New Haven
Boston & Maine
Maine Central
New York Central
The B&M was within walking distance from my house and was my introduction to railroads. I used to ride their BuddLiners to Boston when I was very young.
The New Haven had cool looking trains. They had all kinds of electric locomotives, cool diesels, BeeLiners (Budd cars), and other odd ducks.
The Maine Central used to do run throughs with the B&M and I'd see their equipment pooled in the B&M. Cool because they were like a 'sister' railroad for the longest time.
The NYC was in Boston, and ran cool looking trains like the Lake Shore Ltd., and neat freights.
It's sad to see all these great names disappear. The NYC, like the NH was absorbed and destroyed by the PennCentral. Sorry Conrail fans, but Conrail was still the PC only with different cloths, and used their power to wipe out their competition like the Lehigh Valley and the Erie.
The B&M and MEC are gone now, having been been destroyed by Guilford Transportation (Pan Am Railways). When Guilford took over, they ripped up track, drove customers away, and went on a program of lack of maintenance for the ROW as wells as the locomotives. They're a little better now, but not in anyway compared to CSX or NS.
John