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John Edgar Thomson (February 10, 1808-May 27, 1874) was an American civil engineer, railroad executive and industrialist. He was President of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1852 to 1875. He oversaw the railroad's conversion from wood to coal as a fuel for its steam locomotives.
Childhood, early experience
Born near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he began his railroad career at age 19 as a rodman working in a survey crew locating the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. Thomson later worked for Camden and Amboy Railroad.
Developing Georgia's railroads
At the age of 26 in 1834, he became the chief engineer of the newly chartered Georgia Railroad. He located the road, negotiated and oversaw construction contracts, operated portions as they opened, and promoted possible connections to the north and west. By 1845, he had completed the railroad from Augusta to Marthasville. At 173 miles, it was the longest railroad in the world at the time. Thomson later bought control of the Montgomery and West Point Railroad and helped finance and locate the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad.
Pennsylvania Railroad
After the Pennsylvania Railroad was formed in 1846, it entered into an operating arrangement with the state-owned Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, the road Thomson had first worked on. Thomson was named chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and went to work locating the railway from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. In 1852, he became the Pennsylvania Railroad's president, a post he continued until his death in 1874.
Thomson's major projects included completing the road across the Allegheny Mountains, double tracking its main line, the railroad's conversion from wood to coal as a fuel for its steam locomotives, and reorganizing the company's management structure.
After the American Civil War, Thomson led the PRR on an unprecedented expansion program, controlling over 6,000 miles of railroad by 1873. Thomson also invested in transcontinental railroad lines, coal companies, iron and steel works, lumber operations, and land companies.
The city of Thomson in McDuffie County, Georgia was named for him.
Sources
Coleman, Kenneth and Charles Stephen Gurr, editors, (1977) Dictionary of Georgia Biography (Athens: University of Georgia Press)
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