Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
The Sand Springs Railway in northeastern Oklahoma was incorporated. By that May, the railway formally began operations on 8.6 miles (13.8 kilometers) of track between the community of Sand Springs and the city of Tulsa. The major force behind the new railway was a Wisconsin-born businessman and philanthropist named Charles Page. He and his family... Continue Reading →
Internationally renowned railroad executive Ralph Budd died in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 82. His obituary in the New York Times noted, “Mr. Budd, a bulky, exuberant man who spent a half-century on railroading, approached the work with the drive of a locomotive churning through a tunnel.” Budd had been born on a... Continue Reading →
In southeastern Massachusetts, the first segment of the Cape Cod Branch Railroad was opened. This 14.7-mile (23.7-kilometer) section was built between the towns of Middleborough and Wareham in Plymouth County. By that May, an additional 12.9 miles (20.8 kilometers) of the railroad had been extended to the town of Sandwich on Cape Cod (conterminous with... Continue Reading →
Carl von Ghega, who established himself as one of the leading transportation engineers of the Austrian Empire, was born in Venice, Italy. (At the time of von Ghega’s birth, Venice was under Austrian rule.) His father was an Austrian Navy officer, but von Ghega pursued engineering as his life’s work instead. After studying mathematics in... Continue Reading →
In Great Britain, a longtime transportation era came to an end when the mail trains known as Travelling Post Offices made their final runs. “Mail trains have reached the end of the line,” proclaimed BBC News. “After more than 160 years of service, the Travelling Post Office – where post is sorted en route on... Continue Reading →
After a couple of decades of planning and development, the first high-speed railway system in Taiwan made its public debut when two of the new line’s trains both departed from the Banqiao station in New Taipei City at 7:00 a.m. These trains, each traveling at 186 miles (300 kilometers) per hour, then made their way... Continue Reading →
In Australia, the original Como Rail Bridge was opened in the colony (now state) of New South Wales. The bridge made its debut on Boxing Day – a holiday celebrated the day after Christmas in several regions throughout the world, including Australia – and crosses the Georges River between the Sydney suburbs of Oatley and... Continue Reading →
Anand Vihar Terminal railway station was officially opened in India’s National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). The station is specifically located in the Anand Vihar neighborhood of the NCT district known as East Delhi. The facility, which is under the administrative control of the Delhi Division of the Northern Railway zone of the state-owned Indian... Continue Reading →
The era of the Series 0 Shinkansen super-express trains (popularly known as bullet trains), which were the original trainsets built for a system of high-speed railway lines in Japan, came to an end after more than four decades of service. “Final bullet train makes ‘sayonara’ run,” proclaimed a headline in the English-language edition of the... Continue Reading →
Photo by Magnus Gertkemper: The Adler replica from 1935 on its first trip after the reconstruction in 2008. The Bavarian Ludwig Railway (Ludwigsbahn), the first steam-powered railway line in what is now Germany, began operations between the cities of Nuremberg and Fürth. (At the time, this region of present-day Germany was part of the Kingdom... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 