The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), officially the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia. In 1882, it was the largest railroad (by traffic and revenue), transportation enterprise, and corporation in the world.
Over its existence, the Pennsylvania Railroad acquired, merged with, or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies. In the 1920s, the company carried several times more traffic than other Class I railroads of comparable length, such as the Union Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads, and by the end of 1926, it operated of rail line.This mileage includes companies independently operated. PRR miles of all tracks, which includes first (or main), second, third, fourth, and sidings, totalled 28,040.49 at the end of 1926. The Pennsylvania Railroad's only close competitor was the New York Central Railroad (NYC), which carried around three-quarters of the PRR's ton-miles.
In 1968 the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with New York Central and became the Penn Central Transportation Company, or "Penn Central" for short. The former competitors' networks, however, integrated poorly with each other, and within two years of the merger, Penn Central filed for bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy continued and on April 1, 1976, the railroad gave up its rail assets, along with the assets of several other failing northeastern railroads, to a new railroad named Consolidated Rail Corporation, or Conrail for short. Conrail was itself purchased and split up in 1999 between the Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation, with Norfolk Southern getting 58 percent of the system, including nearly all of the remaining former Pennsylvania Railroad trackage. Amtrak received the electrified segment of the Main Line east of Harrisburg.
The Penn Central Corporation held several non-rail assets which it continued to manage after the formation of Conrail. It reorganized in 1994 as American Premier Underwriters, which continues to operate as a property and casualty insurance company.
History
Beginnings With the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and the beginnings of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1828, Philadelphia business interests became concerned that the port of Philadelphia would lose traffic. The state legislature was pressed to build a canal across Pennsylvania, and thus the Main Line of Public Works was commissioned in 1826. It soon became evident that a single canal would not be practical, and a series of railroads, inclined planes, and canals were proposed. The route consisted of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, canals up the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers, an inclined plane railroad called the Allegheny Portage Railroad, a tunnel across the Allegheny Mountains, and canals down the Conemaugh and Allegheny rivers to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the Ohio River; it was completed in 1834. Because freight and passengers had to change conveyances several times along the route and canals froze in winter, it soon became apparent that the system was cumbersome, and a better way was needed.
There were two applications made to the Pennsylvania legislature in 1846. The first was for a new railroad called "The Pennsylvania Railroad Company" to build a line between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The second was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), which wanted to build to Pittsburgh from Cumberland, Maryland. Both applications were granted with conditions. If the Pennsylvania Railroad did not raise enough capital and contract to build enough railroad within a year, then the B&O bill would become effective and the Pennsy's void, thereby allowing the B&O to build into Pennsylvania and on to Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania Railroad fulfilled the requirements and Letters Patent were issued by the Pennsylvania governor on February 25, 1847. The governor declared the B&O's rights void the following August.
Early years In 1847, the Pennsy's directors chose J. Edgar Thomson, an engineer from the Georgia Railroad, to survey and construct the line. He chose a route that followed the west bank of the Susquehanna River northward to the confluence with the Juniata River, following its banks until the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains were reached at a point that would become Altoona, Pennsylvania. To traverse the mountains, the line would climb a moderate grade for until it reached a split of two mountain ravines which were crossed by building a fill and having the tracks ascend a 220-degree curve known as Horseshoe Curve that limited the grade to less than 2 percent. The crest of the mountain would be penetrated by the Gallitzin Tunnels, from which the route descended by a more moderate grade to Johnstown.
The western end of the line was simultaneously built from Pittsburgh, eastward along the Allegheny and Conemaugh rivers to Johnstown, while the eastern end was built from Harrisburg to Altoona. In 1848, the Pennsy contracted with the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mountjoy and Lancaster Railroad (HPMtJ&L) to buy and use equipment over both roads, providing service from Harrisburg east to Lancaster. In 1851, tracks were completed between Pittsburgh and Johnstown. In 1852, a continuous railroad line ran between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh over the tracks of several entities including the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1853, the Pennsy was granted trackage rights over the Philadelphia and Columbia, providing a connection between the two cities and connecting with the HPMtJ&L at Lancaster and Columbia. By 1854, the Pennsy completed its line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, eliminating the use of the inclined planes of the Allegheny Portage Railroad.
In 1857, the PRR purchased the Main Line of Public Works from the state of Pennsylvania. This purchase included of canal, the Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad, and the New Portage Railroad (which replaced the now abandoned Allegheny Portage Railroad). The Pennsy abandoned most of the New Portage Railroad in 1857 as it was now redundant with the Pennsylvania Railroad's own line. In 1861, the Pennsy leased the HPMtJ&L to bring the entire stretch of road between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia under its control.
The Johnstown to Pittsburgh stretch of canal was abandoned in 1865 and the rest of the canals sold to the Pennsylvania Canal Company in 1866.
