Chapter
NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Rivanna
Chapter
Charlottesville, Virginia
This Month in Railroad History
* November*
NOVEMBER 01 1834
Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey connected by rail.
NOVEMBER 01 1865
First tank car designed for bulk oil enters service at
Titusville, PA. It was a flat car fitted with two wooden tanks
shaped like inverted tubs.
NOVEMBER 01 1878
The Chicago & Alton Railroad completes the first all-steel
bridge over the Missouri River at Glasgow, Missouri.
NOVEMBER 01 1918
102 die in a New York City subway derailment at Malbone Street
Brooklyn.
NOVEMBER 01 1976
Amtrak discontinues use of Louisville & Nashville depot in
Louisville.
NOVEMBER 01 1980
Chessie System merges with Seaboard Coast Line Industries to form
CSX Corporation.
NOVEMBER 01 1985
Southern Pacific and Santa-Fe begin repainting diesels red and
yellow merger colors.
NOVEMBER 02 1969
Last run for Kansas City Southern's Southern Belle.
NOVEMBER 03 1908
Cow Creek viaduct completed (SP&S Ry.)
NOVEMBER 03 1909
Oregon Trunk Railway (OT) incorporated
NOVEMBER 03 1969
Last Kansas City Southern Southern Belles arrive in Kansas City
and New Orleans.
NOVEMBER 04 1874
Regular train service begins on the East Broad Top Railroad.
NOVEMBER 05 1889
Rio Grande Southern Railroad incorporated.
NOVEMBER 06 1855
68 engineers from 13 states and 45 railroads meet in Baltimore to
organize the National Protective Association of the Brotherhood
of Locomotive Engineers of the United States, forming the
country's first railroad union.
NOVEMBER 06 1968
101-day strike by Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen against the
Belt Railway of Chicago ends.
NOVEMBER 07 1835
Construction begins on the Erie Railroad.
NOVEMBER 07 1885
The Canadian Pacific Railway completes first transcontinental
route across Canada. The last spike was driven at Craigellachie,
British Columbia.
NOVEMBER 07 1909
24 hour train service between New York and St. Louis begins.
NOVEMBER 07 1970
The second longest tunnel in the U.S., the 7 mile 1327 yard
flathead tunnel opens on the Great Northern.
NOVEMBER 08 1905
Union Pacific's Chicago to San Francisco Overland Limited gets
electric lighting.
NOVEMBER 08 1969
The last train to depart Chicago's Grand Central Station, C&O
#8, leaves for Grand Rapids.
NOVEMBER 09 1833
Twelve passengers on the Camden & Amboy Railroad are injured
in the first passenger train accident in the U.S.
NOVEMBER 10 1905
Willamette Valley Traction incorporated
NOVEMBER 10 1952
Supreme Court upholds decision barring segregation on interstate
railroads.
NOVEMBER 11 1934
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy's Pioneer Zephyr makes its
first run in scheduled passenger service between Lincoln,
Nebraska, and Kansas City, Missouri.
NOVEMBER 11 1957
Demolition begins on San Francisco's cable car barn at California
& Hyde.
NOVEMBER 11 1957
Last use of a steam locomotive by the Pennsylvania Railroad.
NOVEMBER 12 1831
The John Bull, the oldest operable steam engine in the US, is
placed in regular service on the Camden & Amboy RR.
NOVEMBER 12 1965
Heaviest single piece of freight carried by rail, a 549.2 tons
hydrocraker reactor hauled from Birmingham, Alabama to Toledo,
Ohio.
NOVEMBER 13 1906
New York Central's New York electrification begins.
NOVEMBER 14 1832
World's first streetcar system opens in New York City with horse
drawn cars on tracks on Fourth Avenue between Prince and 14th
Streets.
NOVEMBER 14 1988
Department of Transportation announces random drug testing for
90,000 railroad workers.
NOVEMBER 15 1908
Oregon Electric Forest Grove branch opened
NOVEMBER 15 1910
Penn Station opens in New York City.
NOVEMBER 15 1920
W.F. Turner becomes President (SP&S Ry.)
NOVEMBER 15 1928
The first rail detector car to be placed in commercial service
begins operation on the Wabash Railroad.
NOVEMBER 15 1948
Union Pacific Railroad begins track tests of a
gas-turbine-electric locomotive.
