November 20, 1852 The Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula (later LS&MS) is opened, from Cleveland to Erie PA.
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November 20, 1855 The first railroad in Iowa, the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad (later CRI&P) runs from Davenport to Muscatine.
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November 20, 1875 The first railroad Y.M.C.A. opens in Grand Central Station. Railroad Y.M.C.A.’s will provide clean, inexpensive, and safe housing for crews away from home.
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November 20, 1879 The Denver, South Park & Pacific signs a contract with Pullman to provide sleeping car service on its 3-foot gauge line between Denver and Leadville.
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November 20, 1885 South Bend IN inaugurates regularly scheduled electric streetcar service, the first in the U.S.
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November 20, 1887 The Milwaukee & Northern Railroad (later Milwaukee Road) reaches Champion MI on its way north from Milwaukee. It will reach Ontonagon MI six years later.
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November 20, 1924 New York Central holds formal dedication ceremonies for its new Selkirk Yard, located south of Albany as well as the Hudson River Connecting Railroad with the new Alfred H. Smith Bridge spanning the Hudson River.
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November 20, 1931 The cornerstone is laid at Cincinnati Union Terminal. The skeletal frame of the building is already up.
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November 20, 1945 Babcock & Wilcox complete their testing of a boiler for use in steam turbine locomotives. The biggest problems: controlling fly ash to keep it from damaging turbine blades and the formation of clinker.
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November 20, 1952 Fairbanks Morse unveils its H-24-66 "Trainmaster".
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November 20, 1961 Union Pacific 844 makes its first excursion run after retirement from regular service.
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November 20, 1992 The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District opens a new South Bend Terminal at the South Bend airport.
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November 20, 2016 At a busy railroad junction in Pukhrayan, 250 miles southwest of New Delhi, a passenger train derails, killing at least 146. It is India’s worst wreck in several years.
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November 20, 2018 The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issues standards for high-speed passenger trains operating on U.S. railroads. Tier I standards allow for operations up to 125 mph, Tier II 125-160 and Tier III, 160-220 mph. Tier III requires (among other things) a right-of-way not shared with freight traffic and no grade crossings.
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November 21, 1845 Jamaica Railways begin operations.
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November 21, 1853 Erie, PA Mayor Alfred King issues a proclamation calling on citizens to uphold the ordinance passed four days earlier against a gauge change. Erie fears that if all its railroads are the same gauge, their town will suffer due to the lost transfer jobs.
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November 21, 1854 The Hudson & Berkshire Railroad (NY) is sold at foreclosure to the Hudson & Boston Railroad (later B&A)
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November 21, 1859 First Detroit-Fort Gratiot (Port Huron) train on the Chicago, Detroit & Canada Grand Trunk Junction Railroad (later GT, GTW). Thomas Edison will later work on this line as a candy butcher.
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November 21, 1866 The Baltimore & Ohio leases the Central Ohio Railroad, extending its influence to Columbus.
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November 21, 1872 The New Haven Railroad begins using Grand Central Station and ends use of its old depot at 4th Avenue & 27th Street. Those buildings are later converted into the first Madison Square Garden.
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November 21, 1875 The Grand Rapids & Indiana discontinues stations at Reynolds, Rust, Crapo, Mitchells and Mill Creek (MI) for lack of business.
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November 21, 1903 Twenty-eight Penn Station construction workers, mostly Italians, are killed when their shanty is ignited by the stoves inside. The workers are killed when they return to the burning shanty to retrieve their savings, which they are sending back to Italy to their families.
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November 21, 1921 Great Northern begins using the St. Paul Terminal Station.
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November 21, 1950 A westbound troop train and Canadian National’s “Continental Limited” crash head-on near Valemount BC. Twenty-one passengers are killed, 17 of them troops on their way to Korea.
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November 21, 1959 Mrs. John Luther "Casey" Jones passes away at the age of 92.
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November 21, 1980 The Burlington Northern absorbs the Frisco.
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November 22, 1858 The Detroit & Milwaukee Railroad (later GT) opens a new depot across the river from Grand Haven MI. Serving only freight at first, passenger service to the new depot will begin on January 1.
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November 22, 1865 The St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute Railroad (later PRR) is organized.
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November 22, 1882 The Belt Railway of Chicago is incorporated.
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November 22, 1902 Alfred E. Perlman is born in St. Paul MN. He will be the last President of the New York Central and the first President of Penn Central.
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November 22, 1926 The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul is sold at auction for $140 million ($2.1 billion in 2020 dollars).
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November 22, 1944 Nine different railroads pool $335,000 ($4.9 million in 2020 dollars) to finance General Electric's development of a coal-burning turboelectric locomotive.
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Mark Tomlonson
