In August, the STB announced a proposed regulation that would eliminate a 30-year-old standard requiring a showing of anticompetitive conduct before regulators would force railroads into reciprocal switching agreements—which means carriers would be required to switch traffic to competitors' tracks if market rates exceed a regulatory threshold.
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Early railroads in North America made many canals economically feasible, and canal's needs added to the demands by industries that pushed the early railroads into pressurized research and development and rapid steady improvements.
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The lumber boom town of Laneville soon sprang up around it with a population that peaked at over 300 people.Wilderness Committee, Op. cit., pg 5.Shay locomotives climbed the temporary railroads into the mountains and backcountry logging camps sprang up throughout the Sods, clearing away the virgin forest to feed the hungry mills.
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The infantry regiment was organized at Pulaski, Tennessee, on January 3, 1864. Straight away it was placed on garrison duty at Pulaski and Athens, Tennessee. While they were on garrison duty they were attached to the Department of Tennessee. In the meantime, they acted as guard for railroads into Northern Alabama until June 25, 1864.
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The California Midland Railroad was formed in 1902 to extend rail service from Alton up the Van Duzen River to Carlotta. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged Alton's railroads into the San Francisco and Northwestern Railway in 1903; and Alton was linked to the national rail network by completion of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in 1914.
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Over the years he had successes acquiring land and worked with many coal and steel companies to get the railroads into the area so that mining could be profitable. After facing controversy in Virginia over how land was acquired, Mayo crafted the broad form deed so that the companies he worked for more securely held the rights to mine the minerals.
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The industrial era saw a major expansion of railroads into the area. The Pennsylvania Railroad-controlled Baltimore and Potomac Railroad was built in the 1870s to compete with the B&O.; The town of Odenton (named for B&P; president and Maryland governor Oden Bowie) grew up where this road crossed the Annapolis & Elkridge roughly five miles east of Annapolis Junction.
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Our best > work was in getting telegraph, telephone and railroads into Boise, and > finally the main line. We opposed free silver and had a hell of a time for > six months. The Statesman started as a Republican paper and the vote here > was usually 7,000 Democrats to 400 or 500 Republicans.” Cobb married Fanny Howes Lyon of Chicago on February 7, 1878.
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16 Around this time the town of Humboldt began to develop. The smelter and the railroads into the Bradshaws created probably the most widespread mining boom in the county. By 1907 the population had reached 1,000. With two daily trains, business in the town boomed and the city decided to showcase their development by hosting a Labor Day celebration that year.
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The Seaboard System's roots trace back to SCL Industries, a holding company created in 1968 that combined the SCL's subsidiary railroads into one entity. In 1969, SCL was renamed Seaboard Coast Line Industries. Known as the Family Lines System, this entity adopted its own logo and colors, but each railroad maintained its own identity. Over time, this caused confusion among customers.
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Financial trouble in 1894 caused the Central of Georgia to lose control of both companies. Finally, in 1896, the Charleston & Western Carolina Railway was organized to consolidate both railroads into a single entity. The result was a railroad network covering most of western South Carolina. In 1897, the Atlantic Coast Line took control of the C&WC; and operated the railroad as an independent company.
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In Arkansas, Boudinot became active as a pro-slavery advocate in the Democratic Party; this was the majority position of party members. He was elected to the city council of Fayetteville in 1859. That year, together with James Pettigrew, he founded a pro-slavery newspaper, The Arkansan. It also favored the construction of railroads into Indian Territory, which was seen as integral to development.
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Not to be confused with the Railtex International Exhibition in Birmingham, UK RailTex was a transportation holding company that specialized in owning and operating short line railroads across North America. Based in San Antonio, Texas, the public company was a leader in making unprofitable lines shed by Class I railroads into viable transportation routes. The company was sold on February 4, 2000 and merged into RailAmerica.
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By 1888 the Nickel Plate had been dubbed "The Meat Express Line." Observers at Fort Wayne, Indiana reported six long meat trains every night and a couple of fruit trains during the day. Vanderbilt consolidated many of his railroads into the New York Central Railroad. Over time, the Nickel Plate was reduced as a serious threat to the New York Central and other competing lines.
