Chapter
NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Rivanna
Chapter
Charlottesville, Virginia
This Month in Railroad History
* July *
JULY 1
1851 - First refrigerated car in the U.S. carries eight tons
of butter from Ogdensburg, NY to Boston on the Northern New York
Railroad in a wooden boxcar insulated with sawdust.
1862 - Transcontinental railroad from the Missouri River to the
Pacific Ocean authorized by an act signed by President Lincoln.
1868 - New York City's 9th Avenue El, the oldest elevated
railroad in the world, makes its first trial run.
1876 - Boston & Maine Railroad's Hoosac Tunnel opens in
Western Massachusetts. It was the oldest of the long railroad
tunnels still in use at the end of the steam era.
1893 - Through service on the Great Northern's line from the
Great Lakes to Everett, Washington, began.
1894 - Southern Railway Company begins operations.
1901 - Work begins on Pennsylvania Station.
1922 - 400,000 railroad workers go on strike to protest a 12.5%
wage cut ordered by the Railroad Labor Board. The strike lasts
until September 15 when a Federal Judge issued an injunction
banning all strike activities against the railroads.
1962 - Norfolk & Western ends Virginian electrification.
1965 - Last run for Missouri-Kansas-Texas Texas Special
J1968 - Chicago Great Western is taken over by Chicago &
Northwestern.
1988 - Virginia becomes the last state to repeal law requiring
cabooses on all trains.
JULY 02 1867
New York's first el or elevated railroad opens.
JULY 02 1881
President James A. Garfield is shot at a Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad station in Washington, DC. Garfield dies on September
19, 1881.
JULY 02 1894
The U.S. government issues an injunction against railroad
strikers on the grounds that it interferes with interstate
commerce and the postal service. U.S. Attorney General Olney has
a personal interest in the injunction as a former railroad
director and still an attorney for several railroads.
JULY 02 1901
Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid rob train of $40,000 at Wagner
Montana.
JULY 03 1894
President Cleveland sends an army regiment to Chicago to enforce
a court injunction against railroad strikers.
JULY 03 1922
Illinois militia called to combat striking rail workers.
JULY 03 1957
Passenger service ends on Chicago, aurora & Elgin.
JULY 04 1828
Construction of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad begins.
JULY 04 1835
Oldest stone viaduct still in use in the U.S., the B & O's
Thomas Viaduct over the Patapsco River in Maryland, in completed.
JULY 04 1869
First railroad bridge across the Missouri River opened at Kansas
City.
JULY 04 1886
Canada's first scheduled transcontinental passenger train reaches
Pt Moody, BC.
JULY 04 1912
40 killed in train accident at Corning, NY.
JULY 04 1912
Oregon Electric extended from Salem, OR to Albany, OR
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.
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 07 1862
First Railway Post Office established on the Hannibal & St.
Joseph Railroad.
JULY 08 1932
America's largest 2 foot gauge railroad, the Sandy River &
Rangely Lakes Railroad in Maine, ceases operation.
JULY 08 1956
Santa Fe introduces all Hilevel coach for Chicago to Los Angeles
El Capitan.
JULY 09 1905
Special train chartered by Walter Scott (Death Valley Scotty),
departs Los Angeles and makes record run to Chicago in 44 hours,
54 minutes.
JULY 09 1908
Ruth Trust Company incorporated (SP&S Ry.)
JULY 09 1918
Worst railroad accident in U.S. history occurs when two passenger
trains collide near Nashville, Tennessee killing 101.
JULY 10 1862
Construction begins on the Central Pacific Railroad.
JULY 10 1888
In Oregon, the Union Pacific opens first steel bridge on the
Pacific coast.
JULY 10 1894
Eugene Debs is indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for failing to
comply with the government's injunction against the American
Railway Union strike.
JULY 10 1910
The Pacific Coast Extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St
Paul Railroad opens for through passenger service.
JULY 10 1945
Oregon Electric electrified operation discontinued
JULY 10 1985
Illinois Central Gulf sells 757 miles of trackage to the Gulf
& Mississippi.
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.
JULY 12 1831
Baltimore & Ohio tests their locomotive, the York (built by
Phineas Davis, York, Pennsylvania), and place it in service
shortly thereafter.
JULY 12 1902
The New York Central's 20th Century Limited covers a 481 stretch
of it's New York to Chicago run averaging over a mile a minute,
making a 16 hour schedule possible.
JULY 12 1922
Railroad executives refuse to meet with strikers until they
return to work.
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 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 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 1916
22.22 inches of rain fall on Southern Railway's Altapass in 24
hours.
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 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 1916
Floods damage much of the Southern Railway in NC and SC..
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 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 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 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 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 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 closesure of Southern Pacific mainline at
Tehachapi, California for 25 days.
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 23 1877
Passenger service begins on the first municipal railroad in the
U.S., the Cincinnati Southern, between Cincinnati, Ohio and
Ludlow and Sowerset, 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 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 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.
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 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 28 1871
Tracklaying for the Denver & Rio Grande Railway begins in
Denver.
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 30 1902
The largest locomotive in the world is wrecked at Denver,
Colorado.
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.
Select historical events courtesy of RailwayStation.com
and are used with permission. Please visit their website at www.railwaystation.com 
Please use your browser's Back Button to return to the Rivanna Chapter homepage.
Comments?
Suggestions? Please E-mail
us!
Copyright © 2005 by Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society