The Pennsylvania Railroad

• 1846, April 13, The Pennsylvania Railroad is chartered to build from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh and Erie
• 1849, The Pennsylvania Railroad enters an operating agreement with the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Moutjoy & Lancaster, providing a connection to Philadelphia
• 1857, The Pennsylvania Railroad buys the Main Line of Public works
• 1860, John Edgar Thompson, Presendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad acquires a large block of the Northern Central Railway, and transferred ownership to the PRR, providing a link from Harrisburg to Baltimore
• 1861, The Pennsylvania Railroad leases the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Moutjoy & Lancaster
• 1862, The Pennsylvania Railroad buys an interest in the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad
• 1864, With Pennsylvania Railroad aid, the Philadelphia & Erie connects Sunbury to Erie
• 1868, The Pennsylvania Railroad consolidates the Panhandle Railway and Stubenville & Indiana as the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway
• 1869, The Pennsylvania Railroad leases the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Rail Road and the Columbus, Chicago & Indiana Railway
• 1869, The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway leases the Little Miami Railroad, providing a line from Cincinnati to Dayton and Columbus
• 1871, The Pennsylvania Railroad leases the Camden and Amboy, Philadelphia and Trenton, and Deleware and Raritan Canal Co., and United Canal and Railroad Companies of New Jersey
• 1872, After buying the charter to the Baltimore and Potomac, the Pennsylvania constructs and opens a line from Baltimore to Washington
• 1873, Through service from Washington to Jersey City commences with a trackage agreement with the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore
• 1874, The Pennsylvania Railroad gains a controlling interest of the Allegheny Valley Railroad
• 1877, Thomas Scott and Alexander Cassatt first formulate the concept of a Pennsylvania-controlled transcontinental line
• 1877, The Pennsylvania Railroad helps fund expansion of the Texas and Pacific Railroad
• 1879, The Pennsylvania Railroad buys the St. Louis, Kansas City, and Northern mainline from St. Louis to Kansas City
• 1880, Thomas Scott sells his stake in the Texas and Pacific to the Pennsylvania Railroad
• 1881, The Pennsylvania Railroad leases the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore
• 1881, After reaching Tucson, Arizona the Texas and Pacific is unable to continue west due to Southern Pacific expansion; the T&P enters receivership and is leased to the Pennsylvania Railroad, its principal creditor
• 1882, The Pennsylvania Railroad connects to Mackinaw City, Michigan
• 1890, Cassatt presents the idea of a Pennsylvania Pacific Railroad to the Pennsylvania Railroad board
• 1890, The Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and St. Louis and several other short lines are consolidated as the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railway
• 1893, George Roberts gives Cassatt the go-ahead to formalize a plan for the Pennsylvania Pacific.
• 1893, Silver crisis.
• 1894, The Pennsylvania Pacific Corporation is formed by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Alexander Cassatt serves as president.
• 1895, To help finance the Pennsylvania Pacific, the Pennsylvania Railroad sells some of its branch lines in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana
• 1897, The Pennsylvania Pacific and Pennsylvania Railroad begin investing heavily in the Rio Grande Western Railroad.
• 1900, The Pennsylvania Railroad gains a majority ownership of the Northern Central Railway and leases the Allegheny Valley Railroad
• 1900, The Pennsylvania Pacific and Pennsylvania Railroad gain a controlling interest in the Rio Grand Western
• 1900, The Pennsylvania Railroad buys the Long Island Railroad
• 1900, C.P. Huntington, the last of the "big four," dies and the Pennsylvania Pacific and Pennsylvania Railroad buy much of his Central Pacific stock
• 1901, In order to help fund the expansion efforts of the Pennsylvania Pacific, the Pennsylvania Railroad sells its line from Fassett, PA to Sodus Pt., NY to the New York Central Railroad.
• 1902, The Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore and Baltimore and Potomac are consolidated as the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington, which forms the Washington Terminal Company with the Baltimore & Ohio to build a new Union Station in Washington D.C.
