![Locomotives-Roundhouse2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Locomotives-Roundhouse2.jpg)
The Timeline of U.S.A Railway History depends upon the definition of a
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 p ...
, as follows: A means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, also known as tracks.
1795-1829
* 1795–96 & 1799–1804 or '05 — In 1795,
Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch (August 8, 1763 – April 15, 1844) was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.Baltzell, Edward Digby. ''Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia''. Tran ...
, the architect of Boston's famed
State House first employed a temporary
funicular railway
A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite en ...
with specially designed dumper cars to decapitate'' 'the Tremont's' ''
Beacon Hill Beacon Hill may refer to:
Places Canada
* Beacon Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, a neighbourhood
* Beacon Hill Park, a park in Victoria, British Columbia
* Beacon Hill, Saskatchewan
* Beacon Hill, Montreal, a neighbourhood in Beaconsfield, Quebec
United ...
summit and begin the decades long
land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamat ...
projects which created most of the real estate in Boston's lower elevations of today from broad mud flats, such as South Boston, Eastern parts of Dorchester, much of the shorelines of the entire Charles River basin on both the left and right banks and Brighton from mud flats, and most famously and tellingly especially the
Back Bay
Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and t ...
.
[William A. Newman, Wilfred E. Holton, , Northeastern University Press, Boston,]
* 1815-1820s One interpretation of historical documents indicates the same equipment was used for a longer, more ambitious period to level and effectively remove 'The Tremont', Copely, Cope's, and Beacon Hills again into what became
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
's
Back Bay
Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and t ...
br>
These moves were far from completing the project, photos in the 1850s and recent scholarship show the majority of the Back Bay was still tidewater.
A warming pot, 1810s–1830s
*1800–1825 Various inventors and entrepreneurs make suggestions about building model railways in the United States. Around
Coalbrookdale
Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the civil parish called the Gorge.
This is where iron ore was first ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
, mining railways become increasingly common. An early steam locomotive is given a test run in 1804, but is then wrecked carelessly. For unknown reasons, the inventor does not rebuild it for nearly two decades.
* 1809 Scottsman quarry owner
Thomas Leiper
Thomas Leiper (15 December 1745 – 6 July 1825) was a Scottish American businessman, banker and politician who owned a successful tobacco exportation business as well as several mills and stone quarries. He served as a lieutenant in the Philad ...
, in 1809 when denied a charter to build a canal along the
Crum Creek
Crum Creek (from the Dutch, meaning "crooked creek") is a creek in Delaware County and Chester County, Pennsylvania, flowing approximately , generally in a southward direction and draining into the Delaware River in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. ...
from his quarry to the docks in the tidewater, commissions a short temporary railroad test track in the yard of the Bull's Head Tavern in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
. The track had a grade of one inch and a half to the yard, with a 4% grade to test whether a horse could successfully pull against the slope.
* 1810–1829 The
Leiper Railroad The Leiper Railroad was a 'family business–built' horse drawn railroad of , constructed in 1810 after the quarry owner, Thomas Leiper, failed to obtain a charter with legal rights-of-way to instead build his desired canal along Crum Creek. The qu ...
was a short horse drawn
railroad
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 ...
of three quarters of a mile opens in 1810 after the quarry owner,
Thomas Leiper
Thomas Leiper (15 December 1745 – 6 July 1825) was a Scottish American businessman, banker and politician who owned a successful tobacco exportation business as well as several mills and stone quarries. He served as a lieutenant in the Philad ...
, failed to obtain a charter with legal
rights-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
to instead build his desired canal along
Crum Creek
Crum Creek (from the Dutch, meaning "crooked creek") is a creek in Delaware County and Chester County, Pennsylvania, flowing approximately , generally in a southward direction and draining into the Delaware River in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. ...
. The quarry man's 'make-do' railroad solution was the continent's ''
first chartered railway,
first operational non-temporary railway, first well documented railroad, ''and'' first constructed railroad'' also ''meant to be permanent''. It was perhaps the only railroad replaced by a canal, and also one of the first to close, and of those, perhaps is alone in reopening again in 1858.
1825-1832
Inspired by the speedy success of the
Stockton and Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Darl ...
