1952 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1952.

Events

January 13 - Union Pacific Railroad’s City of San Francisco is stalled in snow on Donner Pass. The train's passengers remain stranded in the train until January 16.

April 14 - Indian Railways 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 and the Sealdah division of the erstwhile Bengal Assam Railway; the Northern Railway, created from remaining divisions of the EIR, the Eastern Punjab Railway and others; and the North Eastern Railway created by merger of the Oudh and Tirhut Railway and the Assam Railway.^[1]^[2]^[3]

July 6 - The last tram (streetcar) runs in London, England.
July 21 - An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale hits just north of Tehachapi, California. Tunnels 3 through 8 are all damaged, and no traffic moves on the Southern Pacific Railroad's Tehachapi Loop for 25 days.

September 6 - The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad car ferry Badger is launched. It is the last coal-fired, passenger-carrying steamship built in the United States, and it is still in use for automobile travel.

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 Railways initiates trial of a new Automatic Warning System (Automatic Train Control).^[4]

November 1 - The Pacific Great Eastern Railway opens its branch from Quesnel, British Columbia, to a nearby junction with the Canadian National Railway.
November 20 - Brush Bagnall (England) formally hand over first of batch of class M1 A1A-A1A diesel-electric locomotives for Ceylon Government Railway, its first mainline diesels.^[5]

December 1 - Canadian Pacific Railway ushers in the modern intermodal freight transport era with the introduction of Trailer On Flat Car service.

Last standard gauge compound locomotives built: Norfolk and Western Railway 2-8-8-2 Class Y6b Mallet #2200 from its Roanoke Shops, the last conventional steam freight locomotive for road service constructed in the United States; and SNCF Class 241P mixed-traffic 4-cylinder Chapelon 4-8-2 #241P-35 at Le Creusot in France.^[6]
Donald Russell takes over as president of the Southern Pacific Company, parent company of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

^ "Sealdah division-Engineering details". The Eastern Railway, Sealdah division. http://www.easternrailwaysealdah.gov.in/WebForm/FrameContent/Engineering.html.
^ "Chapter 1 - Evolution of Indian Railways-Historical Background". Ministry of Railways, India. Archived from the original on June 01, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090601024404/http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/financecode/ADMIN_FINANCE/AdminFinanceCh1_Data.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-23.
^ Saxena, R. P. (2008). "Indian Railway History Time Line". http://irse.bravehost.com/IRHTML.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-23.
^ Hall, Stanley (2000). The History and Development of Railway Signalling in the British Isles, vol. 1: Broad Survey. York: Friends of the National Railway Museum. ISBN 978-1-872826-12-7.
^ Baker, Allan C.; Civil, T. D. Allen (2008). Bagnalls of Stafford. High Halden: Phyllis Rampton Narrow Gauge Railway Trust. ISBN 978-0-9544546-2-3.
^ van Riemsdijk, J.T. (1994). Compound Locomotives: an international survey. Penryn: Atlantic Transport. ISBN 978-0-906899-61-8.