This website is dedicated to, and covers mostly info about the railroad dept. of the main holding company, the Penn Central Company. The railroad dept. being the Penn Central Transportation Company (or PC). Please also see the other sections of this site, that contain more detailed info about the PC, such as paint schemes, equipment, also a PC Forum to discuss PC-related topics, PC pictures, and more!
Brief Summary About The PENN CENTRAL:
The Penn Central Company was the proper name of the whole conglomerate-holding company, and was made an official American company as a result of combining the New York Central (NYC) and Pennsylvania (PRR) Railroads on February 1, 1968, and later merged the New Haven RR in the beginning of 1969. The PC was the nation's largest corporate mergers in US history at that time, worth about $4.5 billion, and starting with 94,453 employees, increasing later. Additional departments and companies also made up and were owned (fully or partially) by the Penn Central Company (186 total companies during the merger, yet most of these companies could not be actually named!) -oil pipe lines (Buckeye Pipe Line Co.), an air fleet, amusment parks, a hotel fleet of five (Realty Hotels, Inc.), some smaller railroad subsidiaries [the Peoria & Eastern (P&E), Pittsburg & Lake Erie (P&LE), Detroit, Toledo, & Ironton (DT&I), Michigan Central, and others], the Great Southwest Corp., the Aruida Corp., trucking companies, and real estate in CA and FL (even had some ownership in Madison Square Garden and 2 NY based sports teams of all things), to name a FEW.
To Help Clear Up The Confusion About The Proper PENN CENTRAL name(s): The Penn Central Company's (the holding company of the railroad and other many businesses it owned) railroad had various names throughout it's existence, and the railroad is what this site mainly covers. The actual or technical name of the PC RR was 1st the Pennsylvania New York Central Transportation Company (for about 4 months in 1968), then was changed to Penn Central Company (for almost 18 months-from early 1968-late 1969), then changed to Penn Central Transportation Company (for the rest of it's railroad career-from late 1969-Conrail merger in 1976).
By 1970 (before Amtrak), the Penn Central operated 35% of the nation's railroad passenger service (and 2/3's in the eastern U.S.). The PC had railroad track thru 16 US states and 2 Canadian Provinces (Ontario and Quebec), with about 20,570 miles total (with the least miles in KY, and the most miles in PA). PC also had as much railroad rolling stock, that if lined up all together, would have extended halfway across the country, believe it or not. On June 21, 1970, PC filed for bankruptsy, and was issued a court order to allow them to continue to operate their trains and conduct business as usual, until 1976 when PC, LV, EL, and a few other bankrupt Eastern US railroads were combined to form Conrail by the US government.
**For more detailed information about the Penn Central RR, please choose from the following links below*:
For Further Details About the PC & Pred. Roads (Click Here)
PC Paint Schemes Info (Click Here)
The PC Logo Information (Click Here)
PC Locomotive Info (Click Here)
Click Here for a NEW PC-Related Discussion Forum (For your needed PC-related info and questions)
Back To PC Home Page (Click Here)
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(PC pics taken (by the website owner or other submitters)will be posted. Thanks for looking and click on the other links to find further interesting and useful info about the PC Railroad. This site is updated on an irregular basis and whenever possible.)
©2001-2009-2016 pcrrusa;
All Rights Reserved. This site has no affiliation to the real Penn
Central Company (now has a different name), but is intended to help
preserve the history of the PC (mainly the railroad). All info was
gathered from webmaster's own extensive research and time. 
