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)
In 2004, 10 bombs exploded almost simultaneously on four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and injuring 1,400.
- Leland Stanford, railroad builder and founder of California's Stanford University, in 1824
- Industrialist George Pullman, inventor of the railway sleeping car, was born in 1831
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.
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
From Arcamax History & Quotes for February 28th:
1. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered.
2. In 1992, a bomb blamed on the IRA ripped through a London railway station, injuring at least 30 people and shutting down the British capitol's rail and subway system.
n 2003, around 200 people died in a South Korea subway fire set by a man authorities say apparently was upset at his doctors.
Arizona, February 16th:
In 1890, a midnight battle developed at the Red Rock, Arizona, railroad station when a band of tramps attempted to capture the Southern Pacific fast freight.
In 1913, the first train to serve Fort Huachuca arrived at the Fort at 4:35 p.m. on the El Paso and Southwestern line.
Arizona, February 15th:
In 1900, five masked robbers held up the Southern Pacific passenger train at Fairbank. Jeff Milton, the express messenger, was wounded but managed to fight off the robbers and mortally wound "Three Finger" Jack.
NOTE: Fairbank is now a ghost town along the San Pedro River in Cochise County. In 1900 it was a thriving silver mining boom town.
In 2010, two trains collided head-on in snowy weather during rush hour near Brussels, killing at least 18 people and injuring 55 others.
Deggesty Semper Vaporo You've mixed your lyrics... Similar wording and similar tune, but different songs. "Stroll into the diner / Nothing could be finer..." is from "Chattanooga Choo-Choo", by Mark Gordon and Harry Warden. 1941 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chattanooga_Choo_Choo) "Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina" is from "Carolina in the Morning" by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson. 1922 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_in_the_Morning) No, I did not mix the lyrics; I am fully aware that they are two different songs; it seemed appropriate to me to present part of the state song of North Carolina along with the discussion of breakfast in Carolina. Even growing up in South Carolina, I was aware of the Old North State's song. And, I am somewhat familiar with the music of Glenn Miller, and knew that his band played "Chattanooga Choo Choo;" I could listen to his music all day long.
Semper Vaporo You've mixed your lyrics... Similar wording and similar tune, but different songs. "Stroll into the diner / Nothing could be finer..." is from "Chattanooga Choo-Choo", by Mark Gordon and Harry Warden. 1941 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chattanooga_Choo_Choo) "Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina" is from "Carolina in the Morning" by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson. 1922 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_in_the_Morning)
You've mixed your lyrics... Similar wording and similar tune, but different songs.
"Stroll into the diner / Nothing could be finer..." is from "Chattanooga Choo-Choo", by Mark Gordon and Harry Warden. 1941 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chattanooga_Choo_Choo)
"Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina" is from "Carolina in the Morning" by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson. 1922 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_in_the_Morning)
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Johnny
And then there is Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash.
Deggesty I'm sorry that I cannot give you the melody.
Johnny,
"Ham and eggs" goes well with the song. My favorite train breakfast was on the Southern Crescent -- eggs, bacon, grits and biscuits -- eaten as you cross lake Ponchartrain. Unfortunately the Amtak Crescent doen't do grits or biscuits. However, the coffee is not bad.
Perhaps you could stop by my house and sing a few bars.
With best wishes, John
John WR Johnny, Did any of these trains run through either or both of the Carolinas in the early morning? "Stroll into the dinner / Nothing could be finer / Than to have your ham and eggs in Carolina....." John
Did any of these trains run through either or both of the Carolinas in the early morning?
"Stroll into the dinner / Nothing could be finer / Than to have your ham and eggs in Carolina....."
"Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning; nothing could be sweeter than your sweetie when you greet her in the morning....If I had an Aladdin's lamp for only a day, I'd make a wish and here's what I'd say, 'Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning.'" I'm sorry that I cannot give you the melody.
PS. I would think that I guy who has his "fare and a trifle to spare" would most likely travel in a coach rather than a pullman car. I suppose though he may have had a few buck for a berth in an open sleeper.
John, I know of no train that ran just between New York City and Chattanooga. However, there were three trains that carried through Pullmans from New York through Chattanooga. The Tenneesean,which was a Washington-Memphis train (SOU DC-Monroe, N&W Monroe-Bristol, and SOU Bristol-Memphis), was one. A second one was the Birmingham Special, which was a Washington-Birmingham train which ran through Chattanooga (originally, it ran through Atlanta, and, for a time did not go into the Terminal Station), and the Pelican, which was a Washington-New Orleans train, which ran through Chattanooga and Birmingham. The trains ran over SOU rails between Monroe and Lynchburg, where they then changed to N&W rails, but the engines were changed in Monroe, which was a SOU division point. I am not positive that the train crews changed in Monroe; I should have asked the dining car steward, with whom I had a good conversation, when I rode the Birmingham Special from Washington to Bristol in 1968.
In the movie, the train is shown entering Tennessee out in the country, which it could have done only if it went through Asheville, for the station in Bristol is right on the state line, and there are several tracks crossing the street. I may remember to count them when I am in Bristol this April (college reunion).
Cherokee Woman,
Was there actually a train from New York to Chattanooga?
In 1941, Glenn Miller's Chattanooga Choo Choo was awarded the first gold record, given for sales of 1 million copies.
February 1, 1968. The New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads merge to form the Penn Central. The merger would not succeed and would only lead to bankruptcy of the whole system including the New Haven which the Penn Central acquired in 1969. To maintain their passenger service President Richard Nixon would sign the law creating Amtrak.
Arizona, January 28th:
In 1887, the first train robbery in Arizona history took place when two masked men took $20,000 from the Southern Pacific passenger train 17 miles east of Tucson.
January 24, 1854. Chicago and the east were linked by rail.
Arizona, January 22nd:
In 1903, a head-on collision of the Southern Pacific east and west bound passenger trains at Vail Station (east of Tucson) killed 22 people and injured 45.
1989 New York City subway gunman Bernhard H. Goetz was sentenced to one year in prison for possessing an unlicensed gun that he used to shoot four youths he said were about to rob him.
Was the New Orleans to San Antonio section also complete or was San Antonio reached by some other route?
Arizona, January 12th:
In 1883, the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks were completed so that Tucson could be reached from the East Coast by way of San Antonio, Texas.
From WHAS11.com's Today in History:
1863London's Metropolitan, the world's first underground passenger railway, opened to the public.
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