(1825) in
England's railway historical record, capitalists in the United States — already embarking upon
great public works infrastructure projects to connect the new territories of the United States with the older seaboard cities industries by the canals of
America's Canal Age, almost overnight began dreaming up projects using railroads — a technology in its infancy, but one employing steam engines which were rapidly becoming widely known from their successful use on steamboats. American Steam engine pioneers were willing to experiment with
Heat Engine
In thermodynamics and engineering, a heat engine is a system that converts heat to mechanical energy, which can then be used to do mechanical work. It does this by bringing a working substance from a higher state temperature to a lower state ...
s using higher pressures than the mainly
Atmospheric engine
The atmospheric engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and is often referred to as the Newcomen fire engine (see below) or simply as a Newcomen engine. The engine was operated by condensing steam drawn into the cylinder, thereby creati ...
s still fashionable in Great Britain. The rest of the world lagged the two English speaking nations. Railroads began to be proposed where canals wouldn't do, or would be too costly and with an increase in rolling stock tonnage capacity, locomotive power, and a growing confidence born of experience and
new materials
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
in less than three decades, the United States generally would discard canals as the principal design choice in favor of far more capable freight haulage technologies.
* 1825 American
John Stevens (inventor), builds a test track and runs a locomotive around it in his summer home estate,
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...
. This partially settles the tractive power questions, showing that on level track, metal on metal wheels can provide tractive effort and pull a load. The ability for any engine to do so on a grade is still widely doubted in the press and minds of potential investors (pubs, clubs, boardrooms, etc.), while the minds of many potential investors were well aware that most railroads in the capital poor United States would have to surmount significant grades to be useful technology. And while news from Europe was delayed 4–8 weeks, well connected Americans were aware in general of United Kingdom news coverage's and to a lesser extent, that of continental European developments. In consequence, the 1825 success of the
Stockton and Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Darl ...
only gradually eroded the three-way nay-sayer beliefs that the careful expensive gentle engineered grades extant in the early British railways was impracticable in most cases in America and that such grades were necessary since steel on iron rails would not provide traction on hills, were it possible to build an locomotive engine powerful enough to surmount such grades. In each case, it would take experience and success against such over at least several months before the misconceptions fell into disdain.
* 1826: The industrial
animal power
A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for tr ...
ed
Granite Railroad
The Granite Railway was one of the first railroads in the United States, built to carry granite from Quincy, Massachusetts, to a dock on the Neponset River in Milton. From there boats carried the heavy stone to Charlestown for construction of ...
opens in
Quincy, Massachusetts
Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...
, to convey quarried granite for the Bunker Hill monument. It later becomes a common carrier railroad.
:* 1827: Taking advantage of seasonal freezing of the
Lehigh Canal
The Lehigh Canal, or the Lehigh Navigation Canal, is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of twenty years, beginning in 1818. The low ...
, and with materials prepared in advance, the
Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company
The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company was a mining and transportation company headquartered in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, now known as Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. The company operated from 1818 until its dissolution in 1964 and played an early and i ...
(LC&N) converts their 1818–19 built uniformly graded
wagon road
''Wagon Train'' is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957–1962), and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and became number one in the Nielsen ratings. It ...
[
] into a
gravity railroad
A gravity railroad (American English) or gravity railway (British English) is a railroad on a slope that allows cars carrying minerals or passengers to coast down the slope by the force of gravity alone. The speed of the cars is controlled by a bra ...
in just four months of construction.
[
]
The resultant
Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad
The Mauch Chunk and Summit Railroad was a coal-hauling railroad in the mountains of Pennsylvania that operated between 1828 and 1932. It was the first operational railway, in the United States, of any substantial length to carry paying passenger ...
, where mules rode special cars down as well after the coal hoppers, then returned empties up the nine mile return trip became the first U.S. railway to carry passengers in the same year of 1827. In less than two years the railway was attracting so many visitors, it began charging fares, and then added and operated special tourism excursions on Sunday as a tourist road — which role it carried into 1932 as the world's acknowledged first roller coaster. In 1847 the cable railway return track was constructed with planes climbing two
prominence
In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...
s along
Pisgah Ridge The name Pisgah may refer to:
*Mount Pisgah (Bible)
Places In the United States Communities
*Pisgah, Alabama, a town
* Pisgah, Georgia, an unincorporated community
*Pisgah, Iowa, a city
* Pisgah, Illinois, an unincorporated community
* Pisgah, Ken ...
