1780s in rail transport
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This article lists events relating to rail transport that occurred during the 1780s.
1780
Births
January births
- January 26 â John Urpeth Rastrick, English steam locomotive builder and partner in Foster, Rastrick and Company (died 1856).[1]
October births
- October 25 â Philip Hone, first president of Delaware and Hudson Railway 1825â1826 (died 1851).
1781
Births
June births
- June 9 â George Stephenson, English steam locomotive builder.
1782
Births
Unknown date births
- Joseph Treffry (born Joseph Austen), railway promoter in Cornwall, England (died 1850).[2]
1783
Events
- Halbeath Railway opens from the colliery at Halbeath to the harbour at Inverkeithing, Scotland.[3]
1784
Births
- December 30 â Stephen H. Long, American steam locomotive mechanical engineer who helped build the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (died 1864).[4]
1785
Births
Unknown date births
- Sir William Cubitt, civil engineer on the South Eastern and Great Northern Railways of England (died 1861).[5][6]
1786
Births
December births
- December 22 â Timothy Hackworth, English steam locomotive builder (died 1850).[7]
Unknown date births
- William T. James, American inventor of the link motion and spark arrester (died 1865).
1787
Events
Unknown date events
- First production of all-iron edge rail (for underground colliery use), at Plymouth Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales.[8]
- First introduction of plateway (for underground use), at Sheffield Park Colliery, Yorkshire, England, by John Curr.[9]
Births
October births
- October 18 â Robert Livingston Stevens, president of the Camden and Amboy Railroad, the first railroad built in New Jersey (died 1856).[10]
1788
Events
Unknown date events
- First introduction of plateway for surface use, at Wingerworth Iron Foundry, Derbyshire, England, by Joseph Butler.[11]
1789
Events
Unknown date events
- Oliver Evans is awarded a U.S. patent for his "steam carriage," a design that is believed by some historians to have influenced Richard Trevithick's work on early steam locomotives.
Births
October births
- October 8 â John Ruggles, awarded U.S. patent 1 for improved driving wheels (died 1874).
Unknown date births
- Gridley Bryant, inventor of many basic railroad technologies including track and wheels (died 1867)