1842 - 1881 |
| 1842 |
The Philadelphia & Reading Railway is opened to transport hard coal from mines in Schuylkill County's southern anthracite field to tidewater Philadelphia. |
| 1845 |
The first iron railroad bridge in the U.S. opens on the Philadelphia & Reading near Manayunk, Pa. |
| 1846 |
April 13, The Pennsylvania Railroad obtains a charter from the Pennsylvania State Legislature. |
| The Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad is chartered to build a line from Mauch Chunk to Easton, Pa.; in 1853 it is renamed the Lehigh Valley Railroad. |
| 1848 |
Erie Railway's Starrucca Viaduct is completed at Lanesboro, Pa. |
| 1849 |
The Liggett's Gap Railroad is incorporated in Scranton. It later becomes the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. |
| 1850 |
The Pennsylvania Railroad becomes the first railroad to own and operate an anthracite mine in northeastern Pennsylvania. |
| 1851 |
September 22, The telegraph, invented by Samuel F. B. Morse, is first used in railroad dispatching operations, on the Erie Railway at Turners, NY. |
| 1852 |
Pittsburgh is linked with Philadelphia for the first time, via rail and inclined planes. |
| 1854 |
February 15, The Pennsylvania Railroad's 1300-foot long Horseshoe Curve at Altoona opens for service. Subsequently, railroad travel from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh is reduced from 3-1/2 days to 13 hours. |
| 1855 |
The first women railroad employee, Susan Morningstar, is hired by the B&O at their Baltimore Terminal. |
| 1856 |
The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River is completed at Davenport, Iowa. |
| 1859 |
The first Pullman sleeping car, built by George Mortimer Pullman, makes its initial run. |
| 1861 |
The Civil War was the first military conflict to make extensive use of the railroads for strategic and tactical purposes. |
| 1862 |
The first mail car for sorting mail en route is placed into service between Hannibal and St. Joseph, MO. |
| 1865 |
Manual block system of train control perfected by Ashbel Welch was placed in service between New Brunswick, NJ and Philadelphia. |
| 1867 |
The first domestic steel rails are rolled in 1867 by the Cambria Iron Works in Johnstown, Pa., using the Bessemer process and installed on the Pennsylvania Railroad. |
| 1868 |
Eli Janney patents his automatic or "knuckle" coupler. |
| 1869 |
George Westinghouse applied for a new straight air-brake patent; it is first tested on the PRR's Pittsburgh to Steubenville accommodation. |
| May 10, The completion of the nation's first transcontinental railroad is celebrated at Promontory Summit, Utah with the driving of a golden spike. |
| 1877 |
June, The Great Railroad Strike erupts into labor violence on the B&O and spreads across the country to the Pennsylvania Railroad's Pittsburgh Yard; many lives are lost and rolling stock is extensively damaged. |
| John E. Wootten, general manager of the P&R, introduces a wider firebox for anthracite, introducing hundreds of "Camelback" locomotives in Pennsylvania over the next several years. |
| 1879 |
February 10, The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railway opens for freight service. |
| 1880 |
With 30,000 employees and $400 million in capital, the Pennsylvania Railroad is the world's largest corporation. |
| 1881 |
Railroad mileage exceeds 100,000 route miles for the first time. |
