Rensselaer & Saratoga RR Stock 1854

1854 Rensselaer & Saratoga RR Stock Certificate. Very attractive and scarce upstate New York scripophily railroad document with woodcut vignette of rowboat on lake. The Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad was chartered in 1832. 25 miles of line were completed in 1836 between Troy and Ballston Spa, New York. Despite its name, the railroad only reached to Ballston Spa and relied on the Saratoga and Schenectady to give it access to Saratoga Springs, New York. When an agreement was not forthcoming, investors purchased Saratoga and Schenectady stock to take control of the railroad. Later acquisitions including trackage to Whitehall, New York and a line of steamers that plied Lake Champlain, allowing tourists to travel from Troy to Canada entirely by steam conveyance for the first time. The last expansion before the merger with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company involved building new sections of track between Green Island and Watervliet that linked Albany and Troy for the first time. All of the leases, purchases, and road construction carried out by the Rensselaer and Saratoga resulted in a little railroad empire consisting of 175 miles of track and control of the Upper Hudson and Champlain Valleys. (Source: Wikipedia). Certificate is in VF condition with pen cancellation