Mar. 8, 1820 William Lehman, from the Pennsylvania House Committee on Roads & Inland Navigation, reports a bill calling for a canal survey between the Schuylkill and Susquehanna via the Great Valley and Lancaster; bill is tabled and not taken up. (HseJrnl)

July 4, 1820 Completion of the Erie Canal celebrated at Syracuse. (Shaw)

Dec. 4, 1820 John Stevens proposes a railroad from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and offers to build a quarter-mile demonstration railroad on Market Street. (Rubin, Stevens papers)

1820 Thomas Gray publishes Observations ona General Iron Rail-Way: Shewing its Great Superiority over all the Present Methods of Conveyance ... in London and begins agitation for a railway between Manchester and Liverpool; it goes through several editions and revisions during the 1820s. (OCLC, Dilts)

Jan. 5, 1821 John Stevens writes to Mayor Robert Wharton of Philadelphia offering to build an experimental railroad in Market Street. (DuBois)

Apr. 19, 1821 Stockton & Darlington Railway incorporated in Great Britain to build from coal mines to Stockton on the River Tees; on the same day, George Stephenson and his assistant Nicholas Wood (1795-1865) meet with Quaker manufacturer and banker Edward Pease, the chief sponsor of the line, and agree to superintend construction as a locomotive railway, not a horse road. (Rolt, James)

Oct. 31, 1821 George Stephenson completes survey for the Stockton & Darlington Railway. (Rolt)

1821 Rails for the Stockton & Darlington Railway are rolled at the great Dowlais Iron Works at Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales; Dowlais will dominate rail production and roll much of the rail used on American railroads in the antebellum era. (wiki)

Feb. 25, 1822 John Stevens writes to Stephen Girard advocating a railroad from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. (Watkins)

May 23, 1822 The first rail of the Stockton & Darlington Railway is laid at Stockton with elaborate public festivities, setting the pattern for the launching of all 19th century railway enterprises. (Rolt)

Dec. 11, 1822 John Stevens petitions Pennsylvania Senate for a charter for a railroad from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. (SenJrnl)

Jan. 28, 1823 Pennsylvania Senate passes bill for John Stevens to build a railroad from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. (HseJrnl)

Early 1823 John Stevens issues a printed circular advocatingthe construction of a railroad “to Pittsburgh and thence into the heart of the extensive and fertile state of Ohio, and also to the Great Western Lakes.” (PRRColExpo)

Feb. 3, 1823 Pennsylvania House sends John Stevens's railroad bill to a special committee, where it is killed. (HseJrnl)

Mar. 31, 1823 Charter for a "Pennsylvania Rail Road Company" between Philadelphia and Columbia granted to John Stevens of Hoboken, N.J., and others. (PL)

May 23, 1823 A charter supplement to the Stockton & Darlington Railway includes a proviso to use locomotives, making it the first public railway so empowered. (Rolt)

July 14, 1823 John Stevens leaves New York with Charles Loss to make preliminary examination for railroad between Philadelphia and Columbia. (Watkins)

July 17, 1823 John Stevens and Charles Loss begin reconnaissance for railroad between Philadelphia and Columbia; travel from Philadelphia to West Chester. (Watkins)

July 19, 1823 Stevens and Loss arrive in Strasburg, having traveled via Gap. (Watkins)

July 20, 1823 Stevens and Loss arrive at Columbia, having passed south of Lancaster to reach the Susquehanna at Washington; note difficulty in crossing deep valley of Conestoga Creek. (Watkins)

July 22, 1823 Stevens and Loss return to Strasburg, having traveled via Lancaster. (Watkins)

July 23, 1823 Stevens and Loss again explore country west of Strasburg without finding a suitable route. (Watkins)

July 25, 1823 Stevens and Loss arrive in Philadelphia via turnpike. (Watkins)

July 27, 1823 Stevens and Loss leave Philadelphia along West Chester Road and explore route following Darby Creek and down in to Great Valley. (Watkins)

