April 2010
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| All operations depend on favorable weather. | 1 First train at 11:00 1857: The first southern link from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River (Charleston to Memphis) completed. |
2 First train at 11:00 1834: First train to run on a state owned railroad, the Philadelphia & Columbia Railway. |
3 First train at 11:00 1883: Humphrey H. Reynolds was the first black inventor to patent an improved window ventilator for railroad cars. His invention was adopted on all Pullman cars, but as an employee, he received no payment from the Pullman Company. Reynolds quit his job as a porter and successfully sued Pullman for $10,000. |
4 First train at 11:00 1895: Astoria & Columbia River Railroad (A&CR) organized. |
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| 5 FPMRR closed. 1995: Canadian National Railway opens new 6,130 foot St. Clair Tunnel which replaces the 104 year old tunnel beneath the St. Clair River between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario. |
6 First train at 11:00 1956: Last revenue freight train on the East Broad Top Railroad. |
7 First train at 11:00 1871: The Illinois Railroad Act creates a commission to fix maximum rates on railroad and warehouse use and forbids discrimination that favors large corporations over small businesses. |
8 First train at 11:00 1961: Pacific Electric's last passenger route (Long Beach) ceases operation. |
9 First train at 11:00 1968: Santa Fe terminates service to El Paso. |
10 First train at 11:00 1869: President Ulysses S. Grant signs joint resolution of Congress designating the common terminus for the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads. |
11 First train at 11:00 1862: Union Troops occupy Huntsville, Alabama severing the Memphis & Charleston Railway, and cutting a vital link to the western theater for the Confederacy. |
| 12 FPMRR closed. 1862: James J. Andrews and 19 disguised Union soldiers steal a locomotive 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 stolen 4-4-0 locomotive, The General, ran out of fuel and the raiders were captured by the Confederates. |
13 First train at 11:00 1869: George Westinghouse receives patent #88,929 for 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. |
14 First train at 11:00 1920: U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchel Palmer charges that an illegal railroad strike is part of an international Communist conspiracy, fomented by the I.W.W. |
15 First train at 11:00. 1954: Patrick McGinnis wins control of the New Haven from Buck Dumaine. |
16 First train at 11:00 1856: East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company incorporated. |
17 Zoo Run First train at 11:00 1991: Railroad workers go on strike in US. Congress ends the strike the next day. |
18 First train at 11:00 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. |
| 19 FPMRR closed. 1964: Southern Pacific Golden State and Sunset Limited consolidated into single train between El Paso and Los Angeles. |
20 First train at 11:00 1932: The first completely air conditioned sleeping car train begins operation on the Baltimore & Ohio. |
21 First train at 11:00. 1856: First railroad bridge across the Mississippi River opens from Rock Island, Illinois to Davenport, Iowa. |
22 First train at 11:00. 1884: Orange Jull receives 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. |
23 First train at 11:00 1831: The first railroad in the Mississippi valley, the Pontchartrain RR, is opened with horse-powered operations. |
24 First train at 11:00 1983: Last run of the Rio Grande Zephyr by Denver & Rio Grande Western. |
25 First train at 11:00 1960: Steam locomotives withdrawn from service on Canadian National Railway. |
| 26 FPMRR closed. 1954: Pullman Standard introduces trailer-on-flatcar with the nickname piggyback. |
27 First train at 11:00 1958: The first transcontinental through Pullman sleeping car service, which began in 1946, is discontinued. |
28 First train at 11:00 1869: Central Pacific crews lay over ten miles of track in one day, winning a $10,000 bet with Union Pacific track layers. |
29 Mayfest First train at 11:00 1851: The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad makes the first test run of a battery powered electric locomotive. |
30 Mayfest First train at 11:00 1900: Locomotive engineer John Luther Jones, known as Casey Jones, dies in train wreck while at the throttle of Illinois Central #382. |
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