November 29, 1847 Michigan's first telegraph line is completed along the Michigan Central Railroad tracks between Detroit and Ypsilanti. The first messages sent are long and range from the price of wheat and putty to news of the Mexican War. Eventually the line will extend to Chicago and be used by the Michigan Central to dispatch trains.
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November 29, 1849 The Michigan Central schedules a second train on its Detroit-New Buffalo line, with a meet in Galesburgh. (That town no longer uses the final "h".)
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November 29, 1852 The Pennsylvania Railroad opens between Beattys and Radebaugh forming a complete rail line between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The route uses the Portage Railroad (including the remaining seven inclined planes) over the Allegheny Mountains.
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November 29, 1871 The Jackson (MI) Citizen reports that the Central Car & Manufacturing Company of that city has shipped its first order: ten platform cars to the Chicago & Michigan Lake Shore Railway.
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November 29, 1871 The Syracuse, Phoenix & Oswego Railway (later RW&O, NYC&HR, NYC) is chartered to run 17 miles from Woodward to Fulton NY.
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November 29, 1883 The Michigan & Ohio Railroad (later CJ&M, T&M, DT&M, NOR, MC, LS&MS, MUR, NYC, PC) completes its line between Dundee and Montieth Junction MI.
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November 29, 1923 Anxious to see a football game between Washington & Jefferson University and West Virginia State, 18-year old Denver Gump steals a passenger train on the Morgantown & & Blackville Railroad (later Monongahela). Mr. Gump’s plan is foiled when the train derails after 2 miles.
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November 29, 2011 The Wisconsin & Southern is sold to Kansas-based WATCO.
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November 29, 2011 Amtrak expands on-board Wi-Fi service to all three of its state-supported California trains. Nearly 75% of Amtrak's passengers now have Wi-Fi access, the major exceptions being Amtrak's long distance trains.
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November 30, 1832 For the first time, the Post Office authorizes the carrying of mail via rail road.
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November 30, 1850 The Madison & Indianapolis Railroad (IN - later JM&I, PCC&St.L, PRR) ships 1,365 hogs from Franklin and Edinburg to Madison in a single train of 28 double-deck cars pulled by the locomotive "Governor Whitcomb".
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November 30, 1850 The Northern Indiana & Chicago Railroad (later LS&MS, NYC, PC, CR, NS) is chartered.
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November 30, 1871 The Toronto, Simcoe & Muskoka Junction Railway opens from Barrie to Orillia ON. CNR will abandon the line in September 1996.
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November 30, 1872 The first through train runs over Chicago & North Western tracks via Menominee WI and Escanaba MI to the national network.
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November 30, 1877 The Pennsylvania Company contracts to use Janney automatic couplers for $10 ($293.00 in 2023) per passenger car.
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November 30, 1890 The Peru & Detroit Railway is completed between Peru and Chili IN. It is immediately leased to the Wabash Railroad for 99 years. Later it will be purchased by the Winona & Warsaw Railway for their Peru extension.
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November 30, 1896 A tramline is opened between the English seaside towns of Brighton and Rottingdean. Two sets of two rails are laid to a gauge of 2' 8.5" and the two sets are then spaced 18' apart. The vehicles used on this tramway look like normal English trams, except wider, and they ride on four legs, each leg 24 feet high to allow for the tides of more than 15 feet. The vehicles are powered by overhead wire and will run until 1901. These trams will be used as inspiration for the CGI-rendered diving platforms in the 2005 movie "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
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November 30, 1897 Last day of operations at the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern roundhouse in White Pigeon MI. Operations have been transferred to Elkhart IN.
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November 30, 1901 President Roosevelt and other dignitaries travel in a special 3-car train to the Army-Navy game at Philadelphia.
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November 30, 1912 All-wood Pullman cars are banned by the Pennsylvania Railroad on mainline trains.
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November 30, 1917 The "Broadway Limited" is withdrawn for the duration of the war. New York Central will continue running the "20th Century Limited" as it does not have the freight congestion of the PRR.
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November 30, 1918 The Arcadia & Betsey River Railway is abandoned between Henry and Copemish MI. The track, tie plates and joiners are returned to the Ann Arbor Railroad, which had made the expansion from Henry possible in 1896.
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November 30, 1928 Interurban service ends between Jackson and Battle Creek MI.
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November 30, 1928 The Central Indiana Railway is abandoned between Muncie and Anderson, Lodoga, Waveland, Sand Creek and Brazil.
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November 30, 1950 Baldwin Locomotive Works and the Lima Locomotive Works merge to become Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation.
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November 30, 1965 United Aircraft Corporation unveils its plans for a 160 mph train powered by aircraft engines. The train is a direct descendant of the New York Central’s "Train X".
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November 30, 1985 Pere Marquette 2-8-4 1225 moves under steam for the first time in 34 years.
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December 1, 1824 The Montreal “Gazette” prints an editorial calling for the construction of a railway to link Lake Champlain with the St. Lawrence River. This line was eventually built, the Champlain & St. Lawrence (later M&NY, GTR, CN)
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December 1, 1845 The New York & Harlem (later NYC) reaches White Plains NY.
