Rivanna Chapter, NRHS - This Month in Railroad History

NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Rivanna Chapter

Charlottesville, Virginia

This Month in Railroad History

* September*

SEPTEMBER 01 1859
George Pullman's first sleeping car, Chicago & Alton number 9, makes its first run from Bloomington, IL to Chicago.

SEPTEMBER 01 1873
The first commercially successful cable car line, the Clay Street Hill Railroad, opens for business in San Francisco.

SEPTEMBER 01 1894
St. Paul & Duluth's Duluth Limited flees forest fire which killed over 400 people.

SEPTEMBER 01 1940
M.C. LaBertew becomes Vice-President and General Manager (SP&S Ry.)

SEPTEMBER 01 1941
Last Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge service to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

SEPTEMBER 01 1947
A railroad travel installment plan, known as the Rail Traveloan Service, became effective with approximately 70 major rail lines cooperating with local banks to provide qualified applicants with rail transportation, Pullman accommodations, all-expense trips and any passenger service regularly sold through railroad ticket offices.

SEPTEMBER 01 1964
C-424's #300-306 arrive with new paint scheme (broadstripe) (SP&S Ry.)

SEPTEMBER 01 1968
Magma Arizona dieselizes.

SEPTEMBER 01 1981
Norfolk & Western takes over Illinois Terminal.

SEPTEMBER 02 1913
New Haven Railroad train crash kills 21 and injure 50.

SEPTEMBER 02 1919
Congress passes bill barring railroad strikes.

SEPTEMBER 02 1935
Florida East Coast Railways' route to Key West, Florida is closed after being damaged by a hurricane.

SEPTEMBER 02 1938
New York Central's coach #1472 becomes the first passenger car to use fluorescent lighting.

SEPTEMBER 03 1883
Main line of the Northern Pacific Railroad from Minneapolis to Tacoma is completed.

SEPTEMBER 03 1916
The Adamson Act, which establishes an eight hour work day for all railroad employees is implemented.

SEPTEMBER 03 1919
President Woodrow Wilson inaugurates practice of using a railroad office car for White House business on a presidential train.

SEPTEMBER 03 1930
Thomas Edison tests first electric passenger train, from Hoboken to Montclair, New Jersey.

SEPTEMBER 04 1862
North Beach & Mission Railway Company organized in San Francisco.

SEPTEMBER 04 1872
The New York Sun exposes Credit Mobilier Scandal. During the construction of the trans-continental railroad, Massachusetts Representative Oakes Ames and other directors of the Union Pacific, created a company called Credit Mobilier of America, which was used to award themselves, rich company contracts. To avoid congressional investigation, Ames distributed shares to other congressmen, Cabinet members and Vice-President Colfax. Ames was censure by the House of Representatives on February 28, 1873.

SEPTEMBER 04 1941
Alco delivers first Big Boy 4-8-8-4 to The Union Pacific Railroad.

SEPTEMBER 04 1999
Last remaining trolley car line in Pittsburgh closes.

SEPTEMBER 05 1911
Oregon Trunk golden spike driven at Bend, Oregon

SEPTEMBER 05 1926
Denver and Rio Grande Western Scenic Limited is derailed on a curve by excessive speed and the locomotive and six cars fall into the Arkansas River, killing 23 passengers.

SEPTEMBER 05 1956
Two Santa Fe express trains collide at Robinson, New Mexico killing 20 railroad workers.

SEPTEMBER 05 1961
Bangor & Arrostook ends its railway passenger service.

SEPTEMBER 05 1986
Chicago & North Western sells 965 miles of track to Dakota, Minnesota and Western.

SEPTEMBER 06 1869
First westbound train arrives in San Francisco.

SEPTEMBER 06 1873
Regular Cable Car service begins on Clay Street.

SEPTEMBER 06 1943
79 killed at Frankford Junction, Pennsylvania when a burned off journal derails the Pennsylvania Railroad's Congressional.

SEPTEMBER 06 1960
Maine Central becomes freight only.

SEPTEMBER 07 1969
Union Pacific's City of Portland and City of Denver join combined City of Los Angeles-San Francisco-Kansas City east of Green River Wyoming.

SEPTEMBER 07 1980
Auto-Train files for bankruptcy.

SEPTEMBER 08 1883
President Chester Arthur is present for the opening of the first railroad to the Pacific Northwest, the Northern Pacific Railroad, at Gold Creek, Montana. US President Chester A. Arthur participated in the opening.

SEPTEMBER 08 1987
MidSouth purchases the 40-mile North Louisiana & Gulf Railroad.

SEPTEMBER 09 1909
Railroad empire builder Edward Henry Harriman dies.

SEPTEMBER 09 1929
First air-conditioned Pullman cars go into service between Chicago and Los Angeles.

