Misplaced Pages

#805194

63-725: In conjunction with the Catawissa Branch, Nescopeck Branch, and Wilkes-Barre Branch , the Schuylkill Branch gave the PRR a direct line from Philadelphia to Wilkes-Barre . The Schuylkill Branch originated as an attempt by the Pennsylvania Railroad to develop its anthracite coal holdings in the upper Susquehanna watershed. Prior to 1874, when a change to Pennsylvania's constitution blocked further investment by transportation companies in mining properties,

126-651: A rail trail connecting Philadelphia with the Valley Forge National Historical Park near King of Prussia, Pennsylvania , a short piece in Norristown is used by Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), which took over much of the PRR system when it split Conrail's interests with CSX , as part of their Morrisville Connecting Track . The line between Oaks and Phoenixville is part of the currently dormant NS Phoenixville Industrial Track . The Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad owns

189-531: A circuitous route via Sunbury and Harrisburg. A more direct route to Philadelphia was desirable. Furthermore, such a route would inevitably follow the Schuylkill River and parallel the Reading Company 's main line. The Reading's successful efforts to break the PRR's monopoly on Philadelphia- New York service in the late 1870s was intensely provocative to PRR management, and retaliation against

252-530: A decade arguing a merger with regulators, was stumbling towards another stunning bankruptcy, as was the Milwaukee Road , the nation's most technologically advanced transcontinental . In 1972, the damage from Hurricane Agnes destroyed important Penn Central branches and main lines, and pushed the other northeastern roads into bankruptcy. By the mid-1970s, no major player east of Rochester - Pittsburgh , north of Pittsburgh- Philadelphia , and southwest of

315-399: A technical level, the two companies served independent markets east of Cleveland (running through their namesake states), but virtually identical trackage west of Cleveland meant any merger would have anticompetitive effect. For decades, merger proposals had tried to balance the competitors instead, joining them with lesser partners end-to-end. The unexpected NYC+PRR proposal required all

378-432: A viable railroad. Then, on April 1, 1976, Penn Central transferred those rail operations to the government-owned Consolidated Rail Corporation ( Conrail ). Facing the continued loss of market share to the trucking industry, the railroad industry and its unions asked the federal government for deregulation . The 1980 Staggers Act , which deregulated the railroad industry, proved to be a key factor in bringing Conrail and

441-542: Is a rail line owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railway which in turn is owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation . The line travels from Sunbury, Pennsylvania , to Binghamton, New York , connecting with Norfolk Southern's Southern Tier Line at Binghamton and Norfolk Southern's Buffalo Line at Sunbury. The rail line was once part of the former Delaware and Hudson Railway South Line that ran from Sunbury to Schenectady, New York . It

504-745: Is now an NS rail corridor consisting of the Sunbury Line and the Freight Line, which travels from Binghamton to Schenectady. The Sunbury Line's trackage consists of former trackage that belonged to the rail systems of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad . The Sunbury Line contains the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western's well-known Nicholson Cutoff railroad segment. The Tunkhannock Viaduct

567-557: Is one of the components of the Nicholson Cutoff/Sunbury Line. The Sunbury Line is a former Pennsylvania Railroad property connecting its core system with the other anthracite rail lines in and around Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania ; the line's Pennsylvania Railroad trackage was once the Wilkes-Barre Branch . It is a former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad property and was once part of

630-684: The Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) in 1963, and the Norfolk & Western Railway (N&W) absorbed several railroads, including the Nickel Plate and the Wabash, in 1964. Regulators also required the new company to incorporate the bankrupt New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (NH) and New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway (NYS&W); if neither the N&;W and C&O would buy

693-633: The Lehigh Valley Railroad (LV), then that railroad should be incorporated as well. Ultimately, only the New Haven successfully joined the Penn Central; the conglomerate failed before it could incorporate the latter two. The only railroad leaving the Penn Central was the PRR's controlling interest in the N&W, whose dividends had generated much of the PRR's premerger profitability. The legal merger (formally, an acquisition of

