Erastus Corning

Erastus Corning I (December 14, 1794 – April 9, 1872) was an American businessman and politician.
Early life.
Corning was born in Norwich, Connecticut, the son of Bliss Corning. Corning moved to Troy, New York at the age of 13 to clerk in the hardware store of an uncle; six years later he moved to Albany, New York, where he joined the mercantile business under James Spencer. After some time at Spencer's firm, Corning became a partner, and eventually the senior partner upon Spencer's death in 1824. Corning combined the Spencer firm with holdings he inherited from his uncle to form Erastus Corning & Co. John V. L. Pruyn was married to Harriet Corning Turner (June 18, 1822 – March 22, 1859), who was Erastus Corning's niece. As a result of this family connection, Corning and Pruyn were often partners in Corning's businesses and investments.
Erastus Corning & Co..
Erastus Corning & Co. bought and sold all manner of iron products, including tools, nails, stoves, farming implements, and eventually railroad track rails and railroad car parts. The company had a wharf and warehouse on the Hudson River in Albany, and the store itself served not only Albany and the surrounding towns, but hundreds of large customers from the west who visited Albany only two or three times a year to buy and sell products, restock their own supplies, and see what new was for sale. Corning's hardware store soon became one of the most significant businesses in Albany.
Corning also invested in banks and insurance companies. He purchased the Albany Rolling and Slitting Mill, renamed it the Albany Nail Factory, and used it to corner the market on numerous iron products he sold at his store. The Albany Nail Factory eventually became the Rensselaer Iron Works, which under Corning's guidance installed the first Bessemer converter in the United States.
By the time he was 40, Corning had helped found the Albany State Bank (he would serve as president until his death), been named to the board of regents for the University of the State of New York, begun speculating on land in western New York (including the townsite that bears his name), and had been elected mayor of Albany. Corning served a single term as mayor, from 1834 until 1837, having been elected as a Democrat.
Railroads.
Erastus Corning's most lasting contribution to history may have been his dealings with railroads. As an iron dealer, he very quickly saw the potential that railroads had as an economic engine as both a consumer and distributor of his products, and took an interest from the very start. When the Utica and Schenectady Railroad was chartered in 1833, Corning got himself a seat on the board and became a major investor, and was soon president of the road. Corning ran the Utica & Schenectady for twenty years. The railroad eventually boasted of track, from Schenectady in the east (where the road interchanged with the smaller Mohawk and Hudson Railroad of which Corning was also a shareholder) to Utica in the west. In 1851, the road's name was changed to the Mohawk Valley Railroad.
Corning was not satisfied with just his railroad, banking, insurance, land speculation, and iron works interests, however. He remained active in politics, and was a member of the New York State Senate from 1842 to 1845, sitting in the 65th, 66th, 67th and 68th New York State Legislatures. His foray into state politics convinced him that the current system of railroads stretching across upstate New York was inefficient and could be made far more profitable by combining them. He began planning what would eventually become the largest corporation in America at the time, the New York Central.
As president of the Utica & Schenectady, Corning organized in 1851 a convention of the owners and presidents of the other eight operating railroads, which combined roughly connected the cities of Albany and Buffalo, New York. The convention agreed on a framework for consolidation of the eight roads (as well as two "paper" roads, which had not yet been built but were planned), and Corning took the convention's application to the state Legislature. Corning became the main lobbyist for the proposal in the legislature, and despite being a Democrat made a personal appeal to Thurlow Weed, leader of the Whigs, who controlled state government at the time.
Corning had a lot riding on the legislature's decision. He had organized the convention and largely dictated the terms of the merger to the other companies. Once the legislature passed the Consolidation Act on April 2, 1853, Corning found himself in possession of the majority of shares in the new company, and so at the first meeting of the New York Central's shareholders in 1853, Corning got himself elected president of the company. He remained in that role for twelve years, during which time the New York Central made connections and struck deals that gave the road access to Cleveland, Boston, New York City, and Chicago, and made it one of the country's most important railroads.
Corning amassed a significant fortune, and used it to invest in land schemes as far west as Wisconsin and Iowa. He bought large shares in the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and the Michigan Central Railroad, and was the largest shareholder in and president of the St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal Company, which constructed the canal and locks on the St. Mary's River at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, connecting Lake Superior with Lake Huron. For this the company received 750,000 acres (3035 km²) of land in the west; Corning himself took 100,000 acres (400 km²) of this.
Civil War politics.
In 1856, shortly after finishing the St. Mary's River project, Corning was elected as a Democrat to the 35th, 37th and 38th United States Congresses, serving from March 4, 1857, to March 3, 1859, and from March 4, 1861, to October 5, 1863, when he resigned. He was a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention.
In 1861, before taking office in Congress, he was a delegate to the Peace Congress in Washington, D.C., but once the Civil War began he took his seat in Congress and, at least initially, supported the Abraham Lincoln Administration. He resigned his seat in October 1863 because of failing health and disagreements with the administration over prosecution of the Civil War. In February 1863, he was the Democratic caucus nominee for U.S. Senator from New York, but was defeated by Republican Edwin D. Morgan.
Back home in Albany, Corning organized a public meeting on the war, which resulted in a formal letter sent to President Lincoln under Corning's hand, offering support for maintaining the integrity of the Union, but censuring the administration for certain tactics it was employing in the war, most notably the making of military arrests of civilians in New York accused of avoiding service. This incident is notable for the response it generated from Lincoln, a lengthy letter wherein the president sets out his views on what the Constitution allowed him to do in wartime.
Despite his disagreements with Lincoln's handling of the war, Corning fully supported the effort to maintain the Union. The United States Navy contracted with Corning's iron works to manufacture parts and materials for the USS Monitor, the Navy's first ironclad warship.
Later years.
Corning's personal papers make little reference to the nature of his ill health, but from his retirement on, Corning slowly began reducing his commitments and public activities. Through the 1860s he began to focus more on land speculation and less on his business holdings. He resigned from the New York Central in 1865, two years before the railroad was bought out by Cornelius Vanderbilt. In 1867, Corning was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention. It was his last public office.
By 1871, Corning had passed control of his business interests on to his sons and close associates, and at one point passed up the opportunity to buy a share in a new land deal in Nebraska, saying that "I find that my health is such that it will not do for me to take hold of any new undertaking." He remained on the board of the Albany State Bank, and also continued as vice chancellor of the board of regents of the University of the State of New York, positions he had held by that time for over 30 years. He died at home in Albany on April 8, 1872. He was buried at Albany Rural Cemetery.
Corning's grandsons Edwin and Parker Corning both held various political positions in the state of New York in the early 1900s. His great-grandson, Erastus Corning 2nd, was mayor of Albany for over 40 years, from 1941 to 1983. The Rensselaer Iron Works eventually became part of the larger Troy Iron & Steel Company, in its time the largest iron and steel manufacturer in the United States, but the company eventually went out of business. The New York Central remained one of the most significant American railroads through the end of the 19th century; it was eventually merged with its arch-rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and ultimately became a part of Conrail in the 1970s. Parts of the New York Central, including parts of the original Utica & Schenectady, are still in use today by CSX. The locks on the St. Mary's River remain the busiest locks in the world. Erastus Corning's personal papers, almost 50,000 pages worth, are held by the libraries of Cornell University.


