Railroad Stocks

Indianapolis Traction and Terminal Company stock certificate 1910

From The Street Railway Review Volume 15, 1905, page 33.

"It is not realized by the public in general, nor perhaps even by those most interested in electric railways, that the scene of most active development in this field has in the recent past been moving westward and is now in Indiana. Indianapolis, the capital of that state, is now one of the great interurban electric railway centers, and the roads now operated by the seven companies having that city for 1 terminus aggregate 515.8 miles. Connecting with two of these seven roads are the lines of five other interurban companies, with an aggregate of 173.3 miles of track in operation, bringing the total of electric railway systems over which through cars might be run to Indianapolis up to 669.1 miles. Large as these figures now appear, they will soon be increased…."

Here's a Illinois Traction stock certificate that is peculiar in a number of ways. First, the denomination -- you never see printed 25-share certificates, typically just 10- and 100-share certs were printed and others had space for the number of share to be written in. Next, it's an Illinois streetcar but the company is incorporated in Maine. And last, the certificate was printed by British American Bank Note Co. You often see Canadian stocks produced by American banknote printers, but almost never the reverse. I'm sure there's an interesting story behind this one.

I guess it's time to post a few more recent additions. I'd love to see some from other members, too!