Rivanna Chapter, NRHS - This Month in Railroad History

NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Rivanna Chapter

Charlottesville, Virginia

This Month in Railroad History

* June *

JUNE 1

1891 - North America's highest railroad (14,109 ft), the Manitou & Pike's Peak Railway in Colorado, opens.

1898 - The Erdman Act, which provides for mediation of railroad disputes, is adopted.

1898 - The first interurban streetcar line, the Union Traction Company, begins operation between Anderson and Alexandria, Indiana.

1908 - Dalles, Portland & Astoria Navigation Co. transferred to the SP&S

1947 - Gulf Mobile & Ohio Railroad acquires Alton Railroad.

1982 - The Norfolk & Western Railroad merges with the Southern Railway to form the Norfolk Southern Corporation.

JUNE 2

1873 - Construction begins on San Francisco's Clay Street for world's First cable railroad.

1982 - Soo Line takes control of Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern.

JUNE 3

1891 - Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railroad incorporated.

1913 - Ruth Trust becomes Ruth Realty Company (SP&S Ry.)

1947 - General Motor's Train of Tomorrow begin nationwide tour from Chicago.

JUNE 4

1857 - The first middle route to the Mississippi River was completed, when the Ohio & Mississippi RR's tracks connected East St Louis with Cincinnati and Baltimore.

JUNE 5

1919 - Canadian National Railways incorporated.

1947 - Chesapeake & Ohio acquire Pere Marquette.

1950 - U.S. Supreme Court rules that segregation policies in Southern railroad dining cars are invalid.

1979 - A Long Island Railroad train becomes the first to be operated exclusively by women.

1982 - Seattle's Waterfront streetcar begins operation.

JUNE 6

1833 - Andrew Jackson becomes the first U.S. President to travel by rail, on the B & O line between Ellicott's Mills and Baltimore, Maryland.

JUNE 7

1860 - Trackwork begins on San Francisco's Market Street Railroad.

1870 - The first patent for an automatic electric block signal system is issued to Thomas S. Hall of Stamford, CT.

1905 - The first steel mail car is placed into service on the New York, Salamanca & Chicago, Railroad.

JUNE 8

1889 - Cable Car service begins for Los Angeles.

1900 - White Pass & Yukon opens service from Skagway to Whitehorse.

1905 - The Pennsylvania Railroad announces 18-hour train service between New York and Chicago.

1953 - Union Pacific Railroad puts first propane gas turbine locomotive in service.

JUNE 9

1883 - First commercial electric railway, the Chicago El, line begins operation.

1959 - Operations cease on the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad.

JUNE 10

1910 - The Spokane, Portland & Seattle completes its mainline from Spokane to Portland.

1961 - Chicago, Aurora & Elgin abandoned.

1973 - Amtrak receives first EMD SPD40Fs.

JUNE 11

1864 - Battle of Central Railroad Trevillian Station, Virginia.

1905 - Pennsylvania Railroad debuts fastest train in world (NY-Chicago in 18 hrs).

1940 - New York City's 9th Avenue El, the oldest elevated railroad in the world, makes its last run. The youngest of New York City's elevated lines, the 2nd Avenue El, also makes its last run.

1980 - San Francisco's K-Ingleside streetcar converts to METRO service San Francisco.

JUNE 12

1832 - Tuscumbia Railway begins operations.

1899 - Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch rob a Union Pacific train of $60,000 near Wilcox Station, Wyoming.

1902 - Train makes New York to Chicago run in record 20 hours.

1905 - Pennsylvania Railroad 's Pennsylvania Special (which later became the Broadway Limited) sets speed record of 127.2 MPH. This would stand as the all time record for steam locomotives.

JUNE 13

1928 - The first rail detector car, invented by Elmer Ambrose Sperry is tested for the first time at Beacon, NY. The car made it possible to detect flaws in railroad tracks.

1957 - Central Railroad of New Jersey retires #1000, the first diesel-electric locomotive.

JUNE 14

1876 - California Street Cable Car Railroad Co gets franchise.

1929 - First air-rail transcontinental service departs New York City on the New York Central. Passengers were taken by rail to Cleveland, where they were transferred to a Universal Air Express plane, which flew them to Graden City, Kansas. From there the passengers boarded a Santa Fe train bound for Los Angeles. The entire trip required 62 hours, 15 minutes.

1931 - The steepest railroad in the U.S., a cable worked incline to the bottom of Royal Gorge, Colorado and a gradient of 64.6 percent, opens.

1936 - A new streamline train, the City of San Francisco, begins service.

1951 - EMD delivers its 10,000th unit, an E8 to the Wabash.

JUNE 15

1905 - First run of the New York Central's Twentieth Century Limited.

1927 - First two-way radio communication between a caboose and locomotive on a moving train is demonstrated by the General Electric Company.

