All Aboard!

WHYY brings the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad to life on TV12
By Josh Holzer

Train Pennsylvania's days as a giant of industry and transportation owed a great deal to one mega company, whose history has now been captured by WHYY.

The Pennsylvania Railroad's locomotives tracked across the country for 150 years, moving people, goods and technology and doing much to shape this nation. WHYY's new, original program The Pennsylvania Railroad, premiering Tuesday, January 15 at 8 p.m. on TV12, tells the story of the rise of the company, explores the work of 19th-century Pennsylvania photographer William Rau, who documented comings and goings on the rails, and examines the Railroad's eventual decline in the 20th century.

A broad look at the rise and fall of the Railroad, the program is also an amazing story of social history, detailing the lives of the owners and top management and the people who actually laid the tracks, stoked the engines and threw the switches.

Beginning in 1846 and closing in 1970 as the biggest bankruptcy in United States history, the Pennsylvania Railroad was impacted by, and had an impact on, the major events of the 20th century, including the Great Depression and World War II. "Without the railroad, we as a nation would not be here as we are. People can't conceive of a time with no highways, but back in history if you needed milk you used the railroad, if you needed to move soldiers you used the railroad," says WHYY executive producer Trudi Brown.

To bring the viewer into the history of the railroad, more live action shots were used in the documentary, including footage taken at Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA. The curve was dug out of the Allegheny Mountains to get trains over the formidable passes. Altoona itself was developed as a town for the express purpose of taking care of the locomotives.

The Pennsylvania Railroad went into production around the same time that renewed interest was building in the photography of William Rau. Hired by the Pennsylvania Railroad, Rau traveled its routes, taking panoramic photos as a way to entice people to use the Railroad for leisure. Many of Rau's photographs are used in the program, and a book of his work is being published by the Philadelphia Library Company.

Through archival footage and interviews with actual employees, including a woman switch thrower, the program captures the day-to-day operations of this huge and powerful industry that represented the nation at a time when both were barreling full-speed ahead into the future.

Incredible fortunes were made thanks to the Railroad, but not always through the fairest of business practices. "The owners were powerful men. This industry came about before there were anti-trust laws," explains producer Lillian Paulmier. The new wealth needed to be displayed and so the Railroad was to directly affect the creation of one of the most unique and prestigious communities in the country -- Philadelphia's Main Line. The owners and managers of the Railroad built grand mansions for themselves in towns they named for their Welsh ancestry, such as Narberth, while creating other areas, with more modest accommodations, for their mostly Irish employees. Ardmore is an Irish name and was where many of the workers lived.

The Pennsylvania Railroad takes viewers on an exciting 124-year ride, through two world wars, the glory days of the Railroad, labor strikes, depressions and expansions, examining the first modern business organization, the first billion-dollar company and the largest bankruptcy in Wall Street history along the way.

The Pennsylvania Railroad debuts Tuesday, January 15 at 8 p.m. on WHYY TV12.