No horses involved... not really any room for them on that 'train' in the first place.
Horse-thief?
Final hint before letting someone else put up something interesting: the equipment manufacturer made quite a range of options for what was basically a simple service.
And the car didn't have a road number, but something else, to identify it at the time of the incident...
... and now.
This question has gone unanswered too long.
The equipment in question had a PRR road number at one time. The robbery occurred during a particularly acrimonious strike, which I think may well have had something to do with it at this (comparatively) late date.
Be interesting to see details on that one. You're getting warmer, though. 'Buffalo' is a common link... but not the same one as the Wolverine.
All I can find without buying subsriptions to several newspapers is a sketchy reference to a robbery on NYC's westbound Wolverine on December 31, 1951.
NO. The guns were not real, and what was stolen was not money (although probably worth considerably more!)
Try 1952. This question is past its sell-by date and I'm prepared to do some deep discounting with hints...
Does the 1963 Princeton Dinky robbery count?
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
The one I'm looking for is the last on standard-gauge common-carrier service in the United States.
Wow! Tell more!
If you don't sweat track gauge... Train robbery in a San Antonio TX Park in 1970.
https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/2020-07-10/50-years-ago-there-was-a-great-little-train-robbery-in-san-antonio
Did it occur on one of the last of the Shovel-Nosed Zephyrs?
Bumping this with another hint: the consist was unusual even by the standards of the time when the robbery occurred... and it survives in preservation.
The way I read it, the 1957 train robbery was just a sneaky substitution of mail bags. The MacLeans article was about the 'all-off' robbery in 1920, and the discussion in the Windsor Star involved a killing, but not on the train (related only by a suspicion 'inside knowledge' of mail operations was involved...
I've found a couple references to a CN passenger train being robbed at gunpoint near Woodstock, Ontario in late August 1957. I don't have a subcription but this article would seem to have the details.
https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1958/2/15/canadas-last-great-train-robbery
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/501531571/
Edit: Never mind, your question was about an event south of our border. I'll leave this up since it's probably an interesting read anyway.
Hint: the most important part of the consist has survived, and one Web site for it contains the circumstances and the date of the 'event'.
Nope; later...
You mean the Zoot Suit robbery of B&O's Ambassador at Martinsburg W. VA. in 1949? Luman Ramsdell and George Ashton (apparently wearing Zoot suits) robbed passengers but were unable to find anything of value in the baggage car. During the robbery a porter was shot in the leg, and a window in the dining car was shot out. Train photo from american-rails.com.
rc, you're off by over a decade...
Good job, both of you. My understanding is that most of Route 9 actually includes the roadbed of the P&W. And it was tied with 2 further north, as the fastest route for autos west from Boston before construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike.
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/last-train-robbery/
The Apache was a joint Rock island-Southern Pacific train on the Golden State Route. The robbery was attempted by Henry Lorenz and Harry Donaldson on November 24, 1937. They boarded the Apache at Deming NM on the Southern Pacific (the Sunset used the ex-EP&SW route that bypassed Deming). Their attempt to rob the train was foiled when the Conductor and about 20 passengers successfully subdued the would-be robbers. An off-duty brakeman travelling as a passenger died of a gunshot wound from the scrum. Both men were convicted and served time in the New Mexico Penitentiary. Both were conditionally released in 1945.
The Apache is shown at El Paso TX in the late 1930s, Courtesy of Classic Trains Magazine!
When, where, and under what circumstances was the last armed robbery of a train on a United States class I railroad?
Extra points if you post a picture of the consist.
Actually the 'reference' doesn't discuss the Boston & Worcester directly; I put it together from an online description of some of the route details and "backtranslated" to the type of equipment that would be needed for such a route. [This being massively simplified by your having hinted 'Boston' was part of the name...]
Reading a bit between the lines, the thing that progressively killed the 'interurban' B&W appears to be the buildout of consolidated state Rt. 9 (a road the interurban crosses at at least one point). I understood that the 'bustitution' followed this progressively, with the last sections said to be converted by 1932.
