Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway $1,000 gold bond certificate 1950s (New York)

Great vignette of a younger Cornelius Vanderbilt at the top and a train station with people and steam locomotives at the bottom. Horizontal format. Issued and cancelled. Dated 1950s to 1970s. Vertical fold from storage. Measuring approximately 13 x 9.5 inches.  

The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1869, and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the south shore of Lake Erie (in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio) and across northern Indiana. The line's trackage remains a major rail transportation corridor used by Amtrak passenger trains and several freight lines; in 1998, its ownership was split at Cleveland, Ohio, between CSX Transportation to the east and Norfolk Southern Railway in the west.

In October 1867, the Cleveland, Painesville, and Ashtabula Railroad leased the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad. The CP&A changed its name to the Lake Shore Railway on March 31, 1868, and on February 11, 1869, the Lake Shore absorbed the Cleveland and Toledo. On April 6, the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad and Lake Shore merged to form the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, which absorbed the Buffalo and Erie Railroad on June 22, giving one company the whole route from Buffalo to Chicago.

Around 1877, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and his New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, gained most of the stock of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway. The line provided an ideal extension of the New York Central main line from Buffalo, west to Chicago, along with the route across southern Ontario, the Canada Southern Railway, and the Michigan Central Railroad.

On December 22, 1914, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad merged with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway to form the New York Central Railroad. While the original main line was to the south of Sandusky Bay, between Toledo and Elyria, the northern alignment, the Sandusky Division, eventually became the main line.

In 1968, the New York Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad to form the Penn Central Transportation Company, Penn Central, which two years later, filed for bankruptcy. In 1976, it became part of Conrail. In 1998, Conrail was split between CSX and Norfolk Southern.

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