SEPTEMBER 09 1933
Service ends on Corvallis branch (OE)

SEPTEMBER 10 1995
After 93 years of service, the Broadway Limited is discontinued.

SEPTEMBER 11 1910
In Los Angeles, the Pacific Electric Railway places the first trackless trolley system in operation.

SEPTEMBER 11 1913
Oregon Electric Orenco cutoff completed

SEPTEMBER 11 1950
33 killed when a Pennsylvania Railroad troop train is hit by the Spirit of St. Louis express train near West Lafayette, Ohio.

SEPTEMBER 11 1950
Lima ships its last locomotive, a center cab diesel, to the Pennsylvania Railroad.

SEPTEMBER 12 1850
First rails laid for the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad (predecessor to the Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific).

SEPTEMBER 12 1952
Compartmentalized freight cars developed by the Pullman Standard Car Company and the Western Pacific Railroad are placed in service between Chicago and San Francisco.

SEPTEMBER 13 1922
Railway shopmen end two month strike.

SEPTEMBER 13 1928
First demonstration of a Sperry rail detector car The demonstration took place near Poughkeepski, NY before representatives of the American Railway Association.

SEPTEMBER 13 1980
Amtrak's westbound Crescent is the last U.S. passenger train drawn by multiple E units.

SEPTEMBER 13 1982
The Interstate Commerce Commission approves merger of the Union Pacific, Western Pacific, and Missouri Pacific Railroads, creating a 22,000 mile system.

SEPTEMBER 14 1891
New York Central's Empire State Express makes record run from New York City to Buffalo (436 miles) in 7 hours and 6 minutes.

SEPTEMBER 14 1944
29 killed in train accident at Dewey, Ind.

SEPTEMBER 14 1974
The longest underwater tunnel in the U.S. (3.6 miles), used by the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), opens between San Francisco and Oakland, California.

SEPTEMBER 14 1992
First subway car completed to be exported from US (to Taiwan).

SEPTEMBER 15 1896
Two locomotives are deliberately collided in the Great Train Wreck near Waco, Texas before a crowd of 30,000 spectators. Two men are killed and many injured by the resulting boiler explosions.

SEPTEMBER 15 1907
24 killed in train accident at Cannan, NJ.

SEPTEMBER 15 1922
Federal Judge James Wilkerson issues an injunction banning all strike activities against the railroads, breaking a nationwide strike by 400,000 railroad workers.

SEPTEMBER 16 1838
Railroad builder, James J Hill born.

SEPTEMBER 16 1872
Construction of the East Broad Top Railroad begins.

SEPTEMBER 16 1875
First Fast Mail train departs New York's Grand Central Station.

SEPTEMBER 16 1985
Conrail removes Pennsylvania Railroad K4 4-6-2 #1361 from Horseshoe Curve and replaces it with a PRR GP-9.

SEPTEMBER 17 1832
Seventeen months after it was formally opened, the first railroad in the Mississippi valley, the Ponchartrain RR, places its first steam engine, the Ponchartrain, into regular service.

SEPTEMBER 17 1873
Panic of 1873 sparked by the failure of Jay Cooke & Company, which was involved in the financing of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

SEPTEMBER 17 1909
First Trolley car crosses over Queensboro Bridge in New York.

SEPTEMBER 17 1911
Crooked River bridge in service (OT)

SEPTEMBER 17 1967
Mount Washington cog railway train derails, killing 8.

SEPTEMBER 17 1989
Steam powered passenger service returns to the Grand Canyon.

SEPTEMBER 18 1877
Bass gang pulls off largest train robbery of that time, taking $60,000 from a Union Pacific train near Big Spring, Nebraska.

SEPTEMBER 18 1893
The Great Northern Railway completes transcontinental route near Everett, WA.

SEPTEMBER 18 1937
Canadian speed record for a steam locomotive in Canada set at 112.5 MPH by a Montreal Locomotive Works Jubilee F2a class 4-4-4.

SEPTEMBER 19 1838
First patent for a railroad brake issued to Ephraim Morris of Bloomfield, NJ.

SEPTEMBER 19 1854
Patent #11,699 is issued to Henry B. Myer for a mode of converting the backs of car seats into beds or lounges.

SEPTEMBER 19 1905
Durango to Farmington branch completed on Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad.

SEPTEMBER 19 1921
Railroad officials are arrested in Chicago for denying workers two hours to vote.

SEPTEMBER 19 1959
The nation's first steam locomotive builder, Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns, Ltd., announces it is going out of business.

SEPTEMBER 19 1982
Streetcars stop running on San Francisco's Market St after 122 years of service.

SEPTEMBER 20 1850
President Millard Fillmore signs an Act giving land grants and loads by the Federal Government to railroads.

