1847 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1847.

Events

February events

• February 26 – The Somerville and Easton Railroad, a predecessor of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, is chartered.

March events

• March 9 – The Richmond and Danville Railroad is chartered in Virginia.
• March 15 – The Amiens-Boulogne line in France opens between Abbeville and Étaples.
• March 16 – The Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway opens between Shipley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England.^[1]
• March – First ever 4-6-0 locomotive, the Chesapeake, completed by the Norris Locomotive Works for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.^[2]

April events

• April 19 – The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, a predecessor of the New York Central Railroad, officially changes its name to Albany and Schenectady Railroad.

May events

• May 24 – The Dee bridge disaster: a cast iron girder bridge across the river Dee at Chester, England, designed by Robert Stephenson for the Chester and Holyhead Railway, collapses under a Shrewsbury and Chester Railway train with five fatalities.^[3]
• May 31 – The first railway connection between Rotterdam and The Hague opens in the Netherlands.^[4]

June events

• June – The first Bradshaws Continental Railway Guide timetable is published by George Bradshaw in England.
• June 26 – Opening of first railway wholly within modern-day Denmark, from Copenhagen to Roskilde.^[5]

July events

• July 9 – The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway is incorporated as an amalgamation of several important railway lines in Northern England.^[6]

August events

• August 9 – Opening of first railway wholly within Switzerland, from Zürich to Baden.^[5]

September events

• September 22 – The Railway Clearing House in Great Britain recommends that Greenwich Mean Time be adopted as the standard time for all railways in the United Kingdom.^[7]

October events

• October – Portland Company's locomotive erecting shops opened for business.^[8]

December events

• December 1
  • The London and North Western Railway opens its Trent Valley Line to give a more direct route for the West Coast Main Line to North West England, bypassing Birmingham.^[9]
  • The first time zone in the world is established by British railways with GMT hand-carried on chronometers.

Unknown date events

• John Urpeth Rastrick retires from Foster, Rastrick and Company, the English firm that built the first steam locomotives for the Delaware and Hudson Railroad.^[10]

Births

October births

• October 6 - Webb C. Ball, watchmaker who introduced the first truly reliable and accurate timepieces on American railroads.

Deaths

• November 16 - Thomas Kirtley, locomotive superintendent of North Midland Railway 1843-1844, and London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1847, dies (b. 1811).

References

1. ↑ Bairstow, Martin (2004). Railways Through Airedale & Wharfedale. Leeds: Martin Bairstow. ISBN 978-1-871944-28-0. 
2. ↑ Balkwill, Richard; Marshall, John (1993). The Guinness Book of Railway Facts and Feats (6th ed.). Enfield: Guinness Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85112-707-1. 
3. ↑ Lewis, Peter R. (2007). Disaster on the Dee: Robert Stephenson's Nemesis of 1847. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7524-4266-2. 
4. ↑ BrainyMedia.com (2005). "Rotterdam-Hague Railway opens". Retrieved 2005-05-27. 
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Marshall, John (1989). The Guinness Railway Book. Enfield: Guinness. ISBN 978-0-85112-359-2. 
6. ↑ Marshall, John (1969). The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, vol. 1. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4352-4. 
7. ↑ "Daylight Saving Time - Standard time began with the railroads". Archived from the original on 15 September 2005. Retrieved 2005-09-22. 
8. ↑ Holt, Jeff (1985). The Grand Trunk in New England. Railfare. p. 124. ISBN 0-919130-43-7. 
9. ↑ Clinker, C. R. Railways of the West Midlands – a chronology, 1808-1954. London: Stephenson Locomotive Society. 
10. ↑ Bedwell, Carolyn (2002). "John Urpeth Rastrick". Archived from the original on 2005-03-09. Retrieved 2005-04-04.