Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR ) was an American railroad company, headquartered in Philadelphia. It was founded in 1846 and existed until its merger with the New York Central Railroad in 1968, this 10,000 -mile rail network can be described as follows:. A man whose head was in Philadelphia, whose hands to Washington, DC and New York City ranged and his legs were spread to Chicago and St. Louis. Until well into the 20th century, she was, as measured by traffic volume and revenue, the largest railway company in the United States. Likewise, she referred to herself for a long time as the " Standard Railroad of the World". She wanted to be a model for all other lanes, and all other paths should emulate the standard of the PRR, the "gold standard ".
History
1916 led the PRR the motto "Standard Railroad of the World" a. This designation was not unjustified, as the company very often played a pioneering role. She was a leader for years in the field of safety and efficiency. So it was, for example, the first railroad in the United States, which replaced the old-fashioned coaches of wood with safer steel structures. Very early on, the company had also introduced standard finishes. Some of their steam locomotives they produced, in contrast to other U.S. railways, with their own locomotive workshop in Altoona (Pennsylvania ), it was the fourth largest locomotive manufacturer in the United States. Locomotives they did not build themselves, came mostly from Baldwin. For Baldwin, the PRR was also the largest consumer of diesel locomotives.
The most important legacy of the Pennsylvania Railroad is the electrified rail network of the Northeast Corridor south of New York. From 1910, the routes were provided in the New York / New Jersey and on Long Iceland to South London model with a power rail. The Long Iceland Railroad was bought in 1900 by the PRR.
Until 1935, the important trip train service between New York and Washington was then electrified with an overhead line, 1938, the route Philadelphia - Harrisburg, with a continuation of the electrification to Pittsburgh was in the conversation. For use in long-distance passenger traffic came from 1935, up to 161 km / h fast locomotives of the GG1. In transport MP 54 railcars were used, the contemporary coaches resembled in their design, but an electrical equipment and motors had. For the network of Long Iceland Railroad the same railcars were procured for the busbar operation. In the fifties, followed by other railcars for the overhead contact line in stainless Edelstahlbau meadow by a process of BUDD Company. 1967 Pennsylvania ordered the new railcar design Silverliner II - as in Budd - design - for traffic Philadelphia - Harrisburg, which were later used in the transport of Conrail and SEPTA today in the Philadelphia area.
On February 1, 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with its longtime archrival on the link New York - Chicago, New York Central Railroad, Penn Central ( PC). On December 31, 1968, the Penn Central took over as requested by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC ) and the traffic of New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. 1970 had to explain to the Penn Central bankruptcy. The remaining long-distance passenger traffic was transferred to Amtrak and for the railway network along with freight and passenger Conrail was established. After the liquidation of Conrail in 1999, the majority of lines of previous " Pennsy " were transferred to the Norfolk Southern.