now.

The Central also ran the first “Fast Mail”. A train consisting of four Railway Post Office cars in 1875.

I am from Louisville and the big four bridge is now a walk way over the Ohio River. But I still remember when rails ran over this bridge.

Thanks for posting. The Penn Central merger also included the New Haven, which was in worse shape than PRR and NYC.

Excellent video, wonderful use of the various maps provided, extremely informative, excellent narration! Please continue this topic with other “Fallen Flags” railroads. 🚂

Another interesting aspect of the railroad barons is Albany in particular the one bridge across the Hudson. (the original bridge was located where the current Dunn Memrial car bridge is). IIRC it was one of the first anti trust rulings that declared New York Central to be a monopoly and to force it to allow other railroads to cross the river on its bridge. New York Central's response was to share that old bridge but build a brand new bridge for itself just south of Castleton on Husodn, the Alfred H Smith bridge (fairly spectacular and very high off the river). This allowed NYC to avoid Albany to to get Chicago (so no slowdowns caused by the other users of the old bridge) and also it created a very long and gentle climb from the water level route up to the new bridge level. And once on western side, it was level tracks our of Albany while those using old bridge had a climb out of Albany. Albany was also the home of the Delaware and Hudson railroad whose majestic hearquarters are now a SUNY facility near shore. The shore whee there is now a highway were the rail yards for the various railways that came to Albany, and the rail station still stands today a south of Columbian ave on Broadway. (and all that land to the river were tracks at the time). As with PRR selling Penn Station, New York Central sold the albany station and built a new bridge, the Livingston Ave bridge (still statnding today) that is north of the old Albany station. In the past decade, Albany ahs tried to recover the shores of the Hudson by creating a linear park with bike path that allows one to traverse much of Albany along the shore. Prior to that, the land was desolate betwene highway and river. There were a number of railroads from New York to the north, such as the Putnam, the New York New Haven and Hartford Railroad , New York and Harlem line (citrently the line to Wassaic) and possibly more that competed for traffic, many got their trains to ski centres in the north and a few to Montréal in Canada. The New York , new Haven and hartford had the southernmost bridge on the hudson at Poughkeepsie, another grandiose bridge (now "Walkway over the Hudson bike/pedestrian path). It was abandonned in 1974 after a file, leaving Conrail as the southernmost bridge at Castleton on Hudson. So any traffic to/from New York city would need to travel north to near Albany and then back south on other side of river. At mechanicville, there was another tail bridge across the hudson, which is now owned by Pan Am Railway (yes, they bought the trademark from the airline- though lack I checked they were in talsk for merger). Then the final bridge across the hudson is at Fort Edward, the original Delaware and Hudson bridge which was purchased by CP Rail (now CPKC).

Great Job posting this video. I remember all of it as my Father moved to Windsor from Cornwall in search of work. He eventually got a job with the New York Central working out of Detroit. Later taken over by Penn Central and finally just before he retired it changed to Norfolk and southern. I can still recall seeing those Norfolk engines coming through the Detroit/Windsor Rail tunnel before Con rail came into the picture followed by Canadian pacific took over the tunnel and going into the USA.

I rode the NYC from Toledo to Cleveland and back from 1956 to 1960 when was in college. The old Budd cars were in fashion then and it was always much better than the bus. Ah, memories! Thanks Ryan, you always hit a homerun with your videos.

Great video! I love hearing about the now extinct major railroad companies. Keep 'em coming, please! ❤

As an Australian tourist, I walked the High Line in 2009 just after the first section was re-opened as a park. Thank you for this great history, 99% I did not know.

Penn Central quite literally exploded and Somehow Conrail managed to survive

Albany, NY = ALL-ben-Ee. It's my hometown. And your opening scene is of a train on E. Washington St. in Syracuse, NY (my brother still lives there), not New York City.

Very first photo was actually Syracuse New York. In the background you see a business called Edward Joy. Still in business today.

