This image of a worker at the Pennsylvania Railroad's car shops at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania was taken 106 years ago this week, on March 3, 1919. The woman in this image is using a lathe to machine a railroad car wheel and axle.
The Pennsylvania Railroad was chartered in 1846 to complete an all-railroad network across the state. In 1857, the Pennsylvania Railroad purchased the old Main Line system and eventually brought the entire line from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh under one management. Between 1855 and 1874, the company underwent rapid expansion and emerged as one of the two largest railroad systems in the region east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. By the time this image was captured, the Pennsylvania Railroad had become the largest railroad in the United States in terms of corporate assets and traffic.
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