1847 in rail transport
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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1847.
Events
February events
- February 26 â The Somerville and Easton Railroad, a predecessor of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, is chartered.
March events
- March 9 â The Richmond and Danville Railroad is chartered in Virginia.
- March 15 â The Amiens-Boulogne line in France opens between Abbeville and Ãtaples.
- March 16 â The Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway opens between Shipley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England.[1]
- March â First ever 4-6-0 locomotive, the Chesapeake, completed by the Norris Locomotive Works for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.[2]
April events
- April 19 â The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, a predecessor of the New York Central Railroad, officially changes its name to Albany and Schenectady Railroad.
May events
- May 24 â The Dee bridge disaster: a cast iron girder bridge across the river Dee at Chester, England, designed by Robert Stephenson for the Chester and Holyhead Railway, collapses under a Shrewsbury and Chester Railway train with five fatalities.[3]
- May 31 â The first railway connection between Rotterdam and The Hague opens in the Netherlands.[4]
June events
- June â The first Bradshaws Continental Railway Guide timetable is published by George Bradshaw in England.
- June 26 â Opening of first railway wholly within modern-day Denmark, from Copenhagen to Roskilde.[5][page needed]
July events
- July 9 â The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway is incorporated as an amalgamation of several important railway lines in Northern England.[6]
- July 28 â Bristol and Exeter Railway's Clevedon branch line opens.
August events
- August 9 â Opening of first railway wholly within Switzerland, the Swiss Northern Railway from Zürich to Baden.[5][page needed]
September events
- September 22 â The Railway Clearing House in Great Britain recommends that Greenwich Mean Time be adopted as the standard time for all railways in the United Kingdom.[7]
October events
- October â Portland Company's locomotive erecting shops opened for business.[8]
December events
- December 1
- The London and North Western Railway opens its Trent Valley Line to give a more direct route for the West Coast Main Line to North West England, bypassing Birmingham.[9]
- The first time zone in the world is established by British railways with GMT hand-carried on chronometers.
Unknown date events
- John Urpeth Rastrick retires from Foster, Rastrick and Company, the English firm that built the first steam locomotives for the Delaware and Hudson Railroad.[10]
Births
October births
- October 6 â Webb C. Ball, watchmaker who introduced the first truly reliable and accurate timepieces on American railroads.
Deaths
- November 16 â Thomas Kirtley, locomotive superintendent of North Midland Railway 1843â1844, and London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1847, dies (b. 1811).