January 21, 1841 George Hacker patents a passenger car based on a tobacco barrel. The car was intended to be 30’ long with 20 windows, but the design was never built.
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January 21, 1873 The New York, Boston & Montreal Railway (later NYC) is created out of a reorganization of the New York, Boston & Northern.
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January 21, 1880 The Ontario & Western (later NYO&W) is incorporated to run between Oswego NY and New York City.
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January 21, 1883 Eight locomotives are involved in a head-on collision in Iowa on the Wabash Railroad. Four of the engines were on a train that had stalled in a snowdrift. The other four were sent to rescue them and, owing to imprecise orders, collided head-on with the stalled train.
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January 21, 1902 Peoria IL sees its first scheduled Chicago & North Western passenger train.
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January 21, 1903 The Grand Trunk moves into a new depot at Lansing MI. Grand Trunk officials tout the station as "the handsomest between Portland ME and Chicago". (Some sources say January 20)
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January 21, 1910 Canadian Pacific’s “Soo Express” derails on a bridge crossing the Spanish River in northern Ontario. Forty-four people are killed.
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January 21, 1929 The Pennsylvania Railroad announces the formation of coordinated rail-bus service on some long distance routes. Travelers will ride the bus by day, connecting to towns and villages not on the PRR, and then ride the train by night.
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January 21, 1931 The first of three boat trains leave New York for San Francisco. There they will connect with a Matson Liner for the trip to Hawaii.
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January 21, 1946 Streetcars end service in New Albany IN.
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January 21, 1954 New York Central President William White says he has made plans with Rail-Trailer Company of Chicago to introduce modern piggyback service on the NYC.
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January 21, 1963 The last Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee RR interurban train pulls into Milwaukee at 2:55 a.m., ending 68 years of service on America's fastest Interurban. One of the cars in the last train is currently on display at the Illinois Railway Museum.
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Mark Tomlonson