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They were still literati. The Opium Wars, however, demonstrated the power of steam engine and military technology that had only recently been put into practice in the West. During the Self-Strengthening Movement of the 1860s and 1870s Confucian officials in several coastal provinces established an industrial base in military technology. The introduction of railroads into China raised questions that were more political than technological.
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The infantry regiment was organized at Pulaski, Tennessee, on November 20, 1863. From there it was attached to the 2nd Division, 16th Army Corps, Department of Tennessee. In the meantime, it was on garrison duty at Pulaski and Athens, Tennessee, which included acting as guard for railroads into Northern Alabama until June 25, 1864. On June 25, 1864, the regiment was designated the 110th U.S. Regiment Colored Troops.
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Indiana subdivision Operations began in 1988 over mostly former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (formerly Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh) lines. In the early 2000s, the BPRR merged other GWI railroads into it. These lines include the Allegheny and Eastern Railroad (ALY), Pittsburg and Shawmut Railroad (PSR), and the Bradford Industrial Railroad (BR). Around 2005 the Indiana Subdivision, which had been out of use, was rehabilitated to serve the Homer City Generating Station.
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The firm became successful quickly; within ten years Payne and Willson was among the top firms in Ohio. Payne's law practice continued to be successful through the early 1840s, but after suffering from attacks of hemoptysis (bleeding in the lungs), he was forced to curtail his activities. Instead, he devoted his time to business affairs and local politics. He began to promote the extension of railroads into Cleveland.
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Railroads came under the de facto control of the military. In contrast, the U.S. Congress had authorized military administration of Union-controlled railroad and telegraph systems in January 1862, imposed a standard gauge, and built railroads into the South using that gauge. Confederate armies successfully reoccupying territory could not be resupplied directly by rail as they advanced. The C.S. Congress formally authorized military administration of railroads in February 1865.
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The rail system deteriorated greatly from neglect during the period of the Mexican Revolution. Following the Revolution, the entirety of the Mexican rail system was nationalized between 1929 and 1937. In 1987 the government merged its five regional railroads into FNM. During the later period of national ownership, FNM suffered significant financial difficulties, running an operating deficit of $552 million (37 percent of its operating budget) in 1991.
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The banner of Bethlehem Lodge No.56 in Belen, NM Freemasonry was established early in New Mexico's time as a territory of the United States, and Masonic lodges began to spring up in many areas where American immigrants increasingly settled. This phenomenon was highly accelerated by the extension of railroads into the Territory, starting in 1879.Langston, p.27 In 1880 the railroad reached Albuquerque, and in 1881 Temple Lodge No.6 was chartered.
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Kingstree is a train station in Kingstree, South Carolina, operated by Amtrak, the United States' railroad passenger system. It was originally built by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1909. The station survived the merger of the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Railroads into the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad in 1967, only to terminate passenger service in 1971. Amtrak service to Kingstree began on June 15, 1976, with the introduction of the Palmetto.
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His actions led to a break in diplomatic relations with Rome. He also put an end to the Pacification of the Araucanía, incorporating the area into the territory of Chile. He centralized the railroads into a state holding, inaugurated the first telephonic line between Santiago and Concepcion, and introduced the first public electric lighting. Santa María's presidency was also marked by increased electoral fraud and intervention in favor of the government liberals.
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Following the Civil War, he was appointed to the Massachusetts Railroad Commission. There he attempted to persuade (rather than coerce) railroads into compliance with accepted business norms. Thomas McCraw called Adams's approach to regulation "the Sunshine Commission" since the purpose of the commission was to expose the corrupt business practices in hopes that, once out in the open, the businessmen would be shamed into mending their ways. It was in this vein that he wrote Chapters of Erie.
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Benjamin Franklin Yoakum (August 20, 1859 - November 28, 1929) was an American railroad executive of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who attempted to join the Frisco and Rock Island Railroads into a great system stretching from Chicago to Mexico. In 1909, when Yoakum controlled 17,500 miles of railroad, Railway World magazine called him an "empire builder" who had done as much for the Southwest as legendary James J. Hill had done for the Northwest.
