APRIL 20, 1866
At a meeting of representatives of several railroads, the first set of rules for governing the interchange of freight cars was adopted. The rules established common colors, reporting marks, and repair arrangements.
APRIL 20, 1932
The first completely air-conditioned sleeping car train begins operation on the Baltimore & Ohio.
APRIL 20, 1948
New York City hikes the subway fare from 5 cents to 10 cents.
APRIL, 20, 1964
The Alaska Railroad restores freight service to Whittier following the Alaskan earthquake of 1964.
APRIL 20, 1983
Dedication of a new rail barge doubles the Canadian National's Aqua-Train rail capacity to Alaska from Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
CANADIANPACIFIC2816
APRIL 19, 1891
Two trains, because of an engineer's faulty timepiece, collided near Cleveland, Ohio with 9 casualties. Following the disaster, a commission was appointed to adopt a universal set of timekeeping standards by ALL railroads. Precision was now needed in this enormous industry. By 1893, the GENERAL RAILROAD TIMEPIECE STANDARDS were in effect. Watches that fit this description became known as Railroad Watches.
APRIL 19, 1940
30 people were killed in a train accident at Little Falls, New York.
APRIL, 19, 1964
Southern Pacific's Golden State and Sunset were consolidated into a single train running between El Paso and Los Angeles.
APRIL 18, 1934
The stainless steel streamliner Pioneer Zephyr of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the first train of this type to use diesel power and the first to be placed in scheduled passenger service, is delivered by the manufacturer at Philadelphia.
APRIL 18, 1977
In Canada, the Hall Commission Report on Grain Handling and Transportation is published. This recommends limited branch line abandonment on the Canadian prairies.
APRIL 18, 1991
The United States Congress ends a railroad workers strike, one day after it had begun.
APRIL 17, 1893
In the Canadian province of Ontario, the world's largest block of cheese was shipped from Perth as Canada's entry for the dairy exhibit at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois. This 22,000 lb. monster, measuring 6 feet in height and 8 3/4 feet in diameter, was made in a section of the Canadian Pacific freight shed in Perth. The cheese, along with a special horse drawn wagon designed to haul the cheese, was loaded in the Perth station yard on Saturday 4/15 and placed on show before being shipped. At every station at which the train stopped, the people crowded on the flat car the cheese was on and wrote their names on the box. By the time it reached Chicago there were 200,000 signatures and not a square inch of space left.
APRIL 17, 1934
M.C. LaBertew is made Superintendent of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway.
APRIL 17, 1991
Railroad workers go on strike in the U.S. Congress ends the strike the next day.
APRIL 16, 1856
East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company incorporated.
APRIL 16, 1954
Fairbanks-Morris introduces it's first high-horsepower road switcher, the 2400 hp. Train Master.
APRIL 15, 1954
Patrick McGinnis wins control of the New Haven from Buck Dumaine.
April 15, 1912
RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic. One of the victims is Charles Melville Hayes, president of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada.
April 14, 1865
Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theater.
APRIL 14, 1920
U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer charges that an illegal railroad strike is part of an international Communist conspiracy, fomented by the I.W.W.
APRIL 14, 1960
Final runs of the longest motor-car run in the U.S., Gulf, Mobile & Ohio's 362 mile run from Kansas City to Bloomington, Illinois.
APRIL 14, 1983
Mudslides cover the D&RW 's mainline at Thistle, Utah, forcing the Rio Grande Zephyr to use Union Pacific's mainline to return from Salt Lake City to Denver.
APRIL 14, 1986
MidSouth Rail buys Gulf & Mississippi.
APRIL 13, 1846
The Pennsylvania state legislature passes an act incorporating the Pennsylvania Railroad.
APRIL 13, 1869
George Westinghouse receives patent #88,929 for the improvement in steam power brake devices. The Westinghouse Air Brake was the first commercially successful application of air brakes and made faster, longer trains possible.
APRIL 13, 1910
The Pennsylvania Railroad begins running trains through Manhattan's tunnels.
APRIL 12, 1831
Construction begins on the first railroad tunnel in the U.S., near Johnstown, Pennsylvania on the Allegheny Portage Railroad.
