December 13, 1836 The Republic of Texas charters its first railroad.
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December 13, 1877 The Allegan & South Eastern Railroad is organized in Michigan to take over the part of the Mansfield, Coldwater & Lake Michigan Railroad between Allegan and Monteith. The papers will be filed in January.
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December 13, 1902 For the last time, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern in its yard in Elkhart IN switches a car equipped with a link and pin coupler.
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December 13, 1907 Interurban service begins between Mukwonago and East Troy WI, extending the line from Milwaukee. The line now serves the East Troy Electric Railroad museum.
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December 13, 1909 The Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railway, a Great Northern subsidiary, reaches Princeton BC.
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December 13, 1930 The first Sperry Rail Detector car is shown to the public at Pittsburgh.
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December 13, 1937 The Reading Railroad places a new steam-powered streamlined train in service between New York and Philadelphia. The 5-car train with an observation car at each end will be named "The Crusader" after a naming contest.
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December 13, 1945 New York Central places an order for 420 new passenger cars. It is the largest passenger car order placed by any railroad to date.
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December 13, 1945 The 1,000,000th returning soldier passes through Camp Kilmer on a Pennsylvania Railroad troop train.
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December 13, 2005 Conrail closes Schaefer Tower in the Detroit area. It will be demolished three days later.
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December 13, 2006 The Ohio Central uses its recently restored Lake Superior & Ishpeming 2-8-0 to pull a revenue freight train (including three dead-in-tow diesels).
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December 13, 2008 Italy begins a new high-speed link between Milan and Bologna, part of a line that is expected to reach Rome next year. The train averages 120 mph, twice the speed of conventional service. Long-term plans are to give rail a 60% market share between any two Italian cities.
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December 13, 2016 Detroit’s “Q-Line” light rail makes its first test run along its 3.3 mile Woodward Ave. right of way.
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December 14, 1878 William H. Vanderbilt contracts with a British steamship company to ship grain from the New York Central & Hudson River's new terminal at 65th street in New York. Previously, the NYC&HR has used the infrastructure associated with the Erie Canal for its shipments but now has to make its own arrangements.
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December 14, 1903 The New Haven inaugurates the "Merchants Limited", a premier first-class train between New York and Boston on a five-hour schedule. Trains leave Boston and New York at 5:00 pm.
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December 14, 1934 New York Central unveils the "Commodore Vanderbilt", the first streamline steam locomotive and the inspiration for one of Lionel's most popular toy locomotives.
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December 14, 1961 Near Evans CO, 20 students are killed and 16 injured when their school bus is hit by the Union Pacific's "City of Denver". The driver of the bus had let the vehicle roll onto the rural crossing in front of the oncoming train. After this incident, Colorado will pass a law requiring certain vehicles, such as school buses, to come to a full stop before proceeding across railroad tracks. Other states will follow suit.
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December 14, 1974 Southern Pacific 4-8-4 4449 is moved from static display in a Portland OR park to Burlington Northern's Ninth Street roundhouse for restoration to active service pulling the second iteration of the American Freedom Train.
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December 14, 2008 A mock hold-up of a Santa Train in Random Lake, WI becomes too real when a live round of buckshot is accidentally loaded into one of the guns. One of the actors and a 14-year old spectator receive non-life threatening wounds. Santa was not hurt.
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December 14, 2010 CSX removes the last semaphore signals from the former Monon. The last blade to fall was at milepost 147.1 at North Crawfordsville IN.
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December 14, 2017 The Irish Sun newspaper reports that Dublin’s new tram (light rail) line is so slow due to traffic, long loading time at stops and urban congestion that it is faster to walk the route than to ride.
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December 15, 1859 Gas lighting is installed at the Pennsylvania's Altoona PA shops.
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December 15, 1872 The Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad opens between Clam Lake (Cadillac) and Walton Jct. MI. (Some sources say September 1872).
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December 15, 1891 Kokomo IN begins streetcar service.
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December 15, 1893 High winds topple a construction crane on the Big Four Bridge, under construction at Louisville KY. The crane, one of the through truss spans and 41 workers are thrown into the Ohio River. Twenty-one of the workers lose their lives.
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December 15, 1896 The first section of what will become the Canadian Northern (later CN) is laid between Gladstone and Dauphin, Manitoba.
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December 15, 1907 The New York Central & Hudson River Railroad extends the running time of the Twentieth Century Limited by an hour and a half to allow for delays due to snowstorms.
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December 15, 1925 Long Island RR 401 is demonstrated for the first time. It pulls a seven car freight from ALCO in Schenectady NY to Long Island, making it the first mainline freight in the U.S. pulled by diesel-electric power.
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December 15, 1926 The Denver & Interurban (CO) ends operations.
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December 15, 1930 Dayton (OH) Union Station sees its first trains.
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December 15, 1930 The Pennsylvania Railroad begins allowing passengers traveling to Florida resorts to ship their cars by freight train.
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December 15, 1937 A merger agreement is signed placing eight New York Central subsidiary lines into the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway.
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December 15, 1938 The first diesels in the southeast appear on the "Orange Blossom Special": EMD E-4's. They are also the first locomotives to be fitted with EMD's "567" diesel prime mover.
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December 15, 1953 The Osage Railroad (OK) is abandoned.
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December 15, 1969 Penn Central opens Buckeye Yard northwest of Columbus OH. The computer-controlled yard has 88 miles of track and can hold 4,550 cars. It replaces 5 smaller yards in the Columbus area. The yard will not be finished until next year.
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December 15, 1981Chicago & North Western and Union Pacific announce funding has been arranged for their Wyoming Coal Line project.
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December 15, 1986 VIA takes delivery of its first F40PH-2 from the Diesel Division of General Motors Canada, Ltd. The units are the second type of new locomotives bought by VIA, the first are the LRC’s from Alco.
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December 15, 1988 Chief Wawatam, the former ferry between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace MI, is towed to Sault Saint Marie, Ontario for conversion to a barge.
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December 15, 1992 The Hulett machines unload their last lake ore boat at the Cleveland docks. After this, the boat-rail transfer will be accomplished by machinery carried on each boat.
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December 15, 1994 VIA's "Atlantic", which also serves six stations in Maine, makes its last run.
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December 15, 2010 For the first time, a model train circles the National Christmas Tree. The G-Scale set, provided by Amtrak, will run as long as the tree is up.
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Mark Tomlonson
