January 3, 1868 The Kalamazoo & Grand Rapids Railroad (later KA&GR, LS&MS, NYC, PC) is incorporated.
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January 3, 1870 The Kalamazoo & South Haven (later MC, NYC, PC, CR) is completed from Kalamazoo to Kendall MI.
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January 3, 1908 The St. Clair Coal Railway (IL) is merged into the Vandalia Railroad.
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January 3, 1910 Tired of its cars being routed to the Boston & Maine by mistake, the Brookville & Mahoning (PA) changes its name to the Pittsburg & Shawmut.
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January 3, 1914 The Niagara, St. Catharines & Toronto Railway (interurban) opens from St. Catharines to Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON.
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January 3, 1933 A recreation car is placed on the "Florida Special", operating southbound on Fridays and northbound on Mondays. The car includes a three-piece Hawaiian band, a dance floor, contract bridge tournaments and other amusements including a wading pool. Next year, the pool will be withdrawn due to sloshing water and additional recreation cars will be built making the cars available on all trains.
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January 3, 1934 When a flying wheel rim from a grade crossing collision kills an engineer, the Pennsylvania Railroad orders its P-5 electrics still under construction to be built with a center cab rather than box cab design.
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January 3, 1954 The last steam powered passenger train departs Washington DC's Union Station. Richmond, Fredricksburg & Potomac engine #622 "Carter Braxton" departs at approx. 1: 40 PM for Richmond VA.
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January 3, 1957 The former Cincinnati Northern (later CCC&StL, NYC) roundhouse at Van Wert OH is torn down.
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January 3, 1960 Washington DC ends suburban and overhead trolley operations.
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January 3, 1962 First through train, Sydney to Melbourne.
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January 3, 1967 The Chesapeake & Ohio buys the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend, acquiring 94% of the lines outstanding stock.
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January 3, 2005 The Federal Railroad Administration publishes a "final rule" requiring reflective material on the sides of locomotives and freight cars as a safety measure to make trains more visible at highway-rail grade crossings.
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January 3, 2020 To try to increase public awareness of grade crossing dangers, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Morrisville police place the remains of a car wrecked in a November 30 car/train collision at the site of the accident for 30 days to illustrate the damage caused to a car when it is hit by a freight doing 55 mph.
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January 3, 2024 Yesterday and today, two former New York Central electric locomotives, an S-1 and a T-3a, are delivered and unloaded at the Danbury Rail Museum. They had been stranded in Glenmont NY for more than 30 years.
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January 4, 1875 The Prince Edward Island Railway (later CGR, CNoR, CN) opens between Summerside and Tignish.
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January 4, 1877 Commodore Vanderbilt dies at his home at the age of 82. He leaves the bulk of his estate and control of the Vanderbilt Lines to his son, William Henry.
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January 4, 1891 The Southern Railroad inaugurates its "Washington and Southwestern Vestibule Limited", an ancestor of the "Crescent Limited".
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January 4, 1901 Union Traction Company opens its Anderson-Indianapolis line.
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January 4, 1915 The "Dixie Flyer", running between Chicago and Florida on a C&EI/L&N route receives all-new steel cars.
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January 4, 1920 Ottawa Central Station (Ontario) is renamed Ottawa Union Station.
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January 4, 1932 The Indiana Railroad (interurban) abandons its main line between Indianapolis and Dunreith branch.
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January 4, 1948 The Rock Island and the Southern Pacific debut new equipment for the “Golden State” passenger train.
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January 4, 1952 The Chesapeake & Ohio carferry "Spartan" is launched.
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January 4, 1962 New York City installs the first automated subway train.
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January 4, 1963 The Baltimore & Ohio ends passenger service to Cleveland.
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January 4, 1965 In his State of the Union address, President Johnson calls for funds to study high-speed rail service in the Northeast Corridor.
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January 4, 1969 The Port Authority Transit Corporation of Pennsylvania and New Jersey (PATCO) begins operations between Broadway, Camden and Lindenwood NJ.
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January 4, 1970 The "Lake Cities" makes its last run between Chicago and Hoboken, ending long-distance passenger service on the Erie-Lackawanna. The train will arrive at its end terminals tomorrow morning.
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January 4, 1987 Conrail engines running light run through a signal and collide with an Amtrak train at Gunpow Interlocking on the Northeast Corridor, killing 16. Ricky Gates, the Conrail engineer was found to be using marijuana and watching TV at the time of the accident. The incident will lead directly to licensing and drug testing of locomotive engineers.
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January 4, 1990 An overcrowded 16-car passenger train strikes a standing freight train in Sindh Province, Pakistan, killing 307 and injuring an estimated 700 people.
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January 5, 1832 The Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad Company (later CCC&StL, NYC, PC, CR, I&O) is incorporated in Ohio to build between Sandusky and Dayton via Springfield. The charter, the first successful one in Ohio, replaces a planned canal project that has been shelved for lack of water.
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January 5, 1861 The Amboy, Lansing & Traverse Bay Railroad (later JL&S, MC) becomes the first land-grant railroad in Michigan to receive certification that it has completed the requisite 20 miles of track.
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January 5, 1869 Representatives of railroads running between New York and Washington meet at New York to devise a plan to eliminate the use of horse-drawn transfers through the streets of Baltimore.
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January 5, 1876 In a dispute over a level crossing, the Pennsylvania Railroad parks a locomotive on its tracks in Hopewell NJ where the Delaware & Bound Brook Railroad hopes to cross. When the locomotive backs up to clear another PRR train, D&BB partisans chain it to the track. Today and tomorrow 1500 railroad employees plus townsfolk from Hopewell will confront each other. Four PRR locomotives will derail in unsuccessful attempts to ram barricades.
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January 5, 1893 The last rail in the construction of the Great Northern Railroad between the Great Lakes and Everett, Washington is put in place at Scenic, WA. It is the fourth transcontinental railroad completed, and the first to receive no Federal aid nor to be involved in a major financial scandal. Service on the line will not start until July. (Some sources place this event on January 6.)
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January 5, 1914 The Pennsylvania Railroad announces it carried 111,000,000 passengers in 1913 without a single fatality.
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January 5, 1917 After a five-year court battle, the merger of the Evansville & Southern Indiana Traction Company and the Evansville Public Service Company is approved.
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January 5, 1955 The Sand Springs Railway (interurban, OK) ends passenger service.
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January 5, 1956 General Motors’ "Aerotrain" number 1000 is tested by the Pennsylvania Railroad between Washington and Newark. “Aerotrain” number 1001 makes its initial Chicago to Detroit test run on the New York Central.
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January 5, 1966 All parties agree to include the New Haven in the Penn Central merger.
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January 5, 1985 The Alaska Railroad becomes the property of the State of Alaska.
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January 5, 1988 The last passenger train leaves Detroit's Michigan Central station: Amtrak’s Train 353, departing at 11:30 am for Chicago.
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January 5, 2007 300 kph (186 mph) train service begins between Panchiao and Kaohsing, Taiwan, using Japanese "Bullet Train" technology. A second section from Panchiao to Taipei will open March 2.
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January 5, 2011 In a report issued today, the Public Interest Network reports that highway tolls and other fees cover only 51% of the total cost of road transportation, the rest being borne by taxes.
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January 5, 2012 In Vernon VT, 15 "Turtle Crossings" are installed under 700 feet of railroad track to allow endangered spotted turtles to safely reach their nesting grounds.
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Mark Tomlonson
