According to The New York Times this crash happened only last year. Today this kind of accident should never happen. The article reports critics of the Shanghai subway say the project was pushed too fast so that proper safety precautions could not be taken. It looks like the critics are right.
September 30:
In 1894, the eastbound Southern Pacific express was held up by a train robber at Maricopa, Arizona. The robber was unable to open the safe and took only a small amount of cash and a gold watch from the train crew.
In 1924, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the Southern Pacific Railroad plan to acquire control of the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad, and build a main line through Phoenix.
October 2:
In 1924, thousands of Phoenix, Arizona citizens gathered at Union Station to celebrate the arrival of the Southern Pacific mainline.
October 3, 1837 or October 6, sources use both dates. The steam locomotive Sandusky, the first built by Thomas Rogers of Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor in Paterson, New Jersey ran from Paterson to Jersey City and then to New Brunswick. Rogers went on to become a major manufacturer of locomotives.
October 4, 1905, The Maricopa County (Arizona) Board of Supervisors threatened to tear up the rails if the Phoenix Street Railway Company laid tracks on Grand Avenue in Phoenix.
Were the streetcar rails ever laid down in Phoenix? And if they were did the Board of Supervisors have them torn up?
For Oct 4th, from Arcamax History & Quotes:
In 1883, the Orient Express made its first run.
October 6:
In 1906, fire destroyed the roundhouse and car shops of the (Arizona) Gila Valley, Globe & Northern railroad.
October 8th:
In 1878, Southern Pacific Railroad received a charter from the Territory of Arizona and permission to cross the Military Reservation of Yuma.
In 1908, the announcement was made that as a result of the failure of the reverberatory furnace at Helvetia, Arizona to give the proper results, 100 tons of ore would be shipped daily from Helvetia to the Old Dominion smelters at Globe. The ore would be freighted to Vail Station, shipped on the Southern Pacific to Bowie, then on to Globe over the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern Railroad.
In 1914, the Apache Trail Stage Coach Company was chartered to haul passengers from the railroad station at Globe to Phoenix, where passengers could resume their rail journey.
October 9th:
In 1921, the railroad police of the Tucson, Arizona division of the Southern Pacific reported they had removed 3,373 hobos from Southern Pacific trains in one month.
October 11, 1861. Theodore Judah and his colleagues set off from San Francisco for Washington, DC to persuade the President and Congress to authorize the Central Pacific Railroad but build east from San Francisco. The following July 1 President Abraham Lincoln signed the first Pacific Railroad Act and said “We have drawn the elephant. Now let us see if we can harness him up.”
On October 12, 2010, a collision between a train and a bus in central Ukraine, killed at least 40 people and injured a dozen others.
October 14 1980. The Staggers Act is signed into law. This act generally took control of railroad management away from the Interstate Commerce Commission and gave it back to the railroads. Under the ICC the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad, the two largest businesses in the country at one time, had first been forced to merge and then to go bankrupt. The railroad system was so close to collapse that the Federal Government had to shore up many rail lines. Under the Staggers Act freight railroads have again become profitable.
October 18:
In 1893, hundreds of unemployed men from California moved east through Arizona along the railroad tracks. Tucson police patrolled the tracks, giving each man a loaf of bread and ordering him to move on.
A fascinating historical fact, CA… Was this caused by the overbuilding of western railroads when they collapsed because competition forced rates so low they went bankrupt?
In 1904, the first rapid transit subway system in America opened in New York City.
Read more at http://www.arcamax.com/knowledge/quotes/s-1223928-380547#5RpvoDaR9jtVAulG.99
October 30, 1970. President Richard M. Nixon signs the National Rail Passenger Services Act creating Amtrak. Here is the news release (but you have to scroll down a little):
November 11th, 1926: An attempt by train robbers to cause a head-on collision between the Golden State Limited and the Sunset Express on the Southern Pacific line near Gila Bend, Arizona was foiled by an alert engineer.
November 26 – In 1926, Southern Pacific trains from Tucson, Arizona through Yaquai country in Mexico began operating on daylight schedules only, and with Mexican military guards to protect them against Indian attack.
Also in 2009, a terrorist bomb planted on train tracks between Moscow and St. Petersburg derailed Russia’s high-speed Nevsky Express, killing at least 27 people and injuring close to 100.
Read more at http://www.arcamax.com/knowledge/quotes/s-1239865-438414#FmzGYsqVs6Zc9zYQ.99