Claudius Crozet

Claude "Claudius" Crozet (December 31, 1789 – January 29, 1864) was a soldier, educator, and civil engineer.
Crozet was born in France and trained as an artillery officer and civil engineer. After the defeat of Napoleon's army, he emigrated to the United States in 1816 and joined the U.S. Army to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
After resigning his commission in 1823, he took a job with the Virginia Board of Public Works and oversaw the planning and construction of canals, turnpikes, bridges and railroads in Virginia, including the area which became West Virginia during the American Civil War (during which Crozet sided with the Confederate States of America). Crozet also helped found the Virginia Military Institute in 1839 and earned a nickname as the "Pathfinder of the Blue Ridge."
Early life, family.
Claudius Crozet was born in Villefranche, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France on December 31, 1789 to Pierrette Varion Crozet and her husband, wine merchant François Crozet. His mother died when he was a boy, and his father moved to Paris in 1800 with Claude and two siblings. Claude secured permission to attend the École Polytechnique in 1805. He studied engineering (including bridge-building) as well as military matters, and graduated as sub-lieutenant on October 1, 1807. Crozet then graduated from the Imperial Artillery School in Metz, and received a commission as a second lieutenant on June 9, 1809. Thus, he served in the French Army under Napoleon Bonaparte, and won a promotion to captain on July 22, 1812 during Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
At the Battle of Borodino in September 1812, Captain Crozet was taken prisoner, but released in 1814 and returned to duty in the French army. Napoleon abdicated in April 1814, but returned to power about a year later, was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815 and surrendered about a month later. Crozet resigned from the French military on April 11, 1816.
On June 7, 1816, in Paris, Crozet married Agathe Decamp, and they would have daughters Agatha and Claudia Crozet Mills and a son (Alfred) before her death in March 1861.
Immigration to United States.
Late in fall of 1816, Crozet and his bride headed for the United States. <br>Almost immediately after arriving, Crozet began work as a professor of engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.
While at West Point, Crozet is credited by some as being the first to use the chalkboard as an instructional tool. He used the "Elementary Course of Civil Engineering", translated from the course of M. J. Sganzin at the École Polytechnique. He also designed several of the buildings at West Point. Thomas Jefferson referred to Claudius Crozet as "by far the best mathematician in the United States." He also published "A Treatise on Descriptive Geometry" while at West Point.
Life in Virginia.
Virginia Board of Public Works.
In 1823, Crozet was elected Principal Engineer and Surveyor for the Virginia Board of Public Works. He resigned from his duties at West Point, and brought his wife and two children (a boy and a girl) with him to live in Richmond, Virginia.
Virginia's Board of Public Works was very active in promoting the development of canals, roads, and railroads. His work included approving various proposals and determining their engineering feasibility. At the time, Virginia extended all the way from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ohio River and was the largest state east of the Mississippi River. It included what is now the State of West Virginia. Crozet worked on hundreds of transportation projects, such as the Northwestern Turnpike.
Typical of his many projects of this nature was the Chesterfield Railroad, the first in Virginia, the plans of which he examined before Board of Public Works funds were approved. It began operations in 1831.
In 1832, Crozet left Virginia to work in Louisiana. However, he returned to his old job in Virginia in 1837 to work on roads, canals, railroads and other points of necessity for the state. By this time, some railroads were already under construction and the canal system had reached its potential. He left office in 1843 after losing support of canal owners when he correctly forecast the future advantages railroads would hold for Virginia. Authoring textbooks on highway, railroad and aqueduct design, his 1848 map of the entire state was the first since the one prepared by Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson, over a century earlier.
Virginia Military Institute.
Crozet was one of the founders of Virginia Military Institute (VMI) at Lexington, Virginia, a major training institution for engineers and militia officers for Virginia and the South. When VMI opened in 1839, Crozet was the architect of the college's academic program and military organization. At its first meeting, the members of the VMI Board of Visitors elected Crozet president of the Board, a position he held for six years (while remaining the state's Chief Engineer).
However, his varied duties meant Crozet did not reside in Lexington, Virginia. In 1840, he and his family and five enslaved people lived in Richmond, Virginia. Ten years later, he and at least two much younger engineers boarded with plantation owner John T. Cocke in Albemarle County, Virginia.
Blue Ridge Tunnels.
In 1839, Crozet surveyed the Blue Ridge Mountains and determined that the best way to allow the Blue Ridge Railroad, an extension of the Virginia Central Railroad, to cross the mountain would be through a series of four tunnels (from east to west: Greenwood Tunnel, Brookville Tunnel, Little Rock Tunnel, and Blue Ridge Tunnel) near Rockfish Gap at Afton Mountain. The long Blue Ridge Tunnel was opened in 1856, although rail service did not begin until April 1858. At that time, it was the longest tunnel in the United States and one of the longest in the world. Dug a decade before the invention of dynamite it was considered to be an "engineering wonder of the world" and was less than a half-foot (15.2 centimetres) off perfect alignment, as construction had proceeded from either end. Upon completion of the tunnels in 1858, the Blue Ridge Railroad ceased to exist, becoming a part of the Virginia Central Railroad.
During the American Civil War, Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson, a former instructor at VMI, used Crozet's tunnel to transfer his "foot cavalry" (comparable to a "rapid deployment force" today) from the Shenandoah Valley to the east side of the Blue Ridge quickly, to the puzzlement and consternation of Union military leaders.
In 1868, the Virginia Central Railroad was merged with the Covington and Ohio Railroad to create the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway; the original tunnel served until it was replaced with a different alignment in 1944. Perhaps as mute testament to Crozet's extraordinary skills, despite advances in technology from the 1850s, the "new" mid 20th century tunnel was off-center, in comparison with only 6 inches in Crozet's earlier project.
Death and legacy.
Crozet died in January 1864 at the residence of his daughter and son-in-law, as the Confederacy was losing the Civil War, but more than a year before its defeat. He was initially buried near his wife and children in Shockhoe Hill Cemetery, but in 1942 his remains were reinterred in the Virginia Military Institute cemetery. Hundreds of plans and drawings which he oversaw have been retained in the archives of the Library of Virginia.
The town of Crozet, Virginia was named in his honor in 1870. The original Blue Ridge Tunnel is now proposed for a "rails-to-trails" project sponsored by Nelson County. When completed, it will be the third-longest pedestrian tunnel in the nation.
VMI also named its dining hall in his honor, so cadets sometimes affectionately call it "Club Crozet".
References.
Notes
Bibliography


William J. Olcott

William James Olcott (February 22, 1862 – April 29, 1935) was an American football player and mining and railroad executive in the Mesabi Range. He played college football for the University of Michigan from 1881 to 1883 and was captain of the 1882 and 1883 teams. After receiving his degree, he worked in the iron ore mining industry for more than 40 years. He was president of the Oliver Iron Mining Company from 1909 to 1928 and president of the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway from 1901 to 1909.
Early years.
Olcott was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1862, the son of Harlow and Elizabeth Olcott. He moved with his family to Michigan's Upper Peninsula and attended school in Marquette, Michigan.
University of Michigan.
He subsequently attended the University of Michigan where he studied chemistry and mining. He played on the Michigan Wolverines football team, was the starting "three-quarter back" from 1881 to 1883 and served as captain of the 1882 and 1883 teams.
Mining and railroad career.
Olcott graduated from Michigan in 1884. After receiving his degree, Olcott returned to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where he worked in the mining business. In 1885, he was employed as an assistant engineer to the Chapin Mine on the Menominee Range.
In 1890, he was reported to be living in Ironwood, Michigan, and working as an assistant superintendent of five mines at a salary of $3,600. Olcott later moved to Duluth, Minnesota, where he lived for three decades.
He became superintendent of the Lake Superior Consolidated Mines on the Mesabi Range. In 1897, he was appointed first vice president of the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway and in 1901 became the company's president. He served as the railroad's president from 1901 to 1909.
In 1905, Olcott was promoted to the position of vice president of the Oliver Iron Mining Company; he had previously been the general manager of the company. In 1909, he was appointed as the company's president. The Oliver Iron Mining Company was at the time the subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation responsible for the company's iron ore mining operations. He testified in 1913 in a government suit seeking to break up the steel company. Olcott had 40,000 men working for him and reported directly to John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller and his family stayed at the Olcott's home in 1928.
Family and later years.
On December 26, 1887, Olcott married Fannie Bailey of Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1904, Olcott and his wife built a 10,000 square foot Georgian Colonial mansion for their family in Duluth. The house was built at a cost of $140,000 and had an estate covering five city lots surrounded by a brick and wrought iron wall. The Olcotts had two daughters who they raised in the house. The Olcott family donated the house to Duluth Teachers College in 1939, where it housed a music school.
In 1925, Olcott and his wife established the "Olcott Lodge", a rest lodge for wives of the Oliver Iron Mining Company at Half Moon Lake in the Mesabi Range. At the time, a newspaper account noted: "The lodge itself is a charming place, and the surroundings of lake and forest attractive and restful. The Olcotts not only have caused the beautiful lodge to be built and completely furnished and equipped, but they defray all costs of maintenance, with a competent and experienced woman in charge." In 1931, the camp was turned over to the Girl Scouts and has been operated since that time as the Fannie Bailey Olcott Girl Scout Camp.
Olcott retired as president of the Oliver Iron Mining Co. in 1928 and traveled extensively in the seven years following his retirement, including a year in Europe and trips to Florida and California.
In April 1935, Olcott died while visiting his daughter, Mrs. Torrey Ford, in Pasadena, California. He died from pneumonia following a stroke suffered several weeks earlier. He was 73 years old at the time of his death.