APRIL 12, 1862
James J. Andrews and 19 disguised Union soldiers steal a locomotive, the GENERAL, at Big Shanty, Georgia as part of a daring but unsuccessful, attempt to disrupt rail traffic between Atlanta and Chattanooga. An 87 mile chase ended when the General ran out of fuel, and the raiders were captured by the Confederates.
APRIL 12, 1987
The first excursion for Pennsylvania Railroad K4 4-6-2 #1361 takes place out of Altoona, Pennsylvania.
APRIL 11, 1862
Union Troops occupy Huntsville, Alabama, severing the Memphis & Charleston Railway, and cutting a vital link to the western theatre for the Confederacy.
APRIL 11, 1885
In the Canadian province of Ontario, in Ottawa, the Canadian Pacific Railway carries out a trial of an automatic type of coupler at Union Station on Broad Street. This greatly reduced the danger to the lives and limbs of trainmen who then did not need to go between cars when coupling and uncoupling. This saw the eventual elimination of the link and pin coupling. A trial of a different model was carried out at the Canada Atlantic Railway Station on the 18th of July, 1885.
APRIL 11, 1947
The Sumpter Valley Railway runs it's last scheduled train.
The Denver & Salt Lake Railroad merges with the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad.
APRIL 11, 1964
Earthquake damaged Alaska Railroad restores passenger service between Anchorage and Fairbanks.
APRIL 11, 1969
Auto-Train Corporation incorporated.
APRIL 10, 1869
President Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress designating the common terminus for the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads.
APRIL 10, 1878
California Street Cable car Railroad Company begins service.
APRIL 09, 1851
A 2nd Baltimore & Ohio Railroad station opens in Washington, D.C. at New Jersey Avenue & C Street NW, across from the present-day Teamsters Union Headquarters.
APRIL 09, 1968
Santa Fe terminates the El Pasoans.
APRIL 08, 1961
Pacific Electric's last passenger route (Long Beach) ceases operation.
APRIL 08, 1968
Southern Pacific's Lark makes it's last run.
APRIL 08, 1997
CSX and Norfolk Southern agree on a division of Conrail.
APRIL 7, 1975:
New York City's last electric trolley completed it's final run from Queens to Manhattan.
APRIL 07, 1871
The Illinois Railroad Act creates a commission to fix maximum rates on railroad and warehouse use and forbids discrimination that favors large corporations over small businesses.
APRIL 07, 1920
500,000 (?) railroad workers go on strike, affecting 25 railroads.
APRIL 07, 1932
Great Northern opens it's line from Bend, Oregon to Bieber, California.
APRIL 07, 1947
The Edaville Railroad opens two foot gauge railroad to tourists.
APRIL 07, 1989
The Chicago, Southshore & Southbend Railroad declares bankruptcy.
APRIL 07, 1991
Amtrak moves from New York's Grand Central Terminal to Penn Station, consolidating, Amtrak operations in New York City.
APRIL 06, 1898
The Astoria & Columbia River Railroad makes it's last run.
APRIL 06, 1956
The East Broad Top Railroad runs it's last revenue freight train.
APRIL 06, 1964
Earthquake damaged Alaska Railroad restores freight service between Anchorage and Fairbanks.
APRIL 06, 1988
Amtrak's Auto Train makes it's first run.
APRIL 05, 1995
Canadian National Railway opens the new 6,130 foot St. Clair tunnel which replaces the 104 year old tunnel beneath the St. Clair River between Port Hurn, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario.
APRIL 04, 1895
The Astoria & Columbia River Railroad (A&CR) was organized.
APRIL 04, 1976
Amtrak takes delivery from EMD of the first of 414 F40PH's.
APRIL 04, 1993
The Sunset Limited becomes the first true coast-to-coast transcontinental train when it's route is extended from New Orleans to Jacksonville and Miami, Florida.
APRIL 03, 1883
Humphrey H. Reynolds was the first black inventor to patent an improved window ventilator for railroad passenger cars. His invention was adopted on all Pullman cars, but as an employee he received no payment from the Pullman Company. Reynolds quit his job as a porter and successfully sued Pullman for $10,000.
APRIL 03, 1900
The Vanderbilts take over the Reading, Lehigh Valley and Erie railroads.
APRIL 03, 1972
The Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad files for bankruptcy.
