For offer, a nice old advertising tradecard. Fresh from an estate in Upstate / Western  NY. Never offered on the market until now. Vintage, Old, antique, Original - NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed !! Interesting and somewhat comical ticket for Laws Bluing. To Niagara Falls and return. Measures 4 1/8 x 1 3/4 inches. In excellent condition. Please see photos for details. If you collect Americana advertisement ad, 19th century American history, Victorian trade card related, transportation, industry, etc., this is one you will not see again soon. A nice piece for your paper or ephemera collection. Perhaps some genealogy research information as well. Combine shipping on multiple bid wins!  1656

The New York, West Shore, and Buffalo Railroad was created in 1882 to build a line from Weehawken, NJ to Buffalo, NY. It was built to directly compete with the New York Central as it tracks vitually parelleled the Central's all the way to Buffalo. The name was derived from the location of the initial right of way on the West Shore of the Hudson River. 

The West Shore reached Buffalo around 1884. This event precipitated a shipping rate war with the New York Central. 

The New York Central had been forced to aquire the Nickel Plate as its parallel line along the Central's Lake Shore route threatened to be too competitive for the wily Vanderbilts. When the West Shore did the same thing on the remainder of the Central's New York to Chicago route the Central had no choice, but to batter them into submission financially. 

The West Shore soon went bankrupt and the NYC's deep pockets were barely dented. 

The West Shore was ripe for the pickings and the word on the street was that the Pennsylvania Railroad was quietly buying up as many West Shore bonds as they could lay their hands on in preparation for the obviously unavoidable foreclosure. By linking the PPR's trackage in Jersey City to Weehawken they would have a simple link to their own extensive rail network. No doubt William H. Vanderbilt, then president of the Central, lay awake many nights pondering the spectre of the monolithic Pennsy in his own backyard. 

It seemed the only thing the Central could do was to build its own line in Pennsylvania. That's when the fireworks started. 

The financial impact of the animosity between the Central and the Pennsy was so great that legendary financier J.P. Morgan was moved to intervene and work out a compromise between the New York Central and the Pennsylvania RR. The upshot of the agreement was that NYC would lease the West Shore, and the PRR would receive the incomplete South Penn RR. Much of the unfinished South Penn would become the right of way for the Pennsylvania Turnpike "All Weather Highway" begun in 1935 and the granddaddy of all state thruways. 

In 1885 the West Shore was reorganized as the West Shore Railroad, a wholly owned subsidiary of the New York Central lines. It operated in this capacity until 1952 when the West Shore was formally merged into the New York Central. 

Quite a bit of the old West Shore still exists today and is used by CSX, the successor to Conrail, Penn Central and the New York Central. It is CSX' primary freight route north from New York City on the west shore of the Hudson river. Pieces in central New York including most of the line between Utica, through Syracuse to Rochester exist as bypasses or connections and the old West Shore East Buffalo Yard is now a part of CSX' Frontier Yard.