July 6, 1881 Seventeen year-old Kate Shelley ventures out during a torrential gale-force thunderstorm near Moingona IA to alert officials of the washed-out Honey Creek Bridge. This prevents the "The Midwest Limited" from following an inspection engine into the flood below. Kate earns a spot in history when poems are written in her honor; her story is printed in an elementary school textbook and her name is given to the new bridge over the Des Moines River built in 1900.
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July 6, 1886 First transcontinental revenue freight train on the Canadian Pacific.
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July 6, 1887 The Gogebic & Montreal River RR, a predecessor of the Soo Line, reaches Ironwood and Bessemer MI.
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July 6, 1894 President Grover Cleveland sends 2,000 Federal troops to Chicago to put down the Pullman Strike.
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July 6, 1926 The Lebanon-Thorntown Traction Company (IN) quits, and its 10 miles of right-of-way are taken over by the parallel Big Four Railroad.
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July 6, 1929 The Pennsylvania Railroad places diesel No. 3906 in service at 37th Street Yard in Manhattan. The locomotive replaces No. 859, the last PRR steam locomotive within New York's city limits.
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July 6, 1929 The Pennsylvania Railroad runs its last passenger train between Butler and LaOtto IN.
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July 6, 1931 The Monon and Pennsylvania Railroads drop passenger service between Indianapolis and French Lick Springs.
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July 6, 1952 The last tram (streetcar) runs in London.
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July 6, 1958 Chicago & North Western trains 13 and 14, running between Omaha and Chadron NE make their last runs. The Save-the-Trains Association had lobbied against the discontinuance in court, but did not prevail.
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July 6, 1961 The last day of corporate existence of the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin. Passenger service had quit four years earlier, freight service in July 1959.
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July 6, 1981 Parent Norfolk & Western Railway abandons the New Jersey, Indiana & Illinois Railroad mainline from the depot on Western Avenue in South Bend IN to the junction at Studebakers.
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July 6, 2013 A Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train carrying crude oil begins moving without an engineer. It derails after traveling seven miles in Lac-Megantic QC. The resulting fire kills up to 50 people and destroys most of the center of the small town.
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July 6, 2015 Former Pennsylvania Railroad position light signals are removed at CP 506 near Colehour Yard in Hammond, IN.
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Mark Tomlonson
