Rivanna Chapter, NRHS May Meeting

NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Rivanna Chapter

Charlottesville, Virginia

This Month in Railroad History

* March *

MARCH 1

1863 - Union Pacific Railroad adopts 4' 8 1/2" gauge.

1877 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Munn v. Illinois that states can regulate interstate transportation rates if it affects the public interest.

1886 - Railroad workers belonging to the Knights of Labor wage an unsuccessful two month strike against railroads controlled by Jay Gould.

1901 - Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia RR purchased by N&W for $2,410,000

1906 - C&O's Big Sandy Branch reached Elkhorn City, KY.

1910 - 96 killed in train accident at Wellington, WA.

1910 - Worst snow slide in US history kills 118 when 3 passenger trains buried at Steven's Pass in Cascade Range.

1920 - Transportation Act of 1920 returns control of US railroads to railroad owners. The government had taken over control of the railroads during WW I and were operated by the USRA. The act also establishes the Railroad Labor Board.

1943 - Inaugural commuter train service Portland, OR to Eavan, WA (SP&S Ry.)

1976 - L. Stanley Crane became president of Southern Railway

MARCH 2

1877 - Rutherford B. Hayes became (probably) the only President to receive news of his election while riding on a train. He was en route to Washington, DC, at the time.

1893 - Safety Appliance Act passes. It requires common carriers engaged in interstate commerce to equip their cars with automatic couplers and continuous brakes and locomotives with driving wheel brakes.

1945 - N&W's Shaffers Crossing services a record number of locomotives in one day: 141 in a single day.

1970 - The Burlington Northern is formed from the merger of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Northern Pacific, the Great Northern, and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle railroads.

MARCH 3

1831 - George Pullman born in Brooklyn, NY.

1863 - Lincoln signs a bill favoring the standard gauge of 4' 8 1/2" for the transcontinental railroad.

1871 - Texas & Pacific Railroad is incorporated by an act of Congress as the Texas Pacific Railroad Company.

1934 - Union Pacific tests lightweight high-speed passenger train at Omaha, Nebraska.

1968 - Santa Fe ends use of Alco PA's.

MARCH 4

1826 - The first American railroad, the Granite Railway Company of Massachusetts is incorporated. The railroad would use horse and oxen to pull wagons from the Quincy granite quarry along a 3-mile long track.

1839 - William F. Harnden became the first to carry express freight on a train through a contract with the Boston & Providence RR. Service was begun for cities as far apart as Boston and New York, and later extended to Philadelphia.

1853 - Congress passes Army Appropriation Act which includes funds for the War Department to survey possible routes for a transcontinental railroad.

MARCH 5

1831 - A locomotive with a four-wheeled truck makes a first trip on the South Carolina Railroad.

1850 - Louisville & Nashville Railroad incorporated in Kentucky.

1856 - First state railroad legislation is passed by the Georgia legislature. The law made railroad companies liable for injuries caused by negligence to employees and others.

1872 - George Westinghouse Jr. patents triple air brake for trains.

1944 - Portland, OR to Eavan, WA commuter service discontinued (SP&S Ry.)

MARCH 6

1872 - First train crossed C&O's Jerry's Run fill on Alleghany Mountain.

1884 - Northern Illinois Railway incorporated. The 76-mile railroad was sold to Chicago & North Western June 6, 1888.

1932- Worst blizzard to ever hit the N&W paralyzes the Shenandoah Valley Line.

MARCH 7

1823 - The New Jersey Railroad & Transportation Co was chartered to build across the state.

1990 - 3 passengers killed and 162 injured as subway train derails in Philadelphia.

MARCH 8

1827 - Baltimore & Ohio Railroad incorporated in Virginia.

1855 - The first train crosses the first railroad suspension bridge at Niagara Falls.

1904 - Lucin cut-off across the Great Salt Lake in Utah opens.

1982 - Last steam-heated Amtrak train, the Silver Star, departs Washington DC.

MARCH 9

1949 - The Illinois central Railroad places the first all-electric dining car, the Cafe St. Louis into service between Chicago and St. Louis, MO.

1954 - Santa Fe complete dieselization.

MARCH 10

1902 - U.S. Attorney General Philander Knox files an antitrust suit against Northern Securities Company, a railroad holding company that controls the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Burlington Railroads.

1923 - N&W's first Y3a, No. 2050, delivered from Richmond.

MARCH 11

1873 - Chattaroi Railway (oldest predecessor of C&O's Big Sandy District) incorporated.

1908 - Golden Spike ceremony at Sheridan's Point, WA (SP&S Ry.)

