Sorry for going off topic, but I was reading a book about the history of the board game ‘Monopoly’. It said that the Short Line railroad was originally called the Shore Fast Line. This was prior to Parker Bros… Has anyone heard of this railroad?
Also, one of the game that preceded Monopoly was a similar game called Strykers Style. The properties in this game were said to have been named after real life places. One of the railroads in this game was the NewYork, NewHaven and Death RR. I did a search and did not find much, other than a reference to a street nickname Death Ave in NY. Any ideas as how they might have come up with this name?
According to “The Monopoly Book”, by Maxine Brady, three of the railroads on the Monopoly board served Atlantic City through subsidiaries: PRR and RDG through predecessors of PRSL, and B&O through CNJ trackage rights. The Short Line was based on a bus line serving Atlantic City and was changed to a railroad to fill out a four-sided game board.
New Haven (NYNH&H) back in the long ago was noted for some spectacular, shall we call them “service disruptions,” with abundant wreckage, injuries, and fatalities. The play, “Life With Father” alluded to this when Father, sitting reading his paper, is heard to remark, “Confound it! Another wreck on the New Haven!”