A frog war occurs when one private

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

company attempts to cross the tracks of another, and this results in hostilities between the two railways. It is named after the

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

, the piece of track that allows the two tracks to join or cross and is usually part of a

level junction A level junction (or in the United Kingdom a flat crossing) is a railway junction that has a track configuration in which merging or crossing railroad lines provide track connections with each other that require trains to cross over in front of ...

railroad switch A railroad switch (), turnout, or ''set ofpoints () is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another, such as at a railway junction or where a spur or siding branches off. The most common ty ...

. A frog war usually begins with legal actions, such as filing lawsuits and appealing to civic transportation authorities. But often the situation escalates into physical actions, with companies pitting their workers against one another with construction projects and train movements intended to frustrate or challenge the opposing railway.

Division of costs

It is generally the case that the second railway to arrive at an intended crossing has to bear the cost of the special trackwork needed to cross the first. This includes the cost of any

interlocking tower On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetabl ...

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

. The latter is not necessarily to the disadvantage of the second railway, since it can signal its trains through the junction ahead of those belonging to the first railway, depending on who employs the

signalman A signalman is a person who historically made signals using flags and light. In modern times, the role of signalmen has evolved and now usually uses electronic communication equipment. Signalmen usually work in rail transport networks, armed for ...

"Frog Wars" with oil pipelines

In the early days of the oil industry, most oil traveled by rail. As

oil pipelines Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countr ...

became more common, railway companies often saw them as threats to their business and refused to grant permission for pipelines to cross their tracks.

Bridges and riverboats

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

participated in a celebrated court case that decided that railways had as much right to bridge rivers as the riverboat had the right to navigate those rivers. Nova Scotia's

Shubenacadie Canal The Shubenacadie Canal is a canal in central Nova Scotia, Canada. It links Halifax Harbour with the Bay of Fundy by way of the Shubenacadie River and Shubenacadie Grand Lake. Begun in 1826, it was not completed until 1861 and was closed in 1871. ...

was rendered useless by a railway bridge built across it in 1870.

List of frog wars

Netherlands

* 1845: A disgruntled property developer purchased Van der Gaag Lane, a short road south of Delft, with the intention of sabotaging the construction of the Haarlem-Hague Railway. After a deal to acquire the property on the owner's own terms fell through, he vehemently refused to sell it or allow a crossing to be built, necessitating the circumvention of the property using a tight bend in the track.

United States

Note: The first railroad line built is the first one named. * 1853: A feud between the

Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833 and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the ...

and the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also co ...

led both railroads to run through Grand Crossing in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

as if the other railroad didn't exist, finally resulting in a crash that killed 18 people. * 1867: The

South Carolina Railroad The South Carolina Rail Road Company was a railroad company that operated in South Carolina from 1843 to 1894, when it was succeeded by the Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. It was formed in 1844 by the merger of the South Carolina Canal a ...

vs. the Columbia and Augusta Railroad (later the

Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad The Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad was formed in 1869 with the merger of the Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad and the Columbia and Augusta Railroad. Route The combined line stretched for over between Charlotte, North Carolina, an ...

). A grade crossing in Columbia was protested in court, then blocked by a parked train, then physically torn up and finally threatened by a steamed-up locomotive ready to move forward to block at any moment (Derrick: 245-246 and Fetters: 143). * 1870s: The

Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge l ...

vs. the

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and S ...

vs. the

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

. All three railroads contested one another for access through suitable mountain passes in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. * January 1870:

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by Pacific Railroad Acts, U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in N ...

vs.

California Pacific Railroad The California Pacific Railroad Company (abbreviated Cal. P. R. R. or Cal-P) was incorporated in 1865 at San Francisco, California as the California Pacific ''Rail Road'' Company. It was renamed the California Pacific Railroad ''Extension'' Compan ...

. After Central Pacific blocked California Pacific from entering the city of

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

, the Supreme Court of California ordered otherwise. * December 2, 1870–January 9, 1871: The

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie ...

vs. the

Morris & Essex Railroad The Morris and Essex Railroad was a railroad across northern New Jersey, later part of the main line of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. History The M&E was incorporated January 29, 1835, to build a line from Newark in Essex Co ...