1939 - Ottawa's Elgin Street streetcar line is abandoned. This is the first major rail abandonment in the city.

MARCH 12

1857 - A Great Western Railway train breaks an axle while crossing a swing bridge and plunges into the Desjardins Canal near Hamilton. 59 people are killed.

1883 - First car of coal is loaded from the Pocahontas Mine No. 1 on the N&W.

1885 - N&W's Coal Pier #1 opens at Lamberts Point, Virginia.

1899 - The Piedmont Limited, Trains 33 and 34, is inaugurated on the Southern Railway.

1912 - Congress agrees to fund construction and operation of a railroad from Seward to Fairbanks.

1914 - George Westinghouse dies.

1941 - C&O Car Ferry City of Midland maiden voyage.

MARCH 13

1967 - Last run of the Twentieth Century Limited.

MARCH 14

1894 - The Dalton gang robs the Woodward, Oklahoma train station, but leave an entire safe filled with money.

1940 - 27 killed, 15 injured when truck full of migrant workers collides with a train outside McAllen, Texas.

1948 - Freedom Train arrives in San Francisco.

1960 - 14 die in a train crash in Bakersfield California.

1977 - W. Graham Claytor retires as Southern Railway Chairman to become Secretary of Navy.

MARCH 15

1915 - Great Northern Pacific Steamship Co. begins service Flavel, OR to San Francisco, CA

1944 - New 39-room crew quarters opens at Wishram, WA (SP&S Ry.)

1946 - Wartime restrictions on sleeping car service under 450 miles ends.

1958 - Santa Fe Doodlebug service between Atchison and Topeka ends.

1974 - The 73 mile Black Mesa & Lake Powell Railroad becomes fully operational. This fully automated, electrified line delivers coal from the Black Mesa coal mining area to the Navajo power station near Page, Arizona.

MARCH 16

1836 - Andrew S Hallidie, inventor of the cable car, is born.

1892 - Roanoke & Southern (now the Winston-Salem line) is leased by the N&W.

1906 - 35 killed in train accident at Florence, C0.

1908 - Vancouver, WA to Lyle, WA opened (SP&S Ry.)

MARCH 17

1851 - Norfolk & Petersburg is chartered.

1853 - The New York Central Railroad is formed.

1881 - First train to cover a mile in less than a minute.

1883 - First carload of Pocahontas coal arrives at Norfolk on the N&W.

1975 - Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad declares bankruptcy.

MARCH 18

1834 - First railroad tunnel in US completed, in Pennsylvania.

1855 - World's first railway suspension bridge completed across the Whirlpool Rapids, below Niagara Falls.

1858 - Rudolph C K Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine, is born.

1983 - Chicago & North Western acquires former Rock Island's Twin Cities - Kansas City trackage.

MARCH 19

1885 - Sydney F. Tyler named president of Shenandoah Valley RR.

1895 - Los Angeles Railway established to provide streetcar service.

1917 - US Supreme Court upholds 8-hour workday for railroad employees.

1918 - Congress passes the Standard Time Act.

1959 - N&W Class A No. 1202 pulls last steam freight train on the Scioto Division.

MARCH 20

1873 - Heading of C&O's Lewis Tunnel driven through.

1949 - California Zephyr begins service over the Burlington, Rio Grande and Western Pacific railroads.

MARCH 21

1910 - 55 killed in train accident at Green Mountain, IA.

1911 - Cornelius Pass tunnel formally opened (UR or SP&S)

1918 - The Railroad Control Act is adopted which provides the determination of how railroads under government control are compensated.

1952 - First diesels arrive at Peach Creek, WV, on the C&O.

MARCH 22

1897 - In United States v. Trans-Missouri Freight Association, the Supreme Court rules that 18 railroads are violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by banding together to fix rates.

1910 - C&O bought controling interest in the Hocking Valley Railway.

1913 - Oregon Electric Corvallis branch opens

1942 - Wreck of No. 3 at Eavan, WA (SP&S Ry.)

1967 - Jersey Central files for bankruptcy.

1970 - California Zephyr service ends on the Western Pacific leaving the railroad freight-only.

MARCH 23

1858 - Eleazer A. Gardner issued the first cable car patent.

1874 - Iowa becomes the third state to enact Granger Laws which regulate railroad freight rates.

1907 - 26 killed in train accident at Colton, CA.

1937 - Los Angeles Railway Co. starts using PCC streetcars.

1969 - Main 200 (Eisenhower Funeral Train) left Washington via the C&O.

