January 13, 1842 The Philadelphia & Reading (later Reading) opens for revenue freight and passenger service from Mount Carmel to Philadelphia. Its coal-hauling operations will prove that a rail road can compete with a canal for heavy freight service.
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January 13, 1882 A rear end collision at Spuyten Duyvil kills Webster Wagner of the Wagner Car Company, operator of a fleet of sleeper cars.
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January 13, 1918 The Presidents of 70 different railroads meet at Grand Central Terminal to formulate a demand that Congress declare that Government control of the railroads is only for the duration of the war.
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January 13, 1928 The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul is reorganized into the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific.
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January 13, 1929 Chicago Great Western places a three-car trainset made by McKeen in service between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Rochester, serving the Mayo Clinic.
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January 13, 1930 Robert M. Davis of McGraw-Hill Publishing buys a single ticket at New York City's Penn Station for a 35-city tour. The ticket is a record 83 inches long.
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January 13, 1941 Freight motor no. 717 departs southbound with the last electric freight train from the Commerce Dr. freight terminal in Ft. Wayne IN. Its counterpart from Indianapolis will arrive at the freight terminal at 5:30 a.m. the next morning. This closes out electric freight service entering Ft. Wayne from all except the north line.
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January 13, 1947 The Nickel Plate Road orders 4 BL-1 diesel locomotives from EMD. The model will be upgraded to BL-2 by EMD after the order has been submitted. Six months later EMD will not have started construction of the locomotives and NKP will cancel the order.
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January 13, 1952 The "City of San Francisco" is trapped in snow on Donner Pass. Passengers will be stranded in the train until January 16.
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January 13, 1986 In the worst rail disaster on the African continent, an Ethiopian passenger train plunges into a ravine, killing 428.
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January 13, 2021 Grand Trunk Western 4-6-2 5030 is sold to the Colebrookdale Preservation Trust in Pennsylvania. The locomotive had been on display in a park in Jackson MI since the late 1950’s. The Trust plans to restore the locomotive to operating condition.
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Mark Tomlonson