I lived along the West Shore Line in Bergen County, NJ and the NY Central tracks ran right through the middle of our town. There were 4 sets, the 2 middle tracks were used mostly by freight trains and the 2 outer were for passenger service. During the 1950s & 60s, we rode them many times to Weehawken and then took the ferry into New York City.

Interesting, thanks. For what it's worth many years ago I helped a chap build a model railway, the space was very tight so he ended up with a model based on the 'high line' on a shelf around the walls. That worked out well and over time he added an incredible amount of detail to the ground level street scenes, all based on photographs.

Very informative. I enjoyed it!

It wasn't the Pennsylvania Central System, the official title was just Penn Central. Also Penn Central wasn't acquired by Conrail. Penn Central had a massive bankruptcy in 1970 and essentially was in receivership until 1976. At that time a large amount of northeast railroads such as the Erie Lakawana and the Reading were all in terrible shape physically and financially both from competition with trucking and the fallout of the Penn Central bankruptcy. It was looking like railroading in the northeast was on the brink of completely imploding. So as they did with passenger lines to create Amtrak, the government stepped in and essentially nationalized all of them. Conrail was a private company, but was majority federally owned until the Conrail Privatization Act of 1986. In the late 90s Conrail was jointly taken over by Norfolk Southern and CSX.

You forgot to Mention the WEST SHORE Railroad which my grandfather worked for after working on the Erie (Barge canal) driving mules on the towpath . My grandfather transitioned to the New York Central System after it acquired the West Shore RR. He was an Engineer and Belonged to the NYC System "Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers " He "Retired" from the Railroad in 1937 !! I have Many photos of him in the Cabs of 'Niagara, Mohawks and Hudson Locomotives which He loved Operating as an Engineer . I also have a photo of him ,with his fireman ,conductor and train crew ,standing next to a West Shore RR Consolidated 2-8-0 locomotive in 1898 . Great Video ! Many thanks for sharing !

Great video! Now do one on the raising of all the RR rights-of-way within the City of Chicago from the late 19th century. There must be tons of historic photos on that floating around.

Excellent work

num one.. i once worked as an electrican in an old where house with tracks became the dea building on 10th ave

The Highline, where the tracks had been elevated, is an incredible park. We've gone 4 or 5 times. It's been planted with native species, there are loads of benches, sculptures, interesting sights. In the summer it's in bloom like a botanical garden.

Thank you for all the hard work you do to bring us these history stories. ❤😊🎉

Great video!

Thanks for making this type of content ❤️💯 honestly keep it up Mr Socash

Many lines of the NYC still are operational it’s just they are under the management of new companies, fun fact during the breakup of Consolidated rail (Conrail) the two railroads who got 50/50 ownership Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation marked all their acquired rolling stock assess with either PRR for Norfolk Southern and NYC for CSX denoting the two major railroads that formed the PennCentral.

Excellent! As a pre teen I had the privilege to ride both Broadway Limited and 20 th Century Limited! Now as an old guy wish they were back! Outstanding history ! Thanks!

Great presentation.

There is a small section of the NYC still in use in my home town of Plainwell, MI. It is now a spur leading to Otsego, MI. This was part of the NYC line from Kalamazoo, MI to Grand Rapids, MI.

I miss those trains that ran on the CASO in Niagara Falls, Ont. The NYC and PRR, C&O and Conrail ran through there before CP.. I remember a set of four wig-wags protecting double track that ran diagonally through an intersection. Trains would go through the top of Clifton Hill, a main tourist drag that was full of cars on summer days. Great memories of my childhood.

There is always something sad about the removal of railways. We know we need more railways and yet we keep on removing railways and the bridges, then after its gone we realise we actually need this railway...but its too late because its been built on.

