October 16, 1826 The Stockton & Darlington Railway becomes the first in the world to begin a regular, scheduled revenue passenger service, The passenger cars will remain horse-drawn until 1833.
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October 16, 1865 Horsecars begin service in Bellaire OH.
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October 16, 1882 The Nickel Plate Railroad begins operations.
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October 16, 1887 The Great Northern reaches Great Falls MT.
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October 16, 1910 The Detroit River Tunnel Company, owned by the New York Central, routes all of its freight traffic via the new tunnel between Detroit and Windsor ONT, ending the car ferry on the Michigan Central - Canada Southern route.
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October 16, 1916 The Michigan Central inaugurates the "Motor City Special", an all First Class train running between Detroit and Chicago.
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October 16, 1943 Chicago officially opens its new subway system.
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October 16, 1946 The Pennsylvania Railroad names James M. Symes Deputy Vice President-Operations. Symes brings with him long service in Chicago and experience in dieselization on western railroads. He favors diesels over PRR's steam designs.
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October 16, 1948 The Baltimore & Ohio's last new steam locomotive #5594, Class T-3C rolls out of Mt. Clare's erecting shop in Baltimore.
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October 16, 1954 The Southern Pacific dieselizes its 3-foot gauge Keeler branch.
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October 16, 1955 Ceremonial last day of steam on the Long Island.
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October 16, 1964 The Wabash Railroad is leased to the Norfolk & Western. The N&W also takes over the Nickel Plate Road, Pittsburgh & West Virginia, and leases the Akron, Canton, & Youngstown.
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October 16, 1967 The Rock Island donates its Aerotrain to the National Transportation Museum in Green Bay WI.
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October 17, 1839 The Central Railroad of Michigan reaches Ann Arbor from the east.
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October 17, 1859 A train of Pennsylvania Railroad Directors making a circle tour of Western Lines through Chicago and St. Louis is detained at Martinsburg VA due to John Brown's raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry.
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October 17, 1866 A national convention of railroad presidents convenes in New York. They hear a recommendation for telegraph block system like that in use over the past year between Kensington and New Brunswick.
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October 17, 1877 The 3-foot gauge Delphos, Bluffton & Frankfort Railroad (later TStL&W, NKP, NS, WBCR] is incorporated in Indiana, although it will mostly operate in Ohio.
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October 17, 1888 Washington DC gets its first glimpse of an electric trolley, as an experimental car is demonstrated.
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October 17, 1892 The Great Northern reaches Wenatchee WA.
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October 17, 1902 The Zanesville & Western (OH, later NYC) is incorporated.
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October 17, 1943 The Burma Railway is completed.
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October 17, 1960 Five operating unions and the railroads agree to the creation of a Federal Commission to study work rules and "featherbedding". The railroads have agreed, believing that their viewpoint will prevail.
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October 17, 1960 The Erie Lackawanna is created from the merger of the Erie and Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroads.
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October 17, 1983 SEMTA runs its last commuter train between Pontiac and Detroit.
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October 17, 2000 A crash near Hatfield, UK points up the dismal state of repairs under Railtrack. This leads directly to the demise of Railtrack, a company founded to privatize state-owned British Rail.
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October 18, 1882 Horsecars come to Oshkosh WI.
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October 18, 1909 A special silver cup is given to the Pennsylvania Railroad's Purchasing Department Baseball Team, winners of the General Office baseball League competition. PRR's General Office has also established Basketball and Bowling Leagues.
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October 18, 1911 The carferry Chief Wawatam arrives in St. Ignace MI and will start ferrying passengers and railroad cars across the Straits of Mackinaw in the next couple of days. The previous ferry, the all-wood St. Marie will be retired.
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October 18, 1947 Inaugural run of the "AuRoRa", Alaska's premier passenger train.
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October 18, 1947 The Great Northern celebrates its 10,000th trainload of apples leaving Wenatchee WA.
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October 18, 1955 The last of Philadelphia's Nearside cars are burned. Only car 6618 has survived, given to the Seashore Trolley Museum in April, 1955.
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October 18, 1961 General Motors' Electro-Motive Division completes construction of its first GP30.
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October 18, 2005 The Delray Connecting Railway is transferred from US Steel ownership to Transtar. Transtar also owns the Elgin Joliet & Eastern, the Birmingham Southern, the Lake Terminal Connecting Railway, the McKeesport Connecting Railroad and the Union Railroad.
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October 18, 2010 Ground is broken for the expansion of the west concourse of Penn Station.
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Mark Tomlonson
