411 REFERENCE · Wikipedia
1938 in rail transport
Reference material by Wikipedia contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
none
1937 1938 1939 1930
Events
January
January 1 – Creation of the following European railway networks under government control:
SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français), bringing the principal railway companies of France together.
NS (Nederlandsche Spoorwegen), merging the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij (HSM) and the Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen (SS) in the Netherlands.Nederlandse Spoorwegen http://nols-maatschappij.info/Exploitanten/Nederlandse-spoorwegen.htm 2011-06-12 2011-12-27 2020-11-03 https://web.archive.org/web/20201103194713/http://nols-maatschappij.info/Exploitanten/Nederlandse-spoorwegen.htm dead
January 22 – The Pacific Electric Whittier Line is truncated to Walker.
February
February 22 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway introduces the El Capitan passenger train between Chicago and Los Angeles.
February 26 – A second all-lightweight trainset enters service on the Super Chief.
thumb|200px|right|Streamlined 20th Century Limited departs Chicago, 1938
March
March 6 – The Pacific Electric Walker Line is discontinued.Whittier Line http://www.erha.org/pesw.htm Electric Rail Heritage Association 17 September 2020
March 18 – Bundesbahn Österreich (BBÖ, Federal Railway of Austria) integrated into Deutsche Reichsbahn.
March 27 – Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway inaugurates the San Diegan passenger train between Los Angeles and San Diego.Rivanna Chapter National Railway Historical Society This Month in Railroad History: March http://avenue.org/nrhs/histmar.htm 27 March 2006 https://web.archive.org/web/20060417075629/http://avenue.org/nrhs/histmar.htm 17 April 2006 live
May
May 8 — President Manuel L. Quezon inaugurates regular services on the Main Line South of the Manila Railroad in Del Gallego, Camarines Sur. Trial runs already began five months prior.Report of Survey of the Manila Railroad Company and the Preliminary Survey of Railroads for Mindanao De Leuw, Cather & Company Chicago 1–12 Chapter I: Present Conditions 1951
May 15
The Lake Shore Electric Railway in Ohio ceases operations.
Inauguration of a major Nederlandse Spoorwegen electrification scheme in the central Netherlands, centred on Utrecht.
thumb|200px|right|London Underground 1938 Stock
June
June 1 – Pacific Electric's Owensmouth Line and San Fernando Line are truncated to Sherman Way.42San Fernando Valley Line http://erha.org/pewsfv.htm Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California 8 September 2020
June 15 – New York Central Railroad introduces an all-streamlined consist on the 20th Century Limited and also introduces the New England States passenger train between Chicago and Boston.
June 16 – The Pike's Peak Cog Railway in Colorado operates gasoline-powered railcar number 7, the first rack railcar in the world, for the first time.Manitou & Pike's Peak Cog Railway 2005 http://www.cograilway.com/history.htm Cog Railway History 2005-06-13 https://web.archive.org/web/20050701005316/http://www.cograilway.com/history.htm 1 July 2005 live
June 19 – Custer Creek train wreck kills at least 47 near Saugus, Montana. A bridge, weakened by a flash flood, collapses under the Milwaukee Road's Olympian plunging the locomotive and seven lead cars into the rain-swollen creek. It remains the worse rail disaster in Montana history.
June 30 – London Underground 1938 Stock enters public service, on Northern line.Desmond F. Croome Jackson, Alan A. Rails through the Clay: a history of London's Tube railways 2nd Harrow Weald Capital Transport 1993 1-85414-151-1 258–62
July
July 3 – The London and North Eastern Railway 4-6-2 Mallard reaches a speed of 126 mph (203 km/h), the highest certified speed for a steam locomotive.
thumb|right|200px|LNER No. 4468 Mallard as running in 1938
July 31 – The Pennsylvania Railroad, in its public timetable issued today, boasts that “19% of all passengers are carried on the Pennsylvania Railroad.”
October
October – Electro-Motive Corporation introduces the EMC E4.
November
November 1 – Passenger service ends on the Maine narrow gauge Monson Railroad.Two Feet to the Quarries Jones, Robert C. Evergreen Press 1998 0-9667264-0-5 93
December
December 13 – The Reading Railroad's Crusader passenger train is introduced.
December 15
The first diesel locomotives in the southeast United States, EMC E4s, appear on the Orange Blossom Special.
The second section of the Itō Line, connecting Ajiro to Itō in Japan, opens.
December 23 – Jean Renoir's film of La Bête Humaine released in France.
Unknown date
Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited is completely re-equipped based on an industrial design by Raymond Loewy.
Overhead wire on the Pennsylvania Railroad's mainline from New York City reaches Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Overhead wire on the newly formed SNCF system between Tours and Bordeaux in France completes electrification from Paris to the Spanish frontier.
The first passenger car equipped with fluorescent lights is operated on the New York Central Railroad.
Births
January births
January 11 – Alastair Morton, chief executive of Eurotunnel 1987–1996, chairman of British Strategic Rail Authority 1999-2001 (d. 2004).
Unknown date births
John H. Kuehl, editor of Private Varnish magazine, passenger car historian and photographer (died 2005).May 2005 Obituaries Trains Magazine 21
Deaths
February deaths
February 2 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, director of the New York Central system (born 1856).
February 9 – Arturo Caprotti, Italian inventor of Caprotti valve gear for steam locomotives (born 1881).Marshall, John Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers 2nd Oxford Railway and Canal Historical Society 2003 0-901461-22-9 John Marshall (railway historian)
October deaths
October 16 – Sir Henry Fowler, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Midland Railway 1909–1923 and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1925–1931 (born 1870).
December deaths
December 1 – David Blyth Hanna, first president of Canadian National Railway (born 1858).
Accidents
uncollapsed
References