Chapter
NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Rivanna
Chapter
Charlottesville, Virginia
This Month in Railroad History
* August *
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.
AUGUST 02 1873
First trial run of San Francisco cable car, Clay Street between
Kearny & Jones.
AUGUST 02 1919
Railroad workers strike for higher wages, ask for profit sharing
and government ownership.
AUGUST 02 1924
SP&S Transportation Co. incorporated (motor buses)
AUGUST 02 1965
Florida East Coast resumes state-ordered passenger service.
AUGUST 03 1894
The Pullman strike is broken after tragic loss of life and an
estimated $80,000,000 loss in property and wages.
AUGUST 03 1967
James Law rides entire New York City subway in 22 hrs 12 minutes.
AUGUST 04 1885
Electric locomotives introduced on the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad to carry trains through the 3.6 mile Baltimore Tunnel.
AUGUST 04 1944
47 killed in train accident near Stockton, GA.
AUGUST 04 1965
Milwaukee Road opens new depot in Milwaukee.
AUGUST 05 1914
40 killed in train accident at Tipton Ford, MO.
AUGUST 05 1922
Railroad union leaders meet with President Harding and demand
restoration of seniority and right to strike.
AUGUST 06 1867
A group of Cheyenne braves derail a Union Pacific train near Plum
Creek, Nebraska.
AUGUST 06 1922
40 killed in train accident at Sulpher Springs, MO.
AUGUST 07 1904
76 people are killed when a flood damaged bridge near Pueblo,
Colorado collapses beneath the St. Louis bound World's Fair
Flyer.
AUGUST 07 1975
Amfleet cars enter service on Amtrak.
AUGUST 08 1829
The Stonebridge Lion becomes the first English steam locomotive
to travel on a track in America between Carbondale and Honesdale,
PA on the Delaware & Hudson. It was found to be too heavy for
the track and was converted to stationary use soon afterward and
the D&H resumes using horses to pull its trains.
AUGUST 08 1865
Patent #49,227 issued to Samual Calthrop for a streamlined train.
AUGUST 09 1831
The DeWitt Clinton becomes the first train operated in New York
State on the Mohawk and Western Railroad from Albany to
Schenectady.
AUGUST 09 1893
Rudolf Diesel receives patent # 608,845 for the diesel engine.
AUGUST 09 1904
Floodwaters wash bridge out from beneath a Missouri Pacific
Express, killing 96.
AUGUST 09 1945
34 are killed when the second section of Great Northern's Empire
Builder rear ends the first section which had stopped for a
hot-box at Michigan, ND.
AUGUST 09 1988
Rio Grande Industries buys Southern Pacific for $1.8 billion.
AUGUST 10 1885
The Baltimore & Hampden Line becomes the first commercial
electric railroad.
AUGUST 10 1887
81 people are killed and hundreds injured at Chatsworth, IL when
a burning bridge collapses under the weight of a crossing train.
AUGUST 10 1972
The Illinois Central and Gulf, Mobile & Ohio merge to form
the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad.
AUGUST 10 1973
First BART train travels through trans-bay tube to Montgomery
Street Station.
AUGUST 11 1955
Last Wabash steam locomotive in use, #573, is retired at the St.
Louis Museum of Transportation.
AUGUST 12 1988
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (Katy) operations taken over by
the Union Pacific Railroad.
AUGUST 13 1939
24 killed in train accident at Carlin, NV.
AUGUST 13 1960
East Broad Top Railroad reopened as a tourist railroad.
AUGUST 13 1965
Pacific Electric Railway merges with parent Southern Pacific
Railroad.
AUGUST 14 1900
Railroad tycoon Collis P. Huntington dies.
AUGUST 15 1863
Submarine HL Hunley arrives in Charleston on railroad cars.
AUGUST 15 1870
The Kansas Pacific Railroad reaches Denver.
AUGUST 15 1947
Rock Island completes $15 million, five-site Iowa relocation
projects.
