Time Line - 1863

Last Year | Next Year

• Civil war continues.

• May 15: Meeting in Marshall (in April), 13 MCRR men planned a national railway men's organization, resulting in the founding the following month in Detroit of the Brotherhood of the Footboard (later called the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the oldest labor union in the Western Hemisphere. [MDOT]

• August 4: Detroit City Railway is incorporated to run horse-drawn streetcars on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit.  Streetcars are also run on Woodward, Gratiot and Michigan by the end of the year. [DWS/MRRC]

• September: The Amboy, Lansing and Traverse Bay Railroad reaches Lansing from North Lansing. It is the first railroad to arrive in the state's capital. [MCR-75]

• Detroit Bridge and Iron Works is established. [DWS]

• First subway begins in London, England. [DWS]

• Dining car service is introduced in Pennsylvania. [STOV]

• The Michigan Legislature passes an act to permit local aid to railroads. It is later found to be unconstitutional in 1870. [AAD]

• The Chicago & Northwestern introduces the caboose "cupola". [SAM]

• The LS&MS (DM&TRR) builds a wood trestle 240 feet long (4 spans, 60 feet each), across the (Huron) river at Rockwood. [MCR/72]

• Alfred Nobel patents nitroglycerine, which will be used in iron and copper mining.. [IOHT] 

Time line Key:

• Railroad event in Michigan
• Event relating to mining
• Event related to car ferries
• Event outside of Michigan
• Improvement in Technology
• Railroad built or extended
• Railroad abandoned and/or removed
• Economic panic or depression