Portal:Trains/Anniversaries/January 15

1915 – The final spike is driven on the transcontinental Canadian Northern Railway at Basque, British Columbia.
1919 – Support beams of the Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue line are severed and a train is derailed when molasses and debris are propelled under the railroad's superstructure in the Boston molasses disaster (pictured).
1953 – The brakes fail on Pennsylvania Railroad's westbound Federal Express passenger train; the train barrels through the end of track barriers and stationmaster's office at Union Station in Washington, D.C., but nobody is killed in the accident.
1990 – VIA Rail discontinues half of the passenger train services it offers across Canada, including reducing the number of transcontinental trains to one service connecting Toronto, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia.^[1] After the last transcontinental passenger train travels its tracks in Ottawa, Canadian Pacific Railway officially abandons its 19.1-mile (30.7 km) long Carleton Place subdivision that connected Carleton Place to Nepean, Ontario.^[2]

References

^ "Significant dates in Canadian railway history". Colin Churcher's Railway Pages. November 28, 2006. Retrieved January 4, 2007.
^ "Significant dates in Ottawa railway history". Colin Churcher's Railway Pages. December 18, 2006. Retrieved January 4, 2007.