The corridor from Providence, Rhode Island, west into New York was originally chartered as three companies. The Providence and Plainfield Railroad, chartered in June 1846, would run from Providence to the Rhode Island–Connecticut state line.
May, 1867, ... the union of that line with the Western Railroad Corporation resulted in the formation of the Boston and Albany Railroad.
https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/download/HistoryoftheTownofAshland_10290763.pdf
1867-70 – Boston &Worcester RR, Albany and West Stockbridge RR, and Western RR merged with Hudson and Boston Railroad into a company known as Boston and Albany Railroad.
The Hudson and Boston Railroad was a railroad that spanned across Southern and Central Columbia County, New York. It was chartered in 1855 and acquired by the Boston and Albany Railroad in 1870, only to face its gradual demise beginning in 1959.
The Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad began operating in 1845. The 28 mile trip from Buffalo to Niagara Falls was a three hour journey being pulled by a wood stoked steam locomotive.
In 1852, the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad relocated their tracks to the west side of the Erie Canal.
On December 22nd 1853, the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Railroad was leased to the New York Central Railroad.
On April 23rd 1869, the New York Central Railroad began operations within the Niagara escarpment.
The Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad (CP&A), also known informally as the Cleveland and Erie Railroad, the Cleveland and Buffalo Railroad, and the Lake Shore Railroad, was a railway which ran from Cleveland, Ohio, to the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.
The railroad first reached Decatur in 1854, when the Great Western Railroad built a line through the city. Decatur built Union Station, its first railway station, in 1856 to serve this line. By 1901, the Great Western Railroad had consolidated into the Wabash Railroad, and the old Union Station had fallen into disrepair.
In 1851, Iowa’s two U.S. senators – George W.
Joliet and Northern Indiana Rail Road and Oswego and Indiana Plank Road Company consolidate in 1854 to form the Joliet & Northern Indiana Railroad
The entire property of the Joliet & Northern Indiana is leased to the Michigan Central in perpetuity under agreement dated September 7, 1854.
Sam apparently held stock in the Chicago and Alton Railroad. He reports in a letter to Livy "The Chicago & Alton paid a dividend of $200 July 2d—it is in Mr. Rogers’s hands. " as reported in Day By Day for August 2, 1901.