Pennsylvania Railroad Company Manuscript Collection

Records, 1847-1968, 776 cubic feet.
ACC. 630, 641, 642, and 644 - Part 1

RESTRICTION: Case files are closed to 25 years after the death of an employee. Case anonymity must be respected.

WEB NOTE

The finding aid for this collection as found on the Web consists of six parts:

Part 1 Background and Organization
Part 2 Series I - II
Part 3 Series III - IV
Part 4 Series V - VI
Part 5 Series VII - XI
Part 6 Series XII - XIII
Part 7 Voluntary Relief Fund Case File Access

BACKGROUND

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was the largest railroad in the United States in terms of corporate assets and traffic from the last quarter of the nineteenth century until the decline of the northeast's and midwest's dominance of manufacturing, caused by the evolution of the interstate highway system and the advancements in air transportation. Originally created by Philadelphia merchants in 1846, it sought to build a trunk route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh via the Allegheny Mountains to compete for freight traffic that by-passed Pennsylvania for New York via the Erie Canal. From those humble beginnings, it stretched into an 11,000 mile system running through New York, Washington, Chicago, and Saint Louis before reaching its final destination in 1970 in bankruptcy court. In the ensuing years, the Penn Central Corporation's holdings (created by a 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads), along with a number of other bankrupt railroads in the northeast were split between the federally-created National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) for passenger rail assets and the Consolidated Rail Corporation (ConRail) for freight traffic assets. The remaining local rail routes were divided between respective regional transportation authorities.

Due to the overwhelming amount of records (360,000 linear feet) created by the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads, a consortium of archival and manuscript libraries systematically appraised and distributed more than 9,000 linear feet of the historically significant corporate records to the member institution's repositories. This includes the Hagley Museum and Library, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Temple University's Urban Archives Center, Pennsylvania State University's Historical Collections and Labor Archives, the University of Michigan's Bentley Library, Harvard University's Baker Library, the New Jersey Division of Archives and Records Management, the Ohio Historical Society and the New York Public Library's Manuscript and Archives Division.

The records of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company housed at the Urban Archives Center consist of twelve major departments, predominately consisting of office files relating to its operations in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. In addition, the collection also contains the corporate records for a number of subsidiary and related companies, mostly based in the Philadelphia area. The only exception to this regional emphasis are the records of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's Voluntary Relief Department, the Employees Provident and Loan Association, and the Pension Department.

ORGANIZATION

This collection has been arranged into thirteen series:

I. Secretary's Office (1847-1966)
II. Legal Department (1884-1966)
III. Financial Department (1948-1964)
IV. Real Estate Department (1869-1953)
V. Insurance Department (1923)
VI. Operating Department (1914-1948)
VII. Passenger Department (1922-1962)
VIII. Personnel Department (1910-1956)
IX. Pension Department (1899-1958)
X. Pennsylvania Railroad Voluntary Relief Department (1886-1968)
XI. Pennsylvania Railroad Employees Provident and Loan Association (1923-1938)
XII. Mutual Beneficial Association of Pennsylvania Railroad Employees (1933-1936)
XIII. Subsidiary and Related Corporations (1863-1966)

Series I. Secretary's Office (1847-1966)

This series consists predominantly of published annual reports that can be found at many of the consortium member repositories. In addition, this series includes acts of assembly (1881), by.laws (1893-1922), ordinances (1854-1893), photographs of the 32nd Street office building, and 2 volumes of floor plans of Broad Street Station.

Series II. Legal Department (1884-1966)

This series documents the activities of the Legal Department, and are centered around the physical development of the city that came under the title of the "Philadelphia Improvements" which include the Arcade Building, Chinese Wall, market street footbridge, slope encroachments along Pennsylvania Blvd., street crossings, and Two Penn Center. Several folders document the Railroad Joint Facility Agreements that placed the responsibility of the regional rail operations on SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. The settled cases include the documentation created in the cases between the Pennsylvania Railroad Company vs. Driscoll et al. regarding the Pennsylvania full crew act; the Philadelphia Team Owners Protective Association vs. the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, et al. defending the right of the former to transfer freight in and out of the Port of Philadelphia without the infringement of the railroads; the City of Philadelphia vs. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, et al. relating to export traffic through Philadelphia; and the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's application for a 25 percent increase for commuter fares, which initiated a process of increased rail subsidy and the later formation of SEPTA. Other records includes correspondence with subsidiary railroad companies and challenges by the Voluntary Relief Department brought before the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.