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December 1, 1852 The Auburn & Eel River Valley Railroad (later PRR) is incorporated in Indiana to run from the Auburn & Eel River Valley Railroad in DeKalb County to Logansport.
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December 1, 1852 The Pennsylvania Railroad first offers all-rail passenger and mail service across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
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December 1, 1867 The Bay City & East Saginaw (later F&PM, PM, C&O) begins operations between its two namesake Michigan towns.
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December 1, 1867 The Boston & Albany merges with the Boston & Worcester and Western railroads.
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December 1, 1872 The management of the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicago, Grand Rapids & Indiana, Michigan & Lake Shore, and Cincinnati, Richmond & Fort Wayne Railroads (all later PRR) are consolidated with an office at Fort Wayne.
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December 1, 1873 Due to the Panic of 1873, wages of all employees on Pennsylvania Railroad's Lines West are cut by 10%.
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December 1, 1874 The Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad completes its Flint to Ludington route via Midland, Clare and Reed City.
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December 1, 1875 The Atlantic Coast Line begins publishing "Atlantic Coast Line Journal", one of the first advertising/travel magazines.
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December 1, 1883 The four horsecar lines operating in Grand Rapids MI combine to form a new company, the Street Railway of Grand Rapids.
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December 1, 1893 The Sandusky, Milan & Norwalk Electric Railway begins operations on its 20-mile line in Ohio. Some consider this line the first interurban.
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December 1, 1897 The Baltimore & Ohio changes its Chicago end point to Grand Central Station.
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December 1, 1901 The Chicago Kalamazoo & Saginaw completes its Pavilion Branch running southeast from Kalamazoo, connecting with the Grand Trunk at Pavilion. GT (et seq.) will lease this branch for access to Kalamazoo.
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December 1, 1903 "The Great Train Robbery", the first "Western" film, is released.
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December 1, 1905 Opening of the Marion & Bluffton Traction Company (IN), 32 miles.
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December 1, 1905 A group of investors meets to organize the Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Railroad. The idea behind the line is to make a railroad as nearly straight and level between the two namesake cites as physically possible. The line was to be made up of companies that would each build a short stretch. A small segment in Indiana will be all that ever opens.
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December 1, 1905 The Long Island Railroad extends its electrification from Hammel to Far Rockaway on the Rockaway Branch.
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December 1, 1913 The Buenos Aires Metro, the first underground railway in the Southern Hemisphere, begins operations.
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December 1, 1917 The Dayton, Springfield & Xenia Southern (OH Interurban) abandons its line between Beavertown [present day Kettering near the intersection of Wilmington Pike and Dorothy Lane] and Spring Valley.
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December 1, 1925 The Pennsylvania Railroad agrees with Ingersoll-Rand to test one of their oil-electric locomotives.
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December 1, 1929 Cleveland Union Terminal begins limited operation, serving ten westbound New York Central trains.
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December 1, 1933 The two remaining streetcar companies in Washington DC are consolidated under the Capitol Traction Company.
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December 1, 1937 Representatives of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Pullman and RCA meet in Chicago to discuss adding a Radio/Victrola system to the observation cars of the "Broadway Limited".
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December 1, 1938 In a blinding blizzard, a school bus in Sandy UT crosses the tracks in front of a Denver & Rio Grande Western freight train traveling at 60 mph. The driver stopped before crossing, as required by law, but did not open his doors to better hear the train approaching. The train dragged the bus about one-half mile before it could stop. Twenty-five students died along with the bus driver. The incident leads to the requirement that school buses stop and open their doors before crossing tracks. It remains the worst railroad crossing accident in United States history.
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December 1, 1939 Atlantic Coast Lines' "Champion" is introduced.
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December 1, 1942 Wartime gasoline rationing is imposed across the United States.
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December 1, 1947 With styling reminiscent of Raymond Loewy’s Pennsylvania Railroad T-1’s, South Australian Railways 4-8-4 No. 531 leaves Islington Railway Workshops, the last SAR steam locomotive built at Islington.
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December 1, 1949 Nickel Plate leases the Wheeling & Lake Erie for 99 years.
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December 1, 1951 The Laramie, North Park & Western is absorbed into the Union Pacific.
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December 1, 1952 Canadian Pacific Railway ushers in the modern intermodal era with the introduction of Trailer-On-Flat-Car service. Earlier attempts at intermodal date back to the 1830's.
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December 1, 1958 Boston & Maine continues cutting back passenger operations in its western regions and passenger trains no longer run through Hoosac Tunnel.
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December 1, 1959 The Virginian Railway is merged into the Norfolk & Western.
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December 1, 1963 The Pennsylvania Railroad begins "Operation Beaver": a paint-up, fix-up and clean-up program designed to put a cosmetic veneer over deferred maintenance.
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December 1, 1987 Digging begins on The Chunnel. Ten years later on this date it will "hole through".
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December 1, 1999 The Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad (The "Ma & Pa") is merged with Yorkrail to become York Railway Co.
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December 1, 2007 Norfolk Southern terminates its Joint Section agreement with Canadian National, initiated between the Wabash and the Grand Trunk in 1898, ending 109 years of operation into Ontario. However, NS and CN cannot come to agreement to handle Fort Erie interchange traffic, and service is allowed to continue under a new temporary agreement.
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Mark Tomlonson