I live one block from the Harlem line from Grand Central station. The line is was brought all the original development around me. My apartment building was built when the nearby RR station construction was confirmed in 1925. Railroads have been incredibly successful in this country.

can you do the lost rail in the twin cities. apparently minneapolis used to have an elevated rail line going to the depot off of Washington Avenue. the old trolley lines are an option also

while it may have been dangerous, having local freight running straight into small depots or larger industries can be a very beneficial when done correctly especially now days its also important to keep in mind this task is currently performed by trucks, which in 2019 have killed 111 people and injured more than 4,500 people in nyc alone

If you ever get the opportunity to tour the Vanderbilt mansion, it’s absolutely what you would expect it to be. Massive and gold EVERYWHERE

Other people have mentioned this, but: it's not "New York's" Central Railroad. It's the New York Central Railroad. In the age of do it yourself publishing, it is important to realize how easily facts can be changed, when they shouldn't be. I would change the title of this video so that the name of the railroad is clearly understood.

Gotta love anything Vintage Steam..... Ryan, thanks for your time, work and posting.....

In St. Thomas Ontario there is an elevated park on a massive Tressel, west side of town. The old Michigan Central line which was owned by NYC rail. Check that out, its pretty neat.

There was actually a musical piece titled Slaughter on Tenth Avenue created because of how deadly the street running West Side Line.

Thankyou for an excellentpiece ohistory story telling.brilliant .loved it!!!!!!!!😊

The former New York Central Robert Young rail yard west of Elkhart, In. remains in active use as the second largest rail yard in the Norfolk-Southern system. The yard has 72 classification tracks and handles around 100 trains each day.

There is a new York central semi trailer abandoned, still in Clifton hill, MO

The film up until 0.06 or 0.07 is in Syracuse. That's the Syracuse City Hall on the left, it even says "Syracuse bids you welcome" on the facade. Edward Joy is still in business as an electrical distributor, in a newer building to the east of downtown. Trains used to run up and down Washington Street which was the NYC's main line.

Imagine the combination of trains running on street-level and smartphone usage...

Interesting/informative/entertaining. Excellent still- motion photography/maps enabling viewers to better understand what the orator is describing. viewing this presentation from the safety zone of my computer room. Along the " Space Coast " 🚀 of Florida🐊🐊. Wishing viewers a safe/healthy/prosperous ( 2024) 🌈🎉😉 .

I love railroad history!❤ And I ove your channel!

It took the scenic water level route, as seen in North By Northwest. Had to go north around mountains before going south to New York.

Although much has been abandoned the vast majority of the New York Central System's route mileage is still in use.

It just shows that constant improvement in technology produces constant change in our environment, thats the only thing thats is guaranteed.

Springfield Ohio the old train station is a giant pedestrian walking area/flea market and public library. Anyone remember the "ghost busters" headquarters?

Opening shot is Syracuse, NY, not New York City. And the elevated shot was probably Chicago. And learn how to pronounce Albany. And in case you weren't aware, most of the former New York Central lines are still very much in use - far from abandoned.

Hi, new watcher from the UK

The New York Central was actually showing a profit at the time of the merger, albeit a marginal one. Its CEO, Alfred Perlman, whose austerity and modernization measures combined with consolidation of freight yards and streamlining methods of day-to-day operations forestalled bankruptcy by 15 years, was vehemently opposed to the merger, and rightly so. He saw the Pennsylvania RR for what it was; a ticking time bomb which had been mismanaged and mishandled since the end of WWII.

What confuses me is that the Grand Central Depot had a seperate sign for the New York and Harlem Railroad, when it had already amalgamated with the New York Central by the time the depot opened.

That very first photo is Syracuse, NY, not New York, NY. The building on the left still stands today.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️👍Good worke

ALSO FUN FACT: The National Archives digital archives have partial (as in partially digitized) track plans for the New York Central Railroad - including (in terms of what can currently be viewed that is within the NYC metro area) the line between Grand Central Terminal and Mott Haven, Mott Haven and I think up to Catham, Mott Haven up the Hudson Div, the 30th Street Branch from Spuyten Duyvil to 30th Street (PRE HIGH LINE), even the Putnam Division! And that's JUST the stuff within the NYC metro area, they have track plans covering so many other parts of their operations, including up and through Buffalo, NY, and Pennsylvania!

