From a Norfolk Southern news release about their upcoming heritage units…
"·Erie Railroad (CR, EMD) was key to economic development along
the Southern Tier, which includes Binghamton and Elmira, N.Y. In
1851, Secretary of State Daniel Webster was strapped to a rocking
chair on an open flatcar, wrapped in a blanket and clutching a bottle
of rum, so he could ride the just-completed railroad.
·New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (NW, GE) was commonly
referred to as the Nickel Plate Road, a moniker it acquired when the
Norwalk (Ohio) Chronicle referred to it in 1881 as "the great New
York and St. Louis double track, nickel plated railroad," supposedly
indicative of its solid financial backing.
·Reading Company (CR, EMD) was one of the first railroads built
in America, and built its fortune hauling coal. It featured the first
iron railroad bridge in America.
Virginian Railway (NW, EMD) was the only railroad created
through the capital and credit of one man, oil magnate Henry
Huttleston Rogers. After building a short line, the Deepwater
Railway, to haul coal out of West Virginia and then being blocked by
the bigger railroads, he created another railroad, the Tidewater
Railway, to reach Norfolk, Va., then combined the two into the