February 3, 1858 A Michigan act extends the time to complete the first 20 miles of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad from December 1, 1857 to December 1, 1858, and to complete the whole line to November 5, 1865. This will be the first of many extensions granted to the GR&I.
?
February 3, 1862 Thomas Edison becomes the first newspaper publisher to distribute his paper on a train. He sells his one-page Weekly Herald on a Grand Trunk train between Port Huron and Detroit.
?
February 3, 1869 The Grand Rapids & Lake Shore Railroad (later PM, C&O, CSX) is formed. Next year the company will build a line between Muskegon and Nunica.
?
February 3, 1881 The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, known for most of its life as the Nickel Plate Road, is formed.
?
February 3, 1893 Carferry Ann Arbor No. 1 is caught in the ice near Green Bay WI and will remain there for the next 63 days.
?
February 3, 1903 The first Kenosha Electric Railway (interurban) opens for business.
?
February 3, 1906 Thieves use nitroglycerin to break open the station safe in the Chicago Great Western depot in Marshalltown IA. The total take: $1.38 in pennies (2025 value: $47.83) from the station’s gumball machine.
?
February 3, 1918 San Francisco's Twin Peaks Tunnel, the longest (11,920 feet) streetcar tunnel, opens. The tunnel connects Market & Castro streets with West Portal and Ulloa.
?
February 3, 1929 The Pennsylvania and Wabash railroads begin a through sleeping car service between Cincinnati and Detroit.
?
February 3, 1930 The Detroit, Toledo & Ironton ends freight service between Tecumseh and Dundee MI. Passenger service to Dundee was dropped last month.
?
February 3, 1958 Railway Age Magazine reports 1,377 active steamers on U.S. rails and 1,709 in Canada. Mikados (2-8-2) are the most common type still steaming. The editors add, "The future of steam is in a museum."
?
February 3, 1970 Great Northern issues its last public timetable.
?
February 3, 1995 Canadian National sells the former Central Vermont line from New London CT to East Alborg VT to RailTex. RailTex will operate the line as the New England Central Railroad.
?
February 3, 2004 Australia runs the first Trans-continental Adelaide to Darwin train.
?
February 3, 2015 The Toronto Transit Commission removes a route sign it had posted at Downsview station last December after members of the public reported it looked too much like a penis. Other passengers who saw it thought it looked like a fungus or mushroom.
?
February 3, 2016 Sir Elton John plays a quick impromptu concert in St. Pancras’ station in London, surprising commuters. He then donates the piano he played to the station for use by passers-by.
?
February 3, 2020 Taking advantage of air rights obtained in 1977, construction begins on a 51-story skyscraper over the tracks of Boston’s South Station.
?
February 3, 2023 A 150-car Norfolk Southern train traveling from Illinois to Pennsylvania derails in East Palestine OH. Thirty-eight cars derail. Those cars plus an additional 12 cars that have stayed on the tracks catch fire.
?
Mark Tomlonson
