May 5, 1827 The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company opens a nine-mile railroad operated by horses and gravity between Summit Hill mines and Mauch Chunk PA. It is the first permanent railroad in Pennsylvania and second of consequence in the U.S.
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May 5, 1835 The first railroad in continental Europe opens, running between Brussels and Mechelen.
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May 5, 1836 The Castleton & West Stockbridge is issued a new charter as it reorganizes as the Albany & West Stockridge. (later B&A)
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May 5, 1852 The Pennsylvania Railroad authorizes spending $300 (2024: $12,077) to produce a tourist guidebook to the line, providing pictures are used.
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May 5, 1860 A steam-powered "dummy" railcar, the "Novelty" makes a test run in Philadelphia. The 25-foot body built by Kimball & Gorton and power plant by Baldwin seats 38. This summer it will serve on the Pennsylvania Railroad for picnic excursions.
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May 5, 1865 A locomotive is overturned and robbed in North Bend, OH, in America's first recorded train robbery.
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May 5, 1891 A carbarn fire destroys 36 open cars owned by the Street Railway of Grand Rapids (MI).
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May 5, 1900 The Pennsylvania Railroad Board approves the purchase of the Long Island Railroad.
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May 5, 1905 The Pennsylvania Railroad's Train Number 52 hits the wreckage of a derailed freight train at speed. In the consist of Train 52 is an RPO car built to the standards of the Railway Mail Service, put in place the year before. It is the first car built to the standards to be in a wreck. It is not crushed, and all the postal employees in the car survive, a rarity before the standard was issued.
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May 5, 1906 The first train runs on the Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago, using the former Michigan Central line between Kalamazoo and Lawton. It had been sold to the KLS&C after the opening of MC's "Miller Cut-off" (the present Amtrak line). The new owner has hopes of turning the line into an interurban, but it will never run under wire.
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May 5, 1920 The Pennsylvania Railroad begins running solid express trains between Chicago and Pittsburgh without intermediate yard switching. Experience with reduced crews during a recent strike has shown the yarding to be unnecessary.
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May 5, 1943 Pullman launches its first ship built for the Navy, a PCE (patrol craft).
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May 5, 1947 Detroit¡¯s Grand River streetcar line is converted to buses. While several smaller lines had been converted earlier, this is the first major Detroit line to lose its streetcars.
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May 5, 1949 The Baltimore & Ohio launches its streamlined all-coach "Columbian". Running from Baltimore to Chicago, the train features the first Pullman-Standard domes sold to a railroad.
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May 5, 1950 The last steam locomotive runs on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois.
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May 5, 1962 The New York Central donates 4-8-2 #2933 to the National Museum of Transport in St. Louis.
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May 5, 1989 The former Chicago, Kalamazoo & Saginaw freight house in Kalamazoo MI is torn down. The site is now (2025) occupied by the Sergeant Fuel Company
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May 5, 2004 CNNA announces the closing of Nichols Yard in Battle Creek MI and Hawthorne and Centralia Yards in Illinois. Hawthorne Yard, however, will remain open.
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May 5, 2018 Amtrak adds Marks MS to the list of stations served by ¡°The City of New Orleans¡±.
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Mark Tomlonson
