1928-1980 |
| 1930 |
Air-conditioned passenger cars first appear. |
| 1934 |
Introduction of lightweight streamlined passenger trains by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and the Union Pacific. |
| 1937 |
The Delaware & Hudson laid the first continuous welded rail, or ribbon rail, in the U.S. |
| 1941 |
With the attack of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. enters World War II. The nation's railroads bear an unprecedented level of traffic through the end of the conflict, doing so without government management, but undergo serious wear. |
| At 7,000 horsepower, the Union Pacific's "Big Boy" locomotives (4-8-8-4) debut as the world's largest steam locomotives ever built. |
| 1945 |
Railroads quickly purchased diesel locomotives for freight and passenger service; the last domestically-built engines are delivered by Alco, Baldwin and Lima four years later. |
| 1946 |
Last Pennsylvania Railroad steam locomotive, T1, 5546 (4-4-4-4), enters service. |
| 1952 |
The Pennsylvania Railroad's Broad Street Station in Philadelphia closes, ending seventy-one years of faithful service. |
| 1954 |
Piggyback service (truck trailers carried on flatbed rail cars) first offered by several railroads. |
| 1956 |
The Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, once the world's largest producer of locomotives, ceases production with a total output of 70,500 locomotives built. |
| April 6, The East Broad Top, the last regularly scheduled 3-foot gauge railroad east of the Mississippi, winds up over 100 years of uninterrupted service at Orbisonia, Pa. |
| 1957 |
The New York, Ontario & Western Railway becomes the first anthracite carrier to abandon operations in Pennsylvania. |
| Pennsylvania Railroad ends its use of steam locomotives. Some of its most historic locomotives are in storage, most destined to be preserved in the future Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. |
| 1959 |
National rail network drops to 220,000 miles. |
| 1960 |
The Grand Trunk Western in Detroit, Michigan, operated the nation's last regularly scheduled steam passenger service with two 4-8-4's. |
| The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and the Erie merge as the Erie-Lackawanna Railway. |
| 1963 |
The Pennsylvania Railroad's grand Penn Station in New York City's midtown was demolished, ushering in the contemporary historic preservation movement. |
| 1968 |
February 1, The Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central merge together to form the world's largest privately-owned railway, the Penn Central. |
| 1970 |
June 22, The Penn Central declares bankruptcy, with a $431 million loss; it was the biggest business failure in American history. |
| 1971 |
May 1, Amtrak is created as a measure of nationalizing the country's passenger trains. |
| The Reading (Railroad) Company declares bankruptcy. |
| 1972 |
Hurricane Agnes cripples Pennsylvania by washing out or flooding miles of tracks, which resulted in service cutbacks and mileage abandonments on the Penn Central. |
| 1975 |
April 22, The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania opens to the public for the first time, with the first building built specifically for a train museum. |
| 1976 |
April 1, Conrail is established by Congress to save and consolidate seven of the nation's ailing northeastern carriers-the Penn Central, Reading, Central Railroad of New Jersey, Lehigh Valley, Erie-Lackawanna, Lehigh & Hudson River and Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. |
| 1980 |
February 14, The Staggers Railroad Act deregulates the railroads from government control. |
