United States Railroad Administration (USRA): Control, Standard Locomotives & Return

Last revised: September 8, 2026

The United States Railroad Administration was the federal agency that ran the American steam railroad as one machine from December 28, 1917, to March 1, 1920. President Wilson’s proclamation is dated December 26. William G. McAdoo, already Secretary of the Treasury, became Director General. The government did not take title. It rented the roads, paid a standard return, suspended the antitrust and anti-pooling laws, and ordered locomotives and cars that any company could use. Walker D. Hines of the Santa Fe succeeded McAdoo on January 11, 1919. Congress wrote the Federal Control Act on March 21, 1918, and the Transportation Act on February 28, 1920. The keys went back at 12:01 a.m. on March 1.

Wartime traffic, the car shortage, troop trains, and the ports are on Railroads During World War I. Peak mileage, the Adamson Act, and the Transportation Act as a decade closer are on Railroads In The 1910s. What follows here is the agency itself: how it was staffed, how the companies were paid, the twelve standard steam types (about 1,850 originals), leftover Russian 2-10-0s, and the order for about 100,000 freight cars. A later United States Railway Association, created in 1973 to assemble Conrail, is a different agency with similar initials.

Cincinnati Hamilton and Dayton Railroad in Chillicothe Ohio circa 1920

Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton at Chillicothe, Ohio, circa 1920, the year federal control ended. Author’s collection.

On this page: At a glance · Proclamation and the Federal Control Act · Compensation · McAdoo, Hines, and the regions · Standard locomotives · Who got what · Standard freight cars · Return · The other USRA

At a glance

Item	Detail
Authority	Army Appropriation Act, August 29, 1916 (39 Stat. 645). Proclamation 1419, December 26, 1917
Federal control	December 28, 1917, 12:01 a.m., through March 1, 1920, 12:01 a.m.
Director General	William G. McAdoo (Dec. 28, 1917). Walker D. Hines from January 11, 1919
Federal Control Act	March 21, 1918 (40 Stat. 451). Return within 21 months of a peace treaty; properties to be handed back in at least as good condition
Compensation	Standard return: average net operating income for the three years ended June 30, 1917 (Stover: June 30, 1914–June 10, 1917)
Rates under McAdoo	Freight up 25% South and West, 40% East. Coach fares 3 cents a mile
Standard steam	Twelve types, light (~54,000 lb axle) and heavy (~60,000 lb). About 1,850 originals, 1918–19, plus leftover Russian 2-10-0s
First USRA locomotive	B&O Light Mikado No. 4500, completed July 1918 (often dated July 4). Preserved, B&O Railroad Museum
Freight cars	About 100,000 ordered May 1, 1918 (Boyd). Mostly boxcars, composite steel and wood
Transportation Act	Esch–Cummins, February 28, 1920. See the 1910s

Locomotive counts are USRA originals, not later copies. Information compiled September 8, 2026.

Proclamation and the Federal Control Act

By November 1917 the car shortage stood on the order of 158,000. Export freight had been running east since 1914. Priority Army shipments filled the Atlantic terminals. Empty cars did not go home. The Interstate Commerce Commission already held the rates; a requested increase had been denied. Daniel Willard of the B&O and the Railroads’ War Board had tried to run the map as one system without taking title. Antitrust law stood in the way. That operating story is on the World War I page.

Wilson used the 1916 Army Appropriation Act, which had given the president power to take transportation in wartime. The proclamation of December 26 named McAdoo Director General and covered steam and electric railroads, their water terminals, sleeping and parlor cars, private-car lines, and associated telegraph and telephone. Control began at 12:01 a.m. on the 28th. Company presidents stayed in place as the Director General’s agents, at least until the statute was written.

The Federal Control Act of March 21, 1918, set compensation, required return within 21 months of a peace treaty, and promised the properties back in at least as good condition as when taken. It suspended the Sherman Act and the anti-pooling rules for the duration. Managers feared the rental would become a taking. The statute said otherwise. The Armistice came on November 11, 1918. The 21-month clock still ran.

Compensation

Jim Boyd, in The American Freight Train, put it cleanly: the industry was rented, not nationalized. Each carrier was to receive a standard return equal to its average railway operating income for the three-year test period ended June 30, 1917. Stover’s wording is the average of net operating income “for the three years between June 30, 1914, and June 10, 1917.” Those were lean years. More than 40,000 miles had sat in default or receivership by 1915. Owners felt the test period was a bad sample. They had little choice.

Anything earned above the standard return stayed with the government. Anything short, the Treasury made up. That is why McAdoo could raise rates when the ICC, before the takeover, would not: 25 percent in the South and West, 40 percent in the East, and a 3-cent coach fare, as Hilton and Due recorded. Wages went up with them. The rental was expensive. The alternative, in the winter of 1917, was a clogged port.