APRIL 02, 1834
The first train to run on a state owned railroad, was the Philadelphia & Columbia Railway.
APRIL 02, 1860
In the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, passengers could now travel between Windsor and Halifax, on the Nova Scotia Railway, twice a day. The morning westbound train departed Richmond (Halifax) at 8:00 a.m. and arrived at Windsor at 11:00 a.m. The morning eastbound train departed Windsor at 8:20 a.m. and arrived in Richmond at 11:15 a.m. These two trains passed each other at Mount Uniacke; this was (still is) a single-track line, and trains going in the opposite directions could (and can) pass each other only where a siding is available. The afternoon westbound train departed Richmond (Halifiax) at 2:30 pm and arrived in Windsor at 5:30 pm; the afternoon eastbound train departed Windsor at 3:00 pm and arrived in Richmond at 6:00 pm; these two trains also crossed at Mount Uniacke. The end-to-end fare, one way, was $1.35 first class, and 87 1/2 cents second class. A resident of Windsor could now go to Halifax in the morning, have a clear three hours in the city to conduct business or fulfill appointments, and return to Windsor the same day. A resident of Halifax could now travel to Windsor in the morning, have nearly four hours to conduct business there, and return to Halifax the same day.
APRIL 02, 1917
Gales Creek & Wilson River Railroad incorporated.
APRIL 02, 1933
Canadian National and Canadian Pacific pool certain passenger services as a result of the Canadian National/Canadian Pacific act of 1933.
APRIL 02, 1955
In the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, the first day of regular operation of Route 11 of the electric trolley coach system across the MacDonald Bridge between Halifax and Dartmouth. In twenty years the population of Dartmouth nearly tripled, from 15,000 in 1951 to 50,000 in 1971. During the first month of operation, Route 11 carried 74,700 passengers; by August 1955 it was carrying passengers at the rate of more than one million a year. Nova Scotia Light & Power Company, which owned and operated the trolley coaches, paid an annual fee of $5000.00 to the Bridge Commission in lieu of paying tolls individually each time time a trolley coach crossed the span.
April 01, 1857
The first southern link from the Atlantic Ocean to Mississippi River (Charleston to Memphis) is completed.
April 01, 1932
Oregon Electric's Holley Branch opens.
April 01, 1946
A tsunami destroys a portion of the Oahu Railway.
April 01, 1947
E.B. Stanton replaces T.F. Dixon as Vice-President and General Manager of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway.
The 190 mile, Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern makes it's last run.
April 01, 1949
Newfoundland becomes the tenth province of Canada and the Newfoundland Railway becomes part of the Canadian National system. This narrow gauge system had been operated by the island government since 1923.
April 01, 1961
Canadian National is authorized to abandon the Locksley subdivision, between m. 0.3, Golden Lake, and m. 19.5, Pembroke in the province of Ontario.
April 01, 1968
Canadian Pacific's yard office, roundhouse and water tank at Ottawa West in the Canadian province of Ontario are demolished.
April 01, 1972
The Pacific Great Eastern Railway changes it's name to British Columbia Railway.
April 01, 1976
Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) is formed. Conrail took over the operations of six bankrupt railroads; Central Railroad of New Jersey, Erie Lackawanna, Lehigh & Hudson River, Lehigh Valley, Penn Central and Reading plus the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. In doing so, Conrail acquired 15,000 miles of track, 3800 locomotives, 140,000 cars and 103,000 employees.
April 01, 1979
VIA Rail Canada assumes financial responsibility for passenger service formerly by the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian National railroads.
April 01, 1996
The last train traverses the full length of the former Canada Southern Line between Detroit and Buffalo.
March 31, 1862
The "Oregon Pony" becomes the first locomotive in the Pacific Northwest.
March 31, 1941
In the Canadian province of Ontario, there was a serious accident on the Canadian Pacific Railway at Inkerman, milepost 91.1 on the Winchester subdivision which resulted in at least one death. The report or details of this accident are too lengthy to reproduce here.
March 31, 1946
First regular through sleeping-car service from the Atlantic to Pacific coasts.
March 31, 1963
Streetcar service in Los Angeles comes to an end after 90 years.
March 31, 1980
The 7500 mile Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific ceases operations, becoming the largest railroad abandonment in the United States.
