Skip to main content

Wayne County Coal and Iron Railway Co. (Uncanceled) - $1,000 Bond

Inv# RB5699   Bond
State(s): West Virginia
Years: 1867

$1,000 7% Uncanceled Bond. Lithograph by Wetzler & Hay, NY. 13 of 20 coupons remain. Important and Rare!!! Paper tear at fold.

A predecessor to the Class I Delaware and Hudson Railway, the 1820s-built Delaware and Hudson Canal Company Gravity Railroad ('D&H Gravity Railroad') was a historic gravity railroad incorporated and chartered in 1826 with land grant rights in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania as a humble subsidiary of the Delaware and Hudson Canal and it proved to contain the first trackage of the later organized Delaware and Hudson Railroad (so eventually became a first class Class I Railroad). It began as the second long U.S. gravity railroad built initially to haul coal to canal boats, was the second railway chartered in the United States after the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road before even, the Baltimore and Ohio (e. 1827). As a long gravity railway, only the Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk Railroad (e. 1827) pre-dated its beginning of operations.

Description

The 4 ft 3 in (1,295 mm) narrow gauge railroad carried coal from Carbondale North-northeast of Scranton over the Moosic Mountains to the D&H Canal in Honesdale. The gravity railroad was opened in 1829, then like most early railways, modified and expanded in stages through 1868. In its final form, the railroad used separate loaded and light tracks. In the gravity railway part, unpowered trains ran by gravity to the bottom of a grade manned by a brakeman operating a muscle powered hand-brake to control speed of descent, to the loading chutes. After being emptied, they were attached to a cable wound on large winch wheels (similar to a ski lift) and hauled up a short, steep inclined planes by a stationary steam engine. The loaded tracks had planes pointing in the direction of Honesdale; the light (return) tracks had planes pointing in the direction of Carbondale.

The gravity railroad operated until 1899, when the canal was abandoned, and was replaced entirely by a new standard 4 ft 8 12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge line to be used as a conventional steam railroad. Many traces of the tracks remain in the Moosic Mountains. They can still be located on current aerial photographs.

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Gravity Railroad Shops have been demolished, but were once listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Read More

Read Less

Condition: Excellent

A bond is a document of title for a loan. Bonds are issued, not only by businesses, but also by national, state or city governments, or other public bodies, or sometimes by individuals. Bonds are a loan to the company or other body. They are normally repayable within a stated period of time. Bonds earn interest at a fixed rate, which must usually be paid by the undertaking regardless of its financial results. A bondholder is a creditor of the undertaking.

Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.
Price: $180.00