American Railroad Association (ARA)

The American Railroad Association (ARA) was a national trade organization of U.S. railroads and a direct predecessor of the Association of American Railroads (AAR). It grew out of the earlier American Railway Association and the railroad time-standardization conventions of the nineteenth century, and it absorbed numerous specialized railroad associations before itself being merged into the AAR in 1934.

History

• 1872: Time Conventions formed.
• 1875: Renamed the General Time Convention.
• 1883: Established the system of standard time.
• 1892: Renamed the American Railway Association (ARA).
• 1917: Two days after the United States entered World War I, the federal government took control of the nation's railroads.
• 1919: Under the direction of the U.S. Railroad Administration, the American Railway Association was renamed the American Railroad Association and absorbed several other organizations across operating, engineering, mechanical, traffic, transportation, and purchasing sections. The mechanical section incorporated the American Railway Master Mechanics' Association and the Master Car Builders' Association.
• 1920: The American Association of Freight Agents became part of the American Railroad Association.
• 1934: On October 12, the American Railroad Association merged with several other trade groups, including the Association of Railway Executives and the Bureau of Railway Economics, to become the Association of American Railroads (AAR).