APRIL 7, 1975:
New York City’s last electric trolley completed it’s final run from Queens to Manhattan.
APRIL 08, 1961
Pacific Electric’s last passenger route (Long Beach) ceases operation.
APRIL 08, 1968
Southern Pacific’s Lark makes it’s last run.
APRIL 08, 1997
CSX and Norfolk Southern agree on a division of Conrail.
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APRIL 09, 1851
A 2nd Baltimore & Ohio Railroad station opens in Washington, D.C. at New Jersey Avenue & C Street NW, across from the present-day Teamsters Union Headquarters.
APRIL 09, 1968
Santa Fe terminates the El Pasoans.
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APRIL 10, 1869
President Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress designating the common terminus for the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads.
APRIL 10, 1878
California Street Cable car Railroad Company begins service.
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APRIL 11, 1862
Union Troops occupy Huntsville, Alabama, severing the Memphis & Charleston Railway, and cutting a vital link to the western theatre for the Confederacy.
APRIL 11, 1885
In the Canadian province of Ontario, in Ottawa, the Canadian Pacific Railway carries out a trial of an automatic type of coupler at Union Station on Broad Street. This greatly reduced the danger to the lives and limbs of trainmen who then did not need to go between cars when coupling and uncoupling. This saw the eventual elimination of the link and pin coupling. A trial of a different model was carried out at the Canada Atlantic Railway Station on the 18th of July, 1885.
APRIL 11, 1947
The Sumpter Valley Railway runs it’s last scheduled train.
APRIL 11, 1947
The Denver & Salt Lake Railroad merges with the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad.
APRIL 11, 1964
Earthquake damaged Alaska Railroad restores passenger service between Anchorage and Fairbanks.
APRIL 11, 1969
Auto-Train Corporation incorporated.
APRIL 12, 1831
Construction begins on the first railroad tunnel in the U.S., near Johnstown, Pennsylvania on the Allegheny Portage Railroad.
APRIL 12, 1862
James J. Andrews and 19 disguised Union soldiers steal a locomotive, the GENERAL, at Big Shanty, Georgia as part of a daring but unsuccessful, attempt to disrupt rail traffic between Atlanta and Chattanooga. An 87 mile chase ended when the General ran out of fuel, and the raiders were captured by the Confederates.
APRIL 12, 1987
The first excursion for Pennsylvania Railroad K4 4-6-2 #1361 takes place out of Altoona, Pennsylvania.
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APRIL 13, 1846
The Pennsylvania state legislature passes an act incorporating the Pennsylvania Railroad.
APRIL 13, 1869
George Westinghouse receives patent #88,929 for the improvement in steam power brake devices. The Westinghouse Air Brake was the first commercially successful application of air brakes and made faster, longer trains possible.
APRIL 13, 1910
The Pennsylvania Railroad begins running trains through Manhattan’s tunnels.
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APRIL 14, 1920
U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer charges that an illegal railroad strike is part of an international Communist conspiracy, fomented by the I.W.W.
APRIL 14, 1960
Final runs of the longest motor-car run in the U.S., Gulf, Mobile & Ohio’s 362 mile run from Kansas City to Bloomington, Illinois.
APRIL 14, 1983
Mudslides cover the D&RW 's mainline at Thistle, Utah, forcing the Rio Grande Zephyr to use Union Pacific’s mainline to return from Salt Lake City to Denver.
APRIL 14, 1986
MidSouth Rail buys Gulf & Mississippi.
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April 14, 1865
Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford’s Theater.
April 15, 1912
RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic. One of the victims is Charles Melville Hayes, president of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada.
APRIL 15, 1954
Patrick McGinnis wins control of the New Haven from Buck Dumaine.
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APRIL 16, 1856
East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company incorporated.
APRIL 16, 1954
Fairbanks-Morris introduces it’s first high-horsepower road switcher, the 2400 hp. Train Master.
