Quote from: Santa Fe buff on July 27, 2008, 07:03:08 PM
Two men — Philip E. Thomas and George Brown — were the pioneers of the railroad. They spent the year 1826 investigating railway enterprises in England, which were at that time being tested in a comprehensive fashion as commercial ventures. Their investigation completed, they held an organizational meeting on February 12, 1827, including about twenty-five citizens, most of whom were Baltimore merchants or bankers. Chapter 123 of the 1826 Session Laws of Maryland, passed February 28, 1827, and the Commonwealth of Virginia on March 8, 1827, chartered the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company, with the task of building a railroad from the port of Baltimore, Maryland west to a suitable point on the Ohio River. The railroad, formally incorporated April 24, was intended to provide not only an alternative to, but also a faster route for Midwestern goods to reach the East Coast than the seven-year-old, hugely successful, but slow Erie Canal across upstate New York. Thomas was elected as the first president and Brown the treasurer. The capital of the proposed company was fixed at five million dollars.[1]

~ Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_and_Ohio_Railroad
What Canel was launched the day B&O was, and what funny name was it- refering to the future of B&O.

Quote from: Dusten Barefoot on July 27, 2008, 09:29:12 PM
During the Civil War the Great Locomotive chase took place, what were the names of the Crew who stole the General? And what Railroad was used on?