Today in Railroad History

January

Jan. 7, 1830: The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad opens a 1.5-mile stretch of track in Baltimore, Md.

Jan. 8, 1863: Construction begins on the Central Pacific Railroad.

Jan. 9, 1830: Construction begins on the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road in Charleston, S.C.

Jan. 27, 1830: The Lexington & Ohio Railroad is chartered.

February

Feb. 4, 1830: The Camden and Amboy Rail Road Transportation Co. is founded.

Feb 6, 1868: An 11-day strike begins on the Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad.

Feb. 25, 2003: CSX relocates its headquarters from Richmond, Va., to Jacksonville, Fla.

Feb. 28, 1827: The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is chartered in Baltimore, Md.

March

March 4, 1826: The Granite Railway is chartered. The railroad was key in helping to transport granite blocks to erect a Bunker Hill monument. With the help of horse-drawn cars, the railway operates a three-mile stretch of track. Gridley Bryant opened the railroad.

March 8, 1832: The Portsmouth & Roanoke Railroad is chartered.

March 5, 1850: The Louisville & Nashville Railroad is chartered.

March 20, 1949: The California Zephyr is launched by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, the Western Pacific and the Denver and Rio Grande Western railroads.

April

April 8, 1997: CSX and Norfolk Southern agree on a division of Conrail.

April 12, 1862: A group of 22 Union spies steal the General with the intent of destroying the Western & Atlantic Railroad. The episode would later become known at the Andrews Raid or the Great Locomotive Chase.

April 19, 1891: Eight people are killed near Kipton, Ohio, after a passenger train collides with a freight train. Blamed on an engineer’s watch that had stopped as was four minutes behind, the wreck is also credited with bringing about quality control standards on United States railroads.

April 30, 1900: John Luther “Casey” Jones is killed in at wreck at Vaughn, Miss.

April 30, 1987: Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad merges with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

May

May 1, 1971: Amtrak service begins when No. 235, knows as the Clocker, departed New York Penn Station at 12:05 a.m., bound for Philadelphia.

May 4, 2004: The TSA launches a test program for people and bags traveling on U.S. trains in New Carrollton, Md.

May 6, 1862: The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Pacific Railway Act.

May 9, 2004: The Cross-Tie and Railfanning.org launch www.thecrosstie.com.

May 9, 1850: The first train passes through the Chetoogeta Mountain tunnel in Tunnel Hill, Ga.

May 10, 1869: The Golden Spike is driven at Promontory, Utah.

June

June 18, 1831: Robert Stephenson and Co. builds the John Bull locomotive in England.

June 20, 1862: The U.S. Senate approves the Pacific Railway Act.

June 21, 1970: Penn Central declares bankruptcy.

June 30, 1979: Service on MARTA begins between Georgia State and Avondale.

July

July 1, 1862: President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the the Pacific Railway Act.

July 1, 1878: The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad changes its name to the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.

July 1, 1967: Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line merge to create the Seaboard Coast Line.

July 1, 1986: Seaboard System Railroad changes it name to CSX Transportation.

July 4, 1828: Construction begins on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

July 9, 1918: In the deadliest train wreck in the United States, 101 people are killed when two Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway trains crash head-on near Nashville, Tenn. Another 171 people are injured in the crash.

July 15, 1848: Work begins on a tunnel through the Chetoogeta Mountain in Tunnel Hill, Ga.

July 17, 1831: The locomotive Best Friend of Charleston exploded after a fireman annoyed by the hissing of steam escaping from the engine, tied down an exhaust valve. Though not a wreck, the explosion marked the first railroad-related fatality in the United States.

July 21, 1873: The first of what would be a rash of train robberies in the Eastern U.S., occurred, pulled off by a gang headed by Jesse James and his brother Frank. Their target was a train of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. Their tampering with the track caused the train to derail, killing the engineer. The gang found only $2,000 in the express car’s safe, so they methodically robbed the frightened passengers of another $1,000. After a number of train and bank robberies, Jesse James was killed in 1882, and the last train robbery in the nation occurred around 1900. But today, there are still some 421,000 robberies in the U.S., most of them on the nation’s streets or highways.