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Development pressure on the west end of Clinton Avenue came later in the 1850s when Erastus Corning combined many of the state's railroads into the New York Central. To handle the new road's maintenance needs, he began building a yard north of Clinton Avenue west of Northern Boulevard. The facility also had the largest stockyard east of Chicago. The city expanded its horsecar lines to run further west along the former Schenectady Turnpike, now Central Avenue, in the 1860s.
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In March 1970, Great Northern was merged with three other major railroads into the Burlington Northern Railroad, which continued to operate passenger service for one year. In November, the federal government established Railpax (later Amtrak) to consolidate unprofitable transcontinental passenger services previously operated by competing railroads. The six passenger trains serving Edmonds were eliminated or rerouted elsewhere under the Railpax plan; the final Empire Builder train departed from Edmonds on the afternoon of April 30, 1971.
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Its development was shaped first by the divisions of the original land grant, and then by the construction of railroads into the community. During the city's peak years as a resort in the later 19th century, the West Side housed its working class. In 1994 it was recognized as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Two of the almost 600 properties within it, a house and a cemetery, are listed on the Register in their own right.
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Perdido, a steam pole road locomotive Wooden rails continued to be used for temporary railroads into the twentieth century. Some timber harvesting companies in the southeastern United States created pole roads using unmarketable logs, which were effectively free, to create tracks at a cost of between $100 and $500 per mile. Permanence was not an issue, as the lumberjacks moved on to other stands of timber as each area was cleared. At least one such pole road system reportedly extended some .
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Excess fruit and grain were turned into alcoholic beverages. This was the economic model until the mid-19th century when advances in food preservation and the introduction of railroads into the area allowed Sussex County to transport farm products throughout the region. In 1914, Montclair stockbroker James Turner invested $500,000 to develop Lusscroft Farm in a 578-acre property in Wantage Township. He sought to create a perfect model for dairy farming and to promote scientific research to improve production and efficiency within the industry.
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Dillon is a train station in Dillon, South Carolina, served by Amtrak, the United States' railroad passenger system. It was originally built by the Florence Railroad in 1893, but only as a freight station. Once the railroad was consolidated into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1898, the passenger station was opened in 1904. The station survived the merger of the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Railroads into the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad in 1967, only to terminate passenger service in 1971.
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Under Watkins' leadership, Chessie System then merged with Seaboard Coast Line Industries, holding company for Seaboard Coast Line Railroad and several other great railroads of the Southeast (including Louisville and Nashville Railroad, Clinchfield Railroad and others) to form CSX Corporation, with Chessie and SCL as its leading subsidiaries. Watkins became CEO of the merged company. Over the next five years, the CSX railroads began consolidating into one mega-railroad. The process began when SCL merged its railroads into the Seaboard System Railroad in 1982.
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Passenger rail came to be heavily subsidized, as it is today. Freight railroads continued to decline as motor freight captured a significant portion of the less-than-carload business. This loss of business, when combined the highly regulated operating environment and constrained pricing power, forced many railroads into receivership and the nationalization of several critical eastern carriers into the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail). Deregulation of the railroads by the Staggers Act in 1980 created a regulatory environment more favorable to the economics of the railroad industry.
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United States Congress became concerned that air transport, in the long run, might follow the nation's railroads into trouble. In 1970, the Penn Central Railroad had collapsed, then the largest bankruptcy in history, resulting in a huge taxpayer bailout and the creation of Conrail and Amtrak. Leading economists had argued for several decades that the regulation led to inefficiency and higher costs. The Carter administration argued that the industry and its customers would benefit from new entrants, the abolishing of price regulation, and reduced control over routes and hub cities Ch. 5.
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Three PE tickets. The top two (front and back views) between downtown LA and Santa Monica, the bottom for a transfer from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley. The Pacific Electric Railway was created in 1901 by railroad executive Henry E. Huntington and banker Isaias W. Hellman. As a Vice President of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), operated by his uncle, Collis P. Huntington, Huntington had a background in electric trolley lines in San Francisco where he oversaw SP's effort to consolidate many smaller street railroads into one organized network.
