1986 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1986.

Events

January 1 – The Soo Line Railroad fully absorbs the Milwaukee Road after attempting to operate it as a subsidiary railroad.
January 3 – Vancouver's SkyTrain begins operations between the waterfront and New Westminster.

February 8 – 23 people are killed in the Hinton train collision when a Via Rail passenger train collides with a Canadian National Railway freight train near Hinton, Alberta.
February 17 – Class 59 Co-Co diesel locomotives built by EMD for Foster Yeoman introduced into heavy freight service on British Rail, the first US-built (and privately-owned) diesel locomotives to operate regularly on the English network.^[1]

March 25 – Conrail makes its initial public offering of stock starting at $28 per share.^[2]

July 24 – The United States Interstate Commerce Commission denies the merger of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroad,^[3] citing an excessive amount of parallel track as one reason for the denial.
July 26 – The Lockington rail crash at Lockington, Humberside, England occurred when a van was struck on a level crossing. Eight passengers on the train, and a boy of 11 in the van, lost their lives.

September 5 – The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad begins operations in Minnesota and South Dakota.
September 5 – Portland, Oregon's light rail system, MAX, opens for service.^[4]
September 8 – The Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad becomes the last common carrier freight railroad in America to cease using steam locomotives as primary power when the dry-pipe in their CLC 2-8-0 #17 steamer collapses.
September 19 – Two high speed trains collide near Rugeley, Staffordshire, England, in the Colwich rail crash; the driver of one of the two trains was the only fatality of this accident.

October 31 – Closure of the "Corkickle Brake" serving a chemical works at Whitehaven, Cumbria, the last commercially operated standard gauge cable railway in the United Kingdom.^[5]

November 11 – Preserved steam locomotive British Railways Standard class 8 71000 Duke of Gloucester is officially recommissioned to service on the Great Central Railway following a 13-year restoration from part-dismantled condition.^[6]
November 15 – Australia's well known steam locomotive 3801 is recommissioned at the Hunter Valley Training Company in NSW.
November 21 – The Florida Central Railroad begins operations in Florida, United States.
November 27 – Oslo Central Station in Oslo, Norway is taken into use.

Railway accidents in 1986 (1986)

Location and date	Hinton, Canada (8 February) • Limache, Chile (18 February) • Lockington, England (26 July) • Colwich, England (19 September)

1985 1987

July 14 – Raymond Loewy, industrial designer who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad designing the shape of equipment such as the GG1 (b. 1893).

^ Marsden, Colin J. (1998). Foster Yeoman – The Rail Story. Bournemouth: Channel AV Publishing. ISBN 1-901419-03-7.
^ "This month in railroad history: March". Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. 2006-03-24. http://avenue.org/nrhs/histmar.htm.
^ "Sante Fe-SP Merger Denied by ICC Vote". Pacific RailNews, September 1986, p. 4.
^ Koberstein, Paul (September 7, 1986). "Riders swamp light rail as buses go half-full and schedules go by the way". The Oregonian, p. A1.
^ "The Corkickle Brake". Industrial Railway Record 111: p 169–81. December 1987.
^ King, Peter (1987). 71000 Duke of Gloucester – the impossible dream. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-1753-0.