SECTION 10

#1732772016806

756-679: The New York, New Haven and Hartford railroads), all united by large-scale service into the New York metropolitan area and (to a lesser extent) New England and Chicago. The new company failed barely two years after formation, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at the time. The Penn Central's railroad assets were nationalized into Conrail along with the other bankrupt northeastern roads; its real estate and insurance holdings successfully reorganized into American Premier Underwriters . The Penn Central railroad system developed in response to challenges facing northeastern American railroads during

819-512: The Reading Railroad for Philadelphia–Reading service, when the latter decided to compete with the PRR for Philadelphia to New York City service, the Schuylkill Branch service primarily as a commuter rail line between Philadelphia and Norristown, with the lines being within plain sight of each other between Manayunk and Norristown. Service to Pottstown was made available in 1886, and an extension to New Boston , near Mahanoy City ,

882-590: The Safe Harbor Dam located near York, Pennsylvania . The proposed Schuylkill Valley Metro , an electrified rail service that would have restored passenger service connecting Philadelphia and Reading, would have used the ex-PRR/Penn Central tracks from 52nd Street to Ivy Ridge, connecting with the existing ex-Reading Manayunk/Norristown service to Reading. Because of its rejection by the Federal Railroad Administration due to

945-599: The 156 miles (251 km) of rail used by the Hudson and Harlem Lines , and Grand Central Terminal, as well as unused development rights above the tracks in Midtown Manhattan . The platforms and yards extend for several blocks north of the terminal building under numerous streets and existing buildings leasing air rights, including the MetLife Building and Waldorf-Astoria Hotel . In November 2018,

1008-638: The D&;H included the D&H South Line, and Canadian Pacific then broke it into two new rail lines. The D&H South Line from Sunbury to Binghamton, made up of the PRR Wilkes-Barre Branch and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western main line trackage, including the Nicholson Cutoff, became the new 'Sunbury Line, and the D&H South Line from Binghamton to Schenectady, once part of the D&H main line, became its own individual line and

1071-760: The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western main line. This part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western main line which is now part of the Sunbury Line contains the Nicholson Cutoff and former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad trackage. The PRR Wilkes-Barre Branch ran from the downtown Wilkes-Barre rail cluster southwest to Sunbury along tracks on the east (left) shore of the North Branch Susquehanna River . The Danville, Hazelton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad opened from Sunbury to South Danville in 1869 and past Catawissa to Tomhicken in 1871. The North and West Branch Railway opened

1134-587: The MTA proposed purchasing the Hudson and Harlem Lines as well as the Grand Central Terminal for up to $ 35.065 million, plus a discount rate of 6.25%. The purchase would include all inventory, operations, improvements, and maintenance associated with each asset, except for the air rights over Grand Central. The MTA's finance committee approved the proposed purchase on November 13, 2018, and the purchase

1197-585: The Maine-New Hampshire border remained solvent. Under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), Penn Central agreed to trial new technologies to revive the flagging passenger services on what would become the Northeast Corridor . PC continued to operate the PRR's Metroliner service between New York City and DC , and introduced a new United Aircraft TurboTrain between New York City and Boston . But

1260-749: The Midwest. Derailments and wrecks occurred regularly; when the trains avoided mishap, they operated far below design speed , resulting in delayed shipments and excessive overtime. Operating costs soared, and shippers soured on the products. In 1969, most of Maine's potato production rotted in the PC's Selkirk Yard , hurting the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad , whose shippers vowed never to ship by rail again. Although both PRR and NYC had been profitable pre-merger, Penn Central was — at one point — losing $ 1 million per day. As PC's management struggled to wrestle

1323-519: The NYC by the PRR) concluded on February 1, 1968. The Pennsylvania Railroad, the nominal survivor of the merger, changed its name to Pennsylvania New York Central Transportation Company, and soon began using "Penn Central" as a trade name. That trade name became official a month later on May 8, 1968. Saunders later commented: "Because of the many years it took to consummate the merger, the morale of both railroads