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24-27, 42-45. After the war, he formed a syndicate that bought and merged two railroads into the ETV&G;, gained control of several other railroads, and financed a railroad construction boom that connected Knoxville to most of the eastern United States. McGhee established one of Knoxville's first suburbs, McGhee's Addition (now Mechanicsville), in the late 1860s, and cofounded Knoxville Woolen Mills in 1884, at the time the city's largest employer. He also helped finance the Roane Iron Company (which established Rockwood) and cofounded the Lenoir City Company (which established Lenoir City).
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During the early years, the line served as the body of the Lehigh Valley Railroad until the railroad either built, acquired, or merged other railroads into its system. During the majority of its ownership under the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the line was known as the Lehigh Valley Mainline, starting in the 1930s. The line and the rest of the Lehigh Valley Railroad were absorbed into Conrail in 1976 and was maintained as a main line into the New York City area. The line became known as the Lehigh Line during the Conrail ownership.
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After the completion of the first two transcontinental railroads into the Pacific Northwest, the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Great Northern Railway, The Milwaukee Road decided that in order to compete, it too must expand into the Northwest. It began construction on the Pacific Extension in 1906 and completed the rail line into Tacoma, Washington in 1909. The Milwaukee Road placed division points approximately every 100 to apart. The division point was where locomotives were serviced, where train crews came on and off duty, and where trains were sorted and rolling stock stored.
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America developed a love-hate relationship with railroads. Boosters in every city worked feverishly to make sure the railroad came through, knowing their urban dreams depended upon it. The mechanical size, scope and efficiency of the railroads made a profound impression; people who dressed in their Sunday best to go down to the terminal to watch the train come in. David Nye argues that: :The startling introduction of railroads into this agricultural society provoked a discussion that soon arrived at the enthusiastic consensus that railways were sublime and that they would help to unify, dignified, expand and enrich the nation.
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The Cleveland Union Terminal Project was conceived of by the Van Sweringen brothers, who developed Shaker Heights, and built what became the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit. They owned the Nickel Plate, the Pere Marquette, and the Chesapeake and Ohio railroads at this time. The C.U.T. was intended to bring the railroads into Cleveland's Public Square, and this benefited the Nickel Plate because it stayed on the higher ground and did not descend to the lakefront. Only the Pennsylvania Railroad (Cleveland and Pittsburgh) stayed out of this arrangement, retaining their uptown station at E.55th Street and Euclid Avenue.
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Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS) is the main railway station in Los Angeles, California, and the largest railroad passenger terminal in the Western United States. It opened in May 1939 as the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, replacing La Grande Station and Central Station. Approved in a controversial ballot measure in 1926 and built in the 1930s, it served to consolidate rail services from the Union Pacific, Santa Fe, and Southern Pacific Railroads into one terminal station. Conceived on a grand scale, Union Station became known as the "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the United States.
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Donald C. Ringwald, Hudson River Day Line: The Story of a Great American Steamboat Company, 1990, page 22 Upon returning to New York in 1836 Vibbard settled in Schenectady, and was appointed chief clerk of the Utica & Schenectady Railroad. He became a railroad freight and ticket agent in 1848.Engineering Journal magazine, Obituary, Chauncey Vibbard, Volume LXV, Number 7 (July, 1891), page 332 In the early 1850s Vibbard was one of the businessmen who consolidated several small New York railroads into the New York Central Railroad. From 1853 to 1865 he was the New York Central's General Superintendent.
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Prior to that time, the Temple Iron Company was a small concern that happened to have a broad charter allowing it to act as a holding company. The Reading, now out of receivership, purchased the company and brought the other coal railroads into the partnership, with the Reading owning 30%, the LVRR 23%, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 20%, CNJ 17%, Erie 6%, and New York, Susquehanna and Western 5%. The purpose of the Temple Iron Company was to lock up independent coal production and control the supply. Congress reacted with the 1906 Hepburn Act, which among other things forbade railroads from owning the commodities that they transported.
