Wagner Palace Car stock certificate 1897 (New York)

Tougher find! Awesome triple vignette of a steam train and two railroad terminals. Issued and cancelled. Heavy cancellation holes through cert and center vignette. Dated 1897 on the cert.  Approximately 12 x 8 inches. 

The Wagner Palace Car Company began as the New York Central Sleeping Car Company, founded in 1858 at New York City by Webster Wagner (1817-1882) in cooperation with Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose New York Central was the primary user of the four original coaches.

About 1870 Wagner negotiated a deal with Pullman to use its berths in the Wagner cars, with the understanding Wagner would confine its operations to the NYC. But in 1875, when Pullman’s contract with the Michigan Central (a NYC subsidiary) expired, Wagner persuaded them to switch to Wagner cars.

Webster Wagner died in 1882 aboard one of his own sleeping cars in a terrible rear-end collision. The company nevertheless continued doing business. The Wagner Palace Car Company was one of the largest employers in Buffalo in 1890. Its works occupied 35 acres at 1770 Broadway out at the east end of Broadway near Broadway and Bailey.

The battles between the Pullman and Wagner companies continued until, at the end of 1899, following Commodore Vanderbilt’s death, the directors of the Wagner Palace Car Company pulled the plug, and the company was sold to Pullman in 1900.

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