Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was the largest railroad in the United States in terms of corporate assets and traffic from the last quarter of the nineteenth century until the decline of the northeast's and midwest's dominance of manufacturing, caused by the evolution of the interstate highway system and the advancements in air transportation. Originally created by Philadelphia merchants in 1846, it sought to build a trunk route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh via the Allegheny Mountains to compete for freight traffic that by-passed Pennsylvania for New York via the Erie Canal. From those humble beginnings, it stretched into an 11,000 mile system running through New York, Washington, Chicago, and Saint Louis before reaching its final destination in bankruptcy court. In the ensuing years, the Penn Central Corporation's holdings (created by a 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads), along with a number of other bankrupt railroads in the northeast were split between the federally-created National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) for passenger rail assets and the Consolidated Rail Corporation (ConRail) for freight traffic assets. The remaining local rail routes were divided between respective regional transportation authorities.

From the description of Records, 1847-1968. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 727944392

The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) maintained 122 subsidiary organizations (branch lines, electric traction, bus, and truck lines, coal companies, and utilities) that operated under the directorship of the PRR and its successor corporate entity, the Penn Central Railroad, in 1968 until bankruptcy in 1971.

From the description of Pennsylvania Railroad branch lines and subsidiaries annual reports and minute books, 1853-1965. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 51996142

In 1863 construction began on the Union & Logansport line, linking Union City, in Randolph County, Indiana and Darke County, Ohio, with Logansport, in Cass County, and the Chicago & Great Eastern Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad provided some of the financing and the line was completed in 1867. On 12 February 1868 the U & L was consolidated with the Columbus & Indiana Central and the Toledo, Logansport & Burlington to form the Columbus, Chicago & Indiana Central.

From the description of Promissory notes, 1865-1867. (Indiana Historical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 57570538

Organized in 1869; traveled from Cincinnati to Chattanooga.

From the description of Pennsylvania Railroad transportation way-bill, 1881 Sept. 20. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 237103557

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was incorporated under the laws of Pennsylvania on April 13, 1846. Upon merger with the New York Central Railroad Company its name was changed to the Pennsylvania New York Central Transportation Company on February 1, 1968, to the Penn Central Company on May 8, 1969, to the Penn Central Transportation Company on October 1, 1969, and to the Penn Central Corporation on October 24, 1978. Rail properties were sold to Consolidated Rail Corporation, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), and other local operators between April 1, 1976, and 1978. The firm remains in business and a diversified holding company.

The Pennsylvania Railroad was formed during a period of rivalry among the northeastern seaport cities to secure the trade of the Great Lakes and the Ohio valley. New York had achieved a commanding lead with the Erie Canal in 1825, followed by a railroad from Albany to Buffalo in 1843. A second New York railroad, the Erie, was under construction. On the south, Philadelphians feared being cut off by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which had already reached Cumberland. Pennsylvania had put most of its resources into the state-owned Main Line of Public Works, a chain of canals and railroads that required three transshipments between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It was operated more as a system of sectional patronage than a business and maximized tolls at the expense of traffic volume.

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was originally a creation of Philadelphia merchants. By 1852, its tracks had linked up with the state railroads to form a through rail line between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In 1854, it completed a superior route over the Allegheny divide, giving it a continuous main line between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. In 1857, it purchased the Main Line of Public Works, primarily to control the railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia. Lease of the intervening Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mt. Joy & Lancaster Railroad in 1861 brought the entire line under one management. The canal portions of the Main Line were gradually abandoned between 1863 and 1900.

Beginning in 1859, the company began to protect its flanks by securing control of the Cumberland Valley Railroad (Harrisburg to Hagerstown), the Northern Central Railway (Sunbury to Baltimore), the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad (Sunbury to Erie) and the Allegheny Valley Railroad (Pittsburgh to Oil City), making it the dominant railroad in the state by 1868. It then began to secure direct control of its eastern and western connections. The United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Company, controlling the territory between New York and Philadelphia, was leased in 1871, and over 3,000 route miles west of Pittsburgh had been acquired by lease and purchase by 1873.

The northwestern lines, terminating at Chicago, were operated through the medium of a holding company, the Pennsylvania Company, and the southwestern lines by the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad. The depression of 1873-1879 put an end to attempts to extend PRR influence south of the Potomac and Ohio and west of the Mississippi. The Baltimore & Potomac Railroad was completed to Washington in 1873, and acquisition of the Philadelpia, Wilmington & Baltimore in 1881 completed PRR control of the northeast corridor line.