SECTION 20

#1732772016806

1386-421: The PC in large measure). George Drury described the bankruptcy as "a cataclysmic event, both to the railroad industry and to the nation's business community," not least because Penn Central increasingly appeared the proverbial canary in the coal mine . Across the nation, railroads discontinued Penn Central's core business (passenger trains) as fast as regulators would let them. The Rock Island , midway through

1449-465: The PRR had invested more $ 5,000,000 in the anthracite business and owned an estimated 1 billion tons of recoverable anthracite, but it lacked an easy rail route from the anthracite fields to tidewater. Shipments to New York required cooperation of the Lehigh Valley Railroad , which had its own coal interests, while bringing anthracite to Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania's rails required it to travel

1512-579: The PRR's main line to Pittsburgh between Girard Avenue , Philadelphia and Radnor to the Schuylkill valley, and then up the river to Phoenixville. Construction began in August 1882, before the company was organized, along a 23.8-mile (38.3 km) route from the main line near Monticello Street in Philadelphia to Phoenixville. The second company began work on the 30.3-mile (48.8 km) route along

1575-583: The Penn Central Company. The first Penn Central Transportation Company (PCTC) was incorporated on April 1, 1969, and its stock was assigned to a new holding company called Penn Central Holding Company. On October 1, 1969, the Penn Central Company, the former Pennsylvania Railroad, absorbed the first PCTC and was renamed the second Penn Central Transportation Company the next day; the Penn Central Holding Company became

1638-584: The Reading by breaking into its own territory on the Schuylkill played a role in the PRR's decision to build the branch. The PRR initially chartered two subsidiaries to build its line up the Schuylkill: the Philadelphia, Norristown and Phoenixville Railroad and the Phoenixville, Pottstown and Reading Railroad were incorporated on September 20, 1882. The first had charter rights to run from some point on

1701-585: The Schuylkill Branch was electrified from its 52nd Street Junction in Philadelphia to Haws Avenue in Norristown. With the surge in automobile sales and construction of extensions of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the Interstate Highway System in Pennsylvania in the 1950s, the PRR eliminated commuter rail service in 1960 north of Manayunk, yielding Philadelphia, Norristown, and Reading commuter and through-passenger service to

1764-469: The Schuylkill Branch, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the junction with the main line to Bala , opened on April 1, 1884. The rest of the line to Reading was completed during the same year, adding 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to Manayunk on May 12, 9.6 miles (15.4 km) to Norristown on June 23, 22.7 miles (36.5 km) through Phoenixville to Pottstown on September 22, and a final 18.1 miles (29.1 km) to Reading on November 24. Opened in 1884 to compete with

1827-630: The Schuylkill from Phoenixville to Reading in November 1882. On June 1, 1883, these two companies were consolidated with the Phoenixville and West Chester Railroad, then building the PRR's Phoenixville Branch, into the Pennsylvania Schuylkill Valley Railroad. It was immediately leased to the PRR for fifty years. The new company completed the Phoenixville Branch on August 1, 1883. The first segment of

1890-476: The bankruptcy, the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway ran its trains on the D&H South Line and the rest of the D&H. The New York, Susquehanna and Western was ordered to operate the D&H until a new buyer was found for the D&H. The Canadian Pacific Railway then took over the D&H, but kept the D&H corporation in existence instead of absorbing it into the CPR. Canadian Pacific's takeover of

1953-601: The company into submission, the structural headwinds facing all northeastern railroads continued unabated. The industrial decline of the Rust Belt consumed shippers through the Northeast and Midwest . Penn Central's executives tried to diversify the troubled firm into real estate and other non-railroad ventures, but in a slow economy these businesses performed little better than the original railroad assets. Worse, these new subsidiaries diverted management attention away from

