Pennsylvania Station,
Baltimore, 1926

Maryland Historical Society

For over a hundred years the Pennsylvania Railroad was the country’s most powerful railroad. It became equally powerful in Maryland, although mostly as a latecomer to the state. Once there, though, it gave the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) more than a run for its money.

Its story started modestly in 1846. Unhappy with the state’s bizarre and unwieldy chain of railroads, canals, and inclined plane railroads connecting their city with Pittsburgh and the Ohio River, Philadelphians incorporated the Pennsylvania Railroad to bridge the rail gap between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Railroad, or the Pennsylvania, declared this project complete in 1855, but its capable and aggressive managers were hardly content with that.

The Pennsylvania, rapidly expanded both east and west, and stuck its first foot in Maryland’s door in 1859 when it acquired working control (but not yet ownership) of the Cumberland Valley Railroad. The Cumberland Valley Railroad gave a line from Hagerstown to the Pennsylvania’s east-west main line at Harrisburg, and later would provide an important link to the South via the Norfolk & Western Railway at Hagerstown. Next came control of the Northern Central Railway in 1861, linking Baltimore with Harrisburg and directly confronting the Baltimore & Ohio in its own hallowed home town.

After the Civil War, the Pennsylvania widened its empire dramatically, building itself into the country’s dominant railroad. In a classic coup, it took over the moribund Baltimore & Potomac Railroad in 1866 and outmaneuvered the B&O with a new line between Baltimore and Washington--obtaining a virtual lock on business to and from the South.

In another deft blow to the B&O, the Pennsylvania bought the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) in 1881; the last independent link in the chain of railroads between Washington, Baltimore, and New York. By acquiring the PW&B’s Baltimore-Philadelphia line and linking it with the Baltimore & Potomac and other Pennsylvania Railroad-owned lines, the Pennsylvania became the Northeast Corridor’s premier carrier. Along with the PW&B came a network of lines that dominated the Eastern Shore--and by building extensions and acquiring independent companies, it came to monopolize the entire region. In the mid-1920s, it created the Baltimore & Eastern Railroad as a subsidiary to operate two of these former short lines.

Cementing its dominance of the East Coast passenger business, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company completed Penn Station in New York in 1910, for the first time providing a direct rail entrance into Manhattan from the south. Originally named Union Station, Baltimore’s terminal was designed in classic Roman style by Kenneth W. Murchison. Completed in 1911, it was renamed Pennsylvania Station in 1928 to match other stations on the Pennsylvania line.
The Railroad’s status was further solidified when, in 1931 in the midst of the Depression, the Pennsylvania took the bold step of electrifying its entire main line between Washington and New York. The introduction of the legendary “GG-1” electric locomotives, a vast project completed in 1935, was one of the finest motive power designs ever built.

To most Marylanders, the “Pennsy,” as they called it, was synonymous with its always-bustling Washington-New York route. But the company also managed to penetrate almost everywhere else of note in the state. Thanks to its absorption of the PW&B and subsequent acquisition of several independent lines, it completely dominated the Eastern Shore, and a long branch extended into rural Southern Maryland. In 1875, it tapped Frederick with a branch running southwest from York, Pennsylvania. And finally, farther west, another long north-south branch entered Cumberland in 1879.

By the 1960s, however, the railroad was falling on hard times. In 1968, it merged with rival New York Central to become the Penn Central Transportation Co., which promptly collapsed two years later. Amtrak, the quasi-government passenger carrier created in 1971, bought the former Pennsylvania Railroad’s Washington-New York route in 1976; in the same year, the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) took over any remaining Penn Central freight lines. During this long process, many secondary lines were abandoned or taken over by short lines, including much of the Eastern Shore network.

Burgess, George H. and Miles C. Kennedy. Centennial History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Philadelphia: The Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 1949.

Gunnarsson, Robert L. The Story of the Northern Central Railway. Sykesville, Md.: Greenberg Publishing Co., 1991.

Roberts, Charles S. and David W. Messer. Triumph VI: Philadelphia, Columbia, Harrisburg to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Baltimore, Md.: Barnard, Roberts & Co., 2003. (Note: Other volumes in the series [Triumph I-V and VII] cover other Pennsylvania Railroad divisions in the area between the East Coast and Pittsburgh.)

Westhaeffer, Paul J. History of the Cumberland Valley Railroad, 1835-1919. Washington D.C.: National Railway Historical Society, 1979.

Wrabel, Frank A. “Terminals, Tunnels and Turmoil.” The Keystone 28, no.1 (Spring 1995).