, shortening the up trip to twenty minutes from nearly four hours by mule.
; 1830s
:*The
Baltimore and Ohio
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
is incorporated in 1827 and officially opens in 1830.
Other railroads soon follow, including the
Camden and Amboy
The United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company (UNJ&CC) was a railroad company which began as the important Camden & Amboy Railroad (C&A), whose 1830 lineage began as one of the eight or ten earliest permanent North AmericanList of Earliest Am ...
by 1832.
*August 8, 1829: The ''
Stourbridge Lion
The ''Stourbridge Lion'' was a railroad steam locomotive. It was the first foreign built locomotive to be operated in the United States, and one of the first locomotives to operate outside Britain. It takes its name from the lion's face painted ...
'', first
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
imported into the US, is tested along tracks built by the
Delaware and Hudson
The Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) is a railroad that operates in the Northeastern United States. In 1991, after more than 150 years as an independent railroad, the D&H was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). CP operates D&H ...
company. Deemed too heavy for the company's rails, it and its three brethren are converted to stationary engines for cable railway parts of the transportation system.
*1830 ushers in a flurry of railroad incorporations, charter applications, grants and beginnings of construction. The B&O opens its first stretch to
Ellicott's Mills and begins regular scheduled passenger services on schedule, May 24, 1830.
* 1830 the
Beaver Meadows Railroad
The Beaver Meadow Railroad & Coal Company (BMRC) was chartered April 7, 1830, to build a railroad from the mines near Beaver Meadows, Pennsylvania, beyond Broad Mountain along Beaver Creek to Penn Haven and along the Lehigh River through Mauch ...
from
Beaver Meadows, Pennsylvania
Beaver Meadows is a borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The population was 897 at the 2020 U.S. census.
Geography
Beaver Meadows is located in northwestern Carbon County at (40.928438, ...
, is incorporated and constructed to open a second major coal field to the
Lehigh Canal
The Lehigh Canal, or the Lehigh Navigation Canal, is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of twenty years, beginning in 1818. The low ...
at
Parryville beyond the Lehigh Gap. This would form the seed company of the first class
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 ...
after the 1870s.
![DeWitt Clinton (locomotive)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/DeWitt_Clinton_%28locomotive%29.jpg)
* 1831 The
DeWitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and naturalist. He served as a United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the seventh governor of New York. In this last capacity, he was largely res ...
locomotive, built by the
West Point Foundry
The West Point Foundry was a major American ironworking and machine shop site in Cold Spring, New York, operating from 1818 to about 1911. Initiated after the War of 1812, it became most famous for its production of Parrott rifle artillery and oth ...
in New York for the
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, made its first test run on July 2, 1831.
*1830s–1860s: Enormous railway building booms in the United States. The mill owners of
Lowell and
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
launch the
Boston and Lowell Railroad
The Boston and Lowell Railroad was a railroad that operated in Massachusetts in the United States. It was one of the first railroads in North America and the first major one in the state. The line later operated as part of the Boston and Maine R ...
to parallel the historic
Middlesex Canal
The Middlesex Canal was a 27-mile (44-kilometer) barge canal connecting the Merrimack River with the port of Boston. When operational it was 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and 3 feet (0.9 m) deep, with 20 locks, each 80 feet (24 m) long and between 10 and ...
, which had enabled their mills success; this is the first direct attack rail companies mounted against canal interests.
Railroads gradually replace
canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...
s as the first-choice mode of transportation infrastructure to champion and build, while canals hold a whip hand on economy for decades more, but falter on flexible destinations, speed, and where they suffer seasonal stoppages yet service year round needs. By the 1860s, in any case, where all the important older canals were to be found any canal with functions satisfiable by parallel railways (excepting by definition, ship canals) is eyed by investors to be supplanted by a competing railroad. The idea of a rail network in the US, which is by then showing early signs some areas have overbuilt in the Eastern United States is still not a common business model. Cut throat competitive capitalism, not co-operation are the rule, and the decade kicks off the forty years or so of the robber barons and excesses in capitalism.