Oct. 8, 1823 New York celebrates opening of Erie Canal from Schenectady to Albany and the connection to tidewater; boats from the Genesee River carrying Gov. Joseph Yates, DeWitt Clinton and other dignitaries pass into the Hudson River at Albany. (Sweet, Whitford, Reynolds)

Oct. 10, 1823 Erie Canal opens between Rochester and Brockport, including the aqueduct over the Genesee River at Rochester. (Sweet)

Dec. 25, 1823 John Stevens writes to Mathew Carey complaining of delays in organizing his Pennsylvania Rail Road Company and calling for a new Board of Directors. (DuBois)

May 24, 1824 Pennsylvania Commissioners for the Purpose of Promoting the Internal Improvement of the State, James Clarke, Jacob Holgate and Charles Treziyulny, begin survey at the mouth of Valley Creek on the Schuylkill (Valley Forge) with axemen and chainmen but without trained engineers; work up the Great Valley towards Gap and Lancaster; Samuel Haines of Philadelphia gives them his map of Chester County and environs with an experimental line run some months earlier. (CC, Wilson)

June 8, 1824 John Stevens receives a patent for his system of railroads with timber and strap rail supported on brick or stone foundation posts over a foot off the ground. (DuBois)

June 19, 1824 Pa. Commissioners for Internal Improvement’s survey team reaches Gap, in the Mine Hill between the Great Valley and the Lancaster Plain; begin examining routes down to Lancaster. (CC)

July 3, 1824 Pa. Commissioners for Internal Improvement’s survey team returns to Gap and begins second survey toward Lancaster on a northern route along Welsh Mountain. (CC)

Sep. 16, 1824 Stockton & Darlington Railway contracts for the first two locomotives to be built by Robert Stephenson & Co., No. 1 Locomotionand No. 2 Hope; these are the first locomotives to have the driving wheels coupled by rods; first true 0-4-0's. (Rolt, Marshall)

Sep. 28, 1824 Pa. Commissioners for Promoting the Internal Improvement of the State end surveys in the Chester-Lancaster County area, having run lines of 115 miles; find the country too rough for a canal. (CC)

Dec. 28, 1824 John Stevens agrees to join the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvement (s) in the Commonwealth in return for their support in getting a supplement to his 1823 charter for the Pennsylvania Rail Road Company that will appoint more energetic directors. (DuBois)

The Pennsylvania Railroad Corporation was created through the Act of Incorporation of the Pennsylvania Railway Company, 1846 Pennsylvania Laws, 312–326.

The Pennsylvania Railroad purchased the Main Line of Public Works in 1857 [Chester County deed N9-235] for $7.5M plus $1.5M in 5% company bonds. The payment and bonds were to be paid off annually with the amount repaid going up substantially after 1889.

References

• Railroads in Tredyffrin
• The Railroads of Chester County
• Accidents Will Happen in the Best Regulated Companies (Robert E. Goshorn, 1973)
• The Great Valley Canal (Bob Goshorn, April 1981)
• The Philadelphia and Columbia Rail Road (Bob Goshorn, April 1985)
• Some Observations on the Strafford Railroad Station (Bob Goshorn, July 1987)
• The Electrification of the Paoli Local (Robert Goshorn & Robert Geasey, 1996)
• Strafford Station at the Centennial: Fact or Fiction? – Greg Prichard (TEHS Quarterly vol. 51, #1 (April 2014)
• A Rare Re-Platforming Through Paoli – Roger D. Thorne (TEHS Quarterly vol. 53, #2 (October 2016)
• Groundbreaking at Paoli Train Station – John O. Senior (TEHS Quarterly vol. 53, #3 (March 2017)
• The Main Line to Paoli: A Railroad or a Place? – Frank Tatnall, with Roger D. Thorne (TEHS Quarterly vol. 54, #3 (2018)