Penn Central Railroad (Railroad Color History)

A good summary history of the Penn Central is provided. Among other things this covers the circumstances leading up to the merger of the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads (and the inclusion of the New Haven), the merged railroad's financial and other problems, a review of its operating regions (Eastern, Central, New Haven, etc.), and the circumstances that led to the formation of Conrail.

Although I enjoyed the narrative, I most appreciated the numerous photographs of Penn Central equipment in various "interim" color schemes. By this I mean shots of equipment in New York Central, Pennsylvania, and New Haven color schemes with Penn Central stencilling and numbers. I have not seen most of the photographs in this book published elsewhere.

I'm a long-time member of the New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association (http://www.nhrhta.org) and the New Haven is my favorite railroad. By rights I guess I ought to hate the Penn Central, but I don't. For better or for worse, it's the railroad that I grew up with during my childhood and there is substantial nostalgic appeal to me. I highly recommend "Penn Central Railroad".


Penn Central Railroad/Peter E Lynch   May 18, 2004
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

An informative and well illustrated general history of the Penn Central Railroad focusing on PC operations and merger plans, and what actually happened on and to the railroad, and further breaks the story down by operating region. Excellent text, good region maps (surprisingly, no system map), and well chosen photographs by a serious author who apparently comes from railroad management ranks. Peter E Lynch has produced a balanced work that both railfan (anti-PC foamers will have to look elsewhere for solace) and historian will appreciate.

A slight distraction is that Thomas McNamara photo captions appear to need closer scrutiny. Of the locations I am familiar with, most of the "Horseshoe Curve" photos aren't Horseshoe Curve or otherwise aren't correct. For the record: Page 66 appears to be the curve east of ETT Benny where the Red Arrow derailed decades earlier. Page 156 is ETT Benny interlocking with westbound TV at right while at left an eastbound tonnage train is coming down the slide from Portage Tunnel. Page 16, if Horseshoe, train is eastbound downgrade (note the heavy brakeshoe smoke, and heavy sand accumulation on roadbed of foreground tracks).

The only real historical weakness in the book seems to be the lack of any real discussion of Hurricane Agnes (June 1972) and it's heavy impact on PC, giving it only a paragraph of text and mentioning it only as a "violent storm". Only an undated photo on page 132 gives readers any real hint as to the devastation this storm caused but the caption makes no mention of it (See the Aug-Sept 1972 issue of Penn Central Post, "Special Issue - The Flood").

All in all, Penn Central Railroad is an excellent and needed contribution to the historical record.