NOVEMBER 15 1957
Longest and heaviest train (500 coal cars, 4 miles long, 42,000
tons) hauled by Norfolk and Western Railroad between Iager, West
Virginia and Portsmouth, Ohio.
NOVEMBER 16 1952
North Coast Limited begins interchange of coach and sleeper with
SP&S Nos. 1 & 2 at Pasco, WA (SP&S Ry.)
NOVEMBER 16 1963
Last run of mixed train on Norfolk & western Abingdon Branch.
NOVEMBER 16 1967
Canadian Pacific begins testing Canada's first remote-controlled
mid-train diesel locomotives in regular freight service, using
new Robot radio-command system.
NOVEMBER 16 1972
GE introduces E60C electric locomotive.
NOVEMBER 17 1837
The Sandusky, believed to be the first locomotive equipped with a
whistle in the US, arrives on the Mad River & Lake Erie at
Sandusky, Ohio.
NOVEMBER 17 1889
First daily railroad service to the Pacific Coast, without a
change was between Chicago and Portland, OR, and between Chicago
and San Francisco, Calif., on the Union Pacific Railroad.
NOVEMBER 17 1908
Vancouver, WA to Portland, OR service begins (SP&S Ry.)
NOVEMBER 18 1881
Construction of the Georgia Pacific Railroad begins.
NOVEMBER 18 1883
Standard time zones (Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific)
created, abolishing 100 different local times in use in the
United States.
NOVEMBER 18 1889
Oahu Railway begins public service in Hawaii.
NOVEMBER 19 1891
Granville T. Woods receives patent for a third rail to operate
electrified railways. This black inventor from Columbus, Ohio
dedicated his life to developing a variety of inventions relating
to the railroad industry and held more than 60 patents.
NOVEMBER 19 1986
Last run for Chicago & North Western C628's.
NOVEMBER 20 1850
First train operated on the Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific.
NOVEMBER 20 1961
Union Pacific 4-8-4 #844 make its first post-regular service
excursion run.
NOVEMBER 21 1890
First train operated on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad.
NOVEMBER 21 1950
Head-on collision between a passenger and a troop train kills 21
on Canadian National.
NOVEMBER 21 1980
The St. Louis - San Francisco Railway merges with the Burlington
Northern.
NOVEMBER 22 1882
Denver & Rio Grande reaches Grand Junction from Gunnison, CO.
NOVEMBER 22 1950
Two Long Island Railroad commuter trains collide killing 79 and
injuring 352 at Richmond Hill, in the Borough of Queens, NY.
NOVEMBER 23 1898
Andrew Jackson Beard receives patent #594,059 for a railway car
coupler. Born a slave, Beard worked in a number of occupations,
including the railroad industry. This led to his improved
railroad coupler, which was credited with preventing many serious
injuries among railroad workers.
NOVEMBER 23 1968
Last Durango to Alamosa passenger train on the D&RGW.
NOVEMBER 24 1912
First run for Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited.
NOVEMBER 25 1884
The Oregon Short Line and the Oregon Railway & Navigation
Company (both later forming Union Pacific's route to the
northwest) join rails.
NOVEMBER 25 1955
Race segregation forbidden on trains & buses between US
states.
NOVEMBER 26 1832
America's first streetcar system starts public service in New
York City from City Hall to 14th Street.
NOVEMBER 26 1867
The first patent for a refrigerated car is granted to J.B.
Sutherland of Detroit, Michigan.
NOVEMBER 27 1873
The Boston & Maine RR makes the first breakthrough in
construction of its tunnel under Hoosac Mountain in
Massachusetts.
NOVEMBER 27 1910
New York's Penn Station opens as world's largest railway
terminal.
NOVEMBER 27 1957
Steam operations end on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
NOVEMBER 27 1964
Pennsylvania Railroad ends Pittsburgh commuter service.
NOVEMBER 28 1877
The first two foot gauge railroad in the U.S., the Bedford &
Billerica Railroad, opens.
NOVEMBER 29 1870
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe signs contracts to build the
railroad from Atchison to Topeka, Kansas.
NOVEMBER 29 1954
First Budd dome cars enter service, connecting with the North
Coast Limited (SP&S Ry.)
NOVEMBER 30 1944
United Railways dissolved
NOVEMBER 30 1959
Passenger service ends on the Cotton Belt (St. Louis Southwestern
Railroad).
NOVEMBER 30 1968
Clinchfield 4-4-0 #1 restored to service.
Select historical events courtesy of RailwayStation.com
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