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Bessemer furnace in operation in Youngstown, Ohio, 1941. In 1898, Scientific American published an article called Bessemer Steel and its Effect on the World explaining the significant economic effects of the increased supply in cheap steel. They noted that the expansion of railroads into previously sparsely inhabited regions of the country had led to settlement in those regions, and had made the trade of certain goods profitable, which had previously been too costly to transport. The Bessemer process revolutionized steel manufacture by decreasing its cost, from £40 per long ton to £6–7 per long ton, along with greatly increasing the scale and speed of production of this vital raw material.
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Additionally in an effort to look profitable, the board of directors authorized the use of the railroad's reserve cash to pay dividends to company stockholders. Nevertheless, on June 21, 1970, Penn Central declared bankruptcythe largest private bankruptcy in the United States to that time. Under bankruptcy protection, many of Penn Central's outstanding debts owed to other railroads were frozen, while debts owed to Penn Central by the other roads were not. This sent a trickle effect throughout the already fragile railroad industry forcing many of the other Northeastern railroads into insolvency, among them the Erie Lackawanna, Boston and Maine, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Reading Company, and the Lehigh Valley.
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When the canal first opened, teams of mules were used to tow canal boats through it (the steam engine was not yet applied to such uses). The canal's greatest usage occurred during the 1860s and 1870s, when it was used primarily to transport coal from Pennsylvania to New York City, which had entered the Industrial Revolution. On May 18, 1872, the D&R; Canal Company was merged with several parallel railroads into the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, and leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Over time, the importance of the D&R; Canal waned as railroads were used to perform, more rapidly, the same function as canals, but it remained in operation until 1932.
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At its height in the 1850s, the company was part of a complex trading network extending from the Rocky Mountains to the Eastern United States and Europe: it shipped 100,000 fur robes through Fort Pierre. In the 1850s the American bison or buffalo was subjected to extreme over-huntings, caused in part by the fur trade and high world demand, but also spurred by the advance of American railroads into the western frontier. There was an increase in the number of men who hunted the animals for sport and killed as many as they could shoot. Pierre Chouteau sold the fort that bore his name to the United States government in 1854.
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European immigration of workers was booming during this time in American history, as well as industrialization through the railroad system. The invasion of railroads into the western plains is mentioned at the very end of The Yellow Chief, as 'Lije Orton comes to visit Clara and Edward in Manhattan. By describing the rails as "penetrating" the prairies, readers can assume Mayne Reid's bitter reaction to industrialization, as his romantic view of America's uncharted territories reigns throughout the novel. Frontispiece of George A. Crofutt's Great Trans- Continental P.R.R. Tourist's Guide 1870 The events of The Yellow Chief precede the Civil War, but still allude to issues of anti-slavery and abolitionism, as events of tension such as Bleeding Kansas were going on at this time in American history.
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"The election of former Superior Court Judge and State Bank President Ruffin to the bench in 1829 effectively ensured the North Carolina Supreme Court's survival," according to Martin Brinkley.NC Supreme Court History Ranked by Harvard Law School Dean Roscoe Pound as one of the ten greatest jurists in American history, Ruffin singlehandedly transformed the common law of North Carolina into an instrument of economic change. His writings on the subject of eminent domain--the right of the state to seize private property for the public good—paved the way for the expansion of railroads into North Carolina, enabling the "Rip Van Winkle State" to embrace the industrial revolution. Ruffin's opinions were cited as persuasive authority by appellate tribunals throughout the United States.
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On December 29, 1982, the Seaboard Coast Line and Louisville & Nashville (under the Family Lines entity) were merged to form the Seaboard System Railroad, Inc. This was the first step under the CSX Corporation holding company to combine all railroads into one railroad. Considered as a "temporary railroad", the Seaboard System quickly began to merge away the smaller railroads that were owned under the Family Lines System entity, as well as to simplify equipment and management alongside the Chessie System railroads (Chesapeake & Ohio, Baltimore & Ohio, Western Maryland). This included the Georgia Railroad and the Clinchfield Railroad (1983), South Carolina Pacific Railway (April 30, 1984), Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis Railway (July 1984), Gainesville Midland (1985), Atlanta & West Point Railroad (June 1986) and the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens (June 1986).
