1780s_in_rail_transport
This article lists events relating to rail transport that occurred during the 1780s.
Births
January births
- January 26 – John Urpeth Rastrick, English steam locomotive builder and partner in Foster, Rastrick and Company (died 1856).[1]
October births
- October 25 – Philip Hone, first president of Delaware and Hudson Railway 1825–1826 (died 1851).
Births
June births
- June 9 – George Stephenson, English steam locomotive builder.
Births
Unknown date births
- Joseph Treffry (born Joseph Austen), railway promoter in Cornwall, England (died 1850).[2]
Events
- Halbeath Railway opens from the colliery at Halbeath to the harbour at Inverkeithing, Scotland.[3]
Births
- December 30 – Stephen H. Long, American steam locomotive mechanical engineer who helped build the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (died 1864).[4]
Births
Unknown date births
- Sir William Cubitt, civil engineer on the South Eastern and Great Northern Railways of England (died 1861).[5][6]
Births
December births
- December 22 – 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).
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 – Robert Livingston Stevens, president of the Camden and Amboy Railroad, the first railroad built in New Jersey (died 1856).[10]
Events
Unknown date events
- First introduction of plateway for surface use, at Wingerworth Iron Foundry, Derbyshire, England, by Joseph Butler.[11]
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 – 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)
- "John Urpeth Rastrick". steamindex.com. 12 August 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
- Simmons, Jack (2004). "Treffry, Joseph Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38076. Retrieved 2010-01-12. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- Poustie, Mark. "Halbeath Railway". RailScot. Retrieved 2009-12-16.
- White, John H. Jr. (1968). A history of the American locomotive; its development: 1830–1880. New York, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-23818-0.
- Marshall, John (2003). A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers (2nd ed.). Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 0-901461-22-9.
- Brown, Peter. "Sir William Cubitt (1785-1861)". Archived from the original on 24 December 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-16.
- "Timothy Hackworth". steamindex.com. 23 January 2013. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
- van Laun, John (2001). Early Limestone Railways. London: Newcomen Society. pp. 203–4. ISBN 0-904685-09-8.
- Occasional Paper. 184, 192. Railway and Canal Historical Society, Early Railway Group.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Today in Science History: October 18. Retrieved October 18, 2005.
- Farey, John (1817). General View of the Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire. Vol. 3. London: Board of Agriculture.
| Preceded by | Rail transport timeline 1780s |
Succeeded by |
- White, John H. Jr. (1968). A history of the American locomotive; its development: 1830–1880. New York, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-23818-0.
- White, John H. Jr. (Spring 1986). "America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders". Railroad History. 154: 9–15. ISSN 0090-7847. JSTOR 43523785. OCLC 1785797.