Boonton Branch The Boonton Branch refers to the railroad line in New Jersey that was completed in 1870 and ran 34 miles (54.8 km) from Hoboken to East Dover Junction as part of the Morris & Essex Railroad (M&E). Although the branch hosted commuter train ...

(

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of . Incorporated in ...

) at the west end of the Erie's

Long Dock Tunnel The Long Dock Tunnel is a freight rail tunnel in Jersey City, New Jersey that is part of the North Jersey Shared Assets Area and used by CSX Transportation on the National Docks Secondary. The single track (formerly dual track) tunnel runs throu ...

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Mercer & Somerset Railway (

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

) vs. the

Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad The National Railway or National Air Line Railroad was a planned railroad between New York City and Washington, D.C. in the United States around 1870. Part of it was eventually built from New York to Philadelphia by the Delaware and Bound Brook R ...

(

Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly calle ...

) in

Hopewell, New Jersey Hopewell is a borough in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. This historical settlement is located within the heart of the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 1,918, a decreas ...

. * August 7–September 13, 1883: The

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

vs. the

California Southern Railroad The California Southern Railroad was a subsidiary railroad of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe) in Southern California. It was organized July 10, 1880, and chartered on October 23, 1880, to build a rail connection between wha ...

(a subsidiary of the

) at Colton Crossing in

Colton, California Colton is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Nicknamed "Hub City", Colton is located in the Inland Empire region of the state and is a suburb of San Bernardino, California, San Bernardino, approximately south of the cit ...

(just outside

San Bernardino San Bernardino (; Spanish language, Spanish for Bernardino of Siena, "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a ...

). * March 1886: The

vs. the

New Jersey Junction Railroad The New Jersey Junction Railroad (NJJ) was part of the New York Central Railroad and ran along the Hudson River in Hudson County, New Jersey, from the West Shore Railroad (NYCRR) yards at Weehawken Terminal south to Jersey City. It later owne ...

(

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

) at King's Bluff near

Weehawken, New Jersey Weehawken is a Township (New Jersey), township in the North Hudson, New Jersey, northern part of Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located largely on the Hudson Palisades overlooking the North River ...

. * September 1891: The

Central Railroad of New Jersey The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of ...

vs. the

Jersey City, Newark and Western Railway The Jersey City, Newark and Western Railway was incorporated on July 6, 1889, and acquired by the Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR). Construction was completed in 1893. It started in Jersey City, New Jersey at a connection with the National Docks R ...

(

Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, w ...

) in southern

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Cape May and Millville Railroad (

) vs. the

Tuckahoe and Cape May Railroad The Atlantic City Railroad was a Philadelphia and Reading Railway subsidiary that became part of Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines in 1933. At the end of 1925 it operated of road on of track; that year it reported 43 million ton-miles of rev ...

(

) at Woodbine Junction, New Jersey. * 1897: The

vs. the New Jersey Junction Connecting Railway (

) in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Newtown Electric Street Railway in

Langhorne, Pennsylvania Langhorne Borough is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The population was 1,622 at the time of the 2010 census. The mailing address "Langhorne" is used for Langhorne Borough, but it is also used broadly to describe the majority of surrou ...

. This was not technically a frog war (since no grade crossing was involved), but the PRR opposed attempts to build a line through a turnpike underpass running underneath the PRR tracks. Passengers had to disembark on each side of the PRR and walk through the underpass to meet connecting trolleys.

United Kingdom

Battle of Havant Havant New was a temporary terminus between Havant and on the Portsmouth Direct Line: a temporary platform, erected by the L&SWR who were granted permission to run all trains along the line by its independent venture owners, but which did n ...

: Conflict between the

London & South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

and the

London, Brighton & South Coast Railway The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR; known also as the Brighton line, the Brighton Railway or the Brighton) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its ...

over the building of the

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

branch. * Nickey Line * Conflict between the

and the South Eastern Railway for access to

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

and

St Leonards St Leonards may refer to: Places Australia *St Leonards, New South Wales **St Leonards railway station *St Leonards, Tasmania, suburb of Launceston *St Leonards, Victoria Canada *St. Leonard's, Newfoundland and Labrador New Zealand * St L ...

beyond Bo Peep Junction.

Bibliography

* *

References

{{Reflist History of rail transport in the United Kingdom History of rail transportation in the United States