This a very special 33' open, rib-side, two-bay hopper for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Zscale Monster Trains commissioned this run to sell solely on zscalemonster.com; The PENNSYLVANIA Railroad (PRR) was founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U.S. throughout the first two-thirds of the twentieth century and was at one time the largest publicly traded corporation in the world. At its peak, it controlled about 10,000 miles of rail line. During its history, the PRR merged with or had an interest in at least 800 other rail lines and companies. At one point the budget for the PRR was larger than that of the U.S. government; at its peak it employed about 250,000 workers. In 1968, the PENNSYLVANIA Railroad merged with its rival, the New York Central Railroad , to form the Penn Central Transportation Company. The ICC required that the ailing New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad be added in 1969. A series of events including inflation, poor management, abnormally harsh weather and the withdrawal of a government-guaranteed $200-million operating loan forced the Penn Central to file for bankruptcy protection on June 21, 1970. The viable parts of the Penn Central system were transferred in 1976 to Conrail , which began earning a profit in 1981. The Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation split Conrail in approximately equal portions in 1999, with the former now owning the old Pennsy Main Line across Pennsylvania. The PENNSYLVANIA Railroad's corporate symbol was the keystone, which is Pennsylvania's state symbol, with the letters PRR intertwined inside.
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