Rochester, Lockport and Buffalo Railroad

The Rochester, Lockport and Buffalo Railroad was an electric interurban railway that was constructed between Rochester, New York, and Lockport, New York, connecting to the International Railway Co. at Lockport for service into Buffalo. Opened in 1909 as the Buffalo, Lockport and Rochester Railway, the route followed the Erie Canal and the New York Central Railroad's Falls Road branch for most of its length. For a brief period of time, the railway was part of the Beebe Syndicate of affiliated interurban railways stretching from Syracuse to Buffalo. Entering receivership in 1917, it was reorganized as the Rochester, Lockport and Buffalo Railroad in 1919. After years of struggling with declining revenue during the Depression years, the railway's last day of service was April 30, 1931.
Early history (1902–1911).
There were several early attempts to build an electric interurban railway connecting Rochester and Buffalo, starting in 1902 with the Buffalo, Niagara Falls & Rochester. None of these attempts resulted in any significant construction, except for the Albion Electric Railway which constructed of track through the village of Albion.
On June 23, 1905, the Buffalo, Lockport and Rochester Railway was chartered as a result of the combination of the Albion and Lockport Railway, the Albion and Rochester Railway, and the Albion Electric Railway. The new owners of the company were predominantly Canadian, and it was rumored that a connection to Toronto would soon be considered. The BL&R ran for from a connection with the International Railway Co. in Lockport to a connection with the Rochester Railways at Lyell Avenue. The route closely followed the Erie Canal and New York Central's Falls Road for most of its length.
The first section of the BL&R opened on September 3, 1908, from Rochester to a point just west of Albion, and by November 17 had reached Lockport. The new railway could not reach downtown Rochester because it was unable to secure permission to install a diamond to cross the New York Central Railroad's Charlotte Branch at Lyell Avenue. The New York State Public Service Commission intervened and permission was granted to construct the crossing in May 1910. The BL&R served the Interurban Terminal at the corner of Court and Exchange streets until 1914 when the terminal was moved to the nearby Erie Railroad station. A connection could be made to the Rochester, Syracuse and Eastern interurban line. Thousands of passengers were attracted to the BL&R's swift local service and cheaper fares that competed directly with the nearby "steam roads" serving the same areas.
Operation by the Beebe Syndicate (1911–1917).
Almost immediately, the BL&R had defaulted on its mortgage bonds and was placed in receivership in 1909. In 1911, Clifford D. Beebe (1866–1937) purchased the BL&R and placed it under the common management of his other associated interurban lines, known collectively as the "Beebe Syndicate." That summer, service was extended to Olcott Beach over the tracks of International Railway Co. connecting to a leased steamship providing ferry service to Toronto. This service came to an end after the close of the 1914 sailing season.
In 1914, arrangements were made for the operation of BL&R cars from Lockport directly into downtown Buffalo over International Railway Co. tracks. This arrangement came to an end in 1919. Freight was also operated over the line, with much of the traffic coming from the rich farming areas along the line needing to haul goods to market or to various canning facilities.
By 1915, the Beebe Syndicate controlled 28 different trolley and interurban lines stretching from Syracuse to Buffalo. Dreadfully overcapitalized, the organization was placed in receivership and Beebe himself retired from the active management of his assembled empire.
Rochester, Lockport & Buffalo (1919–1931).
All ties had been severed with the Beebe Syndicate towards the end of 1917, and the BL&R was facing financial trouble once again. The railroad emerged from reorganization in the spring of 1919 as the Rochester, Lockport and Buffalo Railroad. Freight business continued to grow, which helped bolster the railroad's bottom line.
Passenger operation into downtown Rochester changed on February 4, 1928, when the RL&B ran its first train into the newly opened Rochester Subway. Constructed in the bed of the old Erie Canal, the Subway was designed to help funnel interurban traffic and speed local passengers through the city. A ramp from the surface lines at Lyell Avenue descended into the Subway and terminated at City Hall station. Trains would then run empty to the South Avenue Loop just beyond Court Street station. The Rochester & Eastern and the Rochester & Syracuse both offered connections at City Hall station for continued eastward travel.
The majority of the new owners were businessmen from Rochester, which helped keep the operation close to local interests. Passenger and freight levels dropped through the 1920s as connecting lines were closed and the railroad met increasing competition from improved highways and the proliferation of affordable automobiles. Unable to continue operating at a significant loss with no hope of reorganization, the last trains ran on the RL&B on April 30, 1931.
List of stations.
Listing obtained from BL&R public timetable dated March 3, 1909. Sidings and other local stops not shown.
Legacy.
There are not many traces of the RL&B left in the 21st century, as the right of way has been reclaimed across the many communities the railroad served. Nearly all of the railroad's equipment was scrapped or sold off for non-railroad use. The body of car 206 was located at Knowlesville for many years and acquired by the Rochester and Genesee Valley Railroad Museum in 1998. In 2010, the car was transferred to the nearby New York Museum of Transportation and stored until the car can be evaluated for future restoration.
In 1995, a former unmanned RL&B station (believed to have come from Adam's Basin) building was purchased at auction and brought to the R&GVRRM for preservation. This station was placed along the museum railroad in 2009, and is currently used by visitors who are making the transfer from trolley to diesel train.
In Spencerport the former station that serviced the line was moved and converted to a residence. In 2006 the building was acquired by the Village of Spencerport, moved to a site alongside the southern bank of the Erie Canal close to where the station once stood during service. It has been restored and converted into the Spencerport Depot & Canal Museum, which serves as a museum, welcome center, library, and boater restroom facility.
A steel Pratt through truss bridge is still in place over the Erie Canal near Lee Road in Rochester. The bridge has not carried a train since the end of RL&B service in 1931.


George Brooke Roberts

George Brooke Roberts (January 15, 1833 – January 30, 1897) was a civil engineer and the fifth president of the Pennsylvania Railroad (1880–96).
Career.
Born at Pencoyd, his family's ancestral farm in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, Roberts graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1849, and taught there for two years before becoming a rodman for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). From 1852 he worked for the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad, returning to the PRR in 1862 as assistant to the president, J. Edgar Thomson. Roberts oversaw the construction of bridges and other engineering work, including the Connecting Railway Bridge over Schuylkill River in Philadelphia (attributed to John A. Wilson, 1866–67) that connected PRR's southern and northern lines. He became a PRR vice-president in 1869, and succeeded Thomas A. Scott as PRR president in 1880.
Broad Street Station.
As PRR First Vice-President, Roberts oversaw the construction of Broad Street Station, a seminal event in Philadelphia history. Before this, PRR locomotives did not cross the Schuylkill River, but deposited passengers at West Philadelphia Station (32nd Street) where horse-drawn streetcars brought them into Center City. Construction of a new bridge and a 10-block viaduct – the "Chinese Wall" – carried the PRR tracks two stories above street level and into the Wilson Brothers-designed station at Broad Street.
With the 1871 decision to build Philadelphia City Hall, the 1876 opening of merchant John Wanamaker's department store to the east, and the 1881 opening of the PRR station to the west, the center of Philadelphia's business district rapidly moved to Broad & Market Streets. The station's location at the heart of the city made commuting via the PRR practicable, fueling massive suburban growth (especially on the Main Line). By 1886, the station saw a million passengers a month. In 1889, a freight depot was built along the "Chinese Wall" at 19th Street, so the station could be devoted just to passengers. In 1892, Roberts hired architect Frank Furness to greatly expand Broad Street Station, consolidating PRR offices in a single building and turning it into the largest passenger terminal in the world.
PRR expansion.
Roberts's first major accomplishment as PRR president was the 1881 purchase of a majority stake in the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, which froze the rival Baltimore & Ohio Railroad out of a direct Philadelphia-Washington, D.C. route that had previously rented trackage rights to both railroads. The acquisition gave the PRR a direct line from New York City (actually Jersey City, New Jersey, until 1911) to Washington. Amtrak uses this same route today.
Competition between the PRR and the New York Central Railroad was fierce. William H. Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie began construction of the South Pennsylvania Railroad across Pennsylvania to directly compete with the PRR's Main Line. In response, Roberts bought up land on the west side of the Hudson River for the West Shore Railroad, to directly compete with the NYCR on the east side. J. P. Morgan saw this as wasteful competition and negotiated an 1885 truce between Vanderbilt and Roberts, in which each abandoned the competing line. Vanderbilt's line became the right-of-way for the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and Roberts's line for the Palisades Parkway.
In 1887, the PRR introduced direct service from New York City to Chicago, Illinois. The "Pennsylvania Limited" made the trip in 24 hours by way of Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. By 1902, an express train was introduced, the "Pennsylvania Special", that cut the time to 20 hours.
The 1889 Johnstown Flood occurred during Roberts's presidency. The PRR's Stone Bridge over the Conemaugh River in Johnstown acted as a dam, trapping debris that covered 30 acres (and soon caught fire). The PRR was a major participant in the rescue effort. It reopened its line to Pittsburgh within 3 days, and was the primary means by which relief workers and provisions reached the victims of the disaster. The Stone Bridge still stands today.
Legacy.
Roberts greatly expanded the PRR, investing more than $50,000,000 in roadways and equipment – more than all his predecessors combined – and increasing PRR holdings to about $115,000,000 through mergers and purchases of affiliated companies. By the end of his 16-year term as president, the Pennsylvania Railroad was the largest private employer in the United States and the largest business corporation in the world.
Family.
Roberts's ancestors had been among the founders of Pennsylvania. The first emigrant, John Roberts, bought a parcel along the Schuylkill River in 1682, and built a house two years later that he named "Pencoyd". This was part of the "Welsh Barony", a tract bought by Welsh investors from William Penn. The "Welsh Barony" made up much of the Philadelphia suburban region now known as the Main Line, named for the Main Line of Public Works, a cross-state rail-and-canal system that ran through it.
Roberts was the sixth proprietor of Pencoyd, and proud of his Welsh heritage. He chose Welsh names for some of the suburban PRR stations, including Bala and Cynwyd.
Roberts hired Frank Furness to expand the family house at Pencoyd in 1883, and in 1890 the architect designed the PRR's second Bryn Mawr Hotel (now the Baldwin School).
Theophilus Parsons Chandler, Jr. designed St. Asaph's Church, at the southern end of Roberts's farm. Author Nathaniel Burt quipped: "The Church of St. Asaph, dedicated, as the saying goes, to the Glory of God and the convenience of the Roberts family."
In 1868, Roberts married Sarah Brinton, who died the following year after giving birth to George Brinton Roberts. In 1874, he married Miriam Pyle Williams, and the couple had five children: Algernon Brooke Roberts, T. Williams Roberts, Elizabeth Williams Roberts (who married Percy H. Clark of the Clark banking family), Isaac Warner Roberts, and Miriam Williams Roberts (married Spencer Ervin). Miriam Roberts died in 1913.
T. Williams Roberts became the seventh proprietor of Pencoyd, removed all the Frank Furness alterations to the house, and lived there until his death in 1962. Pencoyd was sold, and demolished by developers in 1964. Office buildings and a Saks Fifth Avenue department store now occupy the City Avenue site.


