From Arcamax History & Quotes:
September 12
In 2008, Twenty-five people were killed and more than 130 injured when a commuter train ran through a stop signal near Chatsworth, Calif., and slammed into an oncoming freight train. Federal officials confirmed the commuter engineer, who was killed, had been using his cell phone for text messaging shortly before the crash.
August 25, 1877
Joshua Lionel Cowan, inventor of the electric toy train, was born.
NOTE: If anyone has anything to add to this thread, PLEASE feel free to add it!
August 9th:
In 2001, about 250 people were killed in a train wreck in Albania, caused by a mine set on the tracks by rebels.
From WHAS11.com's Today in History:
1885America's first commercially operated electric streetcar began operation in Baltimore.
From WHAS 11's Today in History:
August 8, 1963
Britain's "Great Train Robbery" took place as thieves made off with 2.6 million pounds in banknotes from a train they stopped north of London.
AUGUST 01 1836 Tuscumbia, Courtland & Decatur Railroad decides to uses sandboxes on locomotives to prevent them from slipping on squashed grasshoppers. AUGUST 01 1873 Andrew Hallidie demonstrates practical cable car system on Clay Street Hill in San Francisco.
JULY 31 1809 First practical US railroad, horse-drawn cars on wooden track, Philadelphia. JULY 31 1847 Monon Route chartered. JULY 31 1851 The 5'6 gauge, broad gauge, is adopted as the standard gauge for Ontario and Quebec. The broad gauge was used until about 1870. JULY 31 1940 43 killed in train accident at Cuyahoga Falls, OH. JULY 31 1956 Great Northern ends Cascade electrification. JULY 31 1971 Monon merged into Louisville & Nashville.
Okay, thanks Carl!
Keep in mind that in 1902 the "largest" locomotive might be a Consolidation or a Decapod, or something like that. There might have been plenty, but some railroad probably had one that was heavier. No idea.
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)
JULY 30 1902 The largest locomotive in the world is wrecked at Denver, Colorado. Does anyone have any more info on this? Carl?!?!?! Paul?!?!?! Anyone???
JULY 29 1906 45 are killed when the Pacific Express plunges into the Hudson River. JULY 29 1962 19 die in a train crash at Steelton, Pennsylvania.
JULY 28 1871 Tracklaying for the Denver & Rio Grande Railway begins in Denver.
JULY 27 1844 Long Island Railroad opens first section of track to Greenport. JULY 27 1959 First revenue train on Southern Pacific's Great Salt Lake Fill.
JULY 26 1847 Moses Garrish Farmer builds First miniature train for children to ride. JULY 26 1877 Railroad strike expands from coast to coast, becoming the first nationwide strike against the railroads. JULY 26 1884 The East Cleveland Street Railway becomes the first electric streetcars as it begins operations in Cleveland, Ohio. JULY 26 1972 Erie Lackawanna declares bankruptcy.
JULY 25 1832 A cable chain breaks while demonstrating Granite Railway's incline to several visitors resulting in the first railroad fatality. JULY 25 1922 President Harding orders federal rail and coal controls to ensure distribution of food and fuel. JULY 25 1953 First use of subway tokens in New York City. JULY 25 1967 Construction begins on San Francisco's Market Street subway.
In 1832, one man was killed and three others injured in the first recorded railroad accident in U.S. history. The four were thrown from an otherwise vacant car on the Granite Railway near Quincy, Mass.
Folk singer/songwriter Steve Goodman born in 1948.
JULY 24 1870 The first railroad car to travel from the Pacific to Atlantic coasts, arrive in New York. JULY 24 1877 Patent # 193,357 issued to Joel Tiffany for the first really successful refrigerated car design. JULY 24 1986 ICC rejects merger of Southern Pacific Railroad and Santa Fe Railway.
JULY 23 1877 Passenger service begins on the first municipal railroad in the U.S., the Cincinnati Southern, between Cincinnati, Ohio and Ludlow and Somerset, Kentucky. JULY 23 1945 Vista-dome cars introduced to service on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad between Chicago and Minneapolis on the Twin Cities Zephyr. JULY 23 1959 Last regular Union Pacific revenue freight run to use steam. UP 4-6-6-4 #3713 to Cheyenne Wyoming. JULY 23 1963 Last run for the Chicago & Northwestern Twin Cities 400. JULY 23 1966 New York Central tests jet-powered RDC in Ohio.
JULY 22 1906 Chicago's last cable car route, the State Street Line, end operation. JULY 22 1909 Construction begins on the Oregon Trunk
JULY 21 1836 The first steam railroad in Canada, the Champlain and Saint Lawrence Railroad opens from Laprarie on the St. Lawrence River to St. John on the Richelieu River (16.5 miles). JULY 21 1873 Jesse James and his gang hold up their first train, a Rock Island express at Adair, Iowa and escapes with $3,000. The train's engineer is killed when the train is derailed prior to the robbery. JULY 21 1877 After a violent clash between railroad strikers and State troops in Pittsburgh, a battle and riot ensues in which 2000 freight cars are burned and $10,000,000 in railroad property is destroyed. JULY 21 1898 Alaska's first railroad, the narrow gauge White Pass & Yukon Railway, opens. JULY 21 1952 Earthquake forces closure of Southern Pacific mainline at Tehachapi, California for 25 days.
