1892 Brochure – Pennsylvania Railroad and Steamer Cygnus Hudson River Excursion

$35.00

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Description

Popular Excursions to the Upper Hudson via the Pennsylvania Railroad and Steamer Cyrus – Season 1892.

Six-fold Brochure detailing tourist excursions sponsored by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Iron Steamship Company for a cruise up the Hudson as far as Newburgh, NY (Yes, I know that is not the Upper Hudson, but I did not write this thing).

Conditon: Good only. Brochure is either starting to separate or has completely separated at each fold, and has been repaired in a non-acid-free manner with older scotch tape.  I wish this were in better condition, but it is what it is.

A fairly rare piece of Railroadiana and a cross-over to collectors of steamboat memorabilia and Hudson Valley history.

“The Iron Steamboat Company (1881-1932) provided ferry service between Manhattan and Coney Island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The original fleet consisted of seven iron-hulled steamboats, each named after a constellation–the Cygnus, the Cepheus, the Cetus, the Pegasus, the Perseus, the Sirius and the Taurus. In later years two older wooden steamboats, the Columbia and the Grand Republic would also be added. Each boat was powered by a single cylinder vertical beam steam engine and was divided into three decks and twelve watertight compartments. Service began in May 1881 and continued until the close of the 1932 season. Initially the line serviced only Coney Island, but over the years service was expanded to Long Branch, New Jersey, Rockaway Beach, New York, and for a brief time Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Boats left Manhattan (half-hourly during summer) from various piers along the west side and Pier One in Lower Manhattan. In Coney Island ships landed at the New and Old Iron Piers, and later at the amusement parks Dreamland and Steeplechase Park, where a round trip Iron Steamboat ticket bought free admission to the parks.

“The company also ran a daily service up the Hudson to Oscawana Island north of Croton-on-Hudson, NY where it operated a small hotel built over a railroad tunnel.” – Wikipedia

“The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR) (or Pennsylvania Railroad Company and also known the “Pennsy“) was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was called the Pennsylvania Railroad because it was established in the state of Pennsylvania.

“The PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U.S. for the first half of the 20th century. Over the years, it acquired, merged with or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies. At the end of 1925, it operated 10,515 miles of rail line; in the 1920s, it carried nearly three times the traffic as other railroads of comparable length, such as the Union Pacific or Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads. Its only formidable rival was the New York Central (NYC), which carried around three-quarters of PRR’s ton-miles.

“At one time, the PRR was the largest publicly traded corporation in the world, with a budget larger than that of the U.S. government and a workforce of about 250,000 people. The corporation still holds the record for the longest continuous dividend history: it paid out annual dividends to shareholders for more than 100 consecutive years.

“In 1968, PRR merged with rival NYC to form the Penn Central Transportation Company, which filed for bankruptcy within two years. The viable parts were transferred in 1976 to Conrail, which was itself broken up in 1999, with 58 percent of the system going to the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), including nearly all of the former PRR. Amtrak received the electrified segment east of Harrisburg.” – Wikipedia

 

 

 

Additional information

Weight .2 lbs