Panhandle Northern Railroad

The Panhandle Northern Railroad is a class III short-line railroad that operates 31 miles of track between Borger, Texas and Panhandle, Texas. The line operates on former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway trackage that was sold off in 1993. It is owned by OmniTRAX.


George W. Howard

George Washington Howard (born c. 1848) was an American railway worker and trade union functionary. Howard is best remembered as the head of the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors (BRC), a rival to the Order of Railway Conductors (ORC) which was established in 1885 and absorbed into the older organization in 1891. Howard was also the Vice President of the American Railway Union from 1893 to 1894 and was an important figure in the failed Pullman Strike of 1894.
Biography.
Early years.
George Washington Howard was born about 1848. He began his working career as a newsboy, working on the Evansville and Crawfordsville Railroad.
During the American Civil War, Howard fought for the Union Army for two years, serving in Company F of the 58th Indiana Infantry Regiment.
As a young man Howard worked on railroads in a variety of capacities, running the gamut from the dangerous job of brakeman to general superintendent. Among others, Howard worked on the Louisville, New Albany, and Chicago Railroad, the Ohio and Mississippi Railway, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.
Brotherhood of Railway Conductors.
In 1885, Howard was the leading figure behind the establishment of a new trade union, the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors (BRC), conceived as a rival to the long established Order of Railway Conductors (ORC), gaining election to the leading position of Grand Chief Conductor.
After half a decade of disunity, the two railway conductors organizations combined in 1891, with the ORC swallowing its fledgling rival.
California streetcar lines.
Howard was instrumental in the construction of the lines of the Coronado Beach Company, a transportation company that helped launch the city of Coronado, California, and was involved in the construction of the city streetcar system in neighboring San Diego.
In 1890, Howard returned to the Midwestern United States to assume the role of master of transportation for the Mackey system of railroads in the state of Indiana.
American Railway Union.
Howard was elected Vice President, under Eugene V. Debs who was elected President, of the American Railway Union (ARU) at the time of its formation in 1893. He spent much of 1894 on the road speaking on behalf of the organization. One contemporary observer, upon hearing Howard speak at an ARU organizing meeting in Brazil, Indiana, remarked:
"Mr. Howard is a rapid speaker and has foiled the brightest stenographers who have attempted to catch the elegant language as it flowed from his lips. Mr. Howard is a short, heavy-set fellow, and is alert and active as a cat, and talks with lightning rapidity... He claimed that the existing orders could not reconcile themselves to perfect federation, and consequently it was necessary to have an order large and broad enough to encompass all classes of railroad employees, thus bringing them closer together and eliminating the prejudices existing in the orders of today."
In August 1894 Howard was called to give testimony on behalf of striking American Railway Union workers before the United States Strike Commission appointed by President Grover Cleveland. Howard was against the strike and had believed that the strike would not have occurred "had the A.R.U. been strong enough." But the union's involvement in the strike led to a jail term for Debs at Woodstock and a term for Howard at Joliet; Howard became the first US prisoner to be confined at Joliet.
Later years.
In April 1895, Howard was the principal organizer of a new industrial union, the American Industrial Union (AIU). He was elected General Secretary of that organization at its founding convention, held in the city of Chicago. The AIU platform included the standardization of the eight-hour work day nationwide, settlement of disputes between labor and management through arbitration, women's suffrage (but not women's political participation beyond voting), temperance, and equal pay for women doing the same jobs as men.
By the summer of 1899 Howard had retired from the field of labor organization to become a farmer in Arkansas. Howard's farm was located on the Ouachita River at Witherspoon, about five miles north of Arkadelphia.
Howard did not confine himself to agrarian pursuits in his later years, taking time to lecture on "The Application of Cooperation to Trade Unionism" in Little Rock as late in November 1902.


Ralston Steel Car Company

The Ralston Steel Car Company operated in Columbus, Ohio, from 1905-1953. The company began by modifying wood freight cars to add steel underframes. Later it manufactured its own line of all-steel rail cars.
Founding.
Joseph S. Ralston and Anton Becker founded the Ralston Steel Car Company in 1905 by purchasing the plant of the Rarig Engineering Company on the east side of Columbus. Becker had just patented a drop-bottom gondola car which would allow the automatic unloading of coal and ballast cars (hopper cars). Prior to this invention, cars were unloaded by hand shoveling. An example of a Ralston-built drop gondola can be seen here.
Expansion.
With the increase in power of steam locomotives, the old wood freight cars could not take the strain, and demand for Ralston's all-steel cars exploded. By 1907, expansion of the Rarig facility began with the construction of a long Punch, Shear Fitting and Erection Shop. By 1910, a wide variety of cars were being produced.
Depression, War Surge, and Decline.
During the Great Depression, orders fell off precipitously. However, the build-up to World War II in the late 1930s revived the concern, and workers were called back to work. Employment reached 700 by the summer of 1940, and was producing 25 to 30 cars per day, and as many as 40 per day was possible.
After the war, however, demand for new freight cars plunged, since so many had been built during the war. Ralston was unable to ride out the slowdown, and shut its doors in 1953.