July 25, 1832: A wagon with passenger Thomas B. Achuas of Cuba derails on the Granite Railway killing him. The crash is the first fatal train wreck in the United States.

August

Aug. 8, 1829: The Stourbridge Lion debuted on the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. The engine’s debut was a success, though it was too heavy for the wooden rails on which it was riding. It never ran again.

Aug. 9, 1831: New York stepped into the railroad world when the DeWitt Clinton made its inaugural trip between Albany and Schenectady along the Mowhawk and Hudson. The locomotive’s namesake is remembered as “The Father of the Erie Canal.” And ironically the steam engine that would directly rival his Erie Canal was named in his honor.

Aug. 25, 1830: Peter Cooper demonstrates the Tom Thumb steam engine on B&O tracks from Baltimore to Ellicott's Mills, Md.

Aug. 30, 1957: The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad is merged into the Nashville & Louisville Railroad.

Aug. 30, 1968: Tennessee Central Railway trains operate for the last time.

September

Sept. 1, 1968: Illinois Central assumes control of the Tennessee Central Railway.

Sept. 2, 1987: Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad merges into CSX.

Sept. 11, 1972: Regular service begins on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART).

Sept. 15, 1830: The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first passenger railroad in the world, opens in England.

Sept. 15, 1830: William Huskison becomes the world's first railroad-related casualty when he is killed by George Stephenson's Rocket during the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

Sept. 15, 1831: The John Bull runs for the first time on the Camden and Amboy Railroad.

Sept. 22, 1851: The Telegraph is used for the first time when the Erie Railroad employs its service.

Sept. 22, 1995: Burlington Northern Santa Fe created after the merger of Burlington Northern Inc. and Santa Fe Pacific Corp.

Sept. 27, 1903: Eleven people are killed when a Southern Railway train derails on Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Va. The wreck is popularized in the song Wreck of the Old ‘97.

October

Oct. 7, 1826: The Granite Railway begins operating in Quincy, Mass. The railroad was key in helping to transport granite blocks to erect a Bunker Hill monument. With the help of horse-drawn cars, the railway operates a three-mile stretch of track. Gridley Bryant opened the railroad.

Oct. 9, 1900: Union Station opens in Nashville, Tenn.

Oct. 27, 1859: A 186-mile line between Louisville, Ky., and Nashville, Tenn., opens for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.

November

Nov. 1, 1855: More than 30 people were killed when 12 of 13 cars from an excursion train plunged into the Gasconade River near St. Louis after a bridge over the waterway collapsed. More than 600 people were on board the train to celebrate the Pacific Railroad’s opening. Hundreds of other passengers were injured in the wreck.

Nov. 1, 1918: A Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co. train crashed after taking a curve too fast underneath the intersection of Malbone Street and Flathbush and Ocean avenues. In all, 97 people are killed in the wreck known as the Malbone Street Wreck. Instead of taking the curve at 6 mph, the train was traveling between 30 mph and 40 mph.

Nov. 14, 1978: CSX Corporation formed in Virginia.

December

Dec. 11, 1845: The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad is chartered.

Dec. 21, 1833: The Georgia Railroad is chartered.

Dec. 21, 1836: The Georgia Legislature charters the Western & Atlantic Railroad.

Dec. 25, 1830: The Best Friend of Charleston runs for the first time in Charleston, S.C.

Dec. 29, 1876: A bridge over the Ashtabula River collapsed as The Pacific Express passed over, killing 92 people and injuring 64 others. Eleven cars fell into the Ashtabula River and stoves in the train’s cars started fires after the bridge collapse.

Editor's Note: This page is a work in progress and more dates are being added.