1928 - First transfer of mail from a dirigible to a train. A mail sack from an Air Corps blimp was lowered by rope to an Illinois Central train near Belleville, Illinois.

1938 - Twentieth Century Limited uses first fluorescent tail sign.

1945 - 19 killed in train accident at Milton, PA.

1973 - B & O, C & O, and Western Maryland form Chessie System.

1974 - Final use of Electrification on the Milwaukee Road.

JUNE 16

1941 - Brooklyn's Fulton Street Elevated Railway is closed.

1949 - Gas turbine-electric locomotive demonstrated, Erie Pennsylvania.

1974 - Electric operation ends on the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific.

JUNE 17

1831 - First steam locomotive boiler explosion in the U.S. occurs when the fireman ties down the safety valve of the Best Friend of the Charleston.

1925 - 50 killed in train accident at Hackettstown, NJ.

1953 - Last regular run of steam (Ms-4 #6330) on the Southern Railway at Chattanooga Tennessee.

1963 - Southern Railway acquires the Central of Georgia Railway.

JUNE 18

1886 - Transcontinental train service begins on the Canadian Pacific Railway.

1894 - Southern Railway Company is incorporated.

1910 - Congress expands the enforcement and regulatory powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission through the Mann-Elkins Act.

JUNE 19

1872 - First Narrow Gauge Convention begins in St. Louis, MO. Representatives of several narrow gauge railroads discussed the promotion, economics and technology of narrow gauge construction and operation.

1913 - The Supreme Court rules that a state may establish railroad rates within its own borders if there is no conflict with federal laws.

1938 - Olympian Flyer express train crashes in Montana, killing 47.

JUNE 20

1841 - Samual F. B. Morse patents the telegraph.

J1893 - The first industrial railroad union, the American Railroad Union, is formed with Eugene Debs elected as its first president.

JUNE 21

1970 - Penn Central files for bankruptcy.

JUNE 22

1915 - Brooklyn Rapid Transit, begins subway service.

1918 - Circus train rammed by troop train kills 68 at Ivanhoe, Illinois.

1956 - Last regular run of steam; Z-8 #910 leaves Yardley on the Scribner Turn (SP&S Ry.)

1957 - Kansas City streetcar service ends.

1972 - Amtrak's first own locomotives, SDP40F's from EMD, debut on the Chicago to Los Angeles Super Chief.

JUNE 23

1900 - A stone bridge near McDonald, Georgia on the Southern Railway is washed away in front of a work train. The train fell into the gap and caught fire, killing 35.

1938 - New York City Mayor LaGuardia assigns 21 police to patrol subway system.

JUNE 24

1886 - The first special train of fruit for eastern markets leaves Sacramento, California.

1980 - Detroit, Toledo & Ironton acquires by Grand Trunk Western.

JUNE 25

1894 - American Railway Union goes on strike.

JUNE 26

1870 - The Denver & Pacific becomes the first railroad to reach Denver by completing its connection to Cheyenne, WY.

1894 - Eugene Deb's American Railway Union calls on every signalman, brakeman, switchman, fireman and yardman to not handle, move or in anyway assist in running a Pullman car or any train carrying such a car in support of the Pullman Strike.

JUNE 27

1861 - The Central Pacific Railroad is organized in California.

1906 - Gilpin Tramway sold to Colorado & Southern.

1974 - Amtrak's computerized ticketing becomes operational.

JUNE 28

1834 - Engine explodes on Harlem Railroad in New York City shortly after first run.

1895 - First electric train service in the U.S. begins on the New Haven & Hartford Railroad on the 7-mile Nantasket Branch.

JUNE 29

1864 - 99 people killed at Beloeil, Quebec on the Grand Trunk Railway in Canada's worst railroad accident.

1906 - President Roosevelt signs the Hepburn Act, which allows the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate and set railroad rates.

1935 - Last day of operations on the 2 foot gauge Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad.

1963 - The Southern Railway purchases the Georgia and Florida Railroad, which ran 321 miles from Greenwood, SC, to Valdosta, GA and was mostly in bankruptcy during the last 50 years of its independence.

JUNE 30

1831 - The Baltimore & Ohio RR becomes the first railroad to carry troops, transporting about 100 troops to Sykes Mills, Maryland to quell a riot by striking railroad workers.

1947 - After an anti-trust suit, the Pullman Company sells sleeping car service to 57 railroads

1952 - First welded rail on the system laid in the St. John's cut (SP&S Ry.)

1964 - White Pass & Yukon Railroad phases out steam locomotives.

1965 - The Missouri-Kansas-Texas becomes freight only.

1977 - The last Railway Post Office in the U.S. departs Washington, DC bound for New York City.

Select historical events courtesy of RailwayStation.com and are used with permission. Please visit their website at www.railwaystation.com

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