1850-1900
*1854
Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
' Union Station, the first "
union station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
" in the world, opened by the Terre Haute & Richmond, Madison & Indianapolis, and Bellefontaine railroads.
*1862
Chattanooga
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
The
Great Locomotive Chase
The Great Locomotive Chase (also known as Andrews' Raid or the Mitchel Raid) was a military raid that occurred April 12, 1862, in northern Georgia during the American Civil War. Volunteers from the Union Army, led by civilian scout James J. And ...
, in which Union raiders led by
James J. Andrews
James J. Andrews (c. 1829 – June 7, 1862) was a Kentucky civilian who worked for the Union Army during the early years of the American Civil War. He led a daring raid behind enemy lines on the Western and Atlantic Railroad, known as the ...
commandeered a
4-4-0 American locomotive, "The General" and attempted to sabotage Confederate tracks, telegraph lines, and bridges to prevent Confederate troops from moving by rail to Chattanooga.
*1865:
George Pullman
George Mortimer Pullman (March 3, 1831 – October 19, 1897) was an American engineer and industrialist. He designed and manufactured the Pullman sleeping car and founded a company town, Pullman, for the workers who manufactured it. This ulti ...
becomes well known for luxury sleeping cars, called
Pullman car
In the United States, Pullman was used to refer to railroad sleeping cars that were built and operated on most U.S. railroads by the Pullman Company (founded by George Pullman) from 1867 to December 31, 1968.
Other uses
Pullman also refers to rai ...
s in his honor, after he loaned one of his cars to be in the funeral train of
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 ...
from
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
to
Springfield, IL
Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...
.
*1869:
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 ...
and
Central Pacific complete first
transcontinental railway
A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...
link at
Promontory Summit
Promontory is an area of high ground in Box Elder County, Utah, United States, 32 mi (51 km) west of Brigham City and 66 mi (106 km) northwest of Salt Lake City. Rising to an elevation of 4,902 feet (1,494 m) above sea ...
.
*1869:
George Westinghouse
George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age of ...
establishes the
Westinghouse Air Brake Company
The Westinghouse Air Brake Company (sometimes nicknamed or abbreviated WABCO although this was also confusingly used for spinoffs) was founded on September 28, 1869 by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Earlier in the year he had i ...
.
*1870s: Railroads begin to install
automatic block signal
Automatic block signaling (ABS), spelled automatic block signalling or called track circuit block (TCB ) in the UK, is a railroad communications system that consists of a series of signals that divide a railway line into a series of sections, ...
s which improve safety, allow faster train speeds, and allow more efficient utilization of trackage.
*1870s and 1880s: Strikes break out against railroads and the
Pullman Palace Car Company
The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century ...
. Corporations hire
Pinkerton guards to break up the strikes. Nonetheless, much violence occurs in the strikes. Many people were killed, buildings and rolling stock were burned, and reports of rioting shocked middle-class Americans.
*1883: Standard
time zones
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
adopted by railroads.
*1886: Many southern states convert from broad gauges such as to
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
. (See also
Broad gauge#United States.)
*1887:
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
creates the
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...
(ICC) to regulate railroads and ensure fair prices.
*1891:
Webb C. Ball
Webster Clay Ball (October 6, 1848 – March 6, 1922) was a jeweler and watchmaker born in Fredericktown, Ohio who founded the Ball Watch Company. When Standard Time was adopted in 1883, he was the first jeweler to use time signals from the Unite ...
establishes first Railway Watch official guidelines for
railroad chronometers A railroad chronometer or railroad standard watch is a specialized timepiece that once was crucial for safe and correct operation of trains in many countries. A system of timetable and train order, which relied on highly accurate timekeeping, was ...
.
*1893:
Railroad Safety Appliance Act
The Safety Appliance Act is a United States federal law that made air brakes and automatic couplers mandatory on all trains in the United States. It was enacted on March 2, 1893, and took effect in 1900, after a seven-year grace period. The act ...
requires
air brakes and automatic
couplers
Coupler may refer to:
Engineering Mechanical
* Railway coupler, a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train device
** Janney coupler
** SA3 coupler
** Scharfenberg coupler for multiple unit passenger cars
* Quick coupler, used in constru ...
on all trains, which greatly reduces railroad worker injuries and deaths.
