The Winter 2003 issue of Classic Trains magazine takes an in-depth look at the transcontinental air-rail passenger services that took root in the late 1920s. At the time, they provided the quickest means of traveling from coast to coast.
Below is more background information on Pennsylvania Railroad’s visionary president William Atterbury.
William Wallace Atterbury (1866-1935) served the Pennsylvania Railroad for nearly 50 years. In the great tradition of PRR leaders, he advanced from apprentice at the road’s Altoona, Pa., shops in 1886 to president in 1925.
During World War I, while serving as PRR’s operating vice president, Atterbury was appointed Director-General of Transportation for the U.S. Armed Forces in France. In this capacity, he was in charge of construction and operation of railroads and port facilities, and was commissioned a brigadier general.
In 1919 he returned to the PRR as its chief operating officer.
During his decade president, the PRR was the largest transportation system in the nation, as measured by the freight and passengers carried, extent of facilities operated, and investment in road and equipment. It was owned by 236,000 stockholders – more than any other railroad in the world – and the stockholders had received a return on their investment in every year since 1847.
During Atterbury’s administration, the road acquired its fleet of superb M1 class 4-8-2 locomotives and greatly expanded its electrified lines.
Gen. Atterbury died in September 1935, following an illness that had driven him from office. To honor his memory, the Pennsylvania named its newest passenger train the General. Second only to the Broadway Limited in speed and appointments, this long-lived New York-Chicago train proved a far more enduring legacy than the rail-air service.
See more in the Winter 2003 copy of Classic Trains magazine!