1970 - Last run for the California Zephyr.

MARCH 24

1828 - Philadelphia & Columbia Railway (First state owned) authorized.

1890 - The Supreme Court rules that a Minnesota state law authorizing a commission to set rates that are not subject to judicial review is unconstitutional.

1900 - New York City Mayor Van Wyck breaks ground for the city's first subway.

1932 - New York radio station WABC makes first broadcast from a moving train, a variety show on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Maryland.

1967 - Last regular passenger service on the Soo Line.

MARCH 25

1901 - 55 die as Rock Island train derailed near Marshalltown, Iowa.

1945 - First Virginian Railway Class AG 2-6-6-6 No. 900 arrives from Lima Locomotive Works.

1961 - The Tallulah Falls Railway, which was used as a setting in the 1950 film I'd Climb the Highest Mountain and in 1960 by Disney for The Great Locomotive Chase, ceases operation.

1986 - Conrail goes public at $28 a share.

MARCH 26

1884 - High winds push eight coal cars for 100 miles on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad east of Denver.

1891 - Rogers Locomotive Works rolls out ten-wheeler #4493 which eventually becomes Sierra Railroad #3. Starting with The Virginian with Gary Cooper on MARCH 26, 1929, Sierra RR #3 becomes the most photographed locomotive in the world. Other movie appearances include Dodge City, High Noon, Duel in the Sun and Back to the Future III. It also made many TV appearances including The Lone Ranger, Rawhide, Bonanza, Petticoat Junction, Gunsmoke and Little House on the Prairie.

1987 - Norfolk Southern fires up former Norfolk & Western 2-6-6-4 #1218.

MARCH 27

1857 - Memphis & Charleston Railroad completes 271 mile line from Memphis, Tennessee to Stevenson, Alabama.

1887 - Treaty of Boston agreement reached between the Denver & Rio Grande, The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, and the Union Pacific railroads. The D&RG agreed not to build south of Espanola, NM, the AT&SF was not to enter Denver or Leadville, CO for ten years and the Union Pacific agreed to stay out of the Colorado Rockies.

1913 - Ohio River flooding closes N&W operations west of Kenova until April 15th.

1938 - Santa Fe begins San Diegan service between San Diego and Los Angeles.

1953 - 21 die in a train crash in Conneaut, Ohio.

1960 - Grand Trunk Western run last official regular steam powered passenger train.

1964 - Earthquake results in an estimated $30 million damage to the Alaska Railroad.

MARCH 28

1907 - Misplaced switch causes derailment of Southern Pacific train at Colton, California, killing 22.

1975 - American freedom train departs Washington DC with ex-Reading 4-8-4 #2101 and begins 2 year, 17,000 mile tour.

1980 - Last train operated on the former Rock Island track from Amarillo, Texas to Tucumcari, New Mexico.

MARCH 29

1839 - Railway Express Agency established.

1916 - 28 killed in train accident at Amherst, Ohio.

1922 - Rail Union asks President Harding to abolish U.S. Labor Board.

1957 - New York, Ontario & Western Railroad abandoned. At that time, it was the largest railroad abandonment in the U.S. (541 miles).

MARCH 30

1883 - Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway reaches Salt Lake City.

1908 - Columbia Railway & Navigation Co. (CR&N) purchased by SP&S Ry.

1954 - Canada's first subway line opens in Toronto.

1850 - Virginia Central Railroad incorporated to succeed Louisa Railroad.

1886 - Representatives from the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, Cincinnati Southern, and other southern railroads meet in Atlanta where they agree to a mass conversion of 13,000 miles of track to a standard gauge of 4' 8 1/2" on May 31 to June 1, 1886.

1910 - Oregon Electric Ry. (OE) acquired by Hill interests

1930 - Inaugural run of The Sportsman on the Chesapeake & Ohio.

MARCH 31

1862 - The Oregon Pony becomes the first locomotive in the Pacific Northwest.

1941 - Southern Railway's first streamlined passenger trains, The Southerner and The Tennessean, are inaugurated.

1946 - First regular through sleeping-car service from the Atlantic to Pacific coasts.

1958 - R.H. Smith retires as N&W President; succeeded by Stuart T. Saunders.

1963 - Los Angeles ends streetcar service after 90 years.

1977 - Last revenue run on N&W's Abingdon Branch.

1980 - The 7,500 mile Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific ceases operations, becoming the largest U.S. abandonment.

1986 - Illinois Central Gulf sells 403 miles of track from Meridian, Mississippi to Shreveport, Louisiana to Midsouth Rail Corp.

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

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