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

·
· Indiana University Press
5,0
1 anmeldelse
E-bog
383
Sider
Kvalificeret
Prisfald på 95 % 12. jul.

Om denne e-bog

The saga of a fierce business rivalry: “Absorbing, well-written . . . will appeal to American history scholars and railroad enthusiasts.” —Choice

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 nineteenth 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—and 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.

Includes photographs

Bedømmelser og anmeldelser

5,0
1 anmeldelse

Om forfatteren

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.

Bedøm denne e-bog

Fortæl os, hvad du mener.

Oplysninger om læsning

Smartphones og tablets
Installer appen Google Play Bøger til Android og iPad/iPhone. Den synkroniserer automatisk med din konto og giver dig mulighed for at læse online eller offline, uanset hvor du er.
Bærbare og stationære computere
Du kan høre lydbøger, du har købt i Google Play via browseren på din computer.
e-læsere og andre enheder
Hvis du vil læse på e-ink-enheder som f.eks. Kobo-e-læsere, skal du downloade en fil og overføre den til din enhed. Følg den detaljerede vejledning i Hjælp for at overføre filerne til understøttede e-læsere.