Events

January events

* January –

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

introduces the

GE U30C The GE U30C is a six-axle locomotive built by General Electric from 1966 to 1976. With 600 units sold, the U30C proved to be a viable alternative for customers who were unable to purchase SD40s from Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) due to production ba ...

February events

* February 21 – The last shunting horse to work on British Rail, "Charlie" at Newmarket, is retired.

March events

* March 1 – Hankyū Senri Line,

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

, Japan, opens. * March 6 – Railways between

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

and Sudbury via Haverhill are closed by the Eastern Region of British Rail following the

Beeching Report Beeching is an English surname. Either a derivative of the old English ''bece'', ''bæce'' "stream", hence "dweller by the stream" or of the old English ''bece'' "beech-tree" hence "dweller by the beech tree".''Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames' ...

. * March 20 – British Rail reopens the remaining section of line on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

, from Ryde Pier Head to

Shanklin Shanklin () is a seaside resort and civil parish on the Isle of Wight, England, located on Sandown Bay. Shanklin is the southernmost of three settlements which occupy the bay, and is close to Lake and Sandown. The sandy beach, its Old Village ...

, after

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

to the Southern Region standard (750 V DC third rail) using former

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

"Tube" stock. * March 24 – Soo Line Railroad discontinues passenger train operations. * March 24 –

Tanimachi Line The is a rapid transit line of Osaka Metro, running from Dainichi Station in Moriguchi to Yaominami Station in Yao through Osaka. Its official name is , while the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau refers to it as , and in MLIT publicat ...

, Japan, opens.

April events

* April 1 – The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) begins work. * April 20 – The Interstate Commerce Commission grants its initial approval of the proposed CNW/ CGW merger.

May events

* May 23 –

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven millio ...

, Canada's first interregional public transit system, begins operations in

Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...

July events

* The

Seaboard Air Line The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...

and Atlantic Coast Line railroads merge to form the

Seaboard Coast Line The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...

railroad. * July 3 – Closure of

Nottingham Victoria Nottingham Victoria railway station was a Great Central Railway and Great Northern Railway railway station in Nottingham, England. It was designed by the architect Albert Edward Lambert, who also designed the rebuild of the Nottingham Midland s ...

Railway Station,

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

, UK * July 9 - Cessation of steam operation on the

Southern Region of British Railways The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948 until 1992 when railways were re-privatised. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s. The region covered south London, southern England and the south ...

. * July 19 – The New York City Subway introduces its first

air conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

passenger car. * July 25 – Construction begins in San Francisco, on the

Market Street Subway The Market Street subway is a two-level subway tunnel that carries Muni Metro and BART trains under Market Street in San Francisco, California.Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also c ...

discontinues the '' Land O'Corn'' passenger train.

September events

* September –

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

announces cancellation of most Railway Mail Service contracts. * September –

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rail ...

ends passenger service between

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

and

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...

. * September 14 – Tōyōchō Station, in

Kōtō is a special ward located in Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. The ward refers to itself as Kōtō City in English. As of May 1, 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 488,632, and a population density of 12,170 persons per km². The total area i ...

Tokyo Prefecture Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan, opens. * September 30 – The

Monon Railroad The Monon Railroad , also known as the Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville Railway from 1897 to 1971, was an American railroad that operated almost entirely within the state of Indiana. The Monon was merged into the Louisville and Nashville Ra ...

ceases all passenger train operations. Its last train is the

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

–

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

''.

October events

* October 2 – Canadian Pacific Railway removes the

diamond crossing A double junction is a railway junction where a double-track railway splits into two double track lines. Usually, one line is the main line and carries traffic through the junction at normal speed, while the other track is a branch line that ...

at Bedell, Ontario, the junction of the railway's Winchester and Prescott subdivisions. * October 5 – The

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experience ...

(the "Milwaukee Road") discontinues the '' Arrow'' passenger train. * October 28 – Canadian Pacific Railway moves the last of its equipment out of its Ottawa West

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

to the new Walkley Yard.

December events

* December 3 – The New York Central's ''

20th Century Limited The ''20th Century Limited'' was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967. The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along ...

'' is discontinued just before the railroad's merger with the Pennsylvania Railroad to form the

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

. * December 10 – The Pennsylvania Railroad discontinues its all-Pullman (sleeping car) ''

Broadway Limited The ''Broadway Limited'' was a passenger train operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) between New York City and Chicago. It operated from 1912 to 1995. It was the Pennsylvania's premier train, competing directly with the New York Central ...

