Railhead: 2020

Monday, November 23, 2020

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Anchorage Alaska, which had been founded in 1915, was incorporated.

Anchorage was, and is, as the name indicates a port city. And today its a large one, much like any other large port city, all of which have a certain universal character. It was also, however, right from the onset a railhead, which made it all the more important.

Monday, October 5, 2020

Lex Anteinternet: October 5, 1920. World Series begins, Russo Polish War ends, Railway reopens

Lex Anteinternet: October 5, 1920. World Series begins, Russo Polis...:

October 5, 1920. World Series begins, Russo Polish War ends, Railways reopen.

The 1920 World Series started on this day, in 1920.

Crowd in Ebbets Field.

Cleveland won the first game, 1 to 0.

New York City Mayor John Hylan throws ball to open World Series at Ebbets Field

Poland and the Soviet Union signed an armistice to end the fighting between their countries. Fighting would stop on October 18.

In Egypt, the American University in Cairo opened.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, a new railroad opened up. Or rather a rebuilt raiilway.

The opening of the Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway was attended, as all such things were, by the senior British official.

The line had originally been a narrow gauge railway, but the British reconstructed it to a new, more useful, wider gauge.

While it has been closed from time to time, updates and reconstructions have meant that the rail line remains in use today.

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Derailed Union Pacific Grain (corn) train, Bosler Wyoming. August 22, 2020.

Monday, August 3, 2020

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture. Nashville Terminal, 1905.

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture. Nashville Terminal, 1905.:

The Big Picture. Nashville Terminal, 1905.

Nashville terminal, 1905

Saturday, August 1, 2020

Lex Anteinternet: August 1, 1920. Denver Tramway workers go on strike.

Lex Anteinternet: August 1, 1920. Denver Tramway workers go on strike.:

August 1, 1920. Denver Tramway workers go on strike.

Denver Tramway Building in Denver, which now houses the giant Denver REI outlet.

Workers for Denver Tramway, the cities streetcar company, went on strike on this day in 1920.

Founded in 1886, Denver Tramway had expanded aggressively and become a monopoly in the city. Its workers founded a union in 1918 and were demanding fare increases in order that their wages could be raised. Denied their goal, they went out on strike on this day.

Cable car barn on 14th and Arapahoe.

The company responded by bringing in strike breakers, with the first street car piloted from the cable car barn at 14th and Arapahoe by strike breaker John "Black Jack" Jerome, whom the company had hired to organize strike breakers. The strike would soon turn violent and up to 1/3d of the cities police reported by August 6 to have received serious injuries. Denver's mayor called for armed citizens to enforce the peace on that day and Federal troops arrived later that day and restored order.

Cheyenne State Leader from August 1, 1920, noting that strike breakers were being brought in.

The net result was that the union was broken and would not be reorganized until 1933. Seven Denverites were dead, all of whom were in the nature of bystanders to the violence.

Jerome, who was born Yiannis Petrolekas in Greece, would go on to have a successful career in his dangerous profession. A poor immigrant to the US who had arrived in 1905, he had first sought his fortune in aviation but in 1917 he changed his name and founded the Jerome Detective Agency. Having worked in the streetcar industry, he offered its services to strike and union breaking, which made him a rich man. His company expanded during this time and at one time even employed Dashiell Hammett, prior to his becoming famous.

He invested in real estate and, during the depression, in horse and dog racing. In 1933 he returned to Greece a rich man, while still retaining business interests in the United States. He died in San Francisco in 1953, his funeral delayed as an undertakers union went on strike in protest over his having broken a strike of theirs in prior years.