New York, Westchester & Boston Railway station at Port Chester, New York, 1930

On August 21, 1937, service ceased on the New York, Westchester & Boston Railway line, which despite its reference to Boston actually ran just from lower Manhattan to Port Chester, New York.  It was incorporated in 1872 (as the New York, Westchester & Boston Railroad) but the charter lay dormant until 1900, when investors formed the New York & Westchester and reorganized in 1904 as the NYW&B Railway.  The line was in direct competition with the omnipresent New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (better known as the New Haven Railroad), which controlled almost all railroad, trolley and steamship traffic in southern New England into New York City from 1872 to 1969, so the New Haven Railroad bought up all of the fledgling company’s stock and made it into a showcase of elegant stations, bridges and viaducts.  Unfortunately such opulence was unsustainable and the line was never able to turn a profit.  It closed in 1937, its property was auctioned off in 1942, and its locomotives and cars were scattered to the four winds.

A fantastic website giving the full history of this line is at http://nywbry.com/index.php.

Archives & Special Collections has Board of Directors minutes and financial records of the NYW&B Ry., as part of the  New York, New Haven & Hartford Records, an enormous collection of administrative, real estate, financial and legal records of the railroad and its predecessor companies.