Why read The Wreck of the Penn Central?

Book cover of The Wreck of the Penn Central

Book description

It took ten years of laborious planning and exhaustive negotiations to create the mammoth Penn Central Railroad, the largest railroad in United States history. When the leviathan was finally born of a merger between the Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads on February 1, 1968, the event was hailed as…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Wreck of the Penn Central as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Matthew Stevenson

Author

If you have ever wondered what happened to the greatest passenger rail network in the world (yes, it was in the United States, which is now reduced to the crumbs of Amtrak), this account of the failed merger between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central is for you. Earlier in their history, the two companies defined American corporate might, but in 1968, when the two roads combined, each was closer to bankruptcy than to the Fortune 500. The book is a fast-paced account of corporate failure. As was said of the doomed venture: “It wasn’t a merger so…

From Matthew's list on The best books to read to get inspired to ride a train.