Tampa Terminal Subdivision

The Tampa Terminal Subdivision is a group of railroad lines owned by CSX Transportation in and around Tampa, Florida. The Tampa Terminal Subdivision covers track around Yeoman and Uceta Yards and is located at the end of two of CSX's U.S. East Coast main lines to Richmond, Virginia, the A Line and the S Line.
Lines.
The Tampa Terminal Subdivision has three distinct lines running through it. The A and S Lines run east–west through the yards, and the AZA line runs from the yards south.
A Line.
The A Line is the northern east–west line which runs from Mango though Uceta Yard to Tampa Union Station and is 8.1 miles in length. It notably passes through Tampa's historic Ybor City neighborhood. The A Line crosses the TECO Line Streetcar track between Ybor City and Tampa Union Station which is CSX's only at-grade crossing with a streetcar track in Florida. All Amtrak trains to Tampa operates on the A Line along with some local freight trains.
The A Line is designated the Lakeland Subdivision east of the Tampa Terminal Subdivision. West of Tampa Union Station, the A Line continues southwest as the Port Tampa Spur. The Port Tampa Spur runs southwest to Port Tampa near MacDill Air Force Base and notably street runs along Polk Street in downtown Tampa before crossing the Hillsborough River.
The A Line's designation stands for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad as it was previously the Atlantic Coast Line mainline.
S Line.
The S Line is the southern east–west line which runs from control point YN (just east of the Tampa Bypass Canal) through Yeoman Yard to Gary and is in length. The S Line is CSX's main freight route through Peninsular Florida.
The S Line is designated the Yeoman Subdivision east of the Tampa Terminal Subdivision. At the west end of the Tampa Terminal Subdivision, the line splits with its northwest track crossing the A Line and leading to the Clearwater Subdivision while the southwest track leads to the Hooker's Point Lead.
The S Line's designation stands for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad as it was previously the Seaboard Air Line mainline.
AZA Line.
The third line runs on the AZA Line from Yeoman Yard south to East Tampa and is 7.3 miles in length. At its south end the AZA line continues south to Bradenton as the Palmetto Subdivision.
Neve Spur.
Another notable track within the Tampa Terminal Subdivision in the Neve Spur. The Neve Spur runs from a wye on the A Line just west of Uceta Yard and goes northeast a short distance to a point just south of Temple Terrace. The wye at the south end of the Neve Spur is often used for turning locomotives around and is notably where Amtrak's Silver Star is turned around to back into Tampa Union Station twice daily.
Yards.
Yeoman and Uceta yards.
The Tampa Terminal Subdivision is centered around Yeoman Yard, CSX's primary classification yard for the Tampa area. Yeoman Yard was built by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and is located along the S Line (though it is also accessible from the A line). A track on the south side of Yeoman Yard connects the S Line with the AZA line and allows trains to bypass the yard without entering yard limits.
Uceta Yard, located just north of Yeoman Yard on the A Line, was once the main classification yard for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. Though after the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Railroads merged, Yeoman Yard was retained as the main classification yard. Uceta Yard now operates as an intermodal terminal and car storage facility.
Rockport Yard.
Another notable yard is Rockport Yard, located south of Yeoman Yard on a wye off the AZA Line. Rockport Yard serves CSX's Rockport Terminal, a deep-water port used for exporting phosphate. Trains bring phosphate for export mined from the Bone Valley in Central Florida. Rockport became the primary phosphate export facility for the railroad after the closure of Port Boca Grande in 1979.
History.
The A Line was previously the main line of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad with Uceta Yard being their main Tampa yard. The Atlantic Coast Line main line was originally built by the South Florida Railroad, which was part of Henry B. Plant's system of railroads. The line began service in 1884, and was taken over by the Atlantic Coast Line in 1902 after they bought the Plant System.
The Neve Spur was originally part of the Tampa and Thonotosassa Railroad, another Plant System railroad which at one point extended northeast to Zephyrhills and Vitis Junction.
The S Line was previously the main line of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad with Yeoman Yard being their main Tampa yard. The Seaboard Air Line main line was originally part of the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad and began service in 1890. The Seaboard Air Line acquired the line in 1903. In 1909, the Seaboard Air Line established its own port facility on Seddon Island (known today as Harbour Island). Seddon Island was named after Seaboard's chief engineer W.L. Seddon. The railroad would close and sell the Seddon Island terminal in 1979. Seaboard built Yeoman Yard in the 1950s to mostly replace what is now known as Old Tampa Yard downtown.
The AZA line south to East Tampa was built later in 1924 by the Tampa Southern Railroad, a subsidiary of the Atlantic Coast Line. The control point "TS" at the north end of the line is a reference to the Tampa Southern.
The Hooker's Point Lead and track leading to the Clearwater Subdivision was originally built by the Tampa Northern Railroad in 1908. The Seaboard Air Line bought the Tampa Northern in 1912.
In 1912, the Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, and the Tampa Northern Railroads jointly built Tampa Union Station to consolidate passenger operations in Tampa at a single location. The Atlantic Coast Line's previous depot (built by the South Florida Railroad) was located on the east side of the intersection of Ashley and Madison Streets. The Seaboard Air Line's depot (built by the FC&P Railroad) was located at the intersection of Franklin and Whiting Streets.
The Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line merged in 1967 becoming the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. This brought all tracks in Tampa under a single owner. In 1980, the Seaboard Coast Line's parent company merged with the Chessie System, creating the CSX Corporation. The CSX Corporation initially operated the Chessie and Seaboard Systems separately until 1986, when they were merged into CSX Transportation. Prior to the merger, the Seaboard main line (S Line) continued west from Gary giving the Seaboard its own access to Tampa Union Station. The S Line route into Tampa Union Station, which ran beside Adamo Drive, was removed in the 1990s, after Amtrak discontinued service to St. Petersburg in 1984.


American Industrial Transport

American Industrial Transport, a business formerly known as American Railcar Industries, is a specialist in railcar leasing and repair, headquartered in Saint Charles, Missouri. AITX, both the name and primary railcar mark, leases railcars in the covered hopper and specialized tank car markets.
History.
American Railcar Industries (ARI) was formed in 1988 and grew in railcar repair as a result of acquiring business assets from ACF Industries. At that time ARI manufactured components for railcars, and also provided painting, repair and fleet management services. By 1999, the company was manufacturing both hopper and tank cars.
In December 2018 the business was purchased by ITE Management. In April 2019 it was announced the manufacturing assets had been sold to The Greenbrier Companies. ITE continues to own the maintenance and leasing businesses In July 2020, it was rebranded American Industrial Transport.
American Industrial Transport Leasing.
AITX leases and manages over 16,000 tanks and covered hopper cars serving the petroleum, chemical, food, agriculture, fertilizer and plastic pellet markets.
The tank cars are used for a variety of liquid and liquified gas commodities such as vegetable oils, asphalt, various chemicals, LPGs and petroleum products. AITX's covered hopper cars are used for transporting commodities such as grains, plastic pellets, flour, sugar and various minerals.
Headquartered in Saint Charles, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri.
American Industrial Transport Repair.
AITX facilitates seven full service repair shops, in Brookhaven, Mississippi, Bude, Mississippi, Goodrich, Texas, Longview, Texas, North Kansas City, Missouri, and Sarnia, Ontario
AITX also runs numerous mobile locations in Emmetsburg, Iowa, Gonzales, Louisiana, Hastings, Nebraska, Hudson, Colorado, LaPorte, Texas, and Mounds, Illinois.


Campbell Pass

Campbell Pass is an infrequently used name for a heavily travelled crossing of the Continental Divide in west-central New Mexico. This broad, gentle mountain pass, located in McKinley County between Gallup and Grants, is the site of a settlement with the official but rather nonspecific name of Continental Divide. Nevertheless, the pass has great historical importance, being traversed by the original main line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (now the Southern Transcon of the BNSF Railway), later by the famous U.S. Route 66, and now by its successor, Interstate 40.
The origin of the name Campbell Pass is obscure, and it appears to be used mostly in connection with the railroad.


John Taylor Johnston

John Taylor Johnston (April 8, 1820 – March 24, 1893) was an American businessman and patron of the arts. He served as President of the Central Railroad of New Jersey and was one of the founders of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Early life.
Johnston was born on April 8, 1820 in New York City. He was the eldest child of John Johnston and Margaret (née Taylor) Howard Johnston, a widow of Rhesa Howard Jr. who was the nephew of William Few, Signer of the U.S. Constitution from Georgia whose brother-in-law was U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. His younger brother was James Boorman Johnston, who commissioned the Tenth Street Studio Building at 51 West 10th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. His sister, Margaret Taylor Johnston, was married to John Bard (a grandson of Dr. Samuel Bard) and together were founders of Bard College.
Both of his parents were of Scottish ancestry, and his father was a prominent businessman with Boorman, Johnston, & Co. and was a co-founder of Washington Square North. His mother had four siblings who, likewise, married two grandchildren, a great-granddaughter, and a nephew of founding father Roger Sherman, Signer of the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Declaration of Independence from Connecticut.
Johnson grew up in Greenwich Village, where he was born, and was educated at Edinburgh High School in Edinburgh, Scotland. He graduated from the University of the City of New York, an institution founded by his father and several other civic-minded New Yorkers, in 1839. He later studied at Yale Law School, where his classmates included Charles Astor Bristed, Daniel D. Lord, and Henry G. DeForest.
Career.
After being admitted to the bar in 1843, Johnston practiced law until 1848, when he was named president of the Somerville and Easton Railroad (later the Central Railroad of New Jersey), a position he would retain until 1877. He was the driving force behind the company's acquisition of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, and also endeavored to develop the suburbs of central New Jersey through which his railroads passed. According to his obituary, "[h]is expenditures to secure low grades and good alignment to avoid grade crossings were far in advance of the railroad science of his time and were ridiculed by some of his competitors."
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Johnston was the founding president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870. Together with William Tilden Blodgett, he financed the initial "1871 purchase" of 174 paintings for the museum. He held this position until ill health forced him to retire in 1889, at which point he was succeeded by Henry Gurdon Marquand and the Museum's Trustees voted him Honorary President for Life. He was also a patron to living American artists and was an avid collector, including many French academic paintings. His personal art collection in his Fifth Avenue mansion, which included works by Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Cole, Asher Brown Durand, John Frederick Kensett, and Winslow Homer,
In addition to his patronage of the arts, Johnston served as President of the Governing Board of the University of the City of New York, and as a member of the boards of the Presbyterian Hospital, the Woman's Hospital of New York, and the Saint Andrew's Society. He was also a member of the Century Association, and a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and the National Academy of Design.
Personal life.
In 1851, Johnston was married to Frances Colles (1826–1888), the daughter of Harriet (née Wetmore) Colles and James Colles, a prominent merchant in New York and New Orleans. Their children were:
In 1856, Johnston constructed the first marble mansion in New York as his residence at 8 Fifth Avenue, just north of Washington Square.
Johnston was an active diarist, recording details of his travels through Europe and the United States as well as significant personal and world events, including his wedding excursion, trips with his family, a visit to Richmond, Virginia in 1865 after the surrender of the Confederate Army, and a trip west on the newly built Union Pacific Railroad.
In his later years, Johnston was afflicted with creeping paralysis (possibly multiple sclerosis) and withdrew from public life. He died at his Fifth Avenue estate in New York City on March 24, 1893. His funeral was held at the Scotch Presbyterian Church (now the Second Presbyterian Church) in New York, of which he was an elder, and he is interred at Greenwood Cemetery. In his will, he left $10,000 each to the University of the City of New York and The Metropolitan Museum of New York.
Descendants.
Through his daughter Frances, Johnston is the great-great-grandfather of American slam poet Taylor Mali.
Legacy.
Johnston Avenue in lower Jersey City, New Jersey (designated County Route 614 for a section of its length) begins in the west at the foot of Bergen Hill close to Communipaw Junction and ends at the Liberty State Park Station of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail. The cobblestoned portion street continues under New Jersey Turnpike Newark Bay Extension, in Liberty State Park to the Communipaw Terminal on the Upper New York Bay and in the 1970s was rededicated Audrey Zapp Drive to honor a local environmentalist influential in the development of the park.
The Port Johnston Coal Docks on Constable Hook in Bayonne, New Jersey, also bear his name. The former Johnston Avenue Yard was the terminus for the Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway.


