Inventor Name
Unknown
Repository
Hagley Museum and Library
PO Box 3630
Wilmington, DE 19807-0630
302-658-2400
https://www.hagley.org/research
Physical Description
128.1 linear ft.
Summary
Forms Record group 11, Subgroup A of Pennsylvania Railroad Company records. The Office of Chief Engineer was first created on April 9, 1847, with the appointment of J. Edgar Thomson. After Thomson was elevated to the presidency in a stockholders’ coup in February 1852, Miller succeeded him as Chief Engineer. Miller in turn resigned in April 1853 and was succeeded by Herman Haupt, perhaps the most brilliant and certainly the most truculent member of the engineer corps. After the completion of main line between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, the post of Chief Engineer was abolished at the end of June 1855, and the engineer corps dissolved. As a new wave of plant expansion began, the Office of Chief Engineer was revived on April 1, 1861, this time overseeing both new work and maintenance of way. The incumbent was William Hasell Wilson, who reported to President Thomson in matters regarding new work, while reporting to the General Superintendent in matters of maintenance of way. Wilson was given the new title, Chief Engineer of Construction on January 1, 1868, and the maintenance-of-way duties were given to his son, John A. Wilson, as Chief Engineer of Maintenance of Way. On January 1, 1874, William H. Wilson was named Consulting Engineer, and on July 1, 1874, the post of Chief Engineer was formally abolished. He continued to advise on construction projects through the end of 1875. The post of Chief Engineer was restored on June 1, 1881, for William H. Brown, who had been Engineer of Maintenance of Way since August 1, 1874. Again, the office combined construction and maintenance of way duties and reported to the General Manager. On March 1, 1893, Brown was moved to the staff of Vice President Charles E. Pugh, and in this position was given general supervision of new construction only. Joseph T. Richards was named Engineer of Maintenance of Way on the staff of General Manager Sutherland M. Prevost. At the same time, the post of Engineer of Branch Lines was created for Joseph U. Crawford under the supervision of Assistant to the President Samuel Rea. This divided responsibility for new work continued until the end of 1910. In the meantime, the Engineering Department had been recreated and expanded on November 1, 1902, with Brown as its head. It was Brown who had charge of the tremendous modernization of the PRR’s infrastructure between the late 1880s and 1906. Brown retired at the end of February 1906 and was succeeded as Chief Engineer by his assistant Alexander C. "Capie" Shand who completed the projects of the Cassatt, McCrea and Rea administrations. On March 1, 1920, the Chief Engineer’s authority was extended over the former Lines West territory. Shand was followed in February 1927 by Thomas J. Skillman, who supervised the beginnings of the long-distance electrification project, which were completed under his successor, William D. Wiggins (1936-1943). Subsequent occupants of the Office of Chief Engineer were John L. Gressitt (1943-1953), Samuel R. Hursh (1954-1956), and Chester J. Henry (1956-1965). With Henry’s retirement, J. Benton Jones became department head as Vice President, Engineering & Real Estate on January 1, 1966, although the day to day operations were under the direction of several Assistant Chief Engineers. These arrangements continued until the Penn Central merger on February 1, 1968. The records of the Office of Chief Engineer are arranged in eleven series and describe the design and construction of railroad buildings and structures, the evolution of railroad building components, and the internal workings and personnel of the PRR’s Engineering Dept. The correspondence files are fairly complete from about 1883 to 1965. The first series of correspondence (bulk 1883-1906) contains inbound letters to William H. Brown, chief engineer from 1881 to 1906. Copies of outbound letters are included after the introduction of carbon paper ca. 1899. Prior to that time, outbound letters were kept in letterpress copybooks that are now lost. Likewise, maps and drawings accompanying the letters were kept in a separate plan file, also now lost. There are chronological gaps caused by lost boxes. The second series of correspondence (bulk 1906-1965) is that of Brown’s successors, A.C. Shand (1906-1927), T.J. Skillman (1927-1936), W.D. Wiggins (1936-1943), John L. Gressitt (1943-1953), S.R Hursh (1954-1956), and Chester J. Henry (1956-1966), with a few pieces continuing into the Penn Central period. These files are arranged in the more modern form of combining inbound and outbound correspondence and include reference copies of maps and drawings, photographs, and pamphlets. Both series of correspondence describe the design and construction of buildings and structures, the surveying and grading of new lines of railroad, the design and purchase of construction materials, and the complex political negotiations that accompanied the construction of large projects in urban areas. Major building types described include railroad stations, ferry terminals, bridges, piers, grain elevators, warehouses, repair shops, coaling and watering stations, and office buildings, while large-scale construction projects include the low-grade freight lines, multiple-tracking and reducing grades and curves on main lines, electrification, installation of cab signals and automatic train control, new yards and shops, and track elevation through major cities. Major projects include the Juniata Shops, freight and passenger terminals at New York, Jersey City, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, and the later redevelopment of urban railroad property, particularly Penn Center in Philadelphia. The correspondence is also useful for tracing the PRR’s relationships with major railroad contracting firms, general building contractors, rail-rolling and bridge-building firms, and architects. Among the latter are Frank Furness (Broad Street, Wilmington, East Liberty), Theophilus P. Chandler (North Philadelphia), Daniel Burnham (Columbus, Pittsburgh, Washington), Kenneth M. Murchison (Baltimore, Jamaica), and McKim, Mead & White (Newark). The PRR-Burnham relationship was particularly fruitful and is very well-documented. It continued with the successor firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, who designed the stations at Chicago and Philadelphia in the 1920s and 1930s. The files also document the work of Raymond Loewy and his in-house architect Lester Tichy in designing interiors and small stations, and a proposal from Norman Bel Geddes for a promotional display for the Long Island Railroad. Other files describe the use of Mexican track workers during World War II, the development of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, the planning for the Philadelphia World’s Fair of 1926, and of the facilities needed to carry visitors to the New York World’s Fair of 1939-1940. Minor items of interest include patent drawings for the Dodge system of coal storage, a few notes on the PRR’s exhibit building and transporting the Krupp guns to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, a comparison of Macadam and Telford roads (1893), and a structural report on the Pennsylvania State Capitol (1897). Personal correspondence of Assistant Chief Engineer E.B. Temple contains exchanges with former schoolmates Gov. William C. Sproul and Attorney-General A. Mitchell Palmer. Series III consists of letterbooks containing advertisements for contractors to submit bids on construction projects between 1898 and 1921. The construction contracts (bulk 1876-1904) cover grading roadbed and laying railroad track and the construction of bridges, stations, and other structures. They also show the evolution of the company’s sta
