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Penn Central Railroad (1968)

1968 · Short film · 19 min

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Synopsis

Call Us Penn Central” is a circa 1968 color promotional film about the Penn Central Transportation Company, a railroad company created by the 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads that operated from 1968 until 1976. In 1970, the company filed for what was, at that time, the largest bankruptcy in US history. The first few minutes are filled with scenes of railroad yards and locomotives before the narrator presents a litany of locations and job occupations ranging from resort complexes, basketball games, and amusement parks to research scientists and locomotive engineers before finally revealing at mark 03:38 that such scenes “and many many more are parts of the Penn Central, America’s largest transportation company.” Accompanied by graphics, the narrator goes on to say how the company has more than 20,000 miles of tracks serving 100 million people in 14 states, two Canadian provinces, and the District of Columbia. As a result the company would be refocusing efforts on shorter “Metroliner” commuter routes between Washington, D.C. and New York City, we are told, as scenes of workers reconfiguring tracks are shown. “Freight traffic, of course, is the backbone of the Penn Central,” the narrator says at mark 06:45. As scenes of rail yard traffics is shown, the narrator explains how the company is also working toward improving that aspect of the business, particularly in reaching out to new coal markets in Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as the grain and…

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Details

Running time
19 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

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