Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
August 8, 1863 The Lady Barkly, widely regarded as the first steam-powered locomotive to operate in New Zealand, went into service in the township (and present-day city) of Invercargill on the South Island. The experimental run of this 8-ton (7.3-metric ton) train in Invercargill marked a major transportation milestone for New Zealand and in particular... Continue Reading →
July 24, 1864 Railroad executive Thomas James Tait, whose career spanned both North America and Australia, was born in the township municipality of Melbourne in Quebec, Canada. He started working for the Grand Trunk Railway (GT) in 1880; that extensive system ran through Ontario and Quebec as well as Michigan and much of New England. Tait... Continue Reading →
July 17, 1839 Ephraim Shay, an influential entrepreneur, and railroad engineer was born in Sherman Township in Ohio. He served during the Civil War in the Union Army’s 8th Missouri Volunteer Infantry. In the early 1870s, Shay moved to northern Michigan and began operating a sawmill and general store in the vicinity of a lumber... Continue Reading →
July 12, 1809 In England, renowned pedestrian Robert Barclay Allardice (widely known as Captain Barclay) completed a mile (kilometer)-per-hour walk of 1,000 miles (1,609.3 kilometers) in 1,000 consecutive hours in the town of Newmarket. When he finished his ambitious walk at 3:37 on that Wednesday afternoon, he did so – in the words of an 1813... Continue Reading →
July 11, 1905 The Scott Special, a train operated by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, set a new speed record for travel between Los Angeles and Chicago. The Scott Special arrived at Chicago’s Dearborn Station at 11:54 a.m. – 44 hours and 56 minutes after the train had departed Los Angeles for a trek... Continue Reading →
July 6, 1881 In central Iowa, a potentially horrific passenger train wreck was averted thanks to a heroic teenage girl. The girl was 17-year-old Katherine Carroll “Kate” Shelley, who lived in that region of the Hawkeye State with her family. Kate had been born in Ireland, and she and her family immigrated to the United... Continue Reading →
June 13, 1842 Queen Victoria took her first train ride. Victoria, whose reign as British monarch lasted 63 years altogether, was also the first in that royal lineage to ride a train. Her inaugural ride took her from the Slough railway station (near Windsor Castle) to Bishop’s Bridge near Paddington in London. The name of... Continue Reading →
May 31, 1879 A new type of electric locomotive was introduced in Germany at the Berlin Industrial Exhibition. This locomotive, developed by engineer Werner von Siemens, did not need batteries to operate. This marked the first time that a generator provided the electrical energy needed to power a locomotive. Originally constructed for use in a... Continue Reading →
In a ceremony at the U.S. Labor Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., approximately 12,000 Chinese immigrant laborers were inducted into the Labor Hall of Honor for their work on the First Transcontinental Railroad during the 1860s. These laborers were the first Asian Americans to be inducted into the Hall of Labor since its establishment in... Continue Reading →
Southeastern England’s Canterbury and Whitstable Railway – also known by its nickname the “Crab and Winkle Line” – was officially opened. That public railway, linking the famed cathedral city of Canterbury with the seaside town of Whitstable, was created to transport both passengers and freight. The railway relied on cable haulage by steam engines over... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 