New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Co. - 1930's circa Unissued $50,000 Bond

Unissued $50,000 3 1/2% Gold Bond printed by American Bank Note Company, New York.

The New York Central Railroad, identified by the reporting mark NYC, was a significant railway system that primarily served the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It established vital connections between the greater New York area and Boston in the east, extending to Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest, while also linking key cities such as Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Syracuse. The headquarters of the New York Central was located in the New York Central Building in New York City, adjacent to its principal station, Grand Central Terminal.

Founded in 1853 through the consolidation of several existing railroads, the NYC underwent a merger in 1968 with its competitor, the Pennsylvania Railroad, resulting in the formation of Penn Central. However, Penn Central faced bankruptcy in 1970 and subsequently merged into Conrail in 1976. In 1998, Conrail was dismantled, with portions of its network being allocated to CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway, with CSX acquiring the majority of the former New York Central lines. The railroad maintained an extensive network across New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, and West Virginia, as well as additional lines in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. By the end of 1925, the NYC operated 11,584 miles (18,643 km) of road and 26,395 miles (42,479 km) of track; by the end of 1967, these figures had decreased to 9,696 miles (15,604 km) and 18,454 miles (29,699 km), respectively.