1896 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1896.

Events

January events

• January 23 - Construction begins on the Northwestern Elevated line of the Chicago 'L' with the first structure erected at the intersection of Fullerton and Sheffield Avenues.^[1]

February events

• February 14 - Northern Pacific Railway opens its Union Station in Portland, Oregon.
• February 24 - Erie Railroad purchases the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad.^[2]

March events

• March 20 - The Grand Trunk Railway purchases the Central Vermont Railway and begins operating it as a wholly owned subsidiary.

April events

• April 6 - The Snowdon Mountain Railway in North Wales, the only Abt rack system line in the British Isles, commences public operation; however, a derailment leading to one fatality causes services to be suspended for a year.^[3]
• April 28 - Passenger rail service of the Henry Flagler Florida East Coast Railway arrives in Miami from the former terminus of West Palm Beach, at the persuasion of Julia Tuttle; this quickly leads to incorporation of the city of Miami and extensive development of South Florida and the Keys.

Budapest Metro

May events

• May 2 - Budapest Metro Line 1 (Hungary), the world’s second, is opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.^[4]
• May 9 - First Nord Express, Paris, France/Oostend, Belgium, to Saint Petersburg, Russia.
• May 30 - Construction of the Uganda Railway starts at Mombasa.^[5]

June events

• June 29 - The St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Company (predecessor of the St. Louis - San Francisco Railway) is incorporated.

July events

• July 23 - Delivery of world's first commercially-built oil-engined locomotive, from Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham, England to the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London (18 in (460 mm) gauge).^[6]
• July 30 - Atlantic City rail crash: Shortly after 6:30 PM, at a crossing just west of Atlantic City, New Jersey, two trains collide, crushing five loaded passenger coaches, killing 50 and seriously injuring around 60.

September events

• September 15 – The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (the 'Katy') conveys 40,000 people to Crush, Texas to witness a staged train wreck as a publicity stunt arranged by its general passenger agent, William George Crush. Three spectators are accidentally killed. ^[7]

October events

• October 5 - Norwegian Railway Museum established at Hamar.^[8]

December events

• December 14 - Glasgow Subway, the third oldest metro system in the world, begins operations in Glasgow, Scotland.
• December 25 - Japanese National Railways opens two lines out of Tabata: an extension of the Tsuchiura Line from Tsuchiura, and the Sumidagawa Line to Sumidagawa.

Unknown date events

• The Green Bay and Western Railroad is formed from the bankruptcy proceedings of the Green Bay, Winona and Saint Paul Railroad.
• The Loup Creek & Deepwater Railway (predecessor of the Deepwater Railway) is formed.
• Atlas Car and Manufacturing Company begins building steam locomotives.
• Beyer, Peacock and Company of Manchester, England, deliver the first five New South Wales T524 class 'Australian Consolidation' 2-8-0 type heavy goods locomotives to the New South Wales Government Railways, forerunners of the system's numerically largest class, finally totalling 280 representatives.
• Narrow gauge Ferrocarril de Tacubaya begins passenger service to Mexico City's Tacubaya amusement park.^[9]
• The first narrow gauge (750 mm) railway in Estonia connecting Valga with Pärnu is opened.^[10]

Deaths

January deaths

• January 23 – Ferdinand Schichau, German mechanical engineer and founder of locomotive manufacturing company Schichau-Werke, dies (b. 1814).

June deaths

• June 4 - Austin Corbin, president of Long Island Rail Road (b. 1827).

October deaths

• October 21 - James Henry Greathead, English inventor of the tunnelling shield used for the London Underground (b. 1844).^[11]

References

1. ↑ Chicago "L".org, Northwestern Elevated (1893-1924). Retrieved January 23, 2006.
2. ↑ Western New York Railroad Archive (December 17, 2005), Erie Railroad - History. Retrieved December 28, 2005.
3. ↑ Kardas, Handel (April 1997). "Britain's worst railway opening day – Ladas and the Snowdon Mountain Railway". Railway World 58 (683): 66–71. 
4. ↑ The Millennium Subway Line of Budapest
5. ↑ Miller, Charles (1971). The Lunatic Express. New York: Macdonald. ISBN 978-0-02-584940-2. 
6. ↑ Webb, Brian (1973). The British Internal Combustion Locomotive 1894-1940. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-6115-5. 
7. ↑ Hamilton, Allen Lee. "Crash at Crush". Handbook of Texas Online. University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2007-04-15. 
8. ↑ "Norwegian Railway Museum - Hamar". Retrieved 2010-01-28. 
9. ↑ Best, Gerald M. (1968). Mexican Narrow Gauge. Howell-North. 
10. ↑ "Ajalugu" (in Estonian). Eesti Raudtee. Retrieved 23 April 2012. 
11. ↑ Marshall, John (2003). Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers (2nd ed.). Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 0-901461-22-9.