Beginning with the administration of J. Edgar Thomson (1852-1874), the PRR came under the control of its salaried managers, most of whom were trained as civil engineers and passed through a set course of hierarchical advancement. Unlike most other railroads of the period, the PRR was never run by lone entreprenuers, politicians or bankers. Consequently, its management style was much more sytematic (pioneerng in the development of the line-and-staff type of structure), and it put greater emphasis on technical development and engineering virtuosity. In 1874, it employed one of the first professionally trained industrial chemists, and later developed its own testing laboratory. The greatest monuments to this approach were the great Pennsylvania Station project of 1907-1910 and the electrification of the main lines east of Harrisburg in 1915-1938. During this period it proclaimed itself the "Standard Railroad of the World."

After the extreme traffic conditions created by World War II, the PRR began to decline. In great measure this merely reflected the relative decline of the Northeast and Midwest and of the heavy manufacturing industries the company served, and losses to the 707, the Interstate Highway and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Most of its substantial passenger traffic was represented by short hauls in the urban Northeast which could not be priced to recover the full cost of service. Despite new programs like the development of the high-speed Metroliners, most of the company's problems were no longer amenable to engineerng solutions and old management patterns could no longer cope. Disruption of old patterns led to internal power struggles, as solvency came to depend more on outside investments, subsidies, market analysis and merger politics than on traditional railroading.

By the late 1950s, PRR executives increasingly saw the solution as a parallel merger that could eliminate redundant trackage in its territory, public funding of passenger services and diversification into more remunerative non-rail investments. The company began to invest in oil pipelines and Sun Belt real estate. In 1957, it announced its plan to merge with its major competitor, the New York Central. The Central did not finally agree until 1962, after its attempt to merge with the Chesapeake & Ohio failed. The merger was finally consummated on February 1, 1968.

From the description of Records, 1813-1968. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122573098

Incorporated in 1846, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR) began as a single-track railroad between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In 1857 the PRR acquired multiple lines from Chicago through Pennsylvania, expanding quickly to 800 subsidiary companies. In terms of capital and trackage, the PRR was well-situated for its imminent task of mobilizing troops, munitions, and supplies during the Civil War. Following the Panic of 1873, a series of wage cuts at the Pennsylvania, New York Central, and other railroads precipitated a violent outbreak of strikes in the summer of 1877, the most hostile of which were directed at the PRR in Pittsburgh. Stone-throwing mobs supporting workers formed in Altoona, Johnstown, and Harrisburg while looting, destruction, injury, and death continued in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Previous to binding arbitration, this labor dispute ended with a strengthening of the Knights of Labor for workers, the enlargement of federal forces, and a strengthening of laws controlling the disruption of commerce by labor. In 1910, the first tunnel under the Hudson River allowed the PRR Railroad to establish a new terminal in New York City. Pennsylvania Station was, at the time of its completion, reputed to be the world's busiest train station.

Founded in July of 1853 as a consolidation of ten small railroads, the New York Central Railroad Company later merged with the Hudson River Railroad, forming the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company in 1869. Its creator, Erastus Corning, served as president until 1864. Under the leadership of Cornelius Vanderbilt, ten thousand miles of track connected New York with Boston, Chicago, Montreal, and St. Louis as the railroad grew to acquire more than 600 subsidiaries. The New York Central began to languish after World War II. After a lengthy legal dispute that reached the Supreme Court, the PRR and the New York Penn Central Railroad, former business rivals, merged in 1968 to create the Penn Central Transportation Company. The Penn Central Company acquired the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad in 1969, but filed for bankruptcy two years later. A new national passenger rail service, Amtrak, was formed in the same year, 1971, followed by the establishment of the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) in 1976. Shortly thereafter, the Penn Central became a holding company composed primarily of energy, electronics, manufacturing, and real estate subsidiaries.

From the description of Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central Railroad records, 1830-1975. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 435447598

Herschel G. Wray was born in Oxford, Ohio in 1890. He received a civil engineering degree from Purdue University in 1913, and began his career with the Pennsylvania Railroad in June of that year. He worked for the railroad for ten years where he was in charge of grade separation construction in Indianapolis, Indiana and Cleveland, Ohio.

The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railway was created through mergers on August 29, 1890. After various other mergers and reorganizations, the railway came to be operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1921.

From the description of Elevated track construction photographs [graphic], 1918-1923. (Indiana Historical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 55643971