Erie Railroad

The Erie Railroad Company was one of the oldest railway companies of the United States of America. The beginnings go back to 1832. It was built to provide the quickest route between New York and Lake Erie, and thus the other Great Lakes. It was commercially successful and was able to expand westward to Cleveland and Chicago.

The track was first built in broad gauge of 1829 mm (6 feet) to 1878 and later received a third rail, to make it usable for the other, standard gauge railways. By 1885 the line was converted to standard gauge of 1435 mm.

The train was involved in the largest railway speculation in 1872 by Daniel Drew, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jim Fisk and Jay Gould.

In 1960, the company with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad merged to the Erie Lackawanna Railroad. In 1976 she became part of Conrail.

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