1855 in rail transport

none 1854 1855 1856 1850 Events January events January 8 – The first through train travels the entire distance from Chicago to the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois. January 28 – The Panama Railway becomes the first railroad to connect the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean as the first train travels the entire transcontinental route across Panama.20 Cultures of the World: Panama 1996 2007 Marshall Cavendish Benchmark Tarrytown, NY 978-0-7614-2028-6 https://books.google.com/books?id=go0bwH-W8BkC January 28, 2010 February events February 15 – The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the Western North Carolina Railroad to build a rail line from Salisbury to the western part of the state.http://www.historync.org/railroad-WNCRR.htm Railroad — Western North Carolina Railroad North Carolina Business History 2006 2013-05-09 February 23 – The Hudson and Boston Railroad is chartered as the successor to the Hudson and Berkshire Railroad in New York. March events March – The Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad, whose purchase formed the basis of the Chicago & North Western, begins operations. April events April 5 – Opening of Boyne Viaduct at Drogheda by the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway completes permanent through rail communication between the two principal cities of Ireland.Share, Bernard Crossing the Boyne: the great Viaduct 1855–2005 Drogheda Iarnród Éireann; Old Drogheda Society 2005 May events May 15 – Great Gold Robbery from a train between London Bridge and Folkestone in England.Hanrahan David C. The First Great Train Robbery London Robert Hale 2011 978-0-7090-9040-3 July events July 21 – Beyer, Peacock & Company turn out the first locomotive to be completed at its new works in the Gorton district of Manchester, England, for the Great Western Railway.Beyer Peacock http://www.beyerpeacock.co.uk/index.htm 2010-01-21 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20100819041255/https://www.beyerpeacock.co.uk/index.htm 2010-08-19 September events September 26 – In Australia the first section of the New South Wales Government Railways, from Sydney to Parramatta, is opened, on 4 ft 8+1/2 in mm on gauge. 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 6 – Inverness and Nairn Railway opened in Scotland: precursor of the Highland Railway.Fenwick, Keith The Inverness and Nairn Railway Cookham Highland Railway Society 2005 November 20 – The first train to operate in Iowa on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad departs Davenport for Muscatine with six crowded passenger cars.Rock Island Technical Society 1996 A Brief Historical Overview of the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad http://www.simpson.edu/~RITS/histories/RIHistory.html 2007-07-08 https://web.archive.org/web/20060107082105/http://www.simpson.edu/~RITS/histories/RIHistory.html January 7, 2006 dead December events December – Rogers Locomotive & Machine Works 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. Unknown date events The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad in North Carolina is reorganized as the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. Births August births August 20 – Ira G. Rawn, vice president of operations for Illinois Central Railroad 1907–1909; president of Monon Railroad 1909–1910 (d. 1910).I. G. Rawn Shot Dead; Suicide Suspected New York Times July 21, 1910 https://www.nytimes.com/1910/07/21/archives/ig-rawn-shot-dead-suicide-suspected-president-of-monon-was-with.html November 22, 2013 October births October 24 – Richard Deeley, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Midland Railway 1909–1923 (d. 1944). 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). References Association of American Railroads (January 2005), This Month in Railroad History – January. Retrieved May 23, 2005.