About this collection

Incorporated in October 1974, the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) was formed under the auspices of the United States Railway Association, a quasi-public agency established for the purpose of solving the problems of bankrupt railroads in the Northeast and Midwest. The assets of six major bankrupt railroads were transferred to Conrail at condemnation value on April 1, 1976.

The resulting Conrail system, covered about 20,000 route-miles. Most of this mileage, as well as its Philadelphia headquarters, were inherited from the Penn Central Transportation Company. The Conrail photographs (Accession 1993.231) collection consists of a large number of images from its company files, but the majority of the material comes from its predecessor companies. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety.

Image: Employee cleaning circuit boards. Click to view object.