Thank you, Cherokee Woman. I was beginning to wonder if we were forgetting Railroad History. But you have shown me my fears were for naught.
John
Arizona, March 2nd:
In 1889, the Atlantic & Pacific train was held up in Canyon Diablo, 26 miles west of Winslow, and the express box was stolen. Sheriff Bucky O'Neill captured the bandits in Utah a few week later.
NOTE: Today, that rail line belongs to the BNSF.
- Industrialist George Pullman, inventor of the railway sleeping car, was born in 1831
- Leland Stanford, railroad builder and founder of California's Stanford University, in 1824
In 2004, 10 bombs exploded almost simultaneously on four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and injuring 1,400.
I'm also told that this is the 150th anniversary of the birth of John Luther ("Casey") Jones, 1863-1900.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Arizona, March 12th:
In 1895, thousands celebrated the arrival of the first Santa Fe train into Phoenix.
- Railroad engineer and hero of the ballad Casey Jones, whose real name was John Luther Jones, in 1864. Happy Birthday, John Luther.
March 17, 1870. Mercer and Somerset Railroad is chartered by the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Companies. The M&S was created to block the National Railway. It ultimately resulted in the Great Frog War in 1876. The NR won and shortly thereafter the M&S went bankrupt.
1917The Supreme Court upheld the eight-hour work day for railroads.
Arizona, March 20th:
In 1880, the first Southern Pacific train arrived in Tucson.
From WHAS.com's Today in History for March, 20th:
1995 A doomsday cult released sarin nerve gas in five Tokyo subway stations, killing 12 people and injuring more than 5,500.
Tomorrow, March 23, a marker will be put in place at Baltimore's Camden Station to memorialize the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. I understand this was the first of what would be many strikes against US railroads. More information is available here:
http://www.baltimoreheritage.org/2013/03/new-historic-marker-commemorates-the-1877-railroad-strike-at-camden-station/
Arizona, April 6th:
In 1920, Mexican strikers abandoned a freight train loaded with tomatoes 25 miles south of Nogales, Mexico, and every truck in the twin towns was requisitioned to salvage the freight and unload it in Nogales, Arizona.
Arizona, April 14th:
In 1927, the first passenger train of the Southern Pacific of Mexico Railroad left Nogales for Guadalajara.
In 2005, the crash of a Japanese commuter train near Osaka killed more than 70 people and injured more than 300 others.
Arizona, April 30th
In 1922, the Phoenix-Miami-Globe railroad, connecting the Salt River Valley with the Gila Valley was opened at a celebration attended by hundreds in Miami.
In 1971, Amtrak, the national passenger rail service that combined the operations of 18 passenger railroads, went into service.
And May 1, 1971 is an important day in passenger rail history, Cherokee Woman. It rivals the beginning of the Charleston and Hamburg, the nation's first railroad to offer regularly scheduled passenger service.
Arizona, May 5th:
In 1910, Tucson citizens celebrated the opening of the Tucson-West Coast of Mexico Railroad.
Arizona, May 6th:
In 1908, the federal government ordered all river steamers to be equipped with fog bells, including those that travel on the Colorado River where there are no fogs. River Capt. Jack Mellon said that the order would be followed, but said, "It's like the order that snow plows be attached to all trains on the Yuma-Tucson division of the Southern Pacific."
cacole Arizona, May 6th: In 1908, the federal government ordered all river steamers to be equipped with fog bells, including those that travel on the Colorado River where there are no fogs. River Capt. Jack Mellon said that the order would be followed, but said, "It's like the order that snow plows be attached to all trains on the Yuma-Tucson division of the Southern Pacific."
Never say never. http://pics.tucsonnewsnow.com/Media/View/3151729
I suspect that E. H. Harriman was behind he. By forcing the steamboats to buy all those bells he hoped to improve the competitive positions of the Southern Pacific and the Union and Central Pacific.
PS. Is there a link between 1908 legislation about water transportation and railroads?
May 10, 1869. A golden spike driven into a laurel wood cross tie marked the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Point, Utah. As the spike was driven home the telegraph sent out a single word: "Done." The Central Paciic's Jupiter and the Union Pacific's Number 19 rolled up and touched cowcatcher to cowcatcher. At 1800 miles this was by far the longest railroad in the world and guaranteed the integrity of the United States against the powers of Europe. It was the beginning of the creation of the United States as we know it today.
If you look at a map of Utah, you will see that Promontory Point is right on the Great Salt Lake; when the Lucin Cutoff was built on the early 20th century, rails reached Promontory Point. Promontory Summit, now called Promontory, is the location of the ofiicial joining of the two roads. Promontory Point is the southern end of the Promontory Mountains.
Johnny
May 11th: 1894Workers at the Pullman Palace Car Co. in Illinois went on strike. (The job action spread and crippled railroad service nationwide before the federal government intervened to end the strike in July.)
The strike began when George Mortimer Pullman, during the depression of 1893, decided to cut wages by 25 per cent and, at the same time, refused to lower the rents in the houses he owned and required his workers to live in. The strike spread throughout the railroad industry. Then President Grover Cleveland sided with Pullman. He called out the United States Army. 30 strikers were killed and many more were injured but the Army broke the strike for Pullman. It is hard to overstate the bitterness that was left behind.
Arizona, May 15th:
In 1922, outlaws attempted the holdup of the Southern Pacific Golden State at Jayne's Station near Tucson. One was killed and the others fled as the express messenger used his shotgun.
Arizona, May 16th:
In 1930, outlaws set fire to the railway trestle between Miami and Globe in an effort to wreck the Southern Pacific train, but the engineer opened the throttle and raced through the flames.
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