'', and assigns the train's name and much of its services to the ''General'' on the same New York-Chicago run, adding coaches and a separate dining car for coach passengers. * December 20 - The Pennsylvania Railroad achieves its highest speed on their New York Division (a.k.a. Northeast Corridor) while operating one of their Turbo Liners. * December 29 – The first steam locomotive powered train operates at

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 ...

using a Shay locomotive.

Unknown date events

* Southern Pacific Railroad opens the longest stretch of new railroad construction in a quarter century as the first trains roll over the Palmdale Cutoff through

Cajon Pass Cajon Pass (; Spanish: ''Puerto del Cajón'' or ''Paso del Cajón'') is a mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains to the east and the San Gabriel Mountains to the west in Southern California. Created by the movements of the San Andr ...

. * The

Central Railroad of New Jersey The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of ...

declares bankruptcy. *

General Motors Electro-Motive Division Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its su ...

introduces the

EMD FP45 The EMD FP45 is a cowl unit type of C-C diesel locomotive produced in the United States by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD). It was produced beginning in 1967 at the request of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, which did not ...

. * English Electric supplies first batch of CP Class 1400

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...

s from its

Vulcan Foundry The Vulcan Foundry Limited was an English locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire (now Merseyside). History The Vulcan Foundry opened in 1832, as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches, crossin ...

to '' Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses'', its first mainline locomotive export order for continental Europe. * D. William Brosnan is succeeded by W. Graham Claytor as president of the Southern Railway (US). * Cessation of steam operation on the Eastern Region of British Railways.

Accidents

* February 28 –

Stechford rail crash The Stechford rail crash occurred on 28 February 1967 at Stechford railway station in the area of Stechford in Birmingham, England. A Class 24 diesel locomotive had arrived at Stechford sidings with a ballast train. This was due to return to N ...

on British Rail at Stechford railway station in Birmingham: a diesel locomotive collides with a passenger train as a result of a shunting error, killing the driver and 8 passengers and injuring 16. * March 5 – Connington South rail crash on the British Rail East Coast Main Line near

Conington, Huntingdonshire Conington (Conington All Saints, or "Conington-juxta-Petriburg") is an English village and civil parish in the Cambridgeshire district of Huntingdonshire. Conington lies about 10 km (6 miles) south of Peterborough and 3 km (2 miles) north of S ...

: 5 passengers killed and 18 injured as the result of a deliberate act by the signalman. * June 18 – A home-made bomb explodes on a Hyōgo-

Himeji 260px, Himeji City Hall is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 525,682 in 227,099 households and a population density of 980 persons per km². The total area of the city is ...

local commuter train at Shioya Station on the

Sanyo Electric Railway Main Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by the private railway operator Sanyo Electric Railway. It stretches from Kobe west to Himeji via Akashi, Kakogawa and other municipalities in Hyōgo Prefecture. The line runs parallel to West Japan Rail ...

, Kobe, Hyōgo, Japan. No one claims responsibility in this case, which kills two persons with 29 wounded. * July 31 – Thirsk rail crash on the British Rail East Coast Main Line at

Thirsk Thirsk is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England known for its racecourse; quirky yarnbomber displays, and depiction as local author James Herriot's fictional Darrowby. History Archeological ...

: an

express train An express train is a type of passenger train that makes a small number of stops between its origin and destination stations, usually major destinations, allowing faster service than local trains that stop at most or all of the stations alo ...

collides with a derailed

freight Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including tran ...

. 7 passengers are killed, 45 injured, and prototype diesel locomotive DP2 is written off. * November 5 –

Hither Green rail crash On 5 November 1967, a busy Sunday evening train service from to derailed near the Hither Green maintenance depot in London, between and railway stations. Of the twelve coaches, many full of standing passengers, eleven were derailed and four ...

on the

Southern Region of British Rail The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948 until 1992 when railways were re-privatised. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s. The region covered south London, southern England and the south ...

in south-east London: derailment caused by a broken rail; 49 killed.

Births

Deaths

May deaths

* May 13 –

Eric Treacy Eric Treacy, (2 June 1907 – 13 May 1978) was an English railway photographer and Anglican bishop. Early life and education Born in London, Treacy was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School and at King's College London, though he left wit ...

, English railway photographer, former Anglican bishop (born 1907).

December deaths

* December – Wayne A. Johnston, president of

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also c ...

1945–1966 (born 1897).

References

* * {{Reflist, 2