NEW YORK CENTRAL SYSTEM, an important system of railway, serving the northern and eastern portions of the United States. Its chief termini are New York, Boston, Chicago and St. Louis, and it serves also the cities of Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Montreal, Ottawa. The most important railroad of the system is the New York Central Railroad Company, a consoli dated corporation formed of different companies operating rail roads between New York and Chicago. The first railroad of this company was chartered in 1826 and opened for traffic in 1831. The company's important subsidiaries, controlled by stock ownership or by lease, are the Michigan Central Railroad Company; the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company, known as the Big Four; the Boston and Albany railroad; and the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Company. The mileage of the system is 11,814 m. of road and 28,331 m. of track. A large per
centage of the trackage is protected by automatic signals, and by automatic train control. The system is the owner of 4,130 loco motives, 204,569 freight cars and 4,668 passenger and other cars. The total funded debt, as of Dec. 31, 1934, of the system was and of the New York Central Railroad Company, $679,304,648. The gross amount of capital stock of the system was $648,400,000, of which the New York Central had outstand ing, $504,139,930. The lines transported over 121,000,000 tons of freight in 1934, of which 52% was coal, 26% manufactured arti cles and the remainder general traffic, such as products of agricul ture, animals and products, etc. It is over the line of the New York Central that the train known as the 20th Century Limited is operated between New York and Chicago. General offices of the system are in New York City. (C. C. PAu.)