• 1904, The Pennsylvania Railroad begins construction of Pennsylvania Station in New York
• 1905, The Vandalia Railroad is incorporated to consolidate the lines west of Indianapolis
• 1905, The Pennsylvania Railroad runs the first direct train from San Francisco to Jersey City, NJ via operating agreements with the Central Pacific, Rio Grande Western, Colorado Midland, and Colorado and Southern.
• 1907, Union Station Washington D.C. opens
• 1910, Pennsylvania Station New York opens
• 1915, The Pennsylvania Railroad electrifies its line from Philadelphia to Paoli, PA
• 1916, The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railway, the Vandalia Railroad, and several short lines are consolidated as the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad
• 1917, The New York Connecting Railroad opens in New York City, providing a link with the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad
• 1917, The Pennsylvania Railroad leases the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington
• 1921, The Pennsylvania Railroad leases the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad
• 1928, The Pennsylvania Railroad electrifies its line from Philadelphia to Wilmington, DE
• 1929, The Pennroad Corporation is formed to hold the assets of the Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania Pacific

• 1879, Thomas Scott and Alexander Cassatt first formulate the concept of a Pennsylvania-controlled transcontinental line
• 1890, Cassatt presents the idea of a Pennsylvania Pacific Railroad to the Pennsylvania Railroad board
• 1893, George Roberts gives Cassatt the go-ahead to formalize a plan for the Pennsylvania Pacific.
• 1893, Silver crisis.
• 1894, The Pennsylvania Pacific Corporation is formed by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Alexander Cassatt serves as president.
• 1895, To help finance the Pennsylvania Pacific, the Pennsylvania Railroad sells some of its branch lines in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana
• 1897, To help finance its reorganization efforts, the Union Pacific sells its stake in the Central Pacific, as well as a controlling interest of the Denver Pacific and Kansas Pacific to the Pennsylvania Pacific
• 1897, The Pennsylvania Pacific and Pennsylvania Railroad begin investing heavily in the Rio Grande Western Railroad.
• 1898, The Pennsylvania Pacific provides financial and administrative aide to the newly formed Colorado and Southern in return for 10% of the new company
• 1900, The Colorado and Southern and Denver and Rio Grande jointly buy the Colorado Midland Railroad
• 1900, The Pennsylvania Pacific and Pennsylvania Railroad gain a controlling interest in the Rio Grand Western. The Rio Grande Western is leased to the Pennsylvania Pacific late in the year and begins construction from Grand Junction to Glenwood Springs to meet the Colorado Midland
• 1900, C.P. Huntington, the last of the "big four," dies and the Pennsylvania Pacific and Pennsylvania Railroad buy much of his Central Pacific stock
• 1901, In order to help fund the expansion efforts of the Pennsylvania Pacific, the Pennsylvania Railroad sells its line from Fassett, PA to Sodus Pt., NY to the New York Central Railroad.
• 1901, The Rio Grande Western connects to Glenwood Springs and the Colorado Midland
• 1902, The Pennsylvania Pacific tries to help fund David Moffat's Denver, Northwestern, and Pacific, but is rebuffed in favor of the Rio Grande
• 1904, the Pennsylvania Pacific gains a controlling interest of the Central Pacific Railroad
• 1905, The Pennsylvania Railroad runs the first direct train from San Francisco to Jersey City, NJ via operating agreements with the Southern Pacific, Central Pacific, Rio Grande Western, Colorado Midland, and Colorado and Southern.
• 1906, The Central Pacific sells its California assets from Marysville to the northern California border to the Southern Pacific in exchange for some of the Southern Pacific's southern California assets, including the central valley line from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Central Pacific links to Los Angeles
• 1906, The Pennsylvania Pacific gains a controlling interest of the Colorado and Southern and Fort Worth and Denver City
• 1909, Shareholders and the ICC approve a merger of the Central Pacific into the Rio Grande Western
• 1912, Shareholders and the ICC approve a merger of the Fort Worth and Denver City, Kansas Pacific, and Denver Pacific into the Colorado and Southern.