St Marys West Virginia served by the Baltimore and Ohio probably 1940s

St. Marys, West Virginia, on the Baltimore & Ohio, probably in the 1940s. B&O took the first USRA Light Mikado in 1918. Author’s collection.

McAdoo, Hines, and the regions

McAdoo was Wilson’s Treasury secretary and his son-in-law. He had built the Hudson tunnels that the Pennsylvania used into Manhattan. The USRA organization, announced February 9, 1918, put a Director General over eight divisions and seven regional offices. Carl R. Gray, then of the Western Maryland, headed the Division of Operation. Walker D. Hines, chairman of the Santa Fe, was McAdoo’s principal assistant and succeeded him on January 11, 1919, after McAdoo resigned.

The agency centralized shops and terminals, cut passenger trains that did not serve the war, embargoed freight that sat as rolling warehouses on the piers, and ended competition among the companies for the duration. Most interurbans stayed out; they handled little war freight. The Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern was an exception. Hilton and Due put national interurban mileage at 15,562 in 1917. That industry is Interurbans & Streetcars.

Both directors asked Congress to keep federal control for five years as a test of unified operation. Labor would have taken permanent public ownership. The companies wanted the keys. Congress said no.

Standard locomotives

American locomotive practice in 1917 was still a shop-by-shop art. Gauge, knuckle couplers, and automatic brakes had been forced into common use. Boilers, cylinders, and axles had not. McAdoo’s mechanical side used two committees. A Builders’ Committee (Alco, Baldwin, Lima, and H.K. Porter) chose types and drew plans. A Railroad Committee of mechanical officers from fourteen carriers reviewed them. Work could not start until February 1918. The first engine ready for service was a Light 2-8-2 for the Baltimore & Ohio, No. 4500, in July 1918—four months after the Armistice was already a political possibility, and after the war itself had only months to run.

Twelve diagrams covered switching, freight, and passenger power. Light versions were designed to about 54,000 pounds axle load, heavy to about 60,000, so the same drawing could go on a weak branch or a heavy main. The 2-8-2 Mikados were the most numerous. Switchers were not far behind. Articulateds were the 2-6-6-2 and 2-8-8-2. There was no USRA 4-8-4; that type is 1926.

Type	USRA originals
0-6-0 switcher	255
0-8-0 switcher	175
2-8-2 Light Mikado	625
2-8-2 Heavy Mikado	233
2-10-2 Light Santa Fe	94
2-10-2 Heavy Santa Fe	175
4-6-2 Light Pacific	81
4-6-2 Heavy Pacific	20
4-8-2 Light Mountain	47
4-8-2 Heavy Mountain	15
2-6-6-2	30
2-8-8-2	106
Originals, twelve types	About 1,850

Counts are USRA-period originals (Alco, Baldwin, Lima). Copies built after March 1, 1920, are a separate, larger fleet—more than 1,200 0-8-0s alone. Light Mikado totals are sometimes printed as 614 delivered.

About 1,200 2-10-0 Decapods had been ordered in the United States for Russia. After the Bolshevik Revolution, on the order of 200 remained undelivered. They were retrofitted toward USRA practice and put on American roads. They are not one of the twelve diagrams. They are part of the “more than 2,000” wartime standard engines.

The diagrams outlived the agency. Roads ordered copies into the 1920s. Southern’s Ts-1 family of Light Mountains, treated on that class page, is one example: 47 USRA Light 4-8-2 originals for four railroads, 25 of them on the Southern family. N&W’s Y-3 2-8-8-2s began as the USRA heavy Mallet. B&O 4500 still sits in Baltimore.

Aerial view of Chillicothe Ohio on the Baltimore and Ohio main line to St Louis probably 1940s

Chillicothe, Ohio, on the B&O St. Louis main, probably in the 1940s. The USRA’s standard 2-8-2s were still ordinary power a generation after federal control. Author’s collection.

Who got what

Allocations shifted. Some roads refused engines and they went elsewhere (Virginian 2-8-8-2s to N&W; El Paso & Southwestern and Spokane, Portland & Seattle heavies toward Great Northern). Pennsylvania took a large block of Heavy 2-10-2s and transferred other types away. New York Central and its family took switchers in quantity. The table below is the original-order picture for the largest assignments, not a complete delivery log.

