Product Details

Intricately engraved antique bond certificate from the Cleveland Short Line Railway Company dating back to the 1910's. This document, which is signed by the company Vice President and Secretary, was printed by the American Bank Note Company, and measures approximately 10" (w) by 15" (h).

The vignette features a passenger train steaming down the tracks. 

Images

You will receive the exact certificate pictured.

Historical Context

The Cleveland Short Line Railway was chartered November 24, 1902. The incorporators, who were major shareholders in the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway (LS&MS), intended to construct a circumferential railroad from the LS&MS main line on the border between the Riverside and Bellaire-Puritas neighborhoods of Cleveland (an area known to railroads as "Rockport") to the LS&MS rail yard in Collinwood, Ohio.

Construction began in May 1906. The first 10.08-mile section, from Rockport to the Lake Erie and Pittsburgh Railway (a block south of the intersection of Broadway and Harvard Avenues in the Slavic Village neighborhood, an area known to railroads as "Marcy") opened on February 24, 1910.

On April 1, 1911, the LS&MS entered into a 99-year lease of the Cleveland Short Line. The lease required the LS&MS to pay to the Cleveland Short Line each year an amount equal to 5 percent of its outstanding capital stock plus an amount equal to the interest on the Short Line's outstanding debt. The remaining 9.56 miles of the line opened on July 1, 1912. By December 31, 1913, the LS&MS had purchased all the outstanding stock of the Cleveland Short Line.

The LS&MS merged with the New York Central Railroad (NYC) in December 1914, and the NYC absorbed the Cleveland Short Line in 1915.