The freight house was protected by "guards, dogs, response teams", and "EVEN FIREARMS"?!?!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!

That was epic,thank you for this I walked many streets in Brooklyn and Manhattan in my day,road the the rails too grand Central,my dad commuted for 35 years on the rails too to Penn station Newark NJ

Gone but for now not forgotten.

My great grandfather came diwn from Ontario in the late 20s and became an engineer on the nyc. Leaving behind my grandfather still a baby. My grandfather came down at age 13 to work on the tug boats in the late 30s and then became an engineer on the Delaware and hudson. Another historical rail way side by side the nyc. Conrail - consolidated rail was the government take over of the (1960s) forced by government merger of the Pennsylvania and nyc railroad. Conrail was created in 1976, my father joined as an engineer immediately as a fire man status with his navy reserves experience and volunteer fire man status. I was born 2 years later. My uncle, his little brother joined Conrail soon after in early 80s. My father had switched to amtrack in 1981. The other part of the government take over of our nations rail way. The freight portion of the Penn central became conrail, the passenger part became amtrack. But.... The great Delaware and Hudson rail road was allowed to remain in operation under private ownership for almost 20 years. The shops in Colonie ny were the last remaining operational yards until the late 80s and were demolished in the 90s. Where my grandfather worked out of while raising his 6 children. My father passed away a few blocks from there in 2007 at 56 years old. I ❤️ my heritage and keep it going though model trains. My uncle steven who was the oldest of the bunch had a lionel collection, that i saw in 2001 after my first son was born on 9-11 and named after my uncle who worked on conrail, but he passed away from cancer very young, in his 30s in 93, One of them was a custom d&h rs-3 diesel locomotive with the same # as the one my grandfather operated, and another was a nyc steam loco with the same number aswell. Along with trains from his own childhood he got on Christmas and birthdays, those being from the 40s... i believe hes still alive and i pray those trains make it into the family's hands.

Norfolk Southern has a heritage unit out there that is the New York Central. I’m surprised that engine didn’t make it into this.

Nitpick: The merged Penn Central survived a few years but could not rationalize their duplicated networks enough and declared bankruptcy. In 1971, the US government removed the passengers burden from freight railroads and created Amtrak. Penn Central continued to oeprated as a freight railroad under some form of trusteeship. Eventually enough freight trailroads were about to go belly up that the federal government nationalized then under Conrail to preserve the ability to move freight to/from ports and major cities. Amtrak inherited much of the NE corridor tracks. Conrail was eventually privatized and sold its assets to CSX and Norfolk Southern (with a few portions onwed by both and kept under the name "Conrail".) The original New York Central tracks just about all went to CSX. The portion between Grand Central and Poughkeepsie are now owned by the MTA./Metro North. CSX owns tracks to Rensselear but Amtrak has a deal to have priority on them and Amtrak pays for signal/track upgrades.

great maps

Today in Europe only some Tram (Streetcar) lines are build directly on the streets but only in tight space areas & histzoric destricts ...

Thank you! the Pennsylvania Railroad was always in better financial shape the the NYC. From the time of its foundation to the merger with the NYC and NYNH&H, it never missed a dividend. The Pennsy's biggest problem was it took its eye off the ball and neglected transport in favour of real estate.

ALL BAN KNEE.

Thanks for sharing railroad history

PennCentral was a shotgun wedding at best...lol.

I believe the last freight train on the high-line was a train full of frozen turkeys to a warehouse in 1983..

there is a solid legacy from the US RR era, US rail freight costs are the lowest cost in the world. and there is some worry if train passenger rates increase it will increase freight costs because the two systems will compete for track time. a big problem is trains cant handle steep grades and due to weight its really expensive to build train overpasses.

"As it turned out, merging two destitute companies did not magically create a profitable corporation." K-Mart and Sears, are you listening? Oh, that's right, you didn't...

