Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Co. - 1960's-1970's dated Railway Stock Certificate

Railroad Stock printed by American Bank Note Co. Riverside city scene vignette. The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (P&LE), designated by the reporting mark PLE and commonly referred to as the "Little Giant," was established on May 11, 1875. Its headquarters were situated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The railroad provided a connection from Pittsburgh in the east to Youngstown, Ohio, near Haselton, Ohio, in the west, as well as to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, to the east. It did not extend to Lake Erie at Ashtabula, Ohio, until the creation of Conrail in 1976. The nickname "Little Giant" was attributed to the railroad due to the significant tonnage it transported relative to its route mileage. Although it operated only about one-tenth of one percent of the total railroad miles in the nation, it was responsible for moving approximately one percent of the nation's tonnage. This was primarily due to the P&LE's service to the steel mills in the greater Pittsburgh region, which required and dispatched large quantities of materials. The railroad specialized in transporting coal, coke, iron ore, limestone, and steel, generating a substantial portion of its revenue from these commodities. However, the eventual decline of the steel mills culminated in the cessation of the P&LE's operations as an independent entity in 1992.