*1896:
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
rules in ''
United States v. Gettysburg Electric Ry. Co.'' that the
Takings Clause
The Fifth Amendment (Amendment V) to the United States Constitution addresses criminal procedure and other aspects of the Constitution. It was ratified, along with nine other articles, in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amend ...
under
eminent domain
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
could be applied for
historic preservation
Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...
1900-1970
![Grand Central Terminal Main Concourse May 2014](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Grand_Central_Terminal_Main_Concourse_May_2014.jpg)
*1901: Nine locomotive manufacturing companies are combined in a merger to form the
American Locomotive Company
The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...
(ALCO).
*1902: ''
20th Century Limited
The ''20th Century Limited'' was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967. The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along th ...
'' inaugurated by the
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 ...
.
*1910s:
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 ...
builds
Pennsylvania Station
Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
; New York Central builds current version of
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
.
*1911: The
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 ...
completes the
Lackawanna Cut-Off in Northwestern
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
and
Northeastern Pennsylvania
Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a geographic region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton, Nanticoke, and Carbon ...
.
*1916: US railroad trackage was , the highest in history. The trackage would increase to over 300,000 mi by the next decade.
*1917: President
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
orders
nationalization
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
of the railroads shortly after the US enters
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The
United States Railroad Administration
The United States Railroad Administration (USRA) was the name of the nationalisation, nationalized railroad system of the United States between December 28, 1917, and March 1, 1920. It was the largest American experiment with nationalization, and ...
manages the system until 1920, when Congress returns control to the railroad companies.
*1920s and 1930s:
Automobile
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
s,
airplane
An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spe ...
s and the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
contribute to a decline in railroad ridership and mileage.
*1926: Congress passes the
Railway Labor Act
The Railway Labor Act is a United States federal law on US labor law that governs labor relations in the railroad and airline industries. The Act, enacted in 1926 and amended in 1934 and 1936, seeks to substitute bargaining, arbitration, and media ...
to settle disputes and avoid strikes (law amended in 1934 and 1936).
*1934:
Burlington
Burlington may refer to:
Places Canada Geography
* Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Burlington, Nova Scotia
* Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington"
* Burlington, Prince Edward Island
* Burlington Bay, no ...
railroad's ''
Pioneer Zephyr
The ''Pioneer Zephyr'' is a diesel-powered trainset built by the Budd Company in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), commonly known as the Burlington Route. The trainset was the second internal combustion-powered streamli ...
'' completes its inaugural run from
Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, to
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, first diesel-powered
streamliner
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating wikt:streamline, streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "High-speed rail, bullet trai ...
in America.
* May 12, 1936: The
Santa Fe railroad inaugurates the all-Pullman ''
Super Chief
The ''Super Chief'' was one of the named passenger trains and the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The streamliner claimed to be "The Train of the Stars" because of the various celebrities it carried between Chicago, Ill ...
'' between Chicago and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
*1940s:
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
brings railroads the highest
ridership
In public transportation, patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and ...
in American history, as soldiers are being sent to fight overseas in the
Pacific Theater
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
and the
European Theater
The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II. It saw heavy fighting across Europe for almost six years, starting with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ending with the ...
. However, automobile travel causes ridership to decline after the war ends.
* March 20, 1949: The
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...
,
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 ...
and Western Pacific Railroad jointly launch the ''California Zephyr (1949–1970), California Zephyr'' between Chicago and San Francisco as the first passenger train to include dome car, Vista Dome cars in regular service.
*1950s and 1960s: Drastic decline in passenger travel in the United States, due to automobiles and also airplanes, as first jetliners take to the air. Railroads respond through mergers and attempts to shed unprofitable trains and rail routes. The speed of these efforts is reduced through the difficulties of
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...
hearings.
*1957: The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway is absorbed into its parent road the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.
*December 1, 1959: ICC approved Virginian Railway merger into Norfolk & Western begins modern-day period of railroad mergers and consolidation.
