September 20, 1834 The Boston & Worcester Railroad (later B&A) is completed between Wellesley and Ashland MA.
?
September 20, 1839 First railroad in the Netherlands opens, Amsterdam to Haarlem.
?
September 20, 1850 The first Federal Land Grant is approved, for the Illinois Central.
?
September 20, 1853 Indianapolis Union Station is opened, the first Union Station in the United States.
?
September 20, 1865 The Pennsylvania Railroad Board authorizes a contract to operate a line of steamers on the Great Lakes from the Port of Erie.
?
September 20, 1870 Service begins on the Grand Rapids & Indiana between Ft. Wayne IN and Paris MI.
?
September 20, 1873 Panic sweeps the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the wake of railroad bond defaults and bank failures. The ensuing fiscal crisis will be dubbed ¡°The Panic of 1873¡± and will derail many planned railroad construction projects.
?
September 20, 1888 Construction begins in Goshen IN on a Lake Shore & Michigan Southern branch to Battle Creek MI. The line will be nicknamed ¡°The Pumpkin Vine¡±.
?
September 20, 1896 The Detroit & Mackinac begins service between Bay City and Alpena.
?
September 20, 1906 Electrical operations begin at New York¡¯s Grand Central Terminal.
?
September 20, 1953 With the construction of the Congress Expressway (now I-290), Chicago, Aurora & Elgin riders lose their direct connection to downtown Chicago.
?
September 20, 1956 Steam locomotives are officially removed from the roster of the Boston & Maine.
?
September 20, 1988 The original Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad is consolidated into the Norfolk & Western.
?
September 20, 2004 A Virgin Rail "Pendolino" train makes a record run between London and Manchester: 1 hour 53 minutes. The former mark was 2 hours 8 minutes.
?
September 20, 2015 A light rail line opens in Addis Ababa. This Ethiopian line is the first in sub-Saharan Africa.
?
September 21, 1856 The Illinois Central connects Chicago with Cairo IL, making it the longest railway line in the United States.
?
September 21, 1869 The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern leases the Kalamazoo, Allegan & Grand Rapids. Always under the control of other railroads (NYC, PC), the KA&GR will remain an individual company until the advent of Conrail.
?
September 21, 1895 The Ann Arbor Railroad is formed to succeed the Toledo & Ann Arbor. (Some sources say September 20.)
?
September 21 1906 A Grand Trunk Railway passenger train hits a freight at a crossing in Napanee ON. The engineer of the passenger train stayed at the controls of the locomotive trying to stop the train, becoming the only fatality. A monument is erected in his honor.
?
September 21, 1910 At 12:15 pm a Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction car running light overruns a meeting point at Kingsland IN and smashes head on into a northbound Union Traction interurban carrying 47 people. Forty-one are killed in the worst accident of the interurban era.
?
September 21, 1927 The Pennsylvania Railroad runs 25 special trains to Chicago for attendees of the second Dempsey-Tunney heavyweight bout.
?
September 21, 1938 A major hurricane hits New York City and the New England coast, causing extensive damage. Seventy-five miles of New Haven Railroad main line is washed out or buried by debris.
?
September 21, 1945 The Pennsylvania Railroad receives its first passenger diesels: two EMD E7's. Initially assigned in Pennsylvania, they will be placed on "The Red Arrow", which serves many General Motors executives traveling to and from Detroit.
?
September 21, 1967 The Pennsylvania Railroad sets a record (later broken) for world's heaviest freight: a 341-car 35,805-ton ore train from Whiskey Island to Mingo Junction OH. The train is pulled by 25,000 horsepower: Three units at the head end and 5 mid-train slave units.
?
September 21, 2009 The White Pass & Yukon Railway runs a special 10-car train to celebrate the return of two rebuilt GE "Shovelnose" diesels to the line.
?
September 22, 1847 The Railway Clearing House in England recommends that all English railway operations adopt Greenwich Mean Time.
?
September 22, 1851 The telegraph is used for the first time to dispatch trains, on the Erie Railway at Turners, NY.
?
September 22, 1883 The Grand Trunk Railway fully acquires the Midland Railway of Canada.
?
September 22, 1900 Harry C. Grant and Joshua Lionel Cowen file incorporation papers in New York creating Lionel Trains. Their first product, delivered one year later, will be a battery-operated train propelled by a fan motor and intended for store displays.
?
September 22, 1901 The Grand Rapids & Indiana begins inaugurates a new passenger train between Cadillac and Traverse City MI. On the first run, six miles out of Cadillac in heavy fog, the train collides with a freight train.
?
September 22, 1924 The Roosevelt Hotel opens in downtown Manhattan, using air rights over Grand Central Terminal.
?
September 22, 1928 Canadian Premier John Bracken drives the last spike on? the Canadian National¡¯s line between Flin Flon and Cranberry Portage MB.
?
September 22, 1950 Dedication ceremonies are held at Toledo Union Station.
?
September 22, 1957 Northern Pacific runs its last steam locomotive on its Idaho Division, 4-6-6-4 #5140.
?
September 22, 1958 The Rock Island begins its tests of the "Aerotrain", using it for Chicago commuter service.
?
September 22, 1993 A barge hits a railroad bridge near Mobile, AL. Minutes later an Amtrak train hits the bent tracks and plunges into the bayou. Forty-seven people are killed, making it the worst accident in Amtrak¡¯s history.
?
September 22, 1994 Faulty brakes cause a train to plunge into a ravine in Tolunda, Angola, killing 300.
?
September 22, 1995 Burlington Northern and Santa Fe merge to become BNSF.
?
September 22, 2006 A Transrapid maglev train on the test track at Lathen, Germany collides with a maintenance vehicle. The maglev is traveling at 170 km/h, and the lead unit disintegrates. Twenty-three people are killed.
?
September 22, 2011 A woman suffers head injuries and a broken clavicle when she walks into the side of a moving MBTA train at Needham Center Station in Boston MA. She was distracted by her efforts to light a cigarette.
?
September 22, 2018 China opens a new high-speed rail link with Hong Kong, giving rise to speculation that this is another step in China¡¯s efforts to assimilate the once-English colony.
?
Mark Tomlonson
