Albany and Susquehanna Railroad Company - New York 1945

Beautifully engraved specimen certificate from Albany and Susquehanna Railroad Company dated 1945. This historic document was printed by American Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of train #1054. This item is over 61 years old.


Certificate Vignette

The Albany and Susquehanna Railroad was chartered April 19, 1851; construction from Albany to Schoharie Junction, New York, a distance of 35 miles (56 km), was completed in 1863. The railroad was extended to Binghamton in 1869, increasing the railroad's total mileage to 143 miles (230 km).

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company leased the railroad on 24 February 1870.

The Albany and Susquehanna railroad Company was authorized and organized by legislature to construct a railroad from Albany, New York to Binghamton, New York, built the railroad in sections. The first section extended from Albany to Central Bridge and their engineers, seeking a favorable grade, found the desired route passed through the upper part of the Normanskill Valley which provided an improved means of transportation for this vicinity. This section was constructed during the years 1861 to 1863 inclusive and in the latter year, transportation was established between the above-named points. To best serve the needs of Quaker Street a site was chosen for a station and other necessary facilities. A station and freighthouse were erected on the east side of the highway crossing, between certain tracks existing at that time. This was given the name Quaker Street Station.

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company was organized and was expanded by buying or leasing railroads from Rouses Point, New York to Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania and the canal from Honesdale, Pennsylvania to Rondout, New York. The Albany and Susquehanna Railroad was to become the Susquehanna division of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company.

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About Specimens

Specimen Certificates are actual certificates that have never been issued. They were usually kept by the printers in their permanent archives as their only example of a particular certificate. Sometimes you will see a hand stamp on the certificate that says "Do not remove from file".

Specimens were also used to show prospective clients different types of certificate designs that were available. Specimen certificates are usually much scarcer than issued certificates. In fact, many times they are the only way to get a certificate for a particular company because the issued certificates were redeemed and destroyed. In a few instances, Specimen certificates we made for a company but were never used because a different design was chosen by the company.

These certificates are normally stamped "Specimen" or they have small holes spelling the word specimen. Most of the time they don't have a serial number, or they have a serial number of 00000. This is an exciting sector of the hobby that grown in popularity over the past several years.