I am working on a project researching the many improvements made by the PRR through the Wilmington, Del area between 1900 and 1910. I am aware that during this time the PRR was engaged in a huge number of improvement projects involving fly-overs, elimination of grade crossings, upgrading facilities, bridge/tunnel building, yard construction, etc..

Could I get some help in listing as many of the large improvement projects going on during this period of time?

Thanks,

Hi Tom,

It's well to the north of Wilmington, but certainly the biggest PRR project in that era was the construction of Pennsylvania Station (1910) in New York City, along with its associated North River (Hudson River) and East River tunnels and Sunnyside Yard in Queens, NY. This occurred in conjunction with electrification and other capacity improvements on the PRR's subsidiary LIRR such as Holban Yard (1906) and Jamaica station (1913), as well as the Hell Gate Bridge (1916) connecting the PRR to the NYNH&H that makes the modern Northeast Corridor possible.

-Philip Marshall

You need to get your hands on a copy of this book written in 1927 by Assistant Treasurer of the PRR H.W. Schotter:



It is chock full of paragraphs on undertakings throughout the years... I am in a rush to get out of the office here though so I can't start gleaning tidbits for you.

R.C. Whitehead

Off the top of my head here's what I came up with:

1. Penn Station/North River Tunnels/East River Tunnels/Manhattan Transfer/Sunnyside/Hell Gate, as mentioned above.
2. North York area freight terminals, like Greenville Yard.
3. Trenton Station.
4. Trenton Cutoff.
5. North Philadelphia Station.
6. Smaller stations along the northeast corridor, like Chester, Perryville, New Brunswick, etc.
7. Wilmington Station, and the freight bypass to the south, plus the locomotive facilities.
8. The low grade line along the Susquehanna up to Harrisburg.
9. Baltimore Penn Station.
10. Union Station, DC/freight bypass via Virginia and Maryland Avenues/Long Bridge/Potomac Yard.
11. Enola Yard/Rockville Bridge
12. Pittsburgh passenger terminal.
13. Line relocations thru PA, like at Mt. Union.

I'm not too familiar with the PRR west of Pittsburgh. I'm sure I'm missing a lot. You might look into how the Hepburn Act of 1906 limited railroads' ability to invest in their physical plant. That might explain why the expansions on the PRR and other railroads phased out after about 1910-1915, when you take into account the time it takes to go from schematic planning to construction closeout.

Whoops, well I guess I went a bit beyond just the Wilmington area there, but you can't really understand those improvements without also looking at the totality of what the PRR was trying to accomplish at the same time.

Going beyond the Wilmington area is exactly what I'm looking into. I'm a Wilmington guy and I research is driven by he fact that it is my backyard. However, as I tell the story of what was happening in Wilmington, I want to give an overview of the broader situation to explain that these projects in Wilmington, as glorious as we locals look on them, were a small part of an immense program. Right now it is a research project for a local presentation but I might go for a local history book before I'm done. Thanks for the input from everyone and hit me with some more information.

This was the era of the "Cassatt Improvements Program" adopted by the PRR Board in 1902. You are right near the Hagley Musem and Library, which has much of the PRR general office archives in its collection. If you haven't visited them yet, it's definitely worth it. I don't know if Chris Baer is still in charge of the PRR collection, which was his baby when it came to Hagley, but he does still work there. His PRR chronology is on the PRRTHS web site; here's an excerpt from 1902 describing the Improvements Program:

I started going through the book listing completed projects by year, but a lot of information gets lost in making summary bulletpoints. One thing is ongoing multiyear projects, like the North and East River tubes, Pennsylavania Station and everything supporting that project.

Anyways, look for a PM.