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APRIL 17, 1893
In the Canadian province of Ontario, the world’s largest block of cheese was shipped from Perth as Canada’s entry for the dairy exhibit at the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois. This 22,000 lb. monster, measuring 6 feet in height and 8 3/4 feet in diameter, was made in a section of the Canadian Pacific freight shed in Perth. The cheese, along with a special horse drawn wagon designed to haul the cheese, was loaded in the Perth station yard on Saturday 4/15 and placed on show before being shipped. At every station at which the train stopped, the people crowded on the flat car the cheese was on and wrote their names on the box. By the time it reached Chicago there were 200,000 signatures and not a square inch of space left.
APRIL 17, 1934
M.C. LaBertew is made Superintendent of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway.
APRIL 17, 1991
Railroad workers go on strike in the U.S. Congress ends the strike the next day.
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APRIL 18, 1934
The stainless steel streamliner Pioneer Zephyr of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the first train of this type to use diesel power and the first to be placed in scheduled passenger service, is delivered by the manufacturer at Philadelphia.
APRIL 18, 1977
In Canada, the Hall Commission Report on Grain Handling and Transportation is published. This recommends limited branch line abandonment on the Canadian prairies.
APRIL 18, 1991
The United States Congress ends a railroad workers strike, one day after it had begun.
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APRIL 19, 1891
Two trains, because of an engineer’s faulty timepiece, collided near Cleveland, Ohio with 9 casualties. Following the disaster, a commission was appointed to adopt a universal set of timekeeping standards by ALL railroads. Precision was now needed in this enormous industry. By 1893, the GENERAL RAILROAD TIMEPIECE STANDARDS were in effect. Watches that fit this description became known as Railroad Watches.
APRIL 19, 1940
30 people were killed in a train accident at Little Falls, New York.
APRIL, 19, 1964
Southern Pacific’s Golden State and Sunset were consolidated into a single train running between El Paso and Los Angeles.
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APRIL 20, 1866
At a meeting of representatives of several railroads, the first set of rules for governing the interchange of freight cars was adopted. The rules established common colors, reporting marks, and repair arrangements.
APRIL 20, 1932
The first completely air-conditioned sleeping car train begins operation on the Baltimore & Ohio.
APRIL 20, 1948
New York City hikes the subway fare from 5 cents to 10 cents.
APRIL, 20, 1964
The Alaska Railroad restores freight service to Whittier following the Alaskan earthquake of 1964.
APRIL 20, 1983
Dedication of a new rail barge doubles the Canadian National’s Aqua-Train rail capacity to Alaska from Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
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APRIL 21, 1856
The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River opens from Rock Island, Illinois to Davenport, Iowa.
APRIL 21, 1865
President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train departs Washington, D.C.
APRIL 21, 1970
Canadian Pacific unveils Canada;s first double-deck passenger train consisting of nine air-conditioned cars built by Canadian Vickers Limited at a cost of $2.8 million. The cars went into operation on April 27th on the Montreal Lakeshore suburban service.
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APRIL 22, 1833
Richard Trevithick, inventer of the steam locomotive, dies at the age of 62.
APRIL 22, 1884
Orange Jull receives the patent for the first practical rotary snowplow. Jull’s design mounted a large revolving fan on a railroad car to cut through snowdrifts and throw snow to one side while being pushed by locomotives.
APRIL 22, 1942
Baldwin delivers prototype T-1 4-4-4-4 duplex locomotives to the Pennsylvania Railroad.
APRIL 22, 1976
In Canada, the Turbo train achieves a speed of 140.6 mph/226.3 kph near Morrisburg, Ontario on the Canadian National’s Kingston subdivision, a Canadian rail speed record which holds to this day.
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APRIL 23, 1823
The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company obtains a charter for a rail line from Carbondale to the canal at Honesdale in the Lackawanna Valley.
APRIL 23, 1827
The first board of directors are elected for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
APRIL 23, 1831
The first railroad in the Mississippi valley, the Ponchartrain RR, is opened with horse-powered operations.
APRIL 23, 1983
The Georgia Railroad operated the last branch line mixed service.
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April 23, 1995
Last day of the C&NW.