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He next turned his attention to, in contemporary views, the neglected Long Island area. In 1881, he acquired and consolidated the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) with the South side, the Montauk and the Flushing railroads. Corbin greatly improved the railroad's infrastructure which had fallen into disrepair after a period of cutthroat competition had thrown all the island's railroads into bankruptcy. Corbin Building, Manhattan, New York Corbin's most ambitious plan was the 20-mile (30 km) extension of the rail line from Bridgehampton, New York to Montauk, New York where he planned to open a deep water port so that trans-Atlantic passengers could shave a day off their voyages by taking the "mile a minute" trains 100 miles to New York City.
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Gadsden wanted to connect all Southern railroads into one sectional network.. He was concerned that the increasing railroad construction in the North was shifting trade in lumber, farm and manufacturing goods from the traditional north–south route based on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to an east–west axis that would bypass the South. He also saw Charleston, his home town, losing its prominence as a seaport. In addition, many Southern business interests feared that a northern transcontinental route would exclude the South from trade with the Orient. Other Southerners argued for diversification from a plantation economy to keep the South independent of northern bankers.. In October 1849, the southern interests held a convention to discuss railroads in Memphis, in response to a convention in St. Louis earlier that fall which discussed a northern route.
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Before elections following year the Conservatives passed a law and issued bonds (which still could be used to pay state taxes) with interest rates increasing each year, at 3% for the first ten years, then 4% for the next 20 years and 5% for their last decade. After the American Civil War, Mahone tried to combine many southern Virginia railroads into a system leading to the port of Norfolk, Virginia. However, the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad competed with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (particularly in the northwestern part of the state) and went bankrupt in the Panic of 1873. That same financial crisis devastated Virginia, leading to large deficits as well as economic stagnation while wiping out the state's second mortgages and out-of-state interests were able to purchase the existing high interest 1871 bonds for pennies on the dollar.
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Boosters in every city worked feverishly to make sure the railroad came through, knowing their urban dreams depended upon it. The mechanical size, scope and efficiency of the railroads made a profound impression; people would dress in their Sunday best to go down to the terminal to watch the train come in. David Nye argues that: :The startling introduction of railroads into this agricultural society provoked a discussion that soon arrived at the enthusiastic consensus that railways were sublime and that they would help to unify, dignify, expand and enrich the nation. They became part of the public celebrations of Republicanism. The rhetoric, the form, and the central figures of civic ceremonies changed to accommodate the intrusion of this technology....[Between 1828 and 1869] Americans integrated the railroad into the national economy and enfolded it within the sublime.
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The result was engine fires and crashes on take off. From India, the 444th Bomb Group planned to fly missions against Japan from advanced airfields in China. However, all the supplies of fuel, bombs and spare parts needed to support operations from the forward bases in China had to be flown in from India over "The Hump" (the name given by Allied pilots to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains), since Japanese control of eastern China and the Chinese coast made seaborne supply of China impossible. Also, the forward bases were located in Szechaun Province in south central China far from the coast, with no roads or railroads into the area from Allied-controlled territory. Supplies had to be delivered to China by the B-29s themselves or by the C-47s and C-46s of Air Transport Command.
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Serving as the main line for the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the rail line expanded past Allentown to Buffalo, New York and past Easton to New York City, bringing the Lehigh Valley Railroad to these metro areas. During the early years, the line served as the body of the Lehigh Valley Railroad until the railroad either built more rail lines or railroads, acquired more rail lines or railroads, and merged other railroads into their system. The line was known as the Lehigh Valley Mainline during the majority of its time under the ownership of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, starting in the 1930s. The line was absorbed with the Lehigh Valley Railroad into Conrail and they maintained the line as a main line into the New York City area; the line became known as the Lehigh Line during the Conrail ownership.
