This Day in History...

Line Car No.1 in front of Heydon House northwest corner St.Clair and (Old) Weston Road in Carlton. 1920 Ontario Hydro Archives

Today in History: September 27......

1825: George Stephenson opens the Stockton and Darlington Railroad, moving the 36 wagons of his steam-powered coal train, Locomotion, across nine miles of track in two hours.

1850: True and faithful to the policy of settling Oregon Territory with Americans, he favored the Oregon land-donation act of September 27, 1850,and was an earnest advocate of a railroad to the Pacific Ocean.

1856: September 27: Grand Trunk Railway opens from Guelph to Stratford.

1856: The Chicago Branch railroad which connected Chicago with Centralia was completed. The branch joined the main line of the railroad which reached all the way to Cairo. This was the longest railroad in the world at that time.

1864: The Washington & Maryland Line Railroad,later called the Columbia & Maryland Line Railroad,was merged into the Columbia and Port Deposit Railroad.

1866: Moberly was born as a product of a railroad land auction. With the connection of the Chariton and Randolph Railroad at Moberly, the North Missouri Railroad Company began a legacy of railroading in the county which lasts to this day.

1876: Just before his death, Bragg moved to Galveston,Texas, where he worked as a chief railroad inspector for the state of Texas. On this day, while walking with a friend, he fell dead from a massive stroke. He was buried in Mobile, Alabama.

1903: Occurred the railroad wreck that inspired the popular ballad, "The Wreck of the Old 97." The southbound mail express train on the Southern Railroad left the tracks on a trestle and plunged into the ravine below. Nine persons were killed and seven injured, one of the worst train wrecks in Virginia history. Danville: between Pickett and Farrar streets.

All this information came from Google News and type in "today in railroad + September 27."

Lisa