Product Details
Nicely engraved antique stock certificate from the Lake Erie, Franklin & Clarion Railroad Company dating back to the 1970's. This document, which is signed by the company President and Assistant Treasurer, was printed by the Franklin Lee Division of the American Bank Note Company and measures approximately 11 3/4" (w) by 7 3/4" (h).
This certificate's vignette features a pair of trains.
Images
You will receive the exact certificate pictured.
Historical Context
The Lake Erie, Franklin, and Clarion Railroad was a fifteen mile long short line that ran from a Conrail connection at Summerville, Pennsylvania, to Clarion, Pennsylvania, the county seat of Clarion County, and included a short branch from Sutton to Heidrick.
The road was incorporated in 1913 as a consolidation of several other railroads, the Pennsylvania Northern, Pennsylvania Southern, and the Pittsburgh, Clarion and Franklin, which itself was formed from the Pittsburgh, Summerville, and Clarion - which began operation in 1904 and was leased to the Pennsylvania Southern in 1910.
Length peaked at about 80 miles of track in around 1924. The corporate name was somewhat optimistic as the railroad never reached either Franklin or Lake Erie. In the late 20th century, traffic included sand for Clarion's glass making plant, glass bottles, lumber, and outbound shipments of coal, some of it in unit trains from the extensive coal deposits around Clarion. Traffic also included brick from the Hanley Brick Plant in Summerville.
The line ceased operation in the last decade of the 1900s due to a sharp decline in coal mining in the area.