Medfield Junction station

Medfield Junction is a railway junction and former train station located in northwest Medfield, Massachusetts. It is the junction of the Framingham Secondary and the former Millis Branch. The station was open from November 1861 until April 1967.
History.
Medfield Junction station.
On November 18, 1861, the Charles River Railroad (part of the New York and Boston Railroad) was extended from Needham Center to Medway via Medfield; a station at Medfield opened then or shortly after. In 1867, the Mansfield and Framingham Railroad opened on a perpendicular route, crossing the Charles River line at Medfield Junction and opening its own station closer to the center of Mansfield.
By 1898, both lines through Medfield Junction were owned by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Patients traveling to Medfield State Hospital were transported from the station in horse-drawn wagons. A freight wreck at the junction on October 23, caused by an engineer proceeding through an open derail, killed two railroad employees and injured four more.
Closure.
Passenger service between Mansfield and Framingham ended in 1933, and Medfield Junction (often referred to thereafter as simply Medfield) was once again the sole railroad station for the town.
Passenger service on the Charles River line was cut back from Woonsocket to Bellingham Junction in 1930, and discontinued entirely south of Needham Junction on July 18, 1938. Service south of Needham Junction was restored in March 1940, but cut back in stages to West Medway later in 1940 and 1941 (after which the line was known as the "West Medway Branch"), and reduced to a single daily one-car round trip (which was combined with a longer Needham Heights train at Needham Junction) in 1955. The newly formed Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) started subsidising continued NYNH&H passenger service on the portion of the moribund West Medway branch running from Boston to Millis on April 24, 1966; service on the truncated Millis Branch was discontinued on April 21, 1967 due to extremely poor ridership. The remaining stations, including Medfield, closed at that time; all except Dover and Millis were later demolished.
Current use.
The Framingham Secondary passed through Conrail, CSX, and finally into state hands in 2015; CSX runs regular freight service on the line through Medfield Junction. The Bay Colony Railroad took over freight service on the former Millis Branch east of the junction from Conrail in 1982, and west of the junction in 1987. , the only Bay Colony service through the Junction is occasional gravel trains towards Millis.


Pittsburgh and Ohio Central Railroad

The Pittsburgh and Ohio Central Railroad is a short-line railroad operating 35 miles of track over the Chartiers Branch in southwest Pennsylvania. It also operated a small portion of the former Conrail Panhandle Route between Carnegie and Walkers Mill. This portion has not seen a train since 2014, and both bridges on the line have been fenced off. A 3-foot section of rail was also cut from the line just west of Carnegie in 2015, rendering the line completely impassible. It is owned by the Ohio Central Railroad System, which is a division of the rail holding company Genesee & Wyoming Inc.
The P&OHC was formed after the purchase by Genesse & Wyoming of the former Pittsburgh Industrial Railroad from RailAmerica, Inc. in 2000. The line has track extending from its office in the McKees Rocks north to Neville Island and south to Arden in South Strabane Township. Major commodities hauled include chemicals, minerals, plastics, and steel.
Roster (as of June 2014).
 2402 [SW1500, ex-Pittsburgh Industrial Railroad]


Boyles Terminal Subdivision

The Boyles Terminal Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of Alabama. The line runs from New Castle, Alabama, to Hoover, Alabama, for a total of 17.3 miles. At its north end it continues south from the S&NA North Subdivision which is part of the Nashville Division and at its south end it continues south as the S&NA South Subdivision.


Alvin Adams

Alvin Adams (June 16, 1804 – September 1, 1877) was the founder of Adams and Company, a forerunner to Adams Express, one of the first companies to act as a carrier for express shipments by rail in the United States. Adams and Company provided shippers with a complete shipping solution, picking up goods at the shipper's location, carrying them to the railroad terminal, and then delivering them from the distant railroad terminal to the recipient's door.
Biography.
Alvin Adams was born on June 16, 1804 in Andover, Vermont. to Jonas Adams (1758-1813) and Phoebe (Hoar) Adams (1765-1813). His father was descended from the same ancestor as President John Adams and Governor Samuel Adams, namely Henry Adams (ca. 1583 - 1646) who settled in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1632. Alvin was the ninth of eleven children. His parents died within a week of each other when he was eight years old. He came to Boston from Vermont a poor orphan boy to seek his fortune. He married Anne Rebecca Bridge (1809-1882) of Chelsea, Massachusetts on November 10, 1831. She was the daughter of cabinetmaker John Bridge (1783-1870) and Rebecca (Beal) Bridge (1787-1865). Alvin and Anne had nine children. A nephew of Alvin and Anne, John Bridge Pratt (1833-1870), later married the oldest of the famous Alcott sisters, Anna Alcott Pratt (1831-1893). A produce merchant ruined by the Panic of 1837, in 1839, Adams began carrying letters, small packages and valuables for patrons between Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts. On May 4, 1840 he established his first express freight route between Boston and New York under the name Adams and Company. The company established offices in Boston and New York, and soon added express routes to Baltimore, Maryland, Norwich, Connecticut, Worcester, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, and St. Louis, Missouri. Adams and Company started out by hauling mail for the nascent postal service, until that business was suspended by the US Government in 1845; in that year the transportation of mail was transferred to solely government-owned entities.
In 1854 Adams and Company merged with three other express agencies, Harnden and Company, Thompson and Company, and Kinsley and Company to form the Adams Express Company, with Adams as the president of the new company. The company was initially capitalized with $1,200,000. He was succeeded in 1855 by George Washington Cass.
Alvin Adams died September 1, 1877 in Watertown, Massachusetts. The company that he formed, the Adams Express Company, still exists and is one of the oldest companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ADX), headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.


Henry deForest

Henry Wheeler DeForest (October 29, 1855 – 1938) was an American railroad executive, capitalist and industrialist.
Early life.
DeForest was born in New York City on October 29, 1855. He was a son of Henry Grant DeForest and Julia Mary (née Weeks) DeForest. Among his siblings was older brothers Lockwood DeForest, a painter and interior designer, and Robert Weeks DeForest, a lawyer, financier, and philanthropist.
DeForest paternal grandfather was Lockwood DeForest, a prominent South Street merchant and direct descendant of Jessé de Forest, of French Huguenot ancestry, whose Dutch West India Company helped to settle New Amsterdam. Through his mother, he was distantly related to Frederic Church, the Hudson River landscapist, and his maternal grandfather was Robert Doughty Weeks, the first President of the New York Stock Exchange.
He was a graduate of Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts, Yale University in 1876, and Columbia Law School in 1878.
Career.
After being admitted to the bar in 1878, he began practicing law with his father, brother, and uncle in New York. When that firm was dissolved in 1893, DeForest and his brother founded the firm known as DeForest Brothers. From 1925 to 1928, he was chair of the executive committee of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and chairman of its board of directors from 1929 to 1932.
He assisted E.H. Harriman in the recapitalization of the Wells Fargo Express Company, and was a longtime director of the Equitable Life Assurance Company. With Elihu Root, he was the trustee of the majority of the Equitable's capital stock. He also served as president of the New York Botanical Garden from January 1928 to November 1937.
Personal life.
On August 22, 1898, DeForest was married to Julia Gilman Noyes (1875–1967) in St. Paul, Minnesota. Julia was the daughter of Emily Hoffman (née Gilman) Noyes and Charles Phelps Noyes, a millionaire druggist. Together, they resided at 63 East 79th Street in New York, Nethermuir in Cold Spring Harbor (the former home of Chinese merchant Oliver Kimball Gordon), and were the parents of:
DeForest died at his county home, Nethermuir, in Cold Spring Harbor on 1938. He was buried at Memorial Cemetery of Saint John's Church in Laurel Hollow, New York on Long Island.
Descendants.
Through his daughter Alice, he is the grandfather of Andy Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick.


