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.

[11] 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.

The few parts of the Pennsylvania Railroad that went to CSX after the Conrail split were: After 1976, the Penn Central Corporation held diversified non-rail assets including the Buckeye Pipeline and a stake in Madison Square Garden.

[5] Thomson (1808–1874) was the entrepreneur who led the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1852 until his death in 1874, making it the largest business enterprise in the world and a world-class model for technological and managerial innovation.

His Pennsylvania Railroad was in his day the largest railroad in the world, with 6,000 miles of track, and was famous for steady financial dividends, high quality construction, constantly improving equipment, technological advances (such as replacing wood fuel with coal), and innovation in management techniques for a large complex organization.

In 1885, the PRR began passenger train service from New York City via Philadelphia to Washington with limited stops along the route.

[28] On July 1, 1869, the Pennsylvania Railroad leased the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway (PFtW&C) in which it had previously been an investor.

The lease gave the Pennsy complete control of that line's direct route through northern Ohio and Indiana as well as entry into the emerging rail hub city of Chicago, Illinois.

This was also the introduction of the vestibule, an enclosed platform at the end of each passenger car, allowing protected access to the entire train.

[8] Double-tracked for much of its length, the line served the coal region of southern Illinois and as a passenger route for the Pennsylvania Railroad's Blue Ribbon named trains The St. Louisan, The Jeffersonian, and the Spirit of St.

[31] By 1906, the Pennsylvania built several low-grade lines for freight to bypass areas of steep grade (slope) and avoid congestion.

Its first effort was in the New York terminal area, where tunnels and a city law restricting the burning of coal precluded steam locomotives.

In 1910, the railroad began operating a direct current (DC) 650-volt system whose third-rail powered Pennsy locomotives (and LIRR passenger cars) used to enter Penn Station in New York City via the Hudson River tunnels.

Unlike the New York terminal system, overhead wires would carry 11,000-volt 25-Hertz alternating current (AC) power, which became the standard for future installations.

In 1928, PRR's president William Wallace Atterbury announced plans to electrify the lines between New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Harrisburg.

On February 1 the Congressional Limiteds in both directions were the first trains in regular electric operation between New York and Washington, drawn by the first of the GG1-type locomotives.

[48]: 74 In 1934, the Pennsylvania received a $77 million loan from the New Deal's Public Works Administration[49] to complete the electrification project begun in 1928.

[notes 7] In less than a year, on January 15, 1938, the first passenger train, the Metropolitan, went into operation over the newly electrified line from Philadelphia to Harrisburg.

On April 15, the electrified freight service from Harrisburg and Enola Yard east was inaugurated, thus completing the Pennsy's eastern seaboard electrification program.

In sharp contrast, the New York Central's President, Alfred E. Perlman, deliberately scrapped all but two steam locomotives,[61] with the older one (L2d) surviving only by accident.

[64] When work on the Hudson River tunnels and New York's Penn Station was in progress, the type of electric locomotives to be used was an important consideration.

[45] It developed a starting tractive force of 140,000 pounds (64,000 kg), which was capable of ripping couplers out of the fragile wooden freight cars in use at the time.

[45] Two DC locomotives were built for the New York electrified zone and a third, road number 3930, was AC-equipped and put in service at Philadelphia.

[73] Starting in the late 1920s, the Pennsy installed Pulse code cab signaling along certain tracks used by high-speed passenger trains.

The original Pennsylvania Station was designed by the noted architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White and was modeled on the Roman Baths of Caracalla; it was notable for its high vaulted ceilings.

The station opened in 1910 to provide access to Manhattan from New Jersey without having to use a ferry, making the Pennsy the only railroad to enter New York City from the south.

All Amtrak trains stop here, and the station serves three commuter lines, PATH rapid transit to Jersey City and Manhattan, and the Newark Light Rail.

For most of its existence it was, with City Hall, one of the crown jewels of Philadelphia's architecture, and until a 1923 fire, had the largest train shed in the world (a 91 m span).

Union Station, built jointly with the B&O, served as a hub for Pennsy passenger services in the nation's capital, with connections to the B&O, and Southern Railway.