• 1914, The Denver, Northwestern, and Pacific links to Salt Lake City
• 1915, The Denver and Rio Grande merges with the Denver, Northwestern, and Pacific. The state of Colorado mandates the Colorado and Southern to sell its stake in the Colorado Midland, and the D&RG rescinds the Pennsylvania Pacific's operating agreement over the Colorado Midland
• 1915, The Pennsylvania Pacific Incorporates the Colorado Junction Railroad which begins rapid surveying and construction from Glenwood Springs up the Grand River and Blue River, as well as from Golden up Clear Creek. Surveyors are also sent to Loveland Pass to find a suitable route for a tunnel
• 1915, Surveyors are sent to Tucson, Arizona and San Bernardino, California to link the Central Pacific to the Texas and Pacific
• 1915, The Pennsylvania Pacific leases the Oakland, Antioch, and Eastern Railroad and constructs a bridge over the Suisun Strait to guarentee its own path to San Francisco.
• 1916, The Colorado and Southern sells its trackage north of Denver to the Union Pacific
• 1916, The Pennsylvania Pacific buys a controlling interest in the bankrupt St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railroad
• 1916, Boring of the Cassatt Tunnel from the west at the base of Lenawee Mountain and from the east at Graymont begins. Later in the year, tracks reach east portal
• 1918, Tracks reach the west portal of the Cassatt Tunnel via Dillon and Keystone
• 1920, Two bores of the Cassatt tunnel meet under Mount Sniktau. Two weeks later, the Pennsylvania Railroad begins operation of the Pennsylvania Limited with direct service from San Francisco to New York via the Rio Grande Western, Colorado Junction, and Colorado Southern.
• 1923, The Colorado and Southern begins converting narrow gauge lines to standard gauge.
• 1925, The Pennsylvania Pacific purchases the Rio Grande Western
• 1927, The Colorado and Southern conducts feasibility studies to eliminate the smoke hazard of the Cassatt Tunnel through electrification
• 1928, The Colorado and Southern completes its standardization project
• 1928, The Pennsylvania Pacific consolidates the Colorado Junction Railroad into the Colorado and Southern
• 1929, The Pennroad Corporation is formed to hold the assets of the Pennsylvania Railroad
• 1929, The Pennsylvania Pacific is dissolved and passes all of its leases and holdings to the Pennroad Corporation.

Pennroad and The Pennsylvania Railroad Corporation

• 1929, The Pennroad Corporation is formed to hold the assets of the Pennsylvania Railroad
• 1929, The Pennsylvania Pacific is dissolved and passes all of its leases and holdings to the Pennroad Corporation.
• 1931, The Pennsylvania Railroad gains a controlling interest in the Lehigh Valley Railroad and leases it
• 1933, The Pennsylvania Railroad electrifies its line from Philadelphia to New York
• 1933, The Pennroad Corporation secures WPA money to electrify many of its subsidiaries' mountainous lines in Colorado, Pennsylvania, and New York, as well as its California line between Reno and Sacramento, and Oakland to Los Angeles
• 1933, The Oakland, Antioch, and Eastern begin operation over the San Francisco Bay Bridge
• 1934, The Pennroad Corporation transfers the Rio Grande Western's line from Grand Junction to Glenwood Springs to the Colorado and Southern
• 1935, The Pennsylvania Railroad electrifies its line from Wilmington, DE to Washington, D.C. and Quantico, VA
• 1935, The Pennsylvania Railroad leases the bankrupt New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad
• 1939, The Pennsylvania Railroad completes its WPA projects
• 1941, The Pennroad Corporation buys the New York, New Haven & Hartford and consolidates it into the Pennsylvania Railroad
• 1941, The Rio Grande Western begins construction from San Bernardino, California to Tucson, Arizona through Phoenix, Arizona
• 1942, The Pennsylvania Railroad extends its electrification from New Haven, CT to Boston
• 1943, The Pennsylvania Railroad electrifies all of its branch lines in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts
• 1944, The Rio Grande Western connects to Tucson
• 1945, The Pennsylvania Railroad electrifies its lines on Long Island, NY
