1917 in rail transport

none 1916 1917 1918 1910 Events thumb|Hell Gate Bridge when new January events January 3 - Ratho rail crash in Scotland: North British Railway H class locomotive 874 Dunedin, in charge of an Edinburgh to Glasgow express train, collides with a light engine at Queensferry Junction near Ratho Station, leaving 12 people dead and 46 seriously injured; the cause is found to be inadequate signalling procedures.UK train accidents in which passengers were killed 1825-1924 http://www.purecollector.com/history/wilson_railway_accidents.html Duncan MacLeod 2006-08-14 PureCollector 2017-12-06 February events February 27 - The Milwaukee Road completes the electrification of its 440 mi km line from Harlowton, Montana, to Avery, Idaho. March events March 9 - Official opening of the Hell Gate Bridge in New York City. March 12 - The Pere Marquette Railroad is reincorporated as the Pere Marquette Railway. March 19 - The United States Supreme Court upholds the eight-hour workday for railroads. April events thumb|upright|Locomotive of Lenin’s train, on which he arrived at Finland Station, Petrograd in April 1917. April 3–16 (NS) - Vladimir Lenin journeys from Switzerland across Germany by so-called "sealed train", eventually arriving to a tumultuous reception at Finland Station in Petrograd to play a leading role in the Russian Revolution.Moorehead, Alan The Russian Revolution New York Harper 1958 183–187 April 21 - Colorado Midland declares bankruptcy for the second and final time. May events May 9 - Completion of the 784 km-long railway line linking the port of Djibouti in French Somaliland to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. July events July 31 The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway opens the Sciotoville Bridge across the Ohio River in the United States to rail traffic. It has a continuous truss across two 775-foot (236 m) spans, the world's longest until 1945.http://www.minford.k12.oh.us/mhs/history/PortsmouthHistory/SciotovilleRRBridge/Jan2004article.htm Colossus on the Ohio Portsmouth Daily Times 2004-01-11 2016-10-05 William D. Middletown https://web.archive.org/web/20070311235551/http://www.minford.k12.oh.us/mhs/history/PortsmouthHistory/SciotovilleRRBridge/Jan2004article.htm 2007-03-11 dead Simbei Kunisawa succeeds Yujiro Nakamura as president of South Manchuria Railway. September September 24 - The Bere Ferrers rail accident in England kills 10 New Zealand soldiers. October events October – First North British Railway C Class steam locomotives are allocated from Scotland for loan to the British Royal Engineers' Railway Operating Division on the Western Front (World War I). October 22 – Opening of Trans-Australian Railway, 1051.7 miles (1692.6 km) of standard gauge between Port Augusta in South Australia and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia (heads of steel meet on 17 October).The Golden Jubilee of the Trans Australian Railway Chambers, T.F. Australian Railway History 267–75 November 1968Burke David 1991 Road through the Wilderness: the story of the transcontinental railway, the first great work of Australia’s federation Kensington New South Wales University Press 0-86840-140-4Ferneyhough Frank The History of Railways in Britain Reading Osprey 1975 0-85045-060-8 In crossing of the Nullarbor Plain the line runs for 309 miles (497 km) without a curve, the world’s longest railway straight. October 23 - The Canadian Railway War Board (predecessor of the Railway Association of Canada) meets for the first time at Windsor Station, Montreal.http://www.railways.incanada.net/candate/candate.htm Significant dates in Canadian railway history Colin Churcher's Railway Pages 2006-09-15 2006-10-23 https://web.archive.org/web/20061023182151/http://www.railways.incanada.net/candate/candate.htm 23 October 2006 dead http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2007/23/c7258.html Historic Anniversary for the Railway Association of Canada 2007-10-23 2007-10-23 Railway Association of Canada 2011-06-09 https://web.archive.org/web/20110609200746/http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2007/23/c7258.html dead November events November 1 – Takatoku station, now known as Shin-Takatoku Station on Tobu Railway's Kinugawa Line in Nikkō, Tochigi, Japan, is opened.Terada Hirokazu データブック日本の私鉄 Databook: Japan's Private Railways Neko Publishing July 2002 Japan 199 4-87366-874-3 December events December 3 - The longest cantilever bridge in the world, Canadian National's Quebec Bridge across the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City, opens for rail trafficMiddleton William D. Quebec lights up its big bridge Trains 16–17 February 2002 after nearly 20 years of planning and construction including two partial collapses. December 12 - Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment, on the Culoz–Modane railway in the French Alps, a grossly overloaded troop train jumps the tracks near the entrance of the station at Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, after running away down a steep gradient from the entrance to the Fréjus Rail Tunnel due to inadequate brake power. At least 543 are killed, hundreds more are injured by the official count; the actual count is assumed to be considerably higher. Until 1981 this was the worst train wreck in history.Modane, France (1917) Danger Ahead! http://danger-ahead.railfan.net/accidents/modane/home.html 2009-02-24 December 26 - United States President Woodrow Wilson uses the Federal Possession and Control Act to nationalize American railroads under the United States Railroad Administration during World War I. December 28 - The United States Railroad Administration officially takes control of American railroads. Unknown date events The Tanana Valley Railroad in Fairbanks, Alaska (a predecessor of the Alaska Railroad) enters receivership. The Arcade and Attica Railroad is incorporated. Estación Constitución in Buenos Aires, Argentina, opens. The Hershey Electric Railway in Cuba opens. Russia's Railway Worker Day national holiday, established in 1886, is abolished under Bolshevik rule.http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10684207&PageNum=0 Railway Worker Day marked in Russia 2006-08-06 2006-08-07 ITAR-TASSFebruary 2019 InternetArchiveBot yes Births Unknown date births John Shedd Reed, president of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway 1967-1986 (died 2008). Deaths October deaths October 2 - William Sykes, English railway signalling engineer (born 1840).Marshall, John Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers 2nd Oxford Railway and Canal Historical Society 2003 0-901461-22-9 John Marshall (railway historian) References