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The story
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 10 miles (16 km) 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 3,612 ft (1,101 m) 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 275 miles (443 km) 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. 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 $52 million in 2025). 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 ($259 million in 2025).
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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 RMS Titanic 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
1918: Pennsy stock bottoms at $40¼ (equal to $861.55 today), the lowest since 1877, due largely to Federal railroad control; Emergency freight is routed through New York Penn Station and the Hudson River tunnels by the USRA to relieve congestion; The Pennsy electrifies suburban commuter line to Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania
1925: Chicago Union Station opens
1928–1938: The Pennsylvania electrifies its New York City to Washington, D.C., and Chicago to Philadelphia lines between Harrisburg and Paoli, several Philadelphia and New York City area commuter lines, and major through freight lines
1937: Pennsy acquires its first diesel, a model SW switcher engine from Electro-Motive Corporation
1943: An accident at Frankford Junction, Pennsylvania, kills 79
1946: Pennsylvania Railroad reports a net loss for the first time in its history
1951: An accident in Woodbridge, New Jersey, kills 85 people
1957: Steam locomotives are removed from active service in the PRR fleet; merger talks begin with the New York Central Railroad
1968: PRR expands to New York City, and eventually changes its name to Penn Central Transportation Company (PC)
Demise
The controlling, non-institutional shareholders of the PRR during the early 1960s were Henry Stryker Taylor, who was a part of the Jacob Bunn business dynasty of Illinois, and Howard Butcher III, a principal in the Philadelphia brokerage house of Butcher & Sherrerd (later Butcher & Singer).
On February 1, 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with its longtime arch-rival, the New York Central Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad absorbed the New York Central and eventually went by the name of Penn Central Transportation Company.
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) required that the ailing New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (NH) be added in 1969. A series of events including inflation, poor management, abnormally harsh weather, and the withdrawal of a government-guaranteed $200 million operating loan forced Penn Central to file for bankruptcy protection on June 21, 1970. In May 1971, passenger operations, including equipment, were transferred to a new government-subsidized company called the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, or Amtrak. This was devised to relieve the Penn Central (and other railroads) of money-losing passenger service. Penn Central rail lines, including ex-Pennsy lines, were transferred to Conrail in 1976, and eventually Amtrak received the Northeast Corridor and Keystone Corridor lines.
After Conrail was divided between the Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation, most of the former Pennsy's remaining trackage went to Norfolk Southern. The few parts of the Pennsylvania Railroad that went to CSX after the Conrail split were:
The western end of the Fort Wayne Line across western Ohio and northern Indiana.
Pope's Creek Secondary in Maryland, just to the east of Washington, DC.
Landover Subdivision, a former Pennsy freight line in the DC area connecting Amtrak's ex-Pennsy Northeast Corridor and CSX's ex-B&O Alexandria Extension on the north end and CSX's RF&P Subdivision on the south end via the ex-Pennsy "Long Bridge" across the Potomac River.
Terre Haute, Indiana-to-East St. Louis, Illinois segment of the St. Louis main line; the segment east of Terre Haute was formerly a New York Central line.
After 1976, the Penn Central Corporation held diversified non-rail assets including the Buckeye Pipeline and a stake in Madison Square Garden. The company began to acquire a portfolio of insurance companies in 1988. In 1994, the company reorganized as American Premier Underwriters, a subsidiary of American Financial Group, which continues to operate as a property and casualty insurance company as-of January 2024.
From Wikipedia’s article on Pennsylvania Railroad, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4