Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 4, 2021

The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 until 1976. Penn Central was a combination of three railroads: the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), New York Central Railroad (NYC) and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NH). The New York, New Haven and Hartford was merged into Penn Central in 1969. The legal entity that eventually became the Penn Central Transportation Company was the former Pennsylvania Railroad, which absorbed the New York Central as part of the original 1968 merger and at the same time began using the Penn Central name to reflect the merger with the New York Central. The company remained headquartered in Philadelphia after its merger with the New York Central. By 1970, the company had filed for what was, at that time, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. The company has since escaped bankruptcy and is now known as American Premier Underwriters and currently serves as a subsidiary of Carl Lindner’s American Financial Group.