1859_in_rail_transport
This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1859.
February events
- February 11 — The Atchison and Topeka Railroad Company, forerunner of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, is chartered in Kansas.[1][2][3]
- February 13 — Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad completes construction of its line across Missouri to connect its namesake cities.
March events
- March 3 — 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 – While under lease to Bristol and Exeter Railway, the Somerset Central Railway is extended to Wells.
May events
- May 2 — Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash in Cornwall, England, opened by Prince Albert.[5]
- May 4 — Cornwall Railway opened across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England.[6]
June events
- June 2 — 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 — The Chicago and North Western Railway is chartered.
August events
- August — Samuel Marsh succeeds Charles Moran as president of the Erie Railroad.[7]
September events
- September 1 — The first Pullman sleeping car leaves Bloomington, Illinois, on an overnight trip to Chicago; first Pullman conductor is Jonathan L. Barnes.
- September 12 – 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.[8]
- September 22 – 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 — 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 — 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.[9]
Unknown date events
- Compañía 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.[10]
January births
- January 11 — Charles Bowen-Cooke, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway 1909–1920 (d. 1920).
April births
- April 3 – Darius Miller, president of Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad 1910–1914, is born (d. 1914).[11][12]
- April 11 — Stuart R. Knott, president of Kansas City Southern Railway 1900–1905 (d. 1943).[13]
July births
- July 21 — Hugo Lentz, Austrian inventor of a valve gear for steam engines (d. 1944).[14]
November births
- November 13 — Georg Knorr, inventor of the Knorr brake, is born (d. 1911).
December births
- December 3 — Vincent Raven, chief mechanical engineer of the North Eastern Railway from 1910 to 1922 (d. 1934).
September deaths
- September 15 — Isambard Kingdom Brunel, civil engineer of the Great Western Railway, dies (b. 1806).[15]
October deaths
- October 12 — Robert Stephenson, English railway civil engineer and steam locomotive builder (b. 1803).[16]
- Baker Library Historical Collections. "Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Records, 1879–1896". Archived from the original on 2005-04-10. Retrieved 2005-05-10.
- "The Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe". The Cosmopolitan. February 1893. Archived from the original on 14 April 2005. Retrieved 2005-05-10.
- Santa Fe Railroad (1945). Along Your Way. Chicago, Illinois: Rand McNally.
- Northern Railway of India. "History Of Northern Railway". Archived from the original on 2 February 2006. Retrieved 2006-03-03.
- Binding, John (1997). Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge. Truro: Twelveheads Press. ISBN 0-906294-39-8.
- Woodfin, R. J. (1972). The Cornwall Railway. Truro: Bradford Barton.
- "Erie Railroad presidents". Archived from the original on 18 March 2005. Retrieved 2005-03-15.
- Berntsen, Ulf; Lund, Thure; Lunner, Dagfinn (1997). På sporet med Krøderkippen (in Norwegian). Norwegian Railway Club / Krøderen Line Foundation. p. 26. ISBN 82-90286-20-1.
- Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (August 16, 2005), Significant dates in Canadian railway history Archived 2006-04-24 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 27, 2005
- Pryce, Irwin; McAllister, Leslie (2006). Steaming in Three Centuries: the story of the 101 Class locomotives of the Great Southern and Western Railway. Camberley: Irish Railway Record Society, London Area. ISBN 0-902564-08-0.
- "Darius Miller Dead" (PDF). New York Times. August 24, 1914. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
- "The Curse of King Tut". Gravely Speaking. January 9, 2013. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
- "The Kansas City Southern Lines". Kansas City Southern Historical Society. Archived from the original on 28 August 2005. Retrieved 2005-08-15.
- Marshall, John (2003). Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers (2nd ed.). Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 0-901461-22-9.
- Rolt, L. T. C. (1957). Isambard Kingdom Brunel: a biography. London: Longmans.
- Rolt, L. T. C. (1960). George and Robert Stephenson. London: Longmans.