I am just about ready to cry; Kalmbach having tried, and very nearly succeeded, in making my subsequent editing of this reply to include sources a series of tedious multiple posts.
A reference specific to the B&W's progressive conversion to bus service is this PDF (revised as recently as August 2020!):
http://roster.transithistory.org/MBTABUSDEV.pdf
(of course it's also covered in Hilton's book on interurbans...)
The Wikipedia synopsis is as follows:
In 1925–26, the B&W attempted to replace its entire service with buses, but was rebuffed by Brookline. It However, the Framingham–Framingham Centre and Framingham Junction–Saxonville routes were replaced by buses on June 13, 1925. On July 3, 1926, the B&W began operating a Boston–Worcester bus line that followed the turnpike west of Shrewsbury, and the Post Road east of Northborough. The Hudson branch was replaced by buses in April 1928, followed by the Natick branch on October 15. Framingham Junction–Framingham service ended in September 1930. The line was cut back to Framingham on January 15, 1931, as paving of the turnpike progressed eastward, with buses replacing the western half. On June 11, 1932, the eastern half of the line was replaced with buses as well.
Exactly. Please go beyond just posting the reference, and state what you learned that is important. And of course ask the next question. Thanks.
Boston & Worcester?
Here's some reading you might not all know:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150818013323/http://web.mit.edu/cron/project/uncertainty/Dowd_Data/Baum_Snow/boston-history.txt
All the lines you mentioned were cross-country streetcar lines with litte or no private-right-of-way, just road-side or on-street/road trackage, except when passing through parks (like the Stoneham Line), and their fare-collection was flat-fare with zones. Streetcars were the equipment. Missing from your list is the one true interurban, with typical wood railroad-roof interrban cars, largely initially on its own PRW, and distance-based conventional ticketing. Boston was in its name.
Eastern Mass lines to and from the north via the Chelsie Bridge stopped running om the surface to Harmarket Square long before their conversion to bus in 1935. The Elevated's removal of the surface tracks meant all ran to the Brattle Street Loop in the Subway.
There are several Boston lines that sort of match your description, as nearly all Boston "interurban" lines were either converted to bus or abandoned outright in the 1930s. The lines north to Lynn and Salem were broken by the rebuilding of the Chelsea Street Bridge in 1935, which also affected many local lines that formerly entered the Subway. The longer distance lines ran on the surface to the Haymarket using Eastern Mass Street Railway equipment - much of which were Laconia-built semi-convertibles. Buses started as shuttles but were quickly converted by sectionsy. EMSRy sold some lines to the MTA in 1935, the Stoneham line (from Sullivan Square) remained EMSRy even after converted to bus in 1947
Seashore Trolley Musem car 4387 (in active use) is similar in design to many EMSRy cars, though controls aumd motors differed between classes.
Roosevelt Road was unique in other ways, as well. The original line ended on Michigan Avenue, but was extended on a bridge (or trestle or viaduct if you wish to call it) through the large trasinshed of Central Station to Grant Park, daylighted when the trainshed was replaced by platform canopies. And the Michigan Avenue - Grant Park section remained as a shuttle after the rest of the line went bus and then trolleybus, with the track connection left in place to State Street(?). Finally, a former Chicago Motorcuach route was extended to replace this shuttle. This is all from memory, and corrections are welcome.
Boston had one imoortant line that did not radically lose patronage in the '30s, and served an important and growing commuter function. Its conversion to bus operation was forced on it, and the line did not go bus all-at-once. It never entered the subway but did share tracks with lines that did. It was not in operation at the start of WWII.
Give its history, route, downtown Boston end-point, and describe the equipment type(s) used.
While C&SC and Southern Street were not assigned new cars, new buses were assigned to them from the outset. Trolley buses were all assigned to CRys.
Daveklepper, it's your question.
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