SEPTEMBER 20 1853
The first Union passenger station opens in Indianapolis, IN.

SEPTEMBER 20 1873
The New York Stock exchange is forced to close in an attempt to contain panic resulting from the failure of Jay Cooke & Company.

SEPTEMBER 20 1943
Fire in the Denver & Salt Lake's Tunnel 20 force 72 day detour of traffic to Tennessee Pass.

SEPTEMBER 20 1984
Singer, songwriter Steve Goodman, who composed the song City of New Orleans dies in Seattle.

SEPTEMBER 20 1986
Soo Line discontinues hauling passengers in cabooses in Wisconsin and upper Michigan.

SEPTEMBER 21 1856
Illinois Central Railroad connects Chicago to Cairo. With 700 miles of track, the railroad is the longest in the country.

SEPTEMBER 21 1905
The Truckee Republican reports that the greatest snowshed fire in on the Central Pacific many years. Rail traffic is halted for three days as nearly one mile of the wooden sheds are destroyed.

SEPTEMBER 21 1982
San Francisco cable cars cease operations for 2 years of repairs.

SEPTEMBER 22 1851
Charles Minot, Superintendent of the Erie RR, became the first railroad employee to use a telegraph in the movement of trains. His westbound train pulled into a siding at Turner (now called Harriman), New York, to allow an eastbound to pass. The eastbound train was late, so Minot went to the nearest telegraph office to find out where the train was; it hadn't yet reached Goshen, 13 miles west, so he wired ahead orders for that train to be held there for the meet. On returning to his own train, he ordered the engineer to move the train to Goshen, but the engineer refused to take such a risk, so Minot drove the train himself to Goshen where they met the errant eastbound.

SEPTEMBER 22 1946
Santa Fe PA A-B-A set number 51 becomes Alco's 75,000th locomotive.

SEPTEMBER 22 1950
Toledo's new Central Union Terminal is dedicated.

SEPTEMBER 23 1874
First East Broad Top train runs.

SEPTEMBER 23 1983
The U. S. Railway Association sets the fair market value of the Alaska Railroad at $22.3 million.

SEPTEMBER 23 1988
Boston & Maine's 49-mile Connecticut River Line is transferred to Amtrak for restoration of Montrealer.

SEPTEMBER 24 1869
Railroad speculators Jay Gould and Jim Fisk's attempt to corner the gold market fails.

SEPTEMBER 24 1904
Head on collision kills 62 and injures 120 in Tennessee.

SEPTEMBER 25 1866
Pop safety valve patented by George W. Richardson of the Troy & Boston Railroad.

SEPTEMBER 25 1905
J.H. Hulbert & C.T. Dunbar acquire United Railways for James J. Hill

SEPTEMBER 26 1884
St. Lawrence and Ottawa Railway is leased to the Canadian Pacific Railway for 999 years.

SEPTEMBER 26 1905
C.M. Levey becomes President of P&S

SEPTEMBER 27 1835
Phineas Davis, inventor of the first practical American coal burning locomotive, is killed when his invention, the York, derails.

SEPTEMBER 27 1864
Jesse James' gang surprise attack train: 150 killed.

SEPTEMBER 27 1890
Farmer's Transportation Company is renamed the Columbia Railway & Navigation Company (C&RN)

SEPTEMBER 27 1923
37 killed in train accident at Casper, WY.

SEPTEMBER 28 1956
C & O completes dieselization.

SEPTEMBER 28 1981
Illinois Central becomes first RoadRailer operator.

SEPTEMBER 29 1849
New Haven Railroad provides first passenger train service to Peekskill NY.

SEPTEMBER 29 1890
Railroads forfeit unused land grants, which had been granted as an inducement for constructing new lines.

SEPTEMBER 29 1913
Rudolph C K Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine, dies at 55.

SEPTEMBER 29 1957
O-3 #539 moved to Ester Short Park in Vancouver, WA (SP&S Ry.)

SEPTEMBER 29 1962
Last steam-powered run on the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range.

SEPTEMBER 29 1967
Last RPO car run on the Southern Pacific

SEPTEMBER 29 1967
Monon becomes freight-only.

SEPTEMBER 29 1978
VIA Rail Canada takes over Canadian Pacific passenger operations.

SEPTEMBER 29 1988
Washington DC's Union Station returns to service as a passenger terminal.

SEPTEMBER 30 1877
The Southern Pacific enters Arizona at Yuma, becoming the first railroad in the Territory.

SEPTEMBER 30 1914
Great Northern Pacific Steamship Co. (GNPSS) incorporated

SEPTEMBER 30 1981
Amtrak's Chicago to Dubuque, Iowa Black Hawk is discontinued.

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

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