*July 1, 1967: Rivals Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Railroad, Seaboard Air Line merge to form Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, Seaboard Coast Line after 9 years of negotiations and ICC hearings.
* August 1, 1967: UAC TurboTrain maiden voyage.
*December 3, 1967:
20th Century Limited
The ''20th Century Limited'' was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967. The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along th ...
makes last run.
*February 1968: Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central merge to form Penn Central. The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, New Haven was added in 1969.
1970-present
* 1970s: Era of Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976, deregulation.
*March 1, 1970 Burlington Northern Railroad, Burlington Northern is created with the consolidation of the *Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Chicago Burlington & Quincy, Great Northern Railway (U.S.), Great Northern, Northern Pacific Railway, Northern Pacific and Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway, Spokane Portland & Seattle railroads.
* March 22, 1970: The ''California Zephyr,'' on its last run, arrives in Oakland, California, from Chicago; the train name will soon be resurrected by Amtrak on a train travelling almost the same route as the original train.
* June 21, 1970 the Penn Central files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, becoming the largest corporate failure up to that time in US history.
*1971: Amtrak created by act of Congress to assume and operate a national network of passenger trains from private railroads after years of dropping ridership and massive deficits force railroads to drop passenger service and ask for government help.
*March 1972: the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad, Gulf Mobile & Ohio is merged into the Illinois Central Railroad, Illinois Central, forming the Illinois Central Gulf.
*1970s: Conrail is created from the remains of the bankrupt Penn Central, Erie Lackawanna, Central of New Jersey, Reading and Lehigh Valley Railroads in the Northeast, beginning operations April 1, 1976.
*1970s and 1980s: Amtrak introduces bilevel rail car, double-deck Superliner (railcar), Superliner rolling stock. Auto-Train Corporation begins running as independent line (1971), but fails in 1981; In 1983, Amtrak revives service and runs slightly renamed "Auto Train" as one of its more-heavily promoted lines.
* 1977: Amtrak carried 19.2 million passengers an average of 226 miles.
* 1980: Railroads deregulated by Congress by Staggers Rail Act of 1980.
*March 1, 1980, the Rock Island ceases operations after bankruptcy liquidation.
* September 15, 1981: The ''John Bull (locomotive), John Bull'' becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when it runs under its own power inside Washington, DC.
* 1981: Union Pacific 3985 is restored to operating condition, making it the largest operable steam locomotive in the world.
*July 1, 1982, Norfolk and Western Railway, Norfolk & Western and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway merge to form Norfolk Southern Railway, Norfolk Southern.
* January 1, 1986: The Milwaukee Road is merged into the Soo Line Railroad in the largest railroad bankruptcy proceedings to date.
*July 1, 1986, Seaboard System Railroad, Seaboard System and Chessie System merge to form CSX Transportation corp.
*1990s: Amtrak funding comes under heavier scrutiny by Congress, while Amtrak creates new trains such as the Talgo and the Acela Express.
*1995: ICC abolished; Congress creates Surface Transportation Board to assume the remaining regulatory functions.
*1997–99: Conrail assets sold to Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation.
*September 11, 2001: Terrorists destroy World Trade Center (1973–2001), World Trade Center in New York and destroy part of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson, PATH system in the process. Full PATH service resumed November 23, 2003.
* 2015: Total rail traffic declined 2.5 percent to 28 million carloads. Coal remains the largest volume, at 5.1 million carloads. Coal volume fell 12 percent in 2015, as natural gas replaces coal and electricity plants. The lower volume allowed better service and faster speed, but low fuel prices are giving an advantage to trucking.
[Laura Stevens, "Railroads face more tough track, ''Wall Street Journal'' 11 January 2016]
* 2021: Moynihan Train Hall opens in New York City, partially replacing New York Penn Station.
Notes
See also
* History of rail transport in the United States
* Oldest railroads in North America
* Timeline of railway history
* Timeline of transportation technology
References
Further reading
* Chandler, Alfred D., ed. (1987). ''The Railroads: The Nation's First Big Business – Sources and Readings.'' Arno Press. .
*
* Deverell, William (1994). ''Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad, 1850–1910.'' (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press). .
