Time magazine reported Greenough's promotion to president of the self-styled "Standard Railroad of the World" early in November 1959: "After the Pennsylvania Railroad's board of directors finished its regular meeting last week in Philadelphia, a telephone call went through to summon Allen J. Greenough, 54, vice president in charge of transportation and maintenance.
Transportation historian George W. Hilton recounted the New Haven's infamous request to the ICC for permission to immediately discontinue more than one hundred and fifty money losing passenger trains circa 1958.
John F. Stover wrote, in his second edition of American Railroads: "The giant new Penn Central system faced a variety of problems.
One of [Penn Central President Stuart] Saunders' aids, Allen J. Greenough, said of the enlarged line: 'This is a big dog with a lot of fleas. ...
[1] New York Railroad Club, American Railway Engineering Association, Presbyterian; Republican, Freemasonry Sundbury Lodge 713, Williamsport, Pennsylvania Consistory, Thirty-second Degree Zembo Shrine.
[2] In 1976 the US government created the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) to handle the former Penn Central components, along with other bankrupt or financially struggling lines in the industrial Northeast.