JULY 20 1877 Nine strikers are killed and several wounded in Baltimore by state militia which was trying to prevent a crowd from reaching the railroad station. 50 more people are killed in four days of rioting. JULY 20 1894 Federal troops are withdrawn from Chicago as the power of the Pullman Strikers is broken. JULY 20 1907 33 killed in train accident at Salem, MI. JULY 20 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair opens.
JULY 19 1860 First railroad reaches Kansas. JULY 19 1967 First air-conditioned New York City subway car. JULY 19 1968 Santa Fe discontinues Dallas connection of the Texas Chief. JULY 19 1987 Red River Valley & Western begins operation over 667 miles of ex-Burlington Northern trackage in North Dakota.
JULY 18 1846 First international trains between the U.S. and Canada run from Portland, Maine to Montreal on the Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad. JULY 18 1858 The Pennsylvania Railroad introduces the smoking car on its first through run from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. JULY 18 1959 Last steam run on the Nickel Plate. JULY 18 1968 Last Santa Fe California Special trips.
JULY 17 1856 Sunday school excursion train collision kills 60, including 46 children, near Philadelphia, PA. JULY 17 1879 First railroad opens in Hawaii. JULY 17 1966 Last Chicago, Burlington & Quincy steam excursion.
JULY 16 1877 Violence erupts in Martinsburg, West Virginia as striking railroad workers derail a train and seize railroad property. The local militia refuses to shoot at the strikers, but President Hayes orders the men back to work and sends in Federal Troops to break the strike. JULY 16 1939 The first rack-rail diesel-electric locomotive is placed into service on the Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway, the world's highest cog railroad. JULY 16 1970 Colorado and New Mexico buy 64 miles of track from Alamosa to Chama for $547,120 JULY 16 1983 Amtrak's Chicago to Oakland renamed California Zephyr changes route from the Union Pacific across Wyoming to the Denver & Rio Grande Western through the Colorado Rockies.
JULY 15 1853 Grand Trunk Railway is formed. JULY 15 1864 Troop train loaded with Confederate prisoners collides with coal train killing 65 & injuring 109. JULY 15 1913 American workers attack Japanese railway laborers at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. JULY 15 1923 Golden spike for the Alaska Railroad driven by President Harding at Nenana, Alaska. JULY 15 1983 Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole and Gov. Bill Sheffield sign a report detailing the Alaska Railroad's property, assets and liabilities to be transferred to the state. JULY 15 1985 MLW successor, Bombardier, quits new locomotive business.
JULY 14 1877 The great strike of 1877 begins with a walkout by railroad workers of the Baltimore & Ohio RR. The strike speeds across the nation Railroad unions protest a 10% pay cut and demand better working conditions. JULY 14 1943 Canadian National opens Montreal Central Terminal. JULY 14 1947 F-3 #800 enters service on streamlined trains Nos. 1 & 2 (SP&S Ry.) JULY 14 1959 Last steam run on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
JULY 13 1836 Patent # 1 issued to Senator John Ruggles of Maine for a locomotive designed to give multiplied tractive power to the locomotive and to prevent the evil of the sliding of the wheels. This was the first numbered patent issued under the Patent Act of 1836. Previously issued patents were not numbered.
JULY 11 1923 The Pennsylvania Railroad tests the first continuous locomotive cab signals. JULY 11 1967 Canadian Pacific runs Canada's first unit train. JULY 11 1967 Southern Pacific opens Palmdale cutoff.
From WHAS11.com Newsletter:
July 11, 2006
Eight bombs hit the commuter network during the evening rush hour in Mumbai, India, killing more than 200 people.
JULY 07 1862 First Railway Post Office established on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad.
In 2005, terrorists struck the London transit system setting off explosions in three subway cars and a double-decker bus in a coordinated rush-hour arrack. Fifty-two people were killed and more than 700 injured.
JULY 06 1875 Jesse James robs train at Otterville, Missouri. JULY 06 1881 15 year old Kate Shelby crawls across a flood damaged bridge 50 feet above the Des Moines River to reach a telegraph office in Moingona, Iowa a mile and a half away in time to warn an approaching Northwestern train. JULY 06 1894 Two railroad strikers are killed and several wounded by troops near Chicago. JULY 06 1944 35 killed in train accident at High Bluff, TN. JULY 06 1961 New Haven files for bankruptcy.
JULY 05 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs National Labor Relations Act of 1935 which guarantees labor's right to collective bargaining. JULY 05 1989 Santa Fe paints Super Fleet FP45's red and silver.
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