A Lot in a Little LIRR
Incorporated: 1834
Date PRR acquired controls: 1900
Route mileage: 351
Number of employees: 7115 (in 1956)
Historical landmarks: Piggyback in 1885

first major railroad electrification in 1905
first all-steel passenger equipment in 1905

first all-steel passenger-car fleet in 1927

first U.S. double-deck suburban coach in 1932

first Automatic Speed Control in 1951.
Locomotives: 75 diesels.
Passenger-train cars: 1280.
Freight cars: 118.
Marine equipment: 4 tugboats; 8 carfloats.
Number of passengers: 75.2 million in 1956.
Revenue train-miles in 1956:
Passenger ..........$6,495,656
Freight ..............$280,976
Operating ratio: 86.06 percent in 1956
# of daily passenger trains: Almost 850
On-time record: More than 98 percent
Rank: Busiest passenger railroad in the U.S.; only U.S. road on which
passenger revenues exceed those of freight.
Aim: To become "the nation's most modern passenger railroad."

Progress under Railroad Redevelopment Corporation Law: At date of third
anniversary (August 12, 1957), LIRR had installed 222 new cars and rebuilt 306 existing cars to complete 45 percent of 45-million-dollar equipment program; completed dieselization of non-electrified trackage; repainted nearly 100 stations; revamped Jamaica station track and signaling; installed reverse signaling over 15.7 miles between Jamaica and Hicksville; renovated shops; and boosted number of parking spaces at depots 65 percent.

From Trains: The Magazine of Railroading
December, 1957