1859 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1859.

Events

February events

• February 11 — The Atchison and Topeka Railroad Company, forerunner of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, is chartered in Kansas.[1][2][3]
• February 13 — Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad completes construction of its line across Missouri to connect its namesake cities.

March events

• March 3 — Construction begins on the first railway in northern India as tracks are laid between the present day locations of Allahabad and Kanpur.[4]

The Royal Albert Bridge, Brunel’s last work

• March 15 – While under lease to Bristol and Exeter Railway, the Somerset Central Railway is extended to Wells.

May events

• May 2 — Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash in Cornwall, England, opened by Prince Albert.[5]
• May 4 — Cornwall Railway opened across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.[6]

June events

• June 2 — The organization that is to become the Chicago and North Western Railway purchases the assets of the bankrupt Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad.
• June 7 — The Chicago and North Western Railway is chartered.

August events

• August — Samuel Marsh succeeds Charles Moran as president of the Erie Railroad.[7]

September events

• September 1 — The first Pullman sleeping car leaves Bloomington, Illinois, on an overnight trip to Chicago; first Pullman conductor is Jonathan L. Barnes.
• September 12 – At a meeting under Drammen chairmanship in Norway, construction of a railway line to connect Drammen and Randsfjorden, later known as the Randsfjorden Line, is selected over the option for a waterway.[8]
• September 22 – The Chemins de fer de l'Est opens its line from Paris Gare de la Bastille to Vincennes and La Varenne in France.

October events

• October 3 — The Cologne-Minden Railway Company opens the Cathedral Bridge (Dombrücke) across the Rhine in Cologne giving access to the city's new Central Station.

December events

• December 27 — Grand Trunk Railway completes construction of the rail line from Toronto to Sarnia, Ontario, and begins a train ferry connection across the St. Clair River at Fort Gratiot.[9]

Unknown date events

• Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España of Spain introduces its standard 0-6-0 goods locomotives, almost all of which will be in service for more than a century.[10]

Births

January births

• January 11 — Charles Bowen-Cooke, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway 1909–1920 (d. 1920).

April births

• April 3 – Darius Miller, president of Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad 1910–1914, is born (d. 1914).[11][12]
• April 11 — Stuart R. Knott, president of Kansas City Southern Railway 1900–1905 (d. 1943).[13]

July births

• July 21 — Hugo Lentz, Austrian inventor of a valve gear for steam engines (d. 1944).[14]

November births

• November 13 — Georg Knorr, inventor of the Knorr brake, is born (d. 1911).

December births

• December 3 — Vincent Raven, chief mechanical engineer of the North Eastern Railway from 1910 to 1922 (d. 1934).

Deaths

September deaths

• September 15 — Isambard Kingdom Brunel, civil engineer of the Great Western Railway, dies (b. 1806).[15]

October deaths

• October 12 — Robert Stephenson, English railway civil engineer and steam locomotive builder (b. 1803).[16]

References

1. Baker Library Historical Collections. "Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Records, 1879–1896". Archived from the original on 2005-04-10. Retrieved 2005-05-10.
2. "The Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe". The Cosmopolitan. February 1893. Archived from the original on 14 April 2005. Retrieved 2005-05-10.
3. Santa Fe Railroad (1945). Along Your Way. Chicago, Illinois: Rand McNally.
4. Northern Railway of India. "History Of Northern Railway". Archived from the original on 2 February 2006. Retrieved 2006-03-03.
5. Binding, John (1997). Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge. Truro: Twelveheads Press. ISBN 0-906294-39-8.
6. Woodfin, R. J. (1972). The Cornwall Railway. Truro: Bradford Barton.
7. "Erie Railroad presidents". Archived from the original on 18 March 2005. Retrieved 2005-03-15.
8. Berntsen, Ulf; Lund, Thure; Lunner, Dagfinn (1997). På sporet med Krøderkippen (in Norwegian). Norwegian Railway Club / Krøderen Line Foundation. p. 26. ISBN 82-90286-20-1.
9. Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (August 16, 2005), Significant dates in Canadian railway history Archived 2006-04-24 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 27, 2005
10. Pryce, Irwin; McAllister, Leslie (2006). Steaming in Three Centuries: the story of the 101 Class locomotives of the Great Southern and Western Railway. Camberley: Irish Railway Record Society, London Area. ISBN 0-902564-08-0.
11. "Darius Miller Dead" (PDF). New York Times. August 24, 1914. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
12. "The Curse of King Tut". Gravely Speaking. January 9, 2013. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
13. "The Kansas City Southern Lines". Kansas City Southern Historical Society. Archived from the original on 28 August 2005. Retrieved 2005-08-15.
14. Marshall, John (2003). Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers (2nd ed.). Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 0-901461-22-9.
15. Rolt, L. T. C. (1957). Isambard Kingdom Brunel: a biography. London: Longmans.
16. Rolt, L. T. C. (1960). George and Robert Stephenson. London: Longmans.