March 31, 1986
Illinois Central Gulf sells 403 miles of track from Meridian, Mississippi to Shreveport, Louisiana to Midsouth Rail Corporation.
March 30, 1883
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway reaches Salt Lake City.
March 30, 1908
Columbia Railway & Navigation Company (CR&N) is purchased by the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway.
March 30, 1954
Canada's first subway line opens in Toronto.
March 29, 1839
The Railway Express Agency was established.
March 29, 1916
28 people were killed in a train accident at Amherst, Ohio.
March 29, 1922
Rail Uniion asks President Harding to abolish the U.S. Labor Board.
March 29, 1924
In Washington, D.C. the C&O Canal finally ceases operating after another of many floods (the 5th) causes extensive damage. The canal had been owned for many years by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, keeping other would-be competitors (the Western Maryland Railway) from the property. The B&O keeps the canal serviceable though mostly dry until the 1936 floods and then sells the entire 184.7 mile long canal, Georgetown, DC to Cumberland, Maryland to the U.S. Park Service in October of 1938 for $2,000.00.
March 29, 1957
The New York, Ontario & Western Railroad is abandoned. at that time, it was the largest railroad abandonment in the United States (541 miles).
March 29, 2005
In Cornwall, Ontario, Canada on the Ottawa division of the New York Central, a Cornwall citizen managed to steal a small section of rail, tie plates, spikes and anchors on an abandoned portion of Canadian National's Cornwall spur (the subject part is between the old CNR/CPR diamond and McConnell Avenue. His objective was to sell the steel for cash, but the police arrested him for theft.
March 28, 1907
A misplaced switch causes the derailment of a Southern Pacific train at Colton, California, killing 22 people.
March 28, 1975
The American Freedom Train departs Washington, D.C. behind ex-Reading 4-8-4 #2101 and begins a two year, 17,000 mile tour.
March 28, 1980
The last train is operated on the former Rock Island track from Amarillo, Texas to Tucumcari, New Mexico.
March 27, 1857
The Memphis & Charleston Railroad completes it's 271 mile line from Memphis, Tennessee to Stevenson, Alabama.
March 27, 1887
The Treaty of Boston agreement was reached between the Denver & Rio Grande, The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, and the Union Pacific railroads. The D&RG agreed to not to build south of Espanola, New Mexico, the AT&SF was not to enter Denver or Leadville, Colorado for ten years and the Union Pacific agreed to stay out of the Colorado Rockies.
March 27, 1938
The Santa Fe begins San Diegan service between San Diego and Los Angeles, California.
March 27, 1953
21 people were killed in a train accident at Conneaut, Ohio.
March 27, 1960
Grand Trunk Western ran it's last officially scheduled steam powered passenger train.
March 27, 1964
An earthquake in Alaska results in an estimated $30 million in damage to the Alaska Railroad.
March 27, 1976
In Washington, D.C., the first 4.6 miles of the Washington Metro Subway opens. Brentwood Shops of Metro largely took over the former Eckington coach yards of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Ivy City.
March 26, 1884
High winds push eight coal cars for 100 miles on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad east of Denver.
March 26, 1891
Rogers Locomotive Works rolls out ten-wheeler #4493 which eventually becomes Sierra Railroad #3. Starting with the Virginian with Gary Cooper. Sierra Railroad #3 becomes the most photographed locomotive in the world. Other movie appearances include Dodge City, High Noon, Duel in the Sun, and Back to the Future III. It also had many TV appearances including The Lone Ranger, Rawhide, Bonanza, Petticoat Junction, Gunsmoke and Little House on the Prairie.
March 26, 1985
In the Canadian province of Ontario, Canadian National abandons the Smiths Falls subdivision between Smiths Falls and Strathcona.
March 26, 1987
Norfolk Southern fires up former Norfolk & Western 2-6-6-4 #1218.
March 25, 1901
25 people die as a Rock Island train derailed near Marshalltown, Iowa.
March 25, 1961
The Tallulah Falls Railway, which was used as a setting in the 1950 film, "I'd Climb the Highest Mountain", and in 1960 by Disney for "The Geat Locomotive Chase" ceases operation.
March 25, 1986
Conrail goes public at $28.00 per share.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.