Schuylkill Branch - Misplaced Pages Continue

2016-484: The company operated as an independent, private-sector railroad from 1987 to 1999. The Pennsylvania Railroad absorbed the New York Central Railroad on February 1, 1968, and at the same time changed its name to Pennsylvania New York Central Transportation Company to reflect this. The trade name of "Penn Central" was adopted, and, on May 8, the former Pennsylvania Railroad was officially renamed

2079-692: The company owned when Conrail was created were the Buckeye Pipeline and a 24 percent stake in Madison Square Garden (which stands above Penn Station) and its prime tenants, the New York Knicks basketball team and New York Rangers hockey team, along with Six Flags Theme Parks. Though the company retained ownership of some rights-of-way and station properties connected with the railroads, it continued to liquidate these and eventually concentrated on one of its subsidiaries in

2142-592: The company. In the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, the federal government nationalized Penn Central to save it. For two years, the United States Railway Association sorted through the assets of PC (and six other bankrupt railroads: EL, LV, Reading , Lehigh & Hudson River Railway , Central Railroad of New Jersey and Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines ) to decide what could be reshaped into

2205-504: The former D&H main line and D&H South Line from Binghamton to Schenectady, New York . Norfolk Southern labeled this D&H trackage as its "freight line". Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company , commonly abbreviated to Penn Central , was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania , New York Central and

2268-673: The former Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad that extended from Hanover Township to Hudson, Pennsylvania . In 1976, the Pennsylvania Railroad Wilkes-Barre Branch and the Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railroad main line were taken over by Conrail due to Penn Central and the Erie Lackawanna Railway being absorbed into Conrail, with trackage rights assigned to the Delaware and Hudson Railway. The D&H acquired

2331-593: The high cost, primarily for electrification of the entire line and the need to rebuild the entire Philadelphia-Manayunk section of the Schuylkill Branch, alternate plans including using the ex-Reading Manayunk/Norristown route only, with partial extension of the electrified service as far as King of Prussia, and any service west of King of Prussia requiring the use of push-pull consists using dual-power ALP-45DP locomotives similar to those delivered to New Jersey Transit and Montreal 's Exo . Sunbury Line The Sunbury Line , formerly known as Sunbury Subdivision ,

2394-475: The history of the often-scorned company. As part of Norfolk Southern Railway 's 30th anniversary, the railroad painted 20 new locomotives utilizing former liveries of predecessor railroads. Unit number 1073, a SD70ACe, is painted in a Penn Central Heritage scheme. As part of the 40th anniversary of the Metro-North Railroad , four locomotives were painted in a different heritage scheme to honor

2457-596: The insurance business. The former Pennsylvania Railroad changed its name to American Premier Underwriters in March 1994. It became part of Carl Lindner 's Cincinnati financial empire American Financial Group . Until late 2006, American Financial Group still owned Grand Central Terminal , though all railroad operations were managed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The U.S. Surface Transportation Board approved

2520-488: The late 1960s. While railroads elsewhere in North America drew revenues from long-distance shipments of commodities such as coal, lumber, paper and iron ore , railroads in the densely-populated northeast traditionally depended on a heterogeneous mix of services, including: These labor-intensive, short-haul services proved vulnerable to competition from automobiles, buses, and trucks , a threat recently invigorated by

2583-475: The line between Bala Cynwyd and Manayunk/Ivy Ridge warranted its closure, forcing SEPTA to scale back service its Cynwyd Station in Bala Cynwyd. The viaduct has since been repaired and restored to its previous glory, though service has not resumed. SEPTA leased the unused section between Cynwyd and Ivy Ridge to local townships for used as an interim rail trail. While mostly abandoned, and since converted to

Schuylkill Branch - Misplaced Pages Continue

2646-491: The line from Temple (north of Reading) north to Hamburg . The line remains intact from Gibraltar, Pennsylvania at Gibraltar Road/PA Route 724 to Birdsboro, Pennsylvania . The PRR-era catenary remains and currently maintained by Amtrak as part of their 25 Hz traction power system , as it powers both the Northeast and Keystone Corridors , except for the ex-PRR/Penn Central lines electrified prior to 1925, generated by

