Branch Line Empires: The Pennsylvania and the New York Central Railroads - Couverture rigide

Livre 42 sur 62: Railroads Past and Present

Bezilla, Michael

 
9780253029584: Branch Line Empires: The Pennsylvania and the New York Central Railroads
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0253029589 ISBN 13 : 9780253029584
Editeur : Indiana University Press, 2017

Synopsis

The Pennsylvania and the New York Central railroads helped to develop central Pennsylvania as the largest source of bituminous coal for the nation. By the late 19th century, the two lines were among America's largest businesses and would soon become legendary archrivals. The PRR first arrived in the 1860s. Within a few years, it was sourcing as much as four million tons of coal annually from Centre County and the Moshannon Valley and would continue do so for a quarter-century. The New York Central, through its Beech Creek Railroad affiliate, invaded the region in the 1880s, first seeking a dependable, long-term source of coal to fuel its locomotives but soon aggressively attempting to break its rival's lock on transporting the area's immense wealth of mineral and forest products.

Beginning around 1900, the two companies transitioned from an era of growth and competition to a time when each tacitly recognized the other's domain and sought to achieve maximum operating efficiencies by adopting new technology such as air brakes, automatic couplers, all-steel cars, and diesel locomotives. Over the next few decades, each line began to face common problems in the form of competition from other forms of transportation and government regulation; in 1968 the two businesses merged.

Branch Line Empires offers a thorough and captivating analysis of how a changing world turned competition into cooperation between two railroad industry titans.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l'auteur

Michael Bezilla is author or coauthor of seven books, four of them works of railroad history, and has contributed more than 25 articles about railroads to scholarly and enthusiast publications. He retired from Penn State University, where he received a doctorate in the history of technology, after a 36-year career in institutional advancement.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Indiana University Press
Date d'édition
2017
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0253029589
ISBN 13 
9780253029584
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
384
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible