March 5, 1832 The New Castle & Frenchtown Railroad begins regular daily revenue service. Passenger boats transfer their passengers to the railroad from stagecoaches, forming a through stage-boat-rail line between Philadelphia and Baltimore. During its entire existence, the NC&F is closed from December through March when steamboats are stopped by the ice.
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March 5, 1850 The Louisville & Nashville Railroad is chartered.
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March 5, 1856 Service begins to Peru IN on the Toledo, Wabash & Western. (later WAB, N&W, NS)
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March 5, 1859 The Martinsville & Franklin (IN) reorganizes as the Franklin & Martinsville (later Big Four, NYC). Traffic is so sparse on the line that it will see no trains for the next seven years.
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March 5, 1872 George Westinghouse Jr. receives patent No. 124,405 for the automatic railroad air brake.
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March 5, 1879 The Grand Rapids & Indiana leases the Allegan & South Eastern Railroad. The line has track laid from Allegan to Monteith, and unfinished portions between Monteith and the Ohio State line. The lease is retroactive to January 1.
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March 5, 1880 The first through Cincinnati Southern (later CNO&TP, NS) passenger train departs Cincinnati OH for Chattanooga TN. In the newspaper article covering the story, the reporter dubs the train the "Chattanooga Choo Choo”, the first use of the phrase.
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March 5, 1888 The Toledo, Ann Arbor & Lake Michigan Railway (later AA) is organized to build from Cadillac to Frankfort MI.
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March 5, 1891 The Bangor & Aroostook Railroad receives its charter.
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March 5, 1910 A snow slide in Rogers Pass BC kills 92 persons, most of them Canadian Pacific employees, just 4 days after a similar disaster in Wellington WA.
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March 5, 1920 The Milwaukee Railroad completes the electrification of its line between Othello and Tacoma, WA, 207 miles.
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March 5, 1927 Great Northern runs its first electric train using its new single-phase system, from Skykomish to the old Cascade Tunnel.
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March 5, 1930 The Pennsylvania Railroad holds a "Golden Spike" ceremony at 41st St. in Chicago to mark the upgrading of the New York-Chicago main line to 130-pound rail.
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March 5, 1956 The last steam locomotive purchased by the Southern Pacific (4-8-8-2 “Cab Forward” #4294) is retired.
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March 5, 1972 The last "Birney" streetcar in regular service is retired in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.
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Mark Tomlonson
