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Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. - dated 1920's-50's Railway Stock Certificate

Inv# RS1181   Stock
State(s): Rhode Island
Years: 1920's-1950's
Color: Gr & Blk with Salmon Seal

Railroad Stock. Exceptional train vignette. Superb. Unusual salmon colored seal. Ornate Victorian title & borders. American Bank Note Co. Scarce! The Providence and Worcester Railroad (reporting mark PW) (NASDAQPWX) is a Class II railroad owned by Genesee & Wyoming. The railroad connects from Gardner in central Massachusetts, south through its namesake cities of Worcester and Providence, Rhode Island, and west from Rhode Island through Connecticut and into New York City. The railroad's connection between New Haven, Connecticut through New York City to Long Island is via trackage rights over the Hell Gate Bridge.

The P&W operated independently until 1888, when the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad (NYP&B) leased it; four years later, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad obtained the lease when it purchased the NYP&B. The P&W continued to exist as a company, as special rules protecting minority shareholders made it prohibitively expensive for the New Haven to purchase the company outright. The New Haven continued to lease the Providence and Worcester for 76 years, until the former was merged into Penn Central (PC) at the end of 1968. Penn Central demanded the shareholder rules keeping P&W alive be rewritten, and also threatened to abandon the company's tracks. In response, a group of P&W shareholders launched a fight with PC, asking the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to cancel the lease and let the P&W leave the New Haven's merger and go free. Against expectations, the ICC agreed, and after court battles, P&W prevailed and began operating independently again after 85 years. Upon regaining its independence, the railroad purchased railroad lines from the Boston and Maine Railroad and PC successor Conrail in the 1970s and 1980s. The company turned a profit operating lines bigger companies lost money on, and invested heavily in its infrastructure. P&W also absorbed a number of shortline railroads in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providence_and_Worcester_Railroad

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A stock certificate is issued by businesses, usually companies. A stock is part of the permanent finance of a business. Normally, they are never repaid, and the investor can recover his/her money only by selling to another investor. Most stocks, or also called shares, earn dividends, at the business's discretion, depending on how well it has traded. A stockholder or shareholder is a part-owner of the business that issued the stock certificates.

Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.
Price: $14.00