Pennsylvania Railroad HO Scale Models

The Pennsylvania Railroad was incorporated on April 13, 1846, under a charter granted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with its headquarters established in Philadelphia. The railroad emerged from a competitive pressure driven by Philadelphia business interests who feared losing commerce to rival ports served by the Erie Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The PRR's initial mandate was to construct a continuous rail line between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, replacing the cumbersome and seasonally unreliable Main Line of Public Works, a patchwork of canals and inclined plane railroads that had served the state since the 1830s. Engineer J. Edgar Thomson was selected in 1847 to survey and oversee construction, and he devised a route that followed the Juniata River valley westward to Altoona, then ascended the Allegheny Mountains via the celebrated Horseshoe Curve, a sweeping 220-degree bend that kept grades below two percent. Through tunnels at Gallitzin and a descent to Johnstown, the line was completed through to Pittsburgh by 1854. In 1857 the railroad purchased the old state-owned Main Line of Public Works outright for approximately seven and a half million dollars, consolidating its dominance over the central Pennsylvania corridor. Over the following decades the PRR grew into one of the largest corporate enterprises in the world, absorbing or controlling well over eight hundred rail lines and related companies through stock purchases, 999-year leases, and outright acquisitions. By 1882 it was widely regarded as the largest railroad by revenue and traffic on earth. The system ultimately extended far beyond Pennsylvania, reaching New York City through the Long Island Rail Road and its iconic Pennsylvania Station, which opened in Manhattan in 1910, and penetrating deep into the Midwest through affiliated lines that served Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. By the end of 1926 the PRR operated approximately 11,640 miles of road. The railroad electrified its main line between New York and Harrisburg during the 1930s using 25-cycle alternating current overhead catenary, a significant technological investment that allowed faster and more reliable passenger and freight operations along the densely traveled Northeast Corridor. The PRR's closest rival throughout much of its history was the New York Central Railroad, which paralleled the Pennsy's main routes between the eastern seaboard and Chicago and competed intensely for both passenger and freight business. Ironically, these two longtime competitors were merged together on February 1, 1968, forming the Penn Central Transportation Company in what was then the largest corporate merger in American history. The combination proved disastrous. The two railroads' operations, cultures, and physical plants were deeply incompatible, and management struggled to integrate them effectively. Penn Central filed for bankruptcy in June 1970, only twenty-eight months after the merger was completed, making it at that time the largest corporate bankruptcy in United States history. The railroad continued operating under court protection until April 1, 1976, when its rail assets were transferred, along with those of several other failing northeastern carriers, to the newly created Consolidated Rail Corporation, known as Conrail. Conrail operated the former PRR trackage for more than two decades before itself being divided in 1999 between Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation. Norfolk Southern acquired approximately 58 percent of the Conrail system, including nearly all of the former Pennsylvania Railroad main lines and freight routes, while CSX took the remainder. The electrified segment of the PRR's main line east of Harrisburg passed to Amtrak, which continues to operate it today as the core of the Northeast Corridor, the busiest intercity passenger rail route in North America. The Pennsylvania Railroad's physical legacy is thus still very much present in American railroading, embedded in the infrastructure of multiple successor carriers, while the railroad itself remains one of the most studied and admired institutions in the history of North American transportation.