Midland Continental Railroad

1830 Beginning of the railroad era in the United States
1850
9,021 miles of track are completed; all east of the Mississippi.
1869 The Fist Transcontinental railroad is completed when the Golden Spike is driven in Utah Territory, linking the Union Pacific railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad.
1870 52,922 miles of track are completed in the U.S. An economic depression slows down railroad develnpnwnt in this decade.
1890 163,605 miles of track are completed. Four transcontinental railroads reach the pacific. The framework of the railroad system it largely completed.
1906 Herbert S. Duncombe, a Chicago attorney; sets out to create the Midland Continental Railroad to run from Winnipeg, Canada to Galveston, Texan, he is joined the next year by Frank K. Bull. another Chicago entrepreneur. The Midland Continental Railroad Construction Company is organized in Chicago to finance and build the railroad.
1907 Financial panic delays railroad finance efforts.
1909 A grading contractor turns the first dirt on the railroad, two miles north of Edgeley; "Jamestown by Christmas 1910 is the goal.
1910 Lack of funds continues to delay construction progress this year and the next.
1912 The first section from Edgeley-to-Jamestmvn, is completed on November 1; by December twoo trains are running every day except Sunday, carrying over 20 carloads of freight per day.
1913 Grading gets underway in April for the Jamestown-to-Wimbledon section, and by October the tracks are complete to the new Wimbledon depot; in November four trains run daily except Sunday between Edgeley and Wimbledon.
1914 The Midland Continental Railroad transports 18,520 passengers, the greatest number in any year of its history.
1916 After difficulty obtaining funding from American and European investors with the onset of World War I, promoters are forced to abandon all plans of extension beyond the Edgeley to Wimbledon sections.
Frank Sieberling, head of Goodyear Tire and Rubber, takes