Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
September 27, 1825 The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) made its debut in northeastern England’s County Durham, thereby launching the first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains. It linked the village of Witton Park with the market town of Stockton-on-Tees and also provided connections to several coal-mining facilities near the town of Shildon. The S&DR, covering a... Continue Reading →
September 21, 2014 In New York City, the third and final section of a linear park featuring an innovative and eco-friendly trail was opened on the west side of Manhattan. A CBS news story called the Sunday opening of this section “perfect timing for New Yorkers looking to soak up the last of summer’s warmth.”... Continue Reading →
September 20, 1935 Railroad magnate William Wallace Atterbury died in Philadelphia at the age of 69. He had been born in the city of New Albany in Indiana in 1866. After graduating from Yale University, Atterbury started out in the railroad business as an apprentice earning five cents per hour at the shops of the Pennsylvania... Continue Reading →
August 24, 1945 The Yosemite Valley Railroad (YVRR) in central California went out service following the run of its last regularly scheduled train. YVRR had been incorporated in San Francisco in 1902 by John S. Drum, William B. Bosley, Sydney M. Ehrman, Thomas Turner, and Joseph D. Smith. The short-line railroad transported both passengers and... Continue Reading →
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 →
Transportation History 