I know that until the late 50s, the two railroads were rather close to each other. To the point I wonder why the former never bought the latter.

What would have happened if this were the case?

Would the PRR be able to escape Penn Central and bankruptcy?

What would happen?
 
Here are two maps: one of the PRR in 1955, and the other an undated N & W map:

norfolk-and-western-railway-map.jpg
Capture.JPG


It appears that there were three points at which tracks might have connected physically: Cincinnati, Columbus, and Hagerstown, MD. I'm a bit puzzled as to why this buyout / merger might be a good business move. It does get the PRR into the western VA coal regions, but by the mid-1950s, coal was in decline. I have doubts also about any real drive to pass more traffic through either Cincinnati or Columbus. About the only real driver I could imagine--and this is a stretch--would be to use the N & W as a sort of stepping stone to acquire/merge with the Southern Railroad--but then again, given an existing connection at Cincinnati, I still don't get why the N&W would be attractive--apart from perhaps the port facilities at Norfolk.
 
Well for one thing, the N&W line could reach Chicago by a more direct way than the Nickel Plate.

Even so, I actually imagined happening n the 1920s.

So that benefits the N & W, but how does the PRR gain from that? I'm still not completely convinced that the PRR has a lot to gain over the long run. It seems like a fairly steep price to pay to get to the port facilities at Hampton Roads.
 
So that benefits the N & W, but how does the PRR gain from that? I'm still not completely convinced that the PRR has a lot to gain over the long run. It seems like a fairly steep price to pay to get to the port facilities at Hampton Roads.
Pretty expensive, given where they wanted to go and do.

PRR would buy it, take the best routes to clean up some of their runs, and then try to sell what was left to the Class II or abandon. That's wasteful in the era.

Would make more sense for PRR to try and get Reading instead for the profit in moving coal than N&W
 
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