• 1946, The Rio Grande Western buys the rights to the Yosemite Valley Railway right-of-way from Merced, CA to Yosemite National Park
• 1947, The Pennroad Corporation buys the Lehigh Valley Railroad and consolidates it into the Pennsylvania Railroad
• 1948, The Pennsylvania Railroad begins extending clearances on major passenger routes for vista-dome cars
• 1950, The Pennsylvania Limited is re-equipped with Baldwin deisel motive power and Budd corrugated coaches, including vista-dome cars
• 1950, The Colorado and Southern advertises and operates the first "ski train" with service to Arapahoe Basin and Loveland Basin
• 1950, The Pennroad Corporation consolidates all of its holdings east of St. Louis as the Pennsylvania Lines and reorganizes itself as the Pennsylvania Railroad Corporation
• 1952, The Pennsylvania Railroad petitions the BART commission in the San Francisco bay area to build and operate the BART commuter system with state and local subsidies
• 1952, Colonial service is extended from Ottawa to Montreal over the Canadian National Railroad
• 1957, San Francisco Bay Area voters approve the Pennsylvania Railroad proposed commuter system
• 1957, The Pennsylvania Railroad announces that its Pennsylvania Lines are in merger talks with the New York Central
• 1958, The Pennsylvania Railroad buys the San Francisco and Northern Pacific Railroad from the Southern Pacific
• 1960, The Pennsylvania Railroad begins limited operation of the BART system
• 1965, The Pennsylvania Railroad shifts operation from the shared trackage on the Oakland Bay Bridge to the new four-track Trans Bay Tube from San Francisco to Oakland
• 1966, The Rio Grande Western rebuilds a rail connection from Merced to Yosemite National Park
• 1967, The Pennsylvania Railroad inaugurates the final link in the BART system with completion of electrification to Cloverdale
• 1967, The Pennsylvania Lines' merger with the New York Central is approved on the condition that the new railroad divest iteslf of several holdings to encourage competion. The Philadelphia, New York, & Chicago Railroad is incorporated to hold the Pennsylvania Lines and New York Central until the conditions are met
• 1968, The Pennsylvania Railroad funds construction of Keystone ski resort in Colorado
• 1970, The New York Central divests itself of the Boston & Albany Railroad
• 1970, In an attempt to reduce operating costs, the Philadelphia, New York, & Chicago Railroad begins electrification of the New York Central mainline from New York to Albany and through to Buffalo
• 1972, The New York Central consolidates the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, & St. Louis Railroad and the Michigan Central Railroad into the Buffalo, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad, which is spun off into an independant company later in the year
• 1973, Regulators agree that the conditions of the merger have been met, and the Philadelphia, New York, & Chicago Railroad consolidates the Pennsylvania Lines and New York Central Railroad
• 1975, The Empire Corridor electrification project is completed
• 1980, The Stagger Rail Act passes, deregulating the railroad industry
• 1981, The Philadelphia, New York, & Chicago Railroad reorganizes as the Pennsylvania Rail Lines and scraps several of its redundant or unused lines in New York
• 1982, The Oakland, Antioch, and Eastern in consolidated into the Rio Grande Western Railroad
• 1988, Upgrades begin to several sections of the network in preparation for high speed rail service, including an extension from Los Angeles to San Diego
• 1989, The St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern and the Texas and Pacific are consolidated into the Colorado and Southern
• 1993, The Capital Corridor, Keystone Corridor, and Empire Corridor infrastructure upgrades are completed and high speed rail service begins between Buffalo, Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, and Washington DC
• 1995, The California Corridor infrastructure upgrades are completed and high speed rail service begins between Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego
• 1997, The Gulf Corridor infrastructure upgrades are completed and high speed rail service begins between Houston, Dallas, and New Orleans