The main line was double track from its inception, and by the end of the century, a third and fourth track were added. Over the next 50 years, the Pennsy expanded by gaining control of other railroads by stock purchases and 999-year leases.In the years after the American Civil War, railroad leases were a common arrangement: a railroad contemplating an expansion, but reluctant to assume new risks or finance construction itself, would form a new railroad company or acquire a controlling interest in an existing company, lease the new railroad to itself (the "parent" railroad), and sell stock in the new corporation if necessary. The new line was frequently operated as if it was an integral part of the parent company. See John F. Meck, Jr., and John E. Masten, "Railroad Leases and Reorganization: I ", Yale Law Journal 49:626-659, (1940) pp. 630-31. At the end of its first year of operation, the Pennsylvania Railroad paid a dividend and continued the dividend without interruption until 1946.
Expansion
The Pennsy's charter was supplemented on March 23, 1853, to allow it to purchase stock and guarantee bonds of railroads in other states, up to a percentage of its capital stock. Several lines were then aided by the Pennsy in hopes to secure additional traffic. By the end of 1854, the Pennsy purchased stock in the Ohio & Pennsylvania, Ohio & Indiana, Marietta & Cincinnati, Maysville & Big Sandy, and Springfield, Mt. Vernon & Pittsburgh railroads, totalling $1,450,000 (equivalent to $ in ). The Steubenville & Indiana was assisted by the Pennsy in the form of a guarantee of $500,000 worth of bonds. In 1856, a controlling interest was purchased in the Cumberland Valley Railroad and the Pennsy constructed additional lines in Philadelphia. In 1857, the aforementioned Main Line of Public Works was purchased for $7,500,000 ($ in ).
Empire Transportation Company
The Empire Transportation Company was founded in 1865 by Joseph D. Potts and became a multi-modal freight transportation subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It owned oil tanker cars and used them to transport refined oil for mostly independent oil refiners during the era of John D. Rockefeller's and Standard Oil's oil refinery mergers of the 1870s. The company also owned grain freight boats on the Great Lakes and oil pipelines in the oil regions of Pennsylvania. When the company attempted to buy and build some oil refineries in 1877, Standard Oil bought the company.
1860–1960
1846: The Pennsylvania Railroad Company is chartered to construct a rail line from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1850s: Renamed the Pennsylvania Central Railway. 1850: Construction begins on Altoona Works repair shop at Altoona, Pennsylvania. 1857: The Main Line of Public Works of Pennsylvania purchased. 1865: First US railroad to use steel rails. 1868: The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railway is formed and controlled by the Pennsy. 1869: Leases the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, formally giving it control of a direct route into the heart of the Midwestern United States and Chicago, Illinois. 1870: "Pennsylvania Central" is split into lines east (renamed Pennsylvania Railroad) and lines west Pennsylvania Company is formed to hold securities from companies West of Pittsburgh; Use of track pans begins on PRR at Sang Hollow, Pennsylvania; Pennsy reaches Cincinnati, Ohio, with lease of Little Miami and St. Louis, Missouri, with control of the St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute. 1871: Pennsylvania Railroad reaches Jersey City, New Jersey, and the New York City area via lease of the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company. 1872: Airbrakes were first used on the Pennsylvania Railroad. 1873: Pennsy reaches Washington, D.C., via the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad. 1877: Thomas A. Watson demonstrates telephone to PRR officials at Altoona; Pittsburgh Riots destroys property of Pennsylvania Railroad at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1881: Pennsy purchases control of Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad thereby providing a direct route between Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., access to Delmarva Peninsula; Broad Street Station opens. 1885: The Congressional Limited Express from New York to Washington is introduced 1887: Pennsylvania Limited service begins between New York and Chicago; first vestibuled train. 1900: The Pennsy gains access to Buffalo, New York, via lease of Western New York & Pennsylvania 1902: Pennsylvania Special service begins between New York and Chicago replacing the Pennsylvania Limited 1906: An accident in Atlantic City kills 53 people 1907: Washington Union Station in Washington, D.C., completed 1910: Completion of the North River Tunnels under the Hudson River, providing direct service from New Jersey to Manhattan on electrified lines, terminating at the massive new Penn Station 1912: The second vice-president of the PRR, John B. Thayer, died in the sinking of the aged 49 1912: Broadway Limited was inaugurated, replacing the Pennsylvania Special 1915: The Pennsylvania electrifies its suburban Philadelphia lines to Paoli, Pennsylvania; PRR Position-Light signals first used, between Overbrook and Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. 1916: The Pennsy adopts new motto, "Standard Railroad of the World"; The first I1s Decapod locomotive is completed, and switching locomotives of the A5s and B6sb class are introduced 1917: Completion of the New York Connecting Railroad and the Hell Gate Bridge speed access to New England