Penn Central Railroad
Formed February 1, 1968, by the merger of the New York Central and Pennsylvania railraods, Penn Central filed for bankruptcy less than three years later. Nevertheless, it would imp along until 1976, when President Gerald Ford signed the Railroad Revitalization and Regional Reform (4R) Act, creating Conrail and effectively merging the Northeast's struggling railroads. This colorful history takes a region-by-region look at the ill-fated Penn Central, a sprawling railraod tha toperated on more than 20,000 miles of (often crumbling) trackage in 16 states and two Canadian provinces, and which, prior to Amtrak, claimed 35 percent of the nation's passenger rail business. Author Peter Lynch (New Haven Railroad, MBI Publishing Company) includes the best available color photography of the Penn Central, while discussing PC frieght and passenger operations and the tumultuous business history that focused federal attention on the industry and ultimately led to the formation of Amtrak, Conrail, and the United States Railway Adminitration
Print Book, English, 2004
MBI Pub., St. Paul, MN, 2004