Portal:Trains/Anniversaries/May 17/More

19th century

 * 1853 – The New York Central Railroad is formed through the merger of ten smaller railroads in New York under the direction of Erastus Corning.
 * 1879 – The Texas and St. Louis Railway, a predecessor of St. Louis Southwestern Railway, is organized as a way to ship cotton south to Texas.
 * 1885 – Gare d'Oyonnax in France is opened by the Minister of Public Works.

20th century

 * 1906 – The Simplon Tunnel between Italy and Switzerland, the world’s longest tunnel until 1979, opens to rail traffic.
 * 1908 – Trains operating through the St. Clair Tunnel connecting Sarnia, Ontario, and Port Huron, Michigan, begin using electric locomotives instead of steam locomotives.
 * 1914 – Canadian Northern Railway acquires Canadian Northern Ontario Railway.
 * 1922 – The Arkansas Short Line Railroad, a predecessor of St. Louis Southwestern Railway, is incorporated.
 * 1939 – King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive at Wolfe's Cove, Quebec, to begin a tour of Canada; the tour train is pulled by Canadian Pacific Railway 4-6-4 locomotives 2850 and 2851, earning the class the name Royal Hudson.
 * 1957 – Canadian National Railway opens a new track alignment between Toronto and Montreal to make way for construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
 * 1996 – Canadian National Railway's Beachburg Subdivision between Pembroke and Nipissing, 126 miles ( km) of track which traversed Algonquin Provincial Park, is officially abandoned.

21st century

 * 2005 – Canadian National Railway and the Teamsters reach an agreement just short of a deadline for a strike that would have shut down GO Transit.

Deaths

 * 1884 – George Muirson Totten, chief construction engineer for the Panama Railway, dies (b. 1808).