January 29, 1830 Papers are filed for the first railroad incorporated in Kentucky, the Lexington & Ohio Railroad Company.
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January 29, 1834 In the first use of federal troops to put down a labor dispute, President Jackson calls on the War Department to quell a "riotous assembly" of Irish workers on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad.
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January 29, 1835 The Morris & Essex Railroad (later DL&W) is incorporated in New Jersey to build from Newark to Morristown and further west.
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January 29, 1871 The Baltimore & Ohio stops charging state tax on through New York-Washington passengers using the Washington Branch. It had continued to collect the tax from passengers even though it hadn't been collected by Maryland for years.
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January 29, 1873 The gap between the eastern and western sections of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad is closed at Hawks Nest WV, completing the line to the Ohio River at Huntington WV.
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January 29, 1880 The Columbus, Hope & Greenburg Railroad (later NYC) is incorporated.
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January 29, 1902 Streetcar service extends from Appleton to Kaukauna WI.
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January 29, 1907 New York Central’s electrification project for Grand Central Terminal reaches High Bridge NY.
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January 29, 1909 The final spike is driven for the Virginian Railway.
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January 29, 1917 The Wabash Railroad leaves Pittsburgh, and the Wabash-Pittsburgh Terminal Railroad becomes the Pittsburgh & West Virginia.
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January 29, 1927 The U.S. Post Office issues the first private mail contract, to William Boeing and Edward Hubbard to carry mail between Chicago and San Francisco.
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January 29, 1929 The Orient Express becomes trapped in snow in Western Turkey for seven days, an event that will be fictionalized in Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express".
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January 29, 1940 Three trains collide in Osaka, Japan. The resulting explosion near Ajikawaguchi Station kills 181 people.
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January 29, 1963 Alco introduces its "Century" line of diesel Locomotives.
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January 29, 2010 An Illinois woman sues METRA, saying that she was injured by an exploding toilet one year ago today on a METRA train.
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January 29, 2022 WATCO assumes operation of 328 miles of former CN trackage in Wisconsin as well as 143 miles in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The Wisconsin trackage will operate under the “Fox Valley & Lake Superior” name. Michigan operations will be headquartered in Newberry MI as a new division of the Grand Elk railroad.
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Mark Tomlonson