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Late 1840s Robinson was moving away from a career as civil engineer toward that of manager and financier. After successfully raising funds in England for the Reading railroad in the 1830s, he more and more turned to financing and directing projects, which occupied him for most of the rest of his life. He was an active stockholder and/or director of various rail and water transport companies—the Seaboard & Roanoke railroad, the Delaware & Chesapeake canal, Chester Valley Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad, Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, steamboats on the Chesapeake, and other properties—managing his holdings from his Philadelphia home. After the American Civil War, Moncure Robinson, his son John Moncure Robinson, former Confederate general William Mahone and North Carolina businessman Alexander Boyd Andrews successfully worked with investors to consolidate a series of short-line railroads into what became the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and ship system.
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On the Wheelwright Branch freight service continued between Northampton and Wheelwright at least three times per week until 1973 when the paper mill in Wheelwright closed. In April 1974 the B&M; cut freight service to once per week, took the tracks between Creamery and Wheelwright out of service, and embargoed all traffic on the line east of Bondsville. With only one customer in Bondsville the railroad petitioned the ICC to abandon the remainder of the Wheelwright Branch in June 1979, reasoning that that business could be better served by the new Massachusetts Central Railroad which the General Court had chartered on October 16, 1975 to run along the Ware River Secondary of the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad after that line was to be excluded from the government's reorganization of the northeast railroads into Conrail. The ICC approved the plan and operations east of Amherst ceased by August and on the rest of the line by November.
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The drilling of the Drake Well in 1859 demonstrated that petroleum could be extracted in commercially viable quantities from oil deposits in northwestern Pennsylvania, and stimulated a regional boom in oil extraction. The Pennsylvania oilfields were located in a remote region of the state, lacking an extensive transportation network; in the initial stages of the boom, the crude oil was generally shipped by water down the Allegheny River to be refined in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The unreliability of water transport (due to ice and low water levels in season) encouraged the construction of railroads into the oilfield. Three trunk lines, the Erie, the New York Central (NYC), and the Pennsylvania (PRR), were close enough to extend, via subsidiaries, into the oil region; together, they allowed oil producers to ship crude oil not only to Pittsburgh, but to the New York City area, where extensive refining capacity already existed from processing cannel coal in the 1850s.
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The State of New Jersey passed legislation that allowed the LV to consolidate its New Jersey railroads into one company; the Perth Amboy and Bound Brook and the Bound Brook and Easton were merged to form a new railroad company called the Easton and Amboy Railroad (or Easton & Amboy Railroad Company).The Musconetcong Tunnel, A Treatise on Explosive Compounds, Machine Rock Drills and Blasting, Henry Sturgis Drinker, J. Wiley & sons, 1883, p. 303 Internet Archive The Easton and Amboy Railroad was a railroad built across central New Jersey by the Lehigh Valley Railroad to run across Western New Jersey from Phillipsburg, New Jersey to Bound Brook, New Jersey and it was built to connect the Lehigh Valley Railroad coal hauling operations in Pennsylvania and the Port of New York and New Jersey to serve consumer markets in New York metropolitan area, eliminating the Phillipsburg connection with the CNJ that had previously been the only outlet to the New York tidewater. Until it was built, the terminus of the LV had been at Phillipsburg, New Jersey on the Delaware River opposite Easton, Pennsylvania.
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In 1869 the Schuylkill Navigation was damaged by a flood, hindering operations for some time whilst repairs could be made. In 1870, its board of directors forced by stockholders, the Schuylkill Navigation Company leased its waterway to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad for 110 years, surrendering to the competition. Under the railroad's control, the Schuylkill Navigation continued to decline as a general freight carrier, but operated primarily as a coal road, like the Lehigh and Delaware Canals into the 1930s, since for heating and especially, steam power, nearly everyone needed anthracite. The traffic on the canal was expedited by corporate maneuvers when its New York City and New Jersey markets connecting Delaware and Raritan Canal was acquired in 1872Delaware and Raritan Canal, "On May 18, 1872, the D&R; Canal Company was merged with several parallel railroads into the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, and leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad." by the competing Pennsylvania Railroad—in a blatant act supporting a bid for monopoly, soon Schuylkill boats were denied access to this important New Jersey waterway.
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