Ashley River Railroad

The Ashley River Railroad was a shortline railroad that served the South Carolina Lowcountry region in the late 19th century.
The Ashley River Railroad was incorporated by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1875 and, according to an article in the "New York Times" in late December 1877, the line opened on December 27, 1877, and was the final link in the coast line of railways from New York City to Jacksonville, Florida. A new bridge over the Ashley River replaced a ferry, according to the article.
In 1901, the Ashley River Railroad was consolidated, along with the Green Pond, Walterboro and Branchville Railroad; the Abbeville Southern Railway; and Southern Alabama Railroad, into the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway (Plant System).
The Plant System was sold to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. The Ashley River Railroad would become part of the Atlantic Coast Line's main line (which extended in its entirety from Richmond, Virginia to Tampa, Florida).
In 1967, the Atlantic Coast Line merged with its rival, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. The merged company was named the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad.
In 1980, the Seaboard Coast Line's parent company merged with the Chessie System, creating the CSX Corporation. The CSX Corporation initially operated the Chessie and Seaboard Systems separately until 1986, when they were merged into CSX Transportation. The Ashley River Railroad is still in service and it is now part of CSX's A Line (Charleston Subdivision).


Union Freight Railroad

The Union Freight Railroad was a freight-only railroad connecting the railroads coming into the north and south sides of downtown Boston, Massachusetts. Almost its entire length was along Atlantic Avenue and Commercial Street. For most of its length, the Atlantic Avenue Elevated carried passengers above.
Original configuration.
When the line was built in 1872, each railroad had separate tracks and a separate terminal; the current union stations at North Station and South Station had not yet been built. At first, only four connections were provided.
The first connection was from the Old Colony Railroad, the line to Quincy and beyond. That line crossed the Fort Point Channel a bit west of the current bridge, ending with passenger and freight terminals southwest of the current location of South Station (fully south of Kneeland Street). The beginning of the Union Freight Railroad split off the Old Colony Railroad between the bridge and the terminals, heading northeast to Federal Street and then north on Federal Street, a street that ran from the Dorchester Avenue Bridge straight to Dewey Square (the front of South Station).
Continuing north, about 1/3 of the way between Essex Street and Dewey Square, the line was met with a track from the New York and New England Railroad (now the Fairmount Line). This line came over the Fort Point Channel into South Boston (where the South Boston Bypass Road runs now) and back over the channel just south of where the Summer Street Bridge is now, with a passenger depot east of Dewey Square (roughly where the north end of South Station now lies). Freight facilities were in South Boston, where the South Boston Freight Terminal still operates; the Federal Street Freight Depot was later built on the downtown side. The Union Freight Railroad connection split south from the line to the passenger depot just after crossing Fort Point Channel, and ran west to merge with the main line on Federal Street.
At Dewey Square, the Union Freight Railroad continued north on Atlantic Avenue. Various track connections were provided to markets and docks on Boston Harbor. On the east side of the North End, the line merged onto Commercial Street, and turned west and continued along Causeway Street.
Halfway between Beverly Street and Haverhill Street, the line curved off Causeway Street to head north between the passenger terminal of the Fitchburg Railroad and the northern freight house of the Boston and Maine Railroad, roughly between the current North Station and Central Artery. This track then split in two, with the east branch merging with the Fitchburg Railroad and the west branch merging with the Boston and Maine Railroad.
No connections were provided to the Boston and Albany Railroad (which ended near today's South Station), Boston and Providence Railroad (which ended in Park Square), or the Eastern Railroad and Boston and Lowell Railroad (which both ended near today's North Station). Additionally, the Boston and Albany Railroad and Eastern Railroad had lines to East Boston, across Boston Harbor from downtown.
New union stations.
The original North Station opened in 1894, lying just west of the old Boston and Maine Railroad northern freight house. The existing connections were kept. A new connection was built between the Union Freight Railroad and the Fitchburg Railroad, east of the old Fitchburg Railroad passenger terminal. Additionally, the track was extended west on Causeway Street to Lowell Street, where it turned north, merging with the original alignment of the Boston and Lowell Railroad and its bridge over the Charles River. This was later simplified, with only the original connection to the Boston and Maine Railroad and the new west connection remaining.
South Station opened in 1899, with the Boston and Providence Railroad and New York and New England Railroad being realigned next to the Boston and Albany Railroad and Old Colony Railroad to access it. The old connection between the Union Freight Railroad and the New York and New England Railroad was removed. Federal Street was removed, as it was in the way of the new station, and the Union Freight Railroad was realigned onto Atlantic Avenue south of Dewey Square. At Kneeland Street, Atlantic Avenue made an S-curve to the west, and the Union Freight Railroad continued straight, along the east side of Atlantic Avenue, and merging with the combined Boston and Albany Railroad and Boston and Providence Railroad after passing under the Atlantic Avenue Viaduct (which crossed the Fort Point Channel between the Dorchester Avenue Bridge and the railroad bridge). No direct connection was provided to the Old Colony Railroad or the New York and New England Railroad.
Locomotives.
From opening until 1953, UFRR owned its own locomotives. From 1953 until closure in 1970, UFRR leased locomotives from the parent New Haven Railroad.
In addition, the prototype ALCO boxcab #8835 was tested in November 1924 but UFRR decided not to purchase the type.
Later years.
The connection with the New Haven Railroad was severed on September 9, 1969. All remaining operations ceased on March 5, 1970.


Broxton, Hazlehurst and Savannah Railroad

The Broxton, Hazlehurst and Savannah Railroad was chartered in 1900 and operated a line between Broxton and Hazlehurst, Georgia, USA. It lasted until 1905 when it merged with the Ocilla and Valdosta Railroad.


Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad

The Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad is a terminal railroad in the Chicago area, formerly giving various other companies access to (Chicago's) Grand Central Station. It also served to connect those railroads for freight transfers, and is now controlled by CSX Corporation, the successor to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
History.
By 1886, the Wisconsin Central Railroad had formed a new railway company, called the Chicago and Great Western Railroad (C&GW) to build a new line from a connection with the WC at Forest Park into the city, and to construct the Grand Central Station, which opened in December 1890.
In June 1887, a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific Railroad called the Chicago & Calumet Terminal Railway (C&CT) consolidated several terminal railroads in the Chicago area with lines running between the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway at McCook, Illinois to the south and south-east to Hammond, Indiana and a connection with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O).
In March 1890, another subsidiary of the Northern Pacific Railroad bought the C&GW along with several other WC lines in the Chicago area, consolidated them all as the Chicago & Northern Pacific Railroad (C&NP). The next month, the WC had itself leased to the Northern Pacific. As they were both controlled by the same railroad, the C&NP and the C&CT were linked together with new construction and trackage rights. The lease arrangement between the Wisconsin Central and the Northern Pacific worked until the Panic of 1893, when the WC was freed from the lease, and the C&NP was again placed under the control of the WC. Weakened by the prolonged economic downturn, the C&NP was bankrupt by October 1893.
In July 1897, a new company called the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad (CTT) bought the C&NP from the Wisconsin Central. While the WC (and successor Soo Line Railroad) no longer had its own direct connection to the city, it continued to use the line to access Grand Central Station until 1899, and between 1912 and 1965. In May 1897, the Chicago Terminal Transfer merged the Chicago & Calumet Terminal. The B&O began using Grand Central Station in 1892, when a connection was made between the CTT and the B&O at South Chicago. When the Pere Marquette Railroad was completed to Porter, Indiana in 1903, it also used the CTT into Grand Central Station.
On January 6, 1910 the Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad was created to purchase the CTT at foreclosure, giving B&O control of both the terminal railway system, as well as Grand Central Station.
The railroad reached a peak size in the 1920s of 78 route-miles and 365 track-miles.
Operations.
The railroad was strategically located in Chicago; connections made at Forest Park and trackage rights allowed the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railway ("Soo Line") (which had leased the Wisconsin Central in 1909) and the Chicago Great Western Railway access to Grand Central Station.
Satellite stations.
The Baltimore and Ohio had two long distance train stations on the line, on the periphery of Chicago, as passing into the city border en route to Grand Central Station. The B&O's grand "Capitol Limited" and its other Chicago-bound trains stopped at the stations.
The B&O's South Chicago was located approximately at 94th Street and Commercial Avenue, slightly to the southwest of the Calumet River's opening to Lake Michigan. Additionally, the Pere Marquette Railway's "Night Express" to Muskegon and Grand Rapids, Michigan and its "Resort Special" to Bay View, Michigan, also used the B&OCT lines through the city, as well as the two stations on the approach to Grand Central Station. The B&O's 63rd Street Station, in the South Lynne section of the city was the company's other station within Chicago en route to Grand Central Station.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway absorbed the Pere Marquette in 1947 and continued its trains to southwest Michigan. These were the last trains to run through the two stations when passenger service passed over to Amtrak in 1971. The B&O trains stopped serving the South Chicago station between 1968 and 1970.