2709-574: The line from Catawissa to Wilkes-Barre in the early 1880s, completing the line soon to be called Wilkes-Barre Branch. In 1960, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western later merged with the Erie Railroad in 1960 to form the Erie Lackawanna Railway . The line became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad and became known as the Wilkes-Barre Branch under PRR ownership. The PRR Wilkes-Barre Branch was passed to Penn Central in 1968, which

2772-401: The lines had fought bitterly over New York-Chicago custom and ill-will remained in the executive suites. Amongst middle management , the company's corporate cultures all but precluded integration: a team of young, flexible managers had begun reshaping the NYC from a traditional railroad into a multimodal express-freight transporter, while the PRR continued to bet on a railroad revival. At

2835-478: The majority of the PRR Wilkes-Barre Branch and the Scranton to Binghamton track of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western main line, which includes the Nicholson Cutoff , in 1980, and combined it with part of its main line from Binghamton to Schenectady, New York , to form the new Delaware and Hudson South Line. The D&H main line continues in existence, now running from Schenectady to Montreal . The D&H

2898-470: The new corporation's management. As ex-PRR managers began to secure the plum jobs, the forward-thinking ex-NYC managers departed for greener pastures. Clashing union contracts prevented the company's left hand from talking to its right, and incompatible computer systems meant that PC classification clerks regularly lost track of train movements. Subpar track conditions, the result of years of deferred maintenance , deteriorated further, particularly in

2961-491: The new equipment proved useless without high-quality track to run it on, or a railroad capable of releasing schedules to the ticket-seeking public. In response, the Nixon administration developed Amtrak , which relieved any railroad that desired it of the obligation to operate passenger service. PC unsuccessfully attempted to sell-off the air rights to Grand Central Terminal , and allow developers to build skyscrapers above

3024-574: The new limited-access highways authorized in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 . At the same time, contemporary railroad regulation restricted the extent to which U.S. railroads could react to the new market conditions. Changes to passenger fares and freight shipment rates required approval from the capricious Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), as did mergers or abandonment of lines. Merger, which eliminated duplicative back office employees, seemed an escape. The situation

3087-575: The northeastern railroads to reconsider their corporate strategy, clouding the waters for the ICC. The resulting negotiations took nearly a decade, and when the PRR and NYC merged, they faced three competitors of comparable size: the Erie had merged with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western to create the Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL) in 1960, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) acquired control of

3150-430: The old PC assets back to life. During the 1980s, the deregulated Conrail had the muscle to implement the route reorganization and productivity improvements that the PC had unsuccessfully tried to implement between 1968 and 1970. Hundred of miles of former PRR and NYC trackage were abandoned to adjacent landowners or rail trail use. The stock of the subsequently-profitable Conrail was refloated on Wall Street in 1987, and

3213-421: The problems in the core business. To create the illusion of success, management also insisted on paying dividends to shareholders, desperately borrowing funds to buy time for the business to turn around. Within two years, Penn Central could no longer remain solvent, and, on June 21, 1970, the nation's sixth-largest corporation had become its largest bankruptcy. (The Enron Corporation 's 2001 bankruptcy eclipsed

SECTION 50

#1732772016806

3276-641: The rival Reading. With the bankruptcies of the PRR's successor Penn Central and the Reading Company, the creation of Conrail in 1976 led to the closure and abandonment of the Schuylkill Valley Branch north of Manayunk. SEPTA , which took over the rail line in 1983, operated the former Conrail service as its Cynwyd Line rail service until 1986, when spalling conditions on the Manayunk Bridge concrete viaduct connecting

