Events

February events

* February 9 - Budd unveils its first SPV-2000 self-propelled railcar in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. * February 22 - The Waverly tank car explosion was an explosion that occurred in

Waverly, Tennessee Waverly is a city in and the county seat of Humphreys County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 4,297 at the 2020 census. History Waverly was established by Steven Pavatt as a stop along the stagecoach road between Nashville and Memph ...

, following a train derailment incident days earlier. The explosion killed 16.

March events

* March 1 ** Australian National takes over

Tasmanian Government Railways The Tasmanian Government Railways (TGR) was the former operator of the mainline railways in Tasmania, Australia. Formed in 1872, the railway company was managed by the Government of Tasmania, and existed until absorption into the Australian Na ...

and freight and non-metropolitan operations of

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Aust ...

. **

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

opens Midway station in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center ...

and closes the

Minneapolis Great Northern Depot The Minneapolis Great Northern Depot, also known as Great Northern Station, was a passenger railroad station which served Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. It was built in 1913 and demolished in 1978. It was located on Hennepin Avenue next to the Hen ...

. The ''

Twin Cities Hiawatha The ''Twin Cities Hiawatha'', often just ''Hiawatha'', was a named passenger train operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (also known as the Milwaukee Road), and traveled from Chicago to the Twin Cities. The original ...

'' and ''

Arrowhead An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...

'' trains are combined into the ''

North Star Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude tha ...

''. ** The M-K TE70-4S makes its first revenue run, handling a

Southern Pacific 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 ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

–

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

trailer-on-flatcar Trailer on flatcar, also known as TOFC or piggyback, is the practice of carrying semi-trailers on railroad flatcars. TOFC allows for shippers to move truckloads long distances more cheaply than can be done by having each trailer towed by a truck, s ...

(TOFC) train between Portland and Los Angeles. * March 31 – A extension of the

Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line The is a subway line owned and operated by Tokyo Metro in Tokyo, Japan. On average, the line carries 1,447,730 passengers daily (2017), the second highest of the Tokyo Metro network, behind the Tozai Line (1,642,378).Pacific Fruit Express Pacific Fruit Express was an American railroad refrigerator car leasing company that at one point was the largest refrigerator car operator in the world. History The company was founded on December 7, 1906, as a joint venture between the Union P ...

dissolves its fleet of

refrigerator car A refrigerator car (or "reefer") is a refrigerated boxcar (U.S.), a piece of railroad rolling stock designed to carry perishable freight at specific temperatures. Refrigerator cars differ from simple insulated boxcars and ventilated boxcars (co ...

s, which is distributed between

and

Union Pacific 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 Pac ...

July events

* July 6 - A plastic bag of dirty linen carelessly placed against the electric heater in the vestibule of a British Rail sleeping car traveling between Penzance and

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great ...

, England causes the Taunton train fire.

September events

* September 12 - The longest tunnel in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

(8,896m), the

Kaimai Tunnel The Kaimai Tunnel is a railway tunnel through the Kaimai Range in the North Island of New Zealand. Since it was opened in 1978, it has held the title of longest tunnel, at , in New Zealand, assuming this distinction from the previous title hol ...

on the

East Coast Main Trunk The East Coast Main Trunk (ECMT) is a railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, originally running between Hamilton and Taneatua via Tauranga, connecting the Waikato with the Bay of Plenty. The ECMT now runs between Hamilton and Kawera ...

opened.

October events

* October 29 -

Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via, is a Canadian Crown corporation that is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service in Canada. It receives an annual subsidy from Transport Canada to offset the cost of operating ...

assumes all passenger train operations of

Canadian National 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 ...

and

Canadian Pacific 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 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. * October 31 - The last passenger train departs from St Louis Union Terminal.

November events

* November 7 - The

Illinois Railway Museum The Illinois Railway Museum (IRM, reporting mark IRMX) is the largest railroad museum in the United States. It is located in the Chicago metropolitan area at 7000 Olson Road in Union, Illinois, northwest of downtown Chicago. Overview Hist ...

celebrates its 25th anniversary. * November 18 - The

Merivale Bridge The Merivale Bridge is a double track railway bridge crossing the Brisbane River. It crosses the Milton Reach of the river, slightly to the west of the William Jolly Bridge. Exclusively a railway crossing, it is located between the stations of ...

is opened connecting

South Brisbane South Brisbane is an inner southern Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , South Brisbane had a population of 7,196 people. Geography The suburb is on the southern bank of the Brisba ...

and Roma Street and unifying the

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

suburban network. Originally designed to carry both

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

and standard gauge tracks, the latter was not added until 1986.

December events

* December 3 - The ''Southern Crescent'' passenger train derails at

Shipman, Virginia Shipman is a census-designated place (CDP) in Nelson County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 Census was 507. Bon Aire and the Oak Ridge Railroad Overpass are listed on the National Register of Historic Places The Na ...

, killing 6, injuring 60. * December 4 -

and

Chicago & North Western The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states befor ...

jointly announce an agreement to build into

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

Powder River Basin The Powder River Basin is a geologic structural basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, about east to west and north to south, known for its extensive coal reserves. The former hunting grounds of the Oglala Lakota, the area is very s ...

to access the numerous

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

mines in the area. * December 31 - The

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At the end ...

operates its last passenger trains, the '' Peorian'' and a

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to Rock Island train.

Unknown date events

* The Stone Arch Bridge built by the Great Northern Railway across the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

in Minneapolis, Minnesota sees its final use as a railroad bridge; the bridge is later converted for pedestrian and bicycle use. * The

Itel Corporation Itel may refer to: *Hitachi Data Systems, founded as Itel *Itel Mobile itel Mobile is a China-based mobile phone manufacturer company was founded in 2013 headquartered in Shenzhen, China. Its products are mainly sold in Zimbabwe, South Africa, In ...

purchases the Green Bay & Western.

Accidents

Deaths

May deaths

* May - Harold W. Burtness, president

Chicago Great Western Railway The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the Iowa state line called the Minnesot ...

1946–1948, dies (b. 1879).

July deaths

* July 22 -

André Chapelon André Chapelon (26 October 1892 – 22 July 1978) was a French mechanical engineer and designer of advanced steam locomotives. A graduate engineer of Ecole Centrale Paris, he was one of very few locomotive designers who brought a rigorous scien ...

, French steam locomotive designer (b. 1892).

References

* Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005),
This month in railroad history - October
'. Retrieved October 31, 2005. {{Reflist