Originally Posted by
Herb687
Bonus #3: Why couldn't you make the clue an iconic
electric locomotive? That would make it easy to guess PRR with its iconic GG-1s:
https://www.therailwayhub.co.uk/1059...-classic-gg-1/
The only iconic steam locomotives I can picture belonged to western railroads: UP's Big Boys, SP's cab forwards and Daylights and we know that the BAC One-Eleven operator was an eastern railroad.
Just throwing darts here now: New York Central.
Bonus #3: New York Central (NYC) is an excellent guess! And I no doubt would have guessed NYC myself!
However. it wasn't New York Central. So time for another hint....
The two letters at the end of tail number of this railroad's corporate BAC One-Eleven reflected the name of the holding company which controlled three separate Class 1 railroads as well as a smaller railroad (with the latter operating as a terminal railroad in the greater metropolitan area of a major city) that had all merged together in 1973. The name of the holding company was then used for its combined railroad operations. Then in 1987 there were additional changes to the corporate structure and the railroad company name we are looking for was retired.