William K. MacCurdy

William K. MacCurdy was an American engineer at SRI International that developed the Hydra-Cushion freight car for Southern Pacific in 1954. Cushioned rail cars based on his design are still the standard.
Career.
MacCurdy joined SRI International in 1952 with a background in shipbuilding; he was previously a naval architect. Donald J. Russell connected Southern Pacific with SRI in 1954, and asked them to design a new rail coupling; in particular, Southern Pacific was concerned with the draft gear, the part that connects the couplings to the rolling stock. In MacCurdy's design, the coupler has an extended connection to the center of the railway car, combined with interleaved fingers at each end of the railway car helping to absorb some of the effects of acceleration.
The theory was tested in December 1954 by modifying an existing car with the technology (initially known as the "Hydra-friction") in Sacramento and placing it into relatively difficult service; the car greatly exceeded expectations. The second iteration, bearing the more widely known name of Hydra-Cushion, was introduced in April 1956, and Southern Pacific built and deployed an additional 350 of these cars in summer 1957. The average damage to freight was reduced to 1/25th of previous values.
MacCurdy left SRI to be the chief research engineer in the Transportation Equipment Division of Evans Products Company, which was licensed some of the proprietary information about the Hydra-Cushion from Southern Pacific in 1957.
Legacy.
In 1964, MacCurdy and Southern Pacific's William E. Thomford received the Franklin Institute's 1964 George R. Henderson Medal for achievements "in the field of railway impact control and associated car design, with resulting benefits in reducing lading and rolling stock damage". In 1967, "Railway Age" noted that "The 10th anniversary of the cushion-underframe... has to be one of the most significant anniversaries in the annals of the industry."


Causeway Street elevated

The Causeway Street elevated was an elevated section of the MBTA Green Line light rail system in Boston, located in the area near North Station. It was in operation from 1912 until 2004, when it was replaced with a new tunnel and underground station on a slightly different alignment.
Description.
The Causeway Street elevated began at the Canal Street incline in parallel with the Charlestown Elevated tracks, and after "splitting" away from it just south of Boston Garden, turned southwest above Causeway Street with an elevated station at North Station in front of the Boston Garden, and then turned northwest above Lowell Street, before joining the Lechmere Viaduct at Leverett Circle. It was a two-track structure on steel girders, similar to the Charlestown Elevated, Atlantic Avenue Elevated, and Washington Street Elevated, which were opened between 1901 and 1909.
The Causeway Street elevated was one of the last pieces of elevated line constructed in Boston, and, except for a short section remaining at Lechmere, was the last section in service. Although initial plans had called for the Cambridge–Dorchester line to be constructed as an elevated, the Causeway Street elevated was the only elevated in Boston not part of the Orange Line.
History.
Opening.
When the Tremont Street subway fully opened in 1898, surface cars entering the subway from East Cambridge had to cross Craigie's Bridge and proceed on surface streets to the Canal Street incline. The trip from Lechmere Point over the bridge was slow and prone to heavy traffic delays. On June 20, 1907, construction began on one mile of elevated track connecting the Canal Street incline to East Cambridge. The project's centerpiece was the arched Lechmere Viaduct crossing the Charles River; other sections included a short elevated in East Cambridge and an elevated line above Causeway Street connecting the viaduct to the Canal Street incline. The first streetcars crossed the new bridge and the Causeway Street elevated in revenue service on June 1, 1912, shortening the ten-minute trip from Lechmere Square to the subway to just three minutes.
A single station was built on Causeway Street in front of the Boston and Maine Railroad's terminal, North Union Station, with connections to it as well as the Main Line Elevated station (which had opened in 1901) and the Causeway Street streetcar terminal (opened in 1898). An additional platform at the station was built for Main Line trains running shuttle services between North Union Station and South Station on the Atlantic Avenue Elevated. North Union Station was replaced in 1928 by North Station with the Boston Garden arena on top, prompting minor changes to the station's configuration.
When the Atlantic Avenue Elevated was closed in 1938, and subsequently demolished for scrap metal in 1942, the tracks that once served it were removed from the elevated station, but the abandoned stub trackbed remained part of the station for the remainder of its lifespan.
Closure.
In 1995, Boston Garden was replaced by the FleetCenter (later renamed TD Garden), whose building was set further back from Causeway Street. Several years later, the Elevated was temporarily extended approximately east along Causeway Street, and the Causeway Street surface terminal closed on March 28, 1997, because Big Dig construction required several maintenance buildings to be constructed along the Elevated's original Causeway Street alignment. As part of environmental remediation to compensate for increased air pollution caused by the Big Dig, the Causeway Street elevated was replaced by a new tunnel under North Station to free up land and to lower noise levels associated with the trains' characteristic screech as they rounded the sharp elevated turns, as well as to remove the light-blocking elevated structure from Causeway Street. The new tunnel is 4 tracks wide under the North Station building. Through trains run on the outer tracks, while the inner two tracks are used for temporarily storing Green line cars and to reverse trains that terminate at North Station. A short siding off the inbound track south of North Station is used for storing construction equipment.
On June 25, 2004, the Causeway Street elevated was permanently closed. After a weekend of substitute bus service north of Government Center, Green Line service to the underground North Station "superstation" began on June 28. During the 2004 Democratic National Convention from July 24 to 29, 2004, the disused Elevated was used as a platform for security personnel. After a year of substitute bus service while the new portal and incline connecting the tunnel to the Lechmere Viaduct were finished, regular service to Lechmere resumed on November 12, 2005. The replacement of the Causeway Street elevated cost $310 million in 2005 dollars.


Hauto Tunnel

The Hauto Tunnel, dug in 1871–72, was a single-track railway tunnel crossing under the barrier ridge of Nesquehoning Mountain between Lansford, Pennsylvania, in the Panther Creek Valley and the Central Railroad of New Jersey trackage near the dam of the Hauto Reservoir impoundment about above Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania. The tunnel was significant for cutting nearly off the trip to the Lehigh Canal terminal or, by rail, to other eastern coal companies, in the era when anthracite was the king of energy fuels.
Built as a joint venture by the Central Railroad of New Jersey and landlords Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N Co.) shortly after the LC&N board of directors had decided to opt out of the rail transportation business and leased all the railroads it owned or controlled under subsidiary Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad to the CNJ. The tunnel began as a notion when LC&N Co. miners needed to drain water from a higher mine gallery under the Panther Creek Valley and so dug a drainage shaft from the other (north) side of Nesquehoning Ridge into the coal beds under Lansford.
Once the tracks were in operation and proven, the tunnel allowed the CNJ to seek permission from LC&N Co. to cease coal shipments to the canal head on the iconic Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad, and to sell off the asset as a common carrier and tourist railway.


Bush Terminal Railroad


Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad

The Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad (PB&W) was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia in the 20th century, and was a key component of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) system. Its main line ran from Philadelphia to Washington. The PB&W main line is now part of the Northeast Corridor, owned by Amtrak.
History.
The railroad was formed in 1902 when the Pennsylvania Railroad merged two of its southern subsidiaries, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad and the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad.
In 1907, the PB&W became a co-owner of the new Washington Terminal Company, which operated the new Washington Union Station, the marble structure dubbed the "Transportation Temple of America".
In 1916, the PB&W operated of road, including of trackage rights.
Acquisitions.
The PB&W acquired six railroad companies:
Improvements.
In 1928, the PRR began to electrify the main line between New York City and Washington, D.C., using catenary. Electrification of the PB&W portion was completed in 1935. Amtrak still uses the 25 Hz traction power system.
Dissolution.
In 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad and its longtime rival New York Central Railroad merged to form the Penn Central Railroad. The PB&W remained a separate legal entity, although controlled and operated by the new company. The Penn Central declared bankruptcy in 1970 but continued to operate trains until 1976, when the company's railroad assets were sold under the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act. Under the new law, Congress authorized the sale of the PB&W right-of-way between Philadelphia and Washington, and related assets (such as the Washington Terminal Company), to Amtrak. Other PB&W assets, including almost all of the PCC&StL (Pan Handle), were sold to the new Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail).