November 16, 1822 Hetton Colliery Railway, a private coal road, opens between Hetton Colliery and Sunderland, Durhamshire. It consists of a series of inclined planes and levels crossing a divide. Many Americans will visit the operation. It will serve as a model for the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company's first railroad and the Allegheny Portage Railroad.
?
November 16, 1869 Collis P. Huntington, the financial leader of the "Big Four" who were behind the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads, agrees to complete the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad to the Ohio River.
?
November 16, 1893 The Portsmouth Street Railway & Light Company opens between Portsmouth and Sciotoville OH.
?
November 16, 1898 The Vermont Central Railroad is purchased by the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada and renamed the Vermont Central Railway.
?
November 16, 1920 The Indiana Public Service Commission authorizes the Pennsylvania Railroad to drop its commuter "dinky" between Jeffersonville and New Albany in return for the Louisville & Southern Indiana Traction Company providing baggage service between those two points.
?
November 16, 1925 After trying and failing to charter an airplane, Texas oil tycoon Guy L. Waggoner charters a Pennsylvania Railroad train to take him from St. Louis to New York to be at the bedside of his critically ill sister The train sets a record time of 20 hours, 26 minutes and cost $7,000. ($101,000 in 2020 dollars)
?
November 16, 1947 The original "Twin Zephyr" equipment is given a new EMD E5A for motive power and assigned to Chicago-Lincoln service as the "Nebraska Zephyr".
?
November 16, 1953 Electric operations end at Cleveland Union Terminal. The new diesels save the New York Central $400,000 ($3.9 million in 2020 dollars) per year in operating costs.
?
November 16, 1957 New York Central Extra 4000 East (nee Train 90) out of Chicago derails at White Pigeon MI. The train has been diverted off the Toledo Division onto the "Old Road" at Elkhart due to an earlier derailment east of Elkhart. The engineer, who has not checked for slow orders nor run on the line for three years, runs though a 15 mph slow-order turnout at 55 mph. One Railway Mail Clerk is killed, 23 Railway Mail clerks, 8 passengers and one train service employee are injured.
?
November 16, 1960 Two trains collide head-on in Steblova in Czecheslovakia. One hundred eighteen are killed and 110 are injured.
?
November 16, 1968 Penn Central drops local weekend passenger service between Detroit and Ann Arbor.
?
November 16, 1979 The Bucharest Metro opens.
?
November 16, 1990 The "Badger" makes her last run as a railroad carferry due to an incident in Kewaunee when she was alleged to have touched bottom.
?
November 16, 2009 Service begins on Minnesota's "Northstar" commuter trains between Big Lake and Minneapolis, a distance of 40 miles. Also today: Los Angeles opens a six-mile extension along the Gold line into East Los Angeles.
?
November 16, 2015 Norfolk Southern ends “Triple Crown” service to Harrisburg PA. This leaves the Detroit to Kansas City route as the sole “Triple Crown” rail service.
?
November 16, 2018 Because smoke from the “Camp” forest fire in northern Californian has made San Francisco air hazardous, the San Francisco Muni eliminates fares on all routes. Also, since the cable cars are open-air, they are temporarily taken out of service.
?
Mark Tomlonson
