1859 in rail transport
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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1859.
Events
February events
- February 11 â The Atchison and Topeka Railroad Company, forerunner of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, is chartered in Kansas.[1][2][3]
- February 13 â Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad completes construction of its line across Missouri to connect its namesake cities.
March events
- March 3 â Construction begins on the first railway in northern India as tracks are laid between the present day locations of Allahabad and Kanpur.[4]
- March 15 â While under lease to Bristol and Exeter Railway, the Somerset Central Railway is extended to Wells.
May events
- May 2 â Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash in Cornwall, England, opened by Prince Albert.[5]
- May 4 â Cornwall Railway opened across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.[6]
June events
- June 2 â The organization that is to become the Chicago and North Western Railway purchases the assets of the bankrupt Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac Railroad.
- June 7 â The Chicago and North Western Railway is chartered.
- June 11 â French law approves agreements concluded with railway companies;[7] At the initiative of Charles, Duc de Morny, the concessions are divided into six large companies: Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée, Orléans, Midi, Est, Ouest and Nord.
August events
- August â Samuel Marsh succeeds Charles Moran as president of the Erie Railroad.[8]
September events
- September 1 â The first Pullman sleeping car leaves Bloomington, Illinois, on an overnight trip to Chicago; first Pullman conductor is Jonathan L. Barnes.
- September 12 â At a meeting under Drammen chairmanship in Norway, construction of a railway line to connect Drammen and Randsfjorden, later known as the Randsfjorden Line, is selected over the option for a waterway.[9]
- September 22 â The Chemins de fer de l'Est opens its line from Paris Gare de la Bastille to Vincennes and La Varenne in France.
October events
- October 3 â The Cologne-Minden Railway Company opens the Cathedral Bridge (Dombrücke) across the Rhine in Cologne giving access to the city's new Central Station.
December events
- December 27 â Grand Trunk Railway completes construction of the rail line from Toronto to Sarnia, Ontario, and begins a train ferry connection across the St. Clair River at Fort Gratiot.[10]
Unknown date events
- CompañÃa de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España of Spain introduces its standard 0-6-0 goods locomotives, almost all of which will be in service for more than a century.[11]
Births
January births
- January 11 â Charles Bowen-Cooke, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway 1909â1920 (d. 1920).
April births
- April 3 â Darius Miller, president of Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad 1910â1914 (d. 1914).[12][13]
- April 11 â Stuart R. Knott, president of Kansas City Southern Railway 1900â1905 (d. 1943).[14]
July births
- July 21 â Hugo Lentz, Austrian inventor of a valve gear for steam engines (d. 1944).[15]
November births
- November 13 â Georg Knorr, German inventor of the Knorr brake (d. 1911).
December births
- December 3 â Vincent Raven, chief mechanical engineer of the North Eastern Railway (UK) from 1910 to 1922 (d. 1934).
Deaths
September deaths
- September 15 â Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Englishh civil engineer of the Great Western Railway (b. 1806).[16]
October deaths
- October 12 â Robert Stephenson, English railway civil engineer and steam locomotive builder (b. 1803).[17]