Here are all the railroads the PWA helped save and improve

Above: For the railroads, the period between the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the New Deal (1933) was a dismal one - financial troubles, layoffs, and dwindling ridership. But with over $200 million in loans from the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1933-1934 (and slightly earlier loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation) the mid-to-late 1930s became an exciting era for rail transportation, as the ad above shows - using an image of a PWA-financed Milwaukee Road locomotive. The New Deal helped usher in bigger locomotives, faster locomotives, streamliner trains, significant progress towards a national electric railroad system, and more. Ad above from an unknown source, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

The New Deal's Vitamin Injection for the Railroads

Here are all the railroads that the New Deal helped save (or, at the very least, repair and modernize) with PWA financing. Loan totals are shown in parenthesis. Monies were used for bridge repairs, equipment repairs, new track, new locomotives, and more. See source and note at the end of this list.

1. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad ($7,534,840)

2. Boston & Maine Railroad ($7,618,084)

3. Central of Georgia Railway ($120,000)

4. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway ($16,876,480)

5. Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railway ($251,300)

6. Chicago & North Western Railway ($3,461,913)

7. Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad ($404,673)

8. Chicago Great Western Railroad ($1,200,000)

9. Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad ($10,456,133)

10. Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railroad ($253,577)  

11. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad ($4,736,000)

12. Erie Railroad ($14,518,060)

13. Escanaba, Iron Mountain & Western Railroad ($2,600,000)

14. Grand Trunk Western Railroad ($227,697)

15. Great Northern Railway ($5,976,880)

16. Gulf, Mobile & Northern Railroad ($1,255,000)

17. Illinois Central Railroad ($10,000,000)

18. Interstate Railroad ($250,000)

19. Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad ($290,834)

20. Lehigh & New England Railroad ($1,211,669)

21. Lehigh Valley Railroad ($5,467,186)

22. Maine Central Railroad ($318,423)

23. Midland Continental Railroad ($52,000)

24. Missouri Southern Railroad ($54,000)

25. New York Central Railroad ($2,500,000)

26. New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad ($5,028, 208)

27. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad ($7,150,000)

28. New York, Ontario & Western Railway ($235,000)

29. Nezperce & Idaho Railroad ($6,400)

30. Northern Pacific Railway ($1,220,000)

31. Pennsylvania Railroad ($80,650,000)

32. Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway ($378,500)

33. Seaboard Air Line Railway ($3,500,000)

34. Southern Pacific ($12,970,735)

35. Wabash Railway ($1,489,803)

36. Wisconsin Central Railway ($115,000)  

The information above comes from the Interstate Commerce Commission's (ICC) annual report for 1934. Loans from the PWA to the railroads had to receive a certificate of approval from the ICC. The ICC lists 36 railroad companies approved for PWA loans, totaling about $208 million. Other sources report 32 railroads, and closer to $200 million in loans; so its possible that some of the railroads listed by the ICC ultimately decided against taking the loans, or perhaps went belly-up before receiving the loans, or maybe other sources are wrong and there were indeed 36 railroads that received PWA loans. In any event, it is clear that the New Deal played a major role in saving and improving America's railroads during the 1930s.