Series III. Financial Department (1948-1964)

Records of Frederick N. Sass, Manager of Economic Analysis. Largely consists of plans for the proposed stadium over the 30th Street station train yard in West Philadelphia. This includes correspondence by David C. Bevan, Vice President for Finance, general correspondence, technical reports, financial materials, lease agreements, newsclippings, promotions, and stadium plans for other cities. Sass also served as the chair of the Transportation Committee of the Citizens' Council on City Planning, thus the series includes Committee minutes and financial material as well as selected transportation projects that were considered in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Series IV. Real Estate Department (1869-1953).

This series includes early abstracts to titles for Bryn Mawr (1869) and the old Philadelphia Naval Yard (1875) at Wharton Street, and topographical maps and blueprint drawings of selected railroad lines. The larger part of this series, however, are the records of Charles D. Young, Vice President for Purchasing, Sales and Insurance and Joseph A. Russell, Assistant to the Vice President. It include reports and general correspondence describing offstreet parking problems in Philadelphia and other cities; the "Philadelphia Improvements" including the removal of Broad Street Station and the Chinese Wall; general real estate development along Pennsylvania Avenue (hotels, bus stations, etc.) and the development of Suburban Station. Additional files examine early plans for a commuter tunnel link, New York Central Railroad's Park Avenue development as a model for Philadelphia developments, and the Pittsburgh Improvement Program. The Central Office Files consist of the records of Thomas W. Hulme, Vice President in Charge of Real Estate describe the development of the Philadelphia Post Office adjacent to 30th Street Station.

Series V. Insurance Department (1923)

This small series documents the infamous Broad Street Station fire of 11 June 1923, and includes correspondence, memos, newsclippings, pamphlets, photographs and reports.

Series VI. Operating Department (1914-1948)

Included in this series are the Supervisor of Regional Expenditures files describing the Philadelphia Passenger Terminal Improvements and the South Philadelphia Track Elevation project; and the Superintendent of the Philadelphia Division with engine and train service time claim denials.

Series VII. Passenger Department (1922-1962)

This series includes a small sampling of "system" and "local" time tables.

Series VIII. Personnel Department (1910-1956)

Records here consist of hiring manuals and the records of the Superintendent of Labor and Wage Bureau including selected labor contracts and wage schedules for railroad employees.

Series IX. Pension Department (1899-1958)

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was the first railroad to implement a formal penison program with wide scale acceptance, hence the records provide insight to the detailed workings of the board for all cases brought before it. The series consists of the minutes of the Board of Officers meetings; an extensive file of the Board's sustaining papers which include the order of business, exhibits, resolutions, and correspondence with President; retirement case files, 1922.1935 (arranged by retirement date); Plan for Supplemental Pension includes refunds, correspondence, approved applications, and ledgers; and the minutes of the Board of Officers meeting for the "Lines West of Pittsburgh" division.

Series X. Pennsylvania Railroad Voluntary Relief Department (1886-1968)

The Voluntary Relief Department was a sick and death benefit plan and represents the largest series of the collection. It includes minutes and election materials of the Advisory Committee; minutes and exhibits of the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad Voluntary Relief Department; minutes and legal case files of the Voluntary Relief Department Lines West of Pittsburgh division; and the Superintendent of Relief and Pension's correspondence. Death cases make up the bulk of collection and consist of 18 volumes of death benefit ledger books, 1886-1953 (including some for Lines West of Pittsburgh) and 643 cubic feet of death case files, 1900-1968 describing the employment history of every railroad worker. The ledger books and death cases are arranged in death date order. The death cases are stored off site, and require advance notice prior to use.

Series XI. Pennsylvania Railroad Employees Provident and Loan Association (1923-1938)

A mutual savings and loan association to which labor and management contributed. The records consist of journals, ledgers, and 33 cubic feet of retirement case files, 1925-1938, arranged in death date order. The case files in this series are also stored off site, and require advance notice prior to use.

Series XII. Mutual Beneficial Association of Pennsylvania Railroad Employees (1933-1936)

Consists exclusively of the Mutual Magazine for the years 1933-1936, featuring articles about recent railroad developments, employee notes, obituaries, and news of general interest.

Series XIII. Subsidiary and Related Corporations (1863-1966)

This series includes the corporate records of 46 companies, mostly in the Philadelphia area, in which the Pennsylvania Railroad Company owned or had a controlling interest. Some of the smaller companies were "dummy" companies, in that a charter was taken out with no intention to build a line in order to protect the interest of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The records, alphabetically arranged by the name of the company usually consist of annual reports, but some corporate records include board papers, minute books, and correspondence.

This collection was appraised under the Penn Central Railroad Appraisal Project with funds provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. It was processed with funds provided by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Deposited by the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) and the Penn Central Corporation as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad Historical Records Project, Acc. 630, March 1987; Acc. 641, February 1987; Acc. 642, March 1987; Acc. 644, April 1987.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6