The Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) was incorporated in October 1974. It was formed under the auspices of the United States Railway Association, a quasi-public agency established for the purpose of solving the problems of bankrupt railroads in the Northeast and Midwest. The Conrail photograph collection consists of a large number of images from its company files, but the majority of the material comes from its predecessor companies: Pennsylvania Railroad and Penn Central Transportation Company. These items are predominanatly composed of photographs, negatives, transparencies, lantern slides, and films.

Frank A. Weer (1932-2019) was an employee of the Reading Company and an enthusiastic photographer of all things related to railroads, specifically in Pennsylvania. Fascinated by trains from a young age, Weer spent time taking photographs of the passing rolling stock. He developed his own photographs, and over time, he established a vast collection of photographic prints of steam locomotives and other rolling stock, as well as the railroad tracks and structures with which the railroad was affiliated. The Reading Company, where Weer worked for thirteen years, was an influential railroad company that served the economic development of the Greater Philadelphia area for over 100 years. Before it became a booming passenger railroad, the Reading Company began transporting anthracite coal. The passenger "ridership" of the Reading Company reached its peak in the 1950s. The company went bankrupt in 1971, and the passenger services were taken over by the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority by 1974. This collection documents the construction and expansion of the Reading Railroad and the company's tangible property and human resources throughout the twentieth century. The collection consists of negatives (glass plate and film), photographic prints, and color slide transparencies. The creator established a chronological order, which has been maintained. The collection is arranged into five series: Structures and objects, Passenger stations, Rolling stock, People, and Frank A. Weer's personal slides.

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was the largest railroad in the United States in terms of corporate assets and traffic from the last quarter of the nineteenth century until the decline of the northeast's and midwest's dominance of manufacturing. Harry Richmond Hippler (1875-1958) was a pharmacist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and an avid amateur photographer. This collection contains negatives primarily of Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) train cars, both interior and exterior views. There are also images of train tracks, bridges, construction and other railroad related images. The bulk of the photographs date from the 1910s through the 1940s. It is possible that Harry R. Hippler was the photographer of some of the photographs in the collection.

Jill Jonnes (1952-) is a freelance writer who has published a number of books on technology and society, including Conquering Gotham in 2007, which is an account of the design and construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad's New York improvements. The collection is comprised of Jonnes' research notes for writing the book, almost entirely of photocopies of letters, reports, newspaper articles, and extracts from books.

Joseph T. Richards (1845-1933) was a career civil engineer with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company who participated in several of their large construction projects in the first decade of the twentieth century. The records consist of the contents of a small portfolio of documents relating to the construction of Pennsylvania Station and its associated yards and terminals.

North Pennsylvania Railroad was a railroad company which served the Pennsylvania counties of Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, and Northampton. It was incorporated as the Philadelphia, Easton and Water-Gap Railroad Company on April 6, 1852, and renamed the North Pennsylvania Railroad Company on October 3, 1853. Their records consist of corporate records such as minute books, annual reports, account books and statements.

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was the largest railroad in the United States in terms of corporate assets and traffic in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. This small collection of photographs covers the planning, surveying, and building of the Pennsylvania Railroad tunnels under the Hudson River, connecting New Jersey and New York in the early twentieth century.

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was the largest railroad in the United States in terms of corporate assets and traffic from the last quarter of the nineteenth century until the decline of the northeast's and midwest's dominance of manufacturing. This collection consists of materials related to the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge and trestle near Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. There is a copy of an erection diagram from 1896 and a copy of the application for the bridge to be a historic site to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) was chartered in 1846 to complete an all-railroad network across the state. Between 1855 and 1874, the PRR 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. In 1910, the PRR entered Manhattan through tunnels under the Hudson and East Rivers. This is a viewbook or souvenir album containing views related to the Pennsylvania Railroad in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, including stations, bridges, and tracks.

The collection consists of digital scans of photographs of bridges on the Philadelphia Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which ran from Philadelphia to Harrisburg.

The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) was chartered in 1846 to completing an all-rail road across the state. Collection consists of three unidentified photographs of stone arched railroad bridges, probably on the Pennsylvania railroad.

The Reading Company, chartered in 1871, became the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coalmines assembled between 1833 and 1896 by its predecessor, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company. The collection consists of photographs [negatives, blueprints and other graphic materials relating to the Reading Company and its predecessor, the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company.

Chartered in 1871, Reading Company was the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coal mines assembled by the predecessor Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company between 1833 and 1896. The collection consists of the corporate records of the Reading Company (1871-1976), the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company (1833-1896), the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company (1896-1923), and 159 predecessors and subsidiaries.

The Reading Company owned, leased or held a controlling interest in rail lines throughout southeastern and central Pennsylvania, with branches stretching as far north as Scranton and as far west as Williamsport and Shippensburg. The collections consists of twenty-five photographs of overnight accommodations (including rest houses and company sponsored Y.M.C.A. buildings) which provided accommodations for Reading Railroad employees at various end-of-the-line locations.

William E. Morris (1812-1875) was a civil engineer and railroad executive. The notebook contains fourteen separate specifications for canal and railroad work copied in longhand and a fifteenth in the form of an inserted printed handbill. They offer a good snapshot of early civil engineering practice and construction techniques. Evidence points to Morris as the notebook's author.

William Hasell Wilson (1811-1902) was a consulting engineer to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Wilson's notebook covers his early engineering career on the Philadelphia & Columbia and Philadelphia & Reading railroads. The notebook contains ink and wash drawings by Wilson, along with specifications and cost estimates for the construction of various types of track structure, bridges, turntables, stations and other buildings.

William Hasell Wilson (1811-1902) was a consulting engineer to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Wilson's notebook covers his early engineering career on the Philadelphia & Columbia and Philadelphia & Reading railroads. The notebook contains ink and wash drawings by Wilson, along with specifications and cost estimates for the construction of various types of track structure, bridges, turntables, stations and other buildings.