I live near the NYC Beech Creek line in central PA. PRR and NYC paralleled each other in central PA coal region. NYC and PRR had combo lines and had trackage rights on each others lines as well. My hometown in NY was on the Elmira Branch, and was serviced by Erie, LV & DLW with NYC trackage rights to nearby Horseheads NY. NYC was better off merging with another rr, PRR looked good on PAPER. PRR lead the PC to fail since DAY ONE.

I remember the movie "Hellow Dolly". The tugboat Streisand is on for one of the sounds, has the newer NYC logo on its stack. OOPS 😏

As a native New Yorker, I always enjoy your videos. Keep it up.

The opening picture is not Manhattan... It is the NYC running down Washington Street in front of city hall in Syracuse, NY... About 60 trains a day ran along Washington St. in the 1920's &'30's...

Muito interessante essas fotos de NY , antigamente. Queria poder , conhecer os resquícios desse passado, desta importante cidade americana.

Good work.

There is a old rail line about 30 mint drive from my house that use to be new york central now own by NS

It’s surprisingly muddled these days in public documentation, but the unambiguous final fate of the NYCRR is that it is now a subsidiary of CSX, which chooses not to use separate branding for it. All former NYCRR trackage, all active former NYCRR services, and all rights to any active NYCRR trademarks are owned and operated by CSX. Likewise with Norfolk Southern and the Pennsy. When NS and CSX split up the PCTC, NS took the Pennsy lines and CSX took the NYCRR lines. The rivalry still lives.

Still an issue today here in south florida... people think "They Can Make It" and continue to jump in front of the rail...

I had read somewhere that another big nail in the coffin of NYCRR was the taxation of right aways. All of a sudden the government wanted property tax on all the ground that the railroad occupied. The roads were already in decline and this just hastened the process. I always felt that the interstate highway system killed the freight business and the airlines killed the passenger business. Just as the modern technology of railroads displaced wagon trains, trucks, and planes took over the rails. One needs to wonder what marvel of technology comes next?

One of the reasons the Penn Central merger failed was that both railroads had recently computerized using their preferred systems. The two systems were not compatible and huge mistakes were made, including the famous "lost train" that traveled from Chicago to New York taking four weeks to do so. There were also mistakes made in accounting and payroll, with billing so totally messed up that even after bankruptcy, bills were still being dealt with three years later. Unfortunately Norfolk Southern tore out two of the four tracks that made up the New York to Buffalo route and as a result Amtrak trains have long delays waiting for freight trains to clear their path.

At 6:20 Death Avenue, I was interested to see the little railway engines, as in the UK the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway had locomotives rather like this. They inspired the Reverend Awdry to create his Toby the Tram Engine character, who appears in Thomas the Tank Engine stories. In the UK, engines on certain railways that were regarded as tramways, had to have their wheels boxed in; cow catchers front and rear, and side skirts over the wheels. There were a few other steam tramways in Britain.

Amtrak came along and was like yippieeee

Tower city right here in Cleveland. The old CUT Yes technically it was only financed by them not built but they were a principle tenant (so much so the penssy refused to move their operations there till the Penn cental merger) and was the last intercity railroad to keep using it. As a matter of fact the only amtrak train that used the Cleveland Union Terminal called The Lake Shore was a rename of the NYC/PC. New England States.

I’m just curious. The trains weren’t flying down the streets at 80mph. So, it was probably the usual impatience of people, perhaps, not paying attention and crossing in mass, some trying to beat the train. Or, perhaps, trying to pass between the cars figuring it was slow enough to be doable. Otherwise, I just imagine that many people just standing there like sitting ducks as a train approaches. You see pedestrian behavior in the city regarding crossing against the light with trucks and buses.

An Awesome Program

Lorries took a lot of the freight duties away from railroads. However, it is, doubtful railroads will ever go away for freight. It is too efficient to move large amounts of freight by rail for it to be replaced anytime foreseeable in the future.