Events

January events

* January 13 –

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

’s ''

City of San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

'' is stalled in snow on Donner Pass. The train's passengers remain stranded in the train until January 16.

March events

* March 25 – The Seibu Shinjuku Line extension from Takadanobaba to

Seibu-Shinjuku Station is a railway station in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, operated by the private railway operator Seibu Railway. It is the terminus of the 47.5 km (30 mile) Seibu Shinjuku Line, which extends to in Saitama Prefecture. The station is located appro ...

opens.

April events

* April 14 –

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

divisional organisation completed by formation of the Eastern Railway, created by amalgamating three lower divisions of the East Indian Railway (Howrah, Asansol and Danapur), the entire

Bengal Nagpur Railway The Bengal Nagpur Railway was one of the companies which pioneered development of the railways in eastern and central India. It was succeeded first by Eastern Railway and subsequently by South Eastern Railway. History The opening of the ...

and the Sealdah division of the erstwhile

Bengal Assam Railway The Assam Bengal Railway (ABR) was one of the pioneering railway companies in British India. Headquartered in Chittagong, it functioned from 1892 to 1942. History Assam Bengal Railway was incorporated in 1892 to serve British-owned tea plantat ...

; the Northern Railway, created from remaining divisions of the EIR, the

Eastern Punjab Railway The Eastern Punjab Railway was the successor of the North Western State Railway in East Punjab after the partition of India. In 1952, Northern Railway was formed with a portion of East Indian Railway Company The East Indian Railway Company, ...

and others; and the North Eastern Railway created by merger of the

Oudh and Tirhut Railway The Oudh and Tirhut Railway was a Railway company operated in India. History On 1 January 1943, the Bengal and North Western Railway and the Rohilkund and Kumaon Railway (R&K worked) were acquired by the Government of India and they were amalg ...

and the Assam Railway.

May events

* May 3 – Wallace station on the

Chicago "L" The Chicago "L" (short for "elevated") is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs in the U.S. state of Illinois. Operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), it is the fourth-largest rapid tr ...

Stock Yards branch The Stock Yards branch was a rapid transit line which was part of the Chicago 'L' system from 1908 to 1957. The branch served the Union Stock Yards and the Canaryville neighborhood of Chicago and consisted of eight elevated stations. It opened on A ...

is closed. * May 4 – Service is discontinued on the

Humboldt Park branch The Humboldt Park branch was a rapid transit line which was part of the Chicago "L" system from 1895 to 1952. The branch served the West Town and the Humboldt Park neighborhoods of Chicago and consisted of six elevated stations. It opened on July ...

July events

* July 6 – The last tram ( streetcar) runs in London, England. * July 21 – The 7.3 Kern County earthquake strikes

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''), killing 12 and injuring hundreds. Southeast of Bealville thick reinforced concrete railroad tunnel walls are cracked, tracks warped, and the gap between tunnel entrances is reduced by up to .

August events

* August 2 – The Buffalo-Exchange Street Station opens.

September events

* September 6 – The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad car ferry ''Badger'' is launched. It is the last coal-fired, passenger-carrying

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

built in the United States, and it is still in use for automobile travel.

October events

* October 4 –

Brussels-Congress railway station Brussels-Congress railway station (french: Gare de Bruxelles-Congrès, nl, Station Brussel-Congres), officially Brussels-Congress (french: Bruxelles-Congrès, link=no, nl, Brussel-Congres, link=no) is a train stop on the North–South connec ...

is opened. * October 8 – Three trains are involved in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash in England, a crash that kills 112 and injures 340. * October 17 –

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways initiates trial of a new Automatic Warning System ( Automatic Train Control).

November events

* November 1 – The

Pacific Great Eastern Railway The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

opens its branch from Quesnel, British Columbia, to a nearby junction with the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

. * November 20 – Brush Bagnall (England) formally hand over first of batch of class M1

A1A-A1A The AAR wheel arrangement system is a method of classifying locomotive (or unit) wheel arrangements that was developed by the Association of American Railroads. Essentially a simplification of the European UIC classification, it is widely used in ...

diesel-electric locomotives for

Ceylon Government Railway The Sri Lanka Railway Department (more commonly known as Sri Lanka Railways (SLR)) ( Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා දුම්රිය සේවය ''Śrī Laṃkā Dumriya Sēvaya''; Tamil: இலங்கை புகையிரத ...

, its first mainline diesels.

December events

* December 1 –

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

ushers in the modern intermodal freight transport era with the introduction of Trailer On Flat Car service. * December 28 –

Pacific Electric The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system ...

discontinues interurban service over the Cahuenga Pass between

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and Van Nuys, California.

Unknown date events

* The "Chinese Changchun Railway", that portion of the Chinese Eastern Railway on the Liaodong Peninsula, is returned by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

to Chinese control. * National Railway Company of Belgium opens new

Brussels-North railway station Brussels-North railway station (french: Gare de Bruxelles-Nord, nl, Station Brussel-Noord), officially Brussels-North (french: Bruxelles-Nord, link=no, nl, Brussel-Noord, link=no), is one of the three major railway stations in Brussels, Bel ...

. * Last

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

compound locomotives built:

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

2-8-8-2 A 2-8-8-2, in the Whyte notation for describing steam locomotive wheel arrangements, is an articulated locomotive with a two-wheel leading truck, two sets of eight driving wheels, and a two-wheel trailing truck. The equivalent UIC classification ...

Class Y6b

Mallet A mallet is a tool used for imparting force on another object, often made of rubber or sometimes wood, that is smaller than a maul or beetle, and usually has a relatively large head. The term is descriptive of the overall size and proport ...

#2200 from its

Roanoke Shops 250px, Norfolk Southern Roanoke Shops in 2004. The Roanoke Shops (also called the East End Shops) is a Norfolk Southern workshop and maintenance facility in Roanoke, Virginia. Between 1884 and 1953, the shops produced 447 steam locomotives, all f ...

, the last conventional steam freight locomotive for road service constructed in the United States; and

SNCF Class 241P The SNCF 241.P is a 4-8-2 'Mountain' type express passenger steam locomotive that ran on the ''Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français'', (French National Railways) from 1948 until 1973. Introduced as large scale electrification of the SN ...

mixed-traffic 4-cylinder Chapelon

4-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This type of steam locomotive is commonly known as t ...

#241P-35 at Le Creusot in France. * Donald J. Russell takes over as president of the Southern Pacific Company, parent company of the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

Accidents

Births

* September 19 –

George Warrington George David Warrington (September 19, 1952 – December 24, 2007) was an American transportation official, who served New Jersey Transit for 28 years, latterly in the post of executive director. He grew up in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey a ...

, president of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

1998–2002, executive director of New Jersey Transit 2002–2007 (d. 2007).

Deaths

* November 19 –

Yury Lomonosov Yury Vladimirovich Lomonosov (russian: Юрий Владимирович Ломоносов; 24 April 1876 – 19 November 1952) was a Russian railway engineer and a leading figure in the development of Russian Railways in the early 20th century ...

, Russian-born locomotive engineer (b. 1876).

References

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