JeffPo's New York Central Lantern Page
Last update: 10/29/09
This Dietz Vesta lantern was used by the New York Central Railroad. The frame of the lantern is stamped N.Y.C.S. The red globe is cast with NYCS. That stands for New York Central System. The red globe means it was used as a stop signal.
New York Central Railroad
A shrouded New York Central steam locomotive.
The New York Central Railroad was founded in 1853 by a merger of ten railroads. Headquartered in New York, it served a large portion of the area with extensive tracks in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, and New England. The New York Central was known as a “water level route”, which meant most of its routes followed rivers and didn’t have significant grade. The steam locomotives of this railroad were built for speed. Financial failings in the 1960’s eventually meant it became a “fallen flag” (i.e. a railroad that no longer exists) in 1968 when it joined the Pennsylvania Railroad in a merger that produced the Penn Central Railroad. Penn Central was merged into Conrail in 1976, which was purchased jointly by CSX and Norfolk & Southern in 1999.