Railroad	Notable USRA originals
Baltimore & Ohio	100 Light 2-8-2 (Q-3 4500–4599); 30 Light 2-10-2
Milwaukee Road	100 Heavy 2-8-2
Pennsylvania	130 Heavy 2-10-2 (N2s)
New York Central family	Light 2-8-2s in the 80s; 0-8-0s across NYC, IHB, Michigan Central, Big Four, and others
Atlantic Coast Line	45 Light 2-8-2
Norfolk & Western	50 2-8-8-2 (plus Virginian transfers); Light 2-8-2s
Southern family	Light 2-8-2s, Light 2-10-2s, Light 4-6-2s; Light 4-8-2s (25 on the family)
Erie	25 Heavy 2-8-2; 20 Heavy 2-10-2; 16 0-8-0
Chesapeake & Ohio	20 2-6-6-2; Heavy 2-8-2s
Louisville & Nashville	Light and Heavy 2-8-2s; Light 4-6-2s
Union Pacific / Oregon Short Line	Light 2-8-2s
Frisco	Light 2-8-2s transferred in from IHB and PRR allocations

Compiled from USRA allocation tables (light = A, heavy = B). Transfers after assignment were common.

Standard freight cars

On May 1, 1918, the USRA placed an order for about 100,000 freight cars with seventeen builders. Boyd’s figure is the one to keep. Five designs did most of the work:

50-ton single-sheathed boxcar (spec 1001-B), about 25,000
40-ton double-sheathed boxcar (1003-B), about 25,000
50-ton composite drop-bottom gondola, about 20,000
55-ton steel twin hopper, about 5,000
70-ton steel mill gondola, about 5,000

The rest of the 100,000 were variants and non-standard cars under the same program. Sixty-four railroads received them. Mike Schafer noted that the USRA boxcars were largely composite, steel underframe and wood superstructure. John H. White, Jr., tracked steel in the national car fleet from 8.6 percent in 1905 to 51.8 percent in 1915 and 65.2 percent in 1920. The USRA order sat in the middle of that change. A standard caboose, the so-called Northeastern, was drawn and never built under federal control. Reading produced an all-steel version in 1924; Western Maryland, Central of New Jersey, and Lehigh Valley later used the idea. That is a caboose story, not this page’s encyclopedia.

Baltimore and Ohio yard in Portsmouth Ohio circa 1940s

Baltimore & Ohio yard, Portsmouth, Ohio, circa 1940s. Standard USRA freight-car diagrams were still in the national fleet. Author’s collection.

Return to private operation

McAdoo and Hines both asked for five more years. The Federal Control Act did not give it to them. Wilson’s relinquishment proclamation set the date: March 1, 1920, 12:01 a.m. The Transportation Act (Esch–Cummins) of February 28 wrote a fair-return idea into peacetime law, gave the ICC power over mergers, and required a showing before a line could be abandoned. That statute is the 1910s closer.

Private management came home to worn rail and deferred shop work. William J. Cunningham put 1918 ton-miles only about 1.8 percent above 1917, which had already been the heaviest year on the books. The gain came with fewer train-miles. Stover later credited the 1921–1940 plant with more capacity per car, more ton-miles, higher train speeds, and less coal per thousand tons. Standardization had something to do with that. So did the roads’ determination not to be taken again. When the second war came they stayed private. That chapter is Railroads In World War II.

The other USRA

In 1973 Congress created the United States Railway Association to plan and finance a new freight railroad from the wreck of Penn Central and the other Northeastern bankrupts. Conrail started April 1, 1976. It is not this agency. The initials are close. The jobs were not.

Sources

Stover, John F. The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American Railroads. New York: Routledge, 1999. Compensation as average net operating income, June 30, 1914–June 10, 1917. First-track peak 254,037 (1916). 1921–1940 plant figures
Boyd, Jim. The American Freight Train. Osceola, Wis.: MBI, 2001. Rental rather than a taking of title. About 100,000 freight cars
Cunningham, William J. American Railroads: Government Control and Reconstruction Policies. 1918 ton-miles about 1.8 percent above 1917
Hilton, George W., and John F. Due. The Electric Interurban Railways in America. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960. Coach fares 3 cents a mile; Fort Dodge exception
Schafer, Mike. Freight Train Cars. USRA boxcars largely composite
White, John H., Jr. The American Railroad Freight Car. Steel in the car fleet, 1905–1920
Army Appropriation Act, August 29, 1916, 39 Stat. 645. Wilson proclamation, December 26, 1917. Federal Control Act, March 21, 1918, 40 Stat. 451. Return March 1, 1920. Transportation Act, February 28, 1920
USRA locomotive originals by type: 0-6-0 255; 0-8-0 175; Light 2-8-2 625; Heavy 2-8-2 233; Light 2-10-2 94; Heavy 2-10-2 175; Light 4-6-2 81; Heavy 4-6-2 20; Light 4-8-2 47; Heavy 4-8-2 15; 2-6-6-2 30; 2-8-8-2 106. Allocation tables (light/heavy). Copies after 1920 are additional
B&O Light Mikado 4500, July 1918, first USRA locomotive in service
Russian 2-10-0 leftovers, on the order of 200, retrofitted after 1917
USRA freight-car specs 1001-B, 1002-B, 1003-B, 1005-B, 1006-B; order of May 1, 1918