1855 in rail transport
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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1855.
Contents |
[edit] Events
[edit] January events
- January - The Panama Railway becomes the first railroad to connect the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean by rail as its route across Panama is completed.
- January 8 - The first through train travels the entire distance from Chicago to the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois.
- January 28 - The first train travels the entire transcontinental route of the Panama Railway.
[edit] February events
- February 23 - The Hudson and Boston Railroad is chartered as the successor to the Hudson and Berkshire Railroad in New York.
[edit] March events
- March - The Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad, whose purchase formed the basis of the Chicago and North Western Railway, begins operations.
- March 12 - Desjardins Canal Bridge train disaster, Ontario, Canada: Ninety passengers boarded a train from Toronto, Ontario en route to Hamilton, Ontario. As the train approached its final destination, the bridge spanning the Desjardins Canal collapsed as the train derailed. 70 passengers died from trauma or drowning and exposure after being thrown into Cootes Paradise.
[edit] November events
- November 1 - Gasconade Bridge train disaster, St. Louis, Missouri, United States: With more than 600 passengers aboard the Pacific Railroad excursion train celebrating the railway line's opening, outside St. Louis, Missouri the bridge collapsed and the locomotive plus 12 of the 13 attached cars plunged into the Gasconade River. Over 30 people died and hundreds were seriously injured.
- November 20 - The first train to operate in Iowa on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad departs Davenport for Muscatine with six crowded passenger cars.
[edit] December events
- December - Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor completes a 4-4-0 steam locomotive named General; this locomotive will later become the main object in the Great Locomotive Chase of the American Civil War.
[edit] Unknown date events
- The first railway in New South Wales, Australia, from Sydney to Parramatta, using 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) gauge track opens.
- The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad in North Carolina is reorganized as the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad.
- Inverness and Nairn Railway opened: precursor of the Highland Railway
[edit] Births
[edit] October births
- October 24 - Richard Deeley, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Midland Railway 1909–1923 (d. 1944).
[edit] November births
- November 5 - Eugene V. Debs, labor leader, founding member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, founder of the American Railway Union, arrested during the Pullman strike in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1926).
[edit] Deaths
[edit] References
- Association of American Railroads (January 2005), This Month in Railroad History - January. Retrieved May 23, 2005.
- Rock Island Technical Society (1996), A Brief Historical Overview of the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad. Retrieved November 20, 1855.
