Te Porcelain P.R.R. Insulators by Ray Klingensmith


The Pennsylvania Railroad was established in 1846 with headquarters in  1882, reportedly operated over 30,000 miles of track. As a corporation, it showed a 


Communication lines were constructed along most routes operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad, some dating from the infancy of the company. Various types of insulators were used, those of the threadless type in the very early years,  1870’s, and later, various threaded types of both glass and porcelain.


The glass CD 162.5 with “P.R.R.” and “P.L.W.” marking were used in the early 1900’s, as well as a very similar design in porcelain, designated as U-179. The vast majority of the porcelain units were unmarked, produced by the Pittsburgh  of incuse (recessed) marked “P.R.R.” units have been located with a brown glaze. Recently, a unique oddity surfaced, a U-179 brown porcelain unit with embossed (raised) “P.R.R.” lettering on the dome! Quite an oddity indeed!


The illustrations of two porcelain insulators shown above are from a 1915 Catalog of Westinghouse Electrical Supplies,  


46 Crown Jewels


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