AUGUST 16 1851
International rail service opens from Laprarie, Quebec to Rouses
Point, New York.
AUGUST 17 1897
W B Purvis patents electric railway switch.
AUGUST 18 1883
Canadian Pacific Railway reaches Calgary.
AUGUST 19 1916
President Wilson demands railroads grant 8 hour workday.
AUGUST 19 1964
No. 2 collides with log truck near Stevenson, WA (SP&S Ry.)
AUGUST 20 1852
The first steam engine to operate west of the Mississippi River,
The Pacific of the Pacific of Missouri RR, was delivered at the
Pine Street Wharf by river barge.
AUGUST 20 1894
First Heisler-type locomotive completed by Stearns Manufacturing
Co. in Erie, Pennsylvania.
AUGUST 21 1935
Union Pacific's Challenger begins service as the second section
of the Los Angeles Limited.
AUGUST 22 1905
Portland & Seattle Ry. (P&S) incorporated
AUGUST 22 1910
The first passenger train to run over the entire line of the
Western Pacific Railroad arrives in San Francisco from Salt Lake
City.
AUGUST 22 1935
B & O places first diesel locomotives to haul long distance
passenger trains into service.
AUGUST 22 1968
Last use of steam on the Magma Arizona Railroad.
AUGUST 23 1882
First Canadian Pacific Railway train arrives at Regina,
Saskatchewan.
AUGUST 24 1835
The B & O opens line to Washington, D.C.
AUGUST 24 1905
Portland & Seattle Ry. Trustees meet for the first time; J.C.
Flanders elected first President
AUGUST 24 1920
Pacific & Eastern Railway sold
AUGUST 24 1945
Last run on the Yosemite Valley Railroad.
AUGUST 24 1946
Boston & Maine replaces Hoosac Tunnel electrification with
diesels.
AUGUST 25 1829
The locomotive, Tom Thumb, races with a horse drawn train, but
loses when the engine breaks down.
AUGUST 25 1911
27 killed in train accident at Manchester, NY.
AUGUST 25 1943
Last narrow gauge train on the Denver, South Park & Pacific
Railroad.
AUGUST 25 1970
The Mobile & Gulf ends the last U.S. common carrier steam
operation.
AUGUST 26 1878
The 3rd Avenue El in New York City opens. Of Manhattans elevated
railroads the 3rd Avenue El remained in service the longest,
running for nearly 80 years.
AUGUST 27 1867
First patent for a railroad crossing gate issued to J. Nason and
J.F. Wilson of Boston.
AUGUST 27 1928
16 die in a New York City subway's second worst accident.
AUGUST 27 1946
Last Pennsylvania Railroad T1 enters service.
AUGUST 27 1957
Last steam operations on the Santa Fe.
AUGUST 28 1830
Peter Cooper's Tom Thumb locomotive pushes an open car carrying
18 people along a 14-mile stretch of Baltimore & Ohio track.
AUGUST 28 1864
First Post Office car for sorting and distributing mail in route
put into service by Chicago & Northwestern Railroad.
AUGUST 28 1894
The first manganese steel for railroad tracks is manufactured in
High Bridge, NJ.
AUGUST 29 1866
First public demonstration of the world's first Cog railroad, the
Mount Washington Cog Railway, on a half-mile section at the base
of Mount Washington.
AUGUST 29 1943
29 killed in train accident at Wayland, NY.
AUGUST 29 1979
Bangor & Aroostock ends potato hauling business.
AUGUST 30 1830
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad discontinues use of horse drawn
trains in favor of steam locomotives.
AUGUST 31 1831
The John Bull, the oldest operable steam engine in the US, was
delivered to the Camden & Amboy RR.
AUGUST 31 1948
Sumpter Valley Railway abandoned.
AUGUST 31 1964
Duluth & Northeastern dieselizes.
Select historical events courtesy of RailwayStation.com
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