File on Pennsylvania Railroad Company orders, 1937-1947 | WorldCat.org (original) (raw)

Summary:The records consists of photocopies of selected items from a file kept by O.F. Brookmeyer, Sales Manager of the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors (formerly the Electro-Motive Corporation), concerning sales of diesel locomotives to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Many of the letters are from Paul R. Turner, Eastern Regional Sales Manager. The PRR was committed to steam locomotives, both out of tradition and out of a need to placate the large number of coal companies that shipped over their rails. The file documents GM's ten-year effort to sell its product to the PRR, starting with the first switching unit in 1937 and ending with the first big order for road locomotives in 1947. The letters describe GM's frustrations, the pro or anti-diesel bias of individual PRR officers, and the fear that the railroad was pumping them for information to be able to manufacture its own diesels at Altoona. The letters complement the files of the railroad's own Motive Power Department