1882-1927 |
| 1882 |
August 29, The Erie's Kinzua Viaduct is completed near Mt. Jewett, Pa. At 301 feet high, it is the nation's highest railroad bridge. |
| 1883 |
November 18, noon, Standard time is introduced to the nation by the railroads. |
| 1886 |
May, Standard gauge, or 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches (measured between the inside vertical surfaces of each rail head), is adopted as the national standard. |
| 1887 |
The Interstate Commerce Act passed by Congress provides for first federal regulation of railroads. |
| 1893 |
The Railway Appliance and Safety Act is passed by Congress. It outlawed the use of link-and-pin couplers and mandated the use of the Janney coupler and the Westinghouse air brake in interstate service, saving hundreds of lives each year. |
| May 10, New York Central locomotive No. 999 attains a record speed of 112.5 miles per hour near Batavia, NY. |
| 1894 |
May-June, Pullman Strike, Chicago, Ill. |
| 1895 |
On the B&O, electrified locomotive train service in America begins. |
| 1896 |
In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled that passengers on railroad cars could be racially segregated and, by extension, in public facilities. This doctrine of "separate but equal" was overturned in 1954 by Brown v. The Board of Education. |
| 1900 |
April 30, John Luther "Casey" Jones died at the throttle of the Illinois Central's "Cannonball" in Vaughan, Mississippi. |
| 1901 |
Mechanical coal stoker first used. |
| 1902 |
Rockville bridge, the longest stone arch bridge in the world, is built by the Pennsylvania Railroad across the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg. It still stands and is in use. |
| 1906 |
The first all-steel passenger coach built by the Pennsylvania Railroad's Altoona shops, is introduced in commuter service. |
| 1907 |
The Hours of Service Act required that operating railroad employees be relieved for a 10-hour period after 16 hours of work. |
| 1910 |
Completed at $112.9 million, the PRR's Pennsylvania Station in New York City opens for business. |
| 1912 |
November 24, The Pennsylvania Railroad's blue ribbon New York-Chicago overnight express is christened The Broad Way Limited; the name was in reference to the PRR's mulitple-track route, not the New York City theatre district. |
| 1915 |
The DL&W's Tunkhannock Viaduct opens at Nicholson, Pa. |
| 1916 |
U.S. railroads reach their peak mileage, with over 254,037 miles of trackage. |
| The Adamson Act provides an eight-hour day for railroad operating personnel. |
| 1917 |
December 28, The United States Railroad Administration takes over operation of the nation's railroads for the duration of World War I. |
| 1920 |
Pennsylvania's peak railroad mileage totals 11,551 miles |
| 1923 |
The Reading Company merges the Philadelphia & Reading and other subsidiaries and becomes an operating company. |
| 1925 |
The Central Railroad of New Jersey purchases the first diesel-electric locomotive for use as a switch engine in its New York City yard. |
| 1926 |
May 20, The Railway Labor Act guarantees workers the right to organize and bargain collectively without employer interference. |
| 1927 |
Pennsylvania Railroad Atlantic Class Locomotive No. 460 races a plane carrying newsreel films of Charles Lindbergh's triumphal welcome in Washington, DC, and gets the films to Broadway theaters before the plane. The competition between train and plane on this route continues today. This locomotive is on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. |
