The trail of the swinging lanterns : $b a racy, railroading review of transportation matters, methods and menCopeland, John Morison
History
The trail of the swinging lanterns : $b a racy, railroading review of transportation matters, methods and men
Copeland, John Morison
Railroads -- Canada
1807--Fulton introduced the use of a steam propelled vessel on
the Hudson River, which proved a practical success in
handling passengers and goods between Albany and New York.
1809--Period of the first steamboat operated between Quebec and
Montreal on the St. Lawrence River.
1814, July 25--George Stephenson, Father of Railways,
successfully operated his steam locomotive “Blucher” in the
coal country of the Tyne, at four miles per hour, which was
the first real inception of steam engines as a commercial
possibility.
1816--S.S. “Frontenac” was the earliest Lake Ontario steamer.
1825--Stockton & Darlington Railway opened to traffic in England.
1828--Saw the first steam driven train in America, operated by
the South Carolina Railway, South Carolina.
1830--The Baltimore & Ohio Railway engine “Tom Thumb” was used.
1831--Witnessed the launching, according to Doctor Sandford
Fleming, of S.S. “Royal William” which completed a passage
from Quebec to London, England, in 1833, consuming 25 days
from Pictou, N.S. One of the owners was Samuel Cunard,
born in Halifax, N.S., who, with his brothers, created the
nucleus of the now famous Cunard Line. In June, 1894, a
brass tablet commemorating the event was unveiled in the
Parliamentary Library at Ottawa, by Lord Aberdeen.
1832, July 31--First American Railway train on the Mohawk &
Hudson Ry. which ran between Albany and Schenectady, N.Y.
The train was pulled by engine “John Bull” which came from
England in S.S. “Mary Howland”. It heads this chronology.
Among other passengers in the last coach was Thurlow Weed,
Esq., Editor Albany Evening Journal and ex-Governor Yates.
The footnote states that in the second coach traveled Jacob
Hays, a celebrated New York thief catcher.
1832--First railway charter issued in Canada to Champlain & St.
Lawrence Railroad, an 18 mile line from La Prairie, Quebec,
on the St. Lawrence above Montreal, to St. Johns, Quebec,
on the Richelieu River. The motive power was horses until
steam engine replaced them in 1837.
1837--Cumberland Valley Railway, in Pennsylvania, is said to have
used the first sleeping car.
[Illustration]
1838, April 3--Lieutenant Roberts, R.N., set sail from Cork,
Ireland, in the two funnelled, one master “Sirius” of the
St. George Steam Packet Company, with forty passengers at
35 guineas per capita, and arrived at New York in 19 days,
being the earliest steam vessel crossing from Europe to
America.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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