Rail History

Rail History

[railhistory]

Patrick H. Joyce, president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1931-1946, dies (b. 1879).

[railhistory]

Amtrak operates its first Roadrailer in regular revenue service hauled behind the Three Rivers from Chicago, Illinois, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[railhistory]

1979 Mississauga train derailment A CP Rail train develops a hot box and derails 24 cars carrying hazardous materials near Mississauga, Ontario; almost 250,000 people are evacuated for up to five days at a time while cleanup commences.

[railhistory]

Yatsumori Station in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, is opened.

[railhistory]

Louis Brennan successfully demonstrates his gyroscopically-balanced monorail system, which he designed for military use and patented in 1903, at Gillingham, England.

[railhistory]

Canada Atlantic Railway becomes the first Canadian railway to use steam from a train's locomotive to heat the passenger cars instead of coal or wood stoves in each car.

[railhistory]

Chicago and North Western Railway reaches Green Bay, Wisconsin.

[railhistory]

Canada's Great Western Railway opens the line from Hamilton, Ontario, to the suspension bridge at Niagara Falls.

[railhistory]

Henry Clay Hall, commissioner for Interstate Commerce Commission beginning in 1914, chairman of same 1917-1928 (born 1860).

[railhistory]

Charles Donnelly, president of Northern Pacific Railway 1920-1939, is born (d. 1939).

[railhistory]

Henry Farnam, president of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad 1854–1863, is born (d. 1883).

[railhistory]

The St. Thomas and Eastern Railway begins operations on a former Canadian National Railway branch line between St. Thomas and Delhi, Ontario.

[railhistory]

Two passenger trains collide with a derailed freight train on the Tokaido Main Line in Yokohama, Japan; the Yokohama rail crash results in 161 deaths.

[railhistory]

Canadian Pacific Railway introduces Budd Rail Diesel Car service, "Dayliners", for lighter passenger train duties on some branch lines.

[railhistory]

Canadian National Railway extends the line from Lynn Lake to Sherridon, Manitoba.

[railhistory]

Canadian National Railway's line to Lynn Lake, Manitoba, opens.

[railhistory]

The 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway opens in India.