PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD COMPANY, a corpo ration of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, U.S.A., is the par ent company of a group of more than ioo corporations known as the Pennsylvania Railroad System, united in one management through ownership of the majority of the stock, or long term leases or both. The company directly owns the principal lines of the system in Pennsylvania, and under its corporate organization directly operates about 95% of the mileage. The Pennsylvania traverses practically the entire eastern middle belt of the United States, lying between the Atlantic ocean on the east and the Mis sissippi river on the west, and stretching from the Great Lakes to the southern States. This is the most densely populated region in the United States.
By the Act of Incorporation, approved on April 13, 1846, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was incorporated for the pur pose of constructing and operating a railroad from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. On Feb. 15, 1854, the company opened for service its own through line between these cities, and on Aug. 1, 1857, through purchase or lease gained complete control of the entire Philadelphia-Pittsburgh route.
Iron, steel and coal and other raw materials provide the back bone of the Pennsylvania's traffic. The company is also a very important carrier of miscellaneous manufactured articles, fresh fruits, vegetables and general produce, packing-house products and lumber from the South and West. Serving as it does the four leading eastern seaports—New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Norfolk—it handles a large proportion of the nation's import and export trade. In 1934 the Pennsylvania System carried the equiv alent of one ton of freight 28,434,610,077 m., and one passenger 3,507,682,818 miles. On Dec. 31, 1934, the system embraced 11,090 m. of line and 26,889 m. of track. On the entire system 4,101.71 m. were double-tracked, 815.74 m. had three tracks and 621.99 m. had four tracks. At the end of 1934 the rolling stock consisted of 5,086 locomotives, 6,527 passenger train cars, 270,515 freight cars and 3,362 work cars.
The Pennsylvania Railroad System represented at the end of 1934 an investment in road and equipment and other property of $3,103,394,962. Against this sum there were outstanding in the hands of the public securities (stocks and bonds of various com panies) amounting to $1,854,787,257. The Pennsylvania Rail
road Company, the parent company, had outstanding $658,384, 800 of capital stock divided into shares of $50 each, on Dec. 31, in the hands of 232,998 stockholders whose average hold ings were approximately 56.5 shares each. The total operating revenues of the system in 1934 were $368,892,848. The operating expenses, including taxes, were $305,561,318. Net railway operat ing income was $63,331,530. The average number of employees on the system in 1934 was 114,032. The total payroll for the year was $168,465,757.
In 1935, at a cost of approximately $100,000,000, the Pennsyl vania completed the electrification of its entire trackage, both passenger and freight, between New York, Philadelphia, Balti more and Washington. This was followed by material increases in train speeds in both branches of the service, the fastest passen ger trains making the 225-mile run in 225 minutes, including six intermediate stops. There was also a general increase of passenger train speeds throughout the steam-operated lines, freight service was placed on a regularly scheduled basis and time in transit greatly' shortened. Air-conditioning of passenger equipment was first adopted by the Pennsylvania in 1931 and by the close of 1935 there were operated on the system lines approximately 1200 air-conditioned cars, a number sufficient to permit their use on all long-distance trains as well as in the electrified New York Washington service.
Collection and delivery of less-than-carload-freight was estab lished throughout the Pennsylvania Railroad System and with a number of connecting lines on December 1, 1933, and by the close of 1935 the system handled traffic at the rate of more than 3,500,000 shipments annually.
Through half ownership in the Pennsylvania-Greyhound Lines, the Pennsylvania Railroad participates in extensive passenger bus traffic in the region traversed by its rails. It also holds an interest in Transcontinental and Western Air, Inc., successor to Trans continental Air Transport, Inc., which the Pennsylvania Railroad and other interests formed in 1928 for the purpose of operating a joint rail and air service between the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts. In 1930 all air-transcontinental service was inaugurated, carrying passenger, mail and express traffic. (M. W. CO