3339-509: The sale of several of American Financial Group's remaining railroad assets to Midtown TDR Ventures LLC, an investment group controlled by Argent Ventures , in December 2006. The current lease with the MTA was negotiated to last through February 28, 2274. The MTA paid $ 2.4 million annually in rent in 2007 and had an option to buy the station and tracks in 2017, although Argent could extend the date another 15 years to 2032. The assets included

3402-409: The second PCTC, gave up its railroad assets to Conrail in 1976 and absorbed its legal owner, the second Penn Central Company, in 1978, and at the same time changed its name to The Penn Central Corporation . In the 1970s and 1980s, the company now called The Penn Central Corporation was a small conglomerate that largely consisted of the diversified sub-firms it had before the crash. Among the properties

3465-416: The second Penn Central Company. Thus, the company that was formerly the Pennsylvania Railroad became the first Penn Central Company and then became the second PCTC. The old Pennsylvania Company , a holding company chartered in 1870, reincorporated in 1958 and long a subsidiary of the PRR, remained a separate corporate entity throughout the period following the merger. The former Pennsylvania Railroad, now

3528-431: The terminal, in order to fund continued operations. The resulting lawsuit, Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City , was decided in 1978, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that PC could not sell Grand Central's air rights because the terminal was a New York City designated landmark . In May 1974, the bankruptcy court concluded that the railroad operations of PC could never provide enough income to reorganize

3591-476: Was approved by the full board two days later. The deal finally closed in March 2020, with the MTA taking ownership of the terminal and rail lines. Few railroad historians and former employees view the mega-railroad's brief existence favorably, and the company has little presence in the railroad enthusiast press. The preservation group Penn Central Railroad Historical Society was formed in July 2000 to preserve

3654-404: Was badly disrupted and they were faced with unmanageable problems which were insurmountable. In addition to overcoming obstacles, the principal problem was too much governmental regulation and a passenger deficit which amounted to more than $ 100 million a year." Almost immediately after the transaction cleared, the organizational headwinds presaged during the merger negotiations began to overwhelm

3717-495: Was created by the merger between the PRR and the New York Central Railroad . The former PRR Wilkes-Barre Branch from Wilkes-Barre to Hanover Township is owned by Luzerne County and operated by the Luzerne Susquehanna Railway . The remainder of the PRR Wilkes-Barre Branch that is now part of the Sunbury Line runs from Sunbury to Hanover Township, to what was PRR's Buttonwood Yard, where it connected with

3780-526: Was not added back to the D&H main line; the Sunbury Line was later renamed Sunbury Subdivision . In 2015, Norfolk Southern purchased the Sunbury Subdivision from Canadian Pacific in a direct transaction from the Delaware and Hudson and not from Canadian Pacific directly. After the purchase, Norfolk Southern renamed the line back to Sunbury Line. Norfolk Southern's purchase of the rail line took effect on September 19, 2015, and included

3843-474: Was opened by the Pottsville and Mahanoy Railroad around the same time. The final piece, from New Boston to Delano Junction, had been built by the Lehigh Valley Railroad before 1870, but this was leased by the PRR in 1885. In the 1930s, as part of the extensive electrification project that brought New York– Washington and Harrisburg –Philadelphia intercity passenger and through-freight service under wire,

SECTION 60

#1732772016806

3906-477: Was particularly acute for the Pennsylvania (PRR) and New York Central (NYC) railroads. Both had extensive physical plants dedicated to their passenger custom. As that revenue stream faded following WWII , neither could slim their assets fast enough to earn a substantial profit (although the NYC came much closer). In 1957, the two proposed a merger, despite severe organizational and regulatory hurdles. Neither railroad had much respect for its merger partner;

3969-492: Was then acquired by the Guilford Rail System , now Norfolk Southern , a railroad owned by Guilford Transportation Industries , now CSX Corporation . The corporate structure was Guilford Transportation as the parent company, Guilford Rail as direct subsidiary and owner of the D&H and the D&H as indirect subsidiary. The D&H went bankrupt while owned by Guilford Transportation's Guilford Rail and, during

#805194