The Cellar - March 28th, 2020 : The PRR

The PRR, the Pennsy, the Pennsylvania Railroad was the giant, trusted and revered, envied and feared... but they were not magicians.
All Pennsy’s money and all Pennsy’s men couldn’t get a 63 ft articulated Hook & Ladder Fire truck in a closed boxcar with a roof.
But they did!?!?

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An American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was so named because it was established in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
By 1882, the Pennsylvania Railroad had become the largest railroad (by traffic and revenue), the largest transportation enterprise, and the largest corporation in the world. Its budget was second only to the U.S. government. The corporation still holds the record for the longest continuous dividend history: it paid out annual dividends to shareholders for more than 100 consecutive years.

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Over the years, it acquired, merged with or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies. At the end of 1926, it operated 11,640.66 miles (18,733.83 kilometers) of rail line; in the 1920s, it carried nearly three times the traffic as other railroads of comparable length, such as the Union Pacific and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads. Its only formidable rival was the New York Central (NYC), which carried around three-quarters of the Pennsy's ton-miles.

Yeah yeah, they were pros but still not magicians, so how’d dey do dat?
There were several customers who wished to ship products of similar size and because they were shipping shiny new expensive
wares didn’t want them exposed on flatcars. So the Pennsy built special boxcars with end doors, and special loading/unloading
docks for them. I’m sure the shipping costs the customer was charged covered the expense.
The guy steering the back end of that ladder truck better duck.

http://cellar.org/img/PRR3.jpg

There were many uses for those boxcars, they likely paid for themselves repeatedly.

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