1903 in rail transport

1902 1903 1904

Years in rail transport

1902 in rail transport 1903 in rail transport 1904 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1903.

Contents 1 Events 1.1 January events 1.2 February events 1.3 April events 1.4 May events 1.5 July events 1.6 August events 1.7 September events 1.8 October events 1.9 November events 1.10 Unknown date events 2 Births 2.1 April births 3 Deaths 3.1 March deaths 3.2 July deaths 3.3 Unknown date deaths 4 References

Events

January events

• January 20 – The Grand Trunk Western Railroad opens a passenger depot in Lansing, Michigan.
• January 28 – Esmond Train Wreck: fourteen people are killed when the Crescent City Express (No. 8, bound for Benson, Arizona) collides head-on with the bound Pacific Coast Express (No. 7, bound for Tucson).

February events

• February 12 – North British Locomotive Company established as a locomotive builder in Glasgow, Scotland, by merger of Dübs and Company, Neilson, Reid and Company, and Sharp Stewart and Company.^[1]

April events

• April 7 – Apalachicola Northern Railroad, later to become AN Railway, is chartered.

May events

• May 3 – The Mersey Railway, operating between Birkenhead and Liverpool by tunnel beneath the River Mersey, England, converts from steam to electric traction.^[2]
• May 13 – The Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad (later to become part of Chicago and North Western Railway) begins passenger train service to Casper, Wyoming.^[3]
• May 25 – The Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad opens, becoming the first railroad in the United States to use an electrified third rail to power its trains.

July events

• July 1 – Opening of the Albula line of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) (metre gauge) in Switzerland, passing through the Albula Tunnel, the highest of the principal Alpine tunnels at 1370 m.^[4]
• July 13 – Danbury Union Station in Danbury, Connecticut, on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, opens.^[5]
• July 27
  • Construction begins on the Baghdad Railway with the 200-kilometre (120 mi) segment between Konya and Bulgurlu in the Ottoman Empire (present day Turkey).^[6]
  • Glasgow St Enoch rail accident, Scotland: sixteen killed when a train crashes into the buffers.

August events

• August 10 – Paris Metro train fire, France: electric fire on Paris Métro at Couronnes; 84 killed.
• August 17 – Great Western Railway of England becomes the first British railway company to operate its own "road motor services" (i.e. buses), between Helston and The Lizard in Cornwall.^[7]

September events

• September 27 – Wreck of the Old 97, Danville, Virginia, United States: A southbound Southern Railway passenger train derails on a trestle in Danville; eleven people are killed.

October events

• October – Experimental electric trains, built by AEG and Siemens & Halske, reach 210.2 km/h (130.6 mph) between Marienfelde and Zossen in Germany.
• October 1 – The first railway in Norway rebuilt to double track, from Bryn to Lillestrøm on the Hovedbanen, is opened.^[8]
• October 21 – Howard Elliott succeeds Charles Sanger Mellen as president of Northern Pacific Railway.^[9]
• October 31 – The Purdue Wreck, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA: A Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad football special carrying the Purdue University football team and fans to the annual game with Indiana University collides with a coal train. Fourteen of the team and three other passengers are killed.

November events

• November 9 – The 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway opens in India.^[10]

Unknown date events

• The British Engineering Standards Committee draws up specifications for eight standard steam locomotive designs for the broad gauge Indian Railways.^[11]
• Southern Pacific Railroad gains 50% control of the Pacific Electric system in Los Angeles, California.
• The provisions of the US Railroad Safety Appliance Act, enacted in 1893, are extended to include all railroad cars whether or not the cars themselves are used in interchange service.
• Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway introduces the first 2-10-2 compound locomotives (built by Baldwin Locomotive Works) into service.^[12]
• E. H. Harriman becomes president of the Union Pacific Railroad.
• George Whale succeeds Francis William Webb as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway.

Births

April births

• April 10 – Edward T. Reidy, last president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1957-1968.

Deaths

March deaths

• March 29 – Gustavus Franklin Swift, founder of Swift and Company which pioneered the use of refrigerator cars in late 19th century America (b. 1839)

July deaths

• July 27 – Frederick J. Kimball, American civil engineer who was instrumental in the formation of Norfolk and Western (b. 1844).

Unknown date deaths

• J. Elfreth Watkins, railroad civil engineer and first curator for the Smithsonian Institution's railroad artifacts including John Bull.

References