Erie and and Black Rock Railroad Company stock certificate circa 1882 (New York)

Wonderful railroad stock collectible. Fantastic vignette of a period steam train with passenger cars.  Unissued and not cancelled. Dated 18__ but circa 1882 from corporate records. Measures approximately 12 x 7 inches.

The Erie and Black Rock Railroad Company was a short, single-track branch line (1.445 miles of track) incorporated in New York in 1882 to operate in Buffalo, New York. Constructed by the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad between 1882 and 1883, its purpose was to connect Black Rock Junction to Black Rock. While it was the physical property of the Erie and Black Rock Railroad Company, its operation was integrated into the larger Erie system. 

The property of the Erie and Black Rock was operated by the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company and its receivers from the date it was placed in operation, about 1883, to December 1, 1895. From the latter date to December 31, 1917, it was operated by the Erie. The common-carrier property was taken over for operation by the United States Railroad Administration on January 1, 1918, as part of the system of the Erie, and it is so operated on date of valuation.

Black Rock, once an independent municipality, is now a neighborhood of the northwest section of the city of Buffalo, New York. In the 1820s, Black Rock was the rival of Buffalo for the terminus of the Erie Canal, but Buffalo, with its larger harbor capacity and greater distance from the shores of Canada, a recent antagonist during the War of 1812, won the competition. Black Rock took its name from a large outcropping of black limestone along the Niagara River, which was blasted away in the early 1820s to make way for the canal.

In spite of losing the Erie Canal terminus to Buffalo and twice being burned to the ground by the British during the War of 1812, Black Rock continued to prosper. In 1814, a small group of American riflemen defended Black Rock and neighboring Buffalo from a British assault and, in 1839, it was incorporated as a town. In 1853, the City of Buffalo annexed the town of Black Rock.

In the 1870s, the International Railway Bridge connected the two nations at Black Rock, an engineering marvel at the time. The Black Rock Rail Yard handled both passenger service and commercial transport of goods into and out of Canada.