About Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad
Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.
The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad came together on January 1, 1917, consolidating the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway with the Vandalia Railroad, Pittsburgh, Wheeling and Kentucky Railroad, Anderson Belt Railway, and Chicago, Indiana and Eastern Railway. Its corporate office was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, though its very long name promised a much larger roaming radius.
Known as the Panhandle Route, the railroad ran west from Pittsburgh through West Virginia and Ohio. At Bradford, Ohio, its routes divided: one headed toward Chicago, while another ran via Indianapolis to East St. Louis, Illinois. It was a serious piece of the Pennsylvania Railroad system, moving passengers, freight, coal, industrial goods, and the general clatter of a country determined to ship everything by rail.
The Pennsylvania Railroad leased the company on January 1, 1921, bringing its operations more directly into the Pennsy machine. That did not stop the PCC&StL identity from appearing on timetables, reports, bonds, construction records, and railroad lore for decades afterward. The name alone required a conductor’s punch card.
On April 2, 1956, the railroad was merged into the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad, a Pennsylvania Railroad affiliate, ending the separate corporation. Its routes and infrastructure outlived the paperwork, because railroads are stubborn like that.
Our Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad collection celebrates the Panhandle’s big-city ambition, working-route grit, and magnificently overstuffed corporate name. Wear the ghost that connected Pittsburgh, Chicago, Indianapolis, and St. Louis without ever needing a shorter logo.