* Ducker, James H. (1982). ''Men of the steel rails: Workers on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, 1869–1900.''
* Fish, Carl Russell (1917). "The Northern Railroads, April, 1861," ''The American Historical Review,'' Vol. 22, No. 4 (Jul., 1917), pp. 778–793 ; old but still valuable
* Frey, Robert J. (1988). ''Railroads of the Nineteenth Century.'' Volume 2 of "Encyclopedia of American Business History and Biography." (New York: Facts on File). 490pp. .
*
* Grant, H. Roger. ''Railroads and the American People'' (2012
excerpt and text search* Hayes, Derek. ''Historical atlas of the North American railroad'' (2010); 400 historical maps
* Hubbard, Freeman H. (1981). ''Encyclopedia of North American railroading: 150 years of railroading in the United States and Canada.'' (New York: McGraw-Hill). .
* Jenks, Leland H. (1944). "Railroads as an Economic Force in American Development," ''The Journal of Economic History'', Vol. 4, No. 1 (May, 1944), 1-20. .
* Kirkland, Edward Chase (1948). ''Men, Cities and Transportation, A Study of New England History 1820–1900.'' (2 vol.) Harvard University Press.
* Klein, Maury (1997). ''The Life and Legend of Jay Gould'' Johns Hopkins University Press. .
* Klein, Maury (2000). ''The Life & Legend of E. H. Harriman'' (2000) University of North Carolina Press.
Online edition.* Marrs, Aaron W. ''Railroads in the Old South: Pursuing Progress in a Slave Society'' (2009
excerpt and text search* Martin, Albro. ''James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest'' (1990
excerpt and text search* Martin, Albro. ''Railroads Triumphant: The Growth, Rejection, and Rebirth of a Vital American Force'' (1992
excerpt and text search wide-ranging overview
* Meyer, Balthasar H. ''History of Transportation in the United States before 1860'' (1917
online* Middleton, William D. ed. (2007). ''Encyclopedia of North American Railroads.'' Indiana University Press. .
* Miner, Craig. ''A Most Magnificent Machine: America Adopts the Railroad, 1825–1862'' (University Press of Kansas; 2010) 325 pages; Documents the enthusiasm that accompanied the advent of the railroad system
* Nice, David C. ''Amtrak: The History and Politics of a National Railroad'' (1998
online edition* Nock, O.S., ed. ''Encyclopedia of Railways'' (London, 1977), worldwide coverage, heavily illustrated
* Riegel, Robert Edgar. ''The Story of the Western Railroads'' 192
online edition* Riley, C. J. ''The Encyclopedia of Trains & Locomotives'' (2002)
* Saunders, Richard. ''Main lines: Rebirth of the North American railroads, 1970–2002'' (Northern Illinois University Press, 2003).
* Stover, John. ''The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American Railroads'' (2001)
* Stover, John. ''History of the Illinois Central Railroad'' (1975)
* Stover, John. ''Iron Road to the West: American Railroads in the 1850s'' (1978)
* Turner, George E. ''Victory rode the rails: the strategic place of the railroads in the Civil War'' (1953)
* Ward, James Arthur. ''J. Edgar Thomson: master of the Pennsylvania'' (1980) 265 pages
* Ward, James A. "Power and Accountability on the Pennsylvania Railroad, 1846–1878." ''Business History Review'' 1975 49(1): 37–59
in JSTOR* White, Richard. ''Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America'' (2011
excerpt and text search* Wolmar, Christian. ''The Great Railroad Revolution: The History of Trains in America'' (2012), survey to 2012; emphasis on 19th century; 448p
excerpt and text search
Video
* ''Railroads in U.S. History (1830–2010)'' (2010), set of 4 DVDs, directed by Ron Meyer; #1, "Railroads come to America (1830 - 1840);" #2, "The First Great Railroad Boom (1841- 1860)"; #3, "A New Era in American Railroading (1861 - 1870)," #4, "The Second Great Railroad Boom (1871 - 2010)
link
External links
Bibliography by Richard Jensen, Montana State University-Billings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline Of United States Railway History
United States history timelines, Railway
History of rail transportation in the United States
Rail transport timelines, United States
United States economic history-related lists