1865 in rail transport

Events

January events

* January 5 - The Festiniog Railway in North Wales officially opens to passengers, the first narrow gauge railway in the British Isles to do so. [cite book|author=Johnson, Peter|title=An Illustrated History of the Festiniog Railway 1832-1954|location=Hersham|publisher=Oxford Publishing Co|date=2007|isbn=978-0-86093-603-9]
* January 10 - The California Pacific Railroad absorbs the Sacramento and San Francisco Rail Road Company and the San Francisco and Marysville Rail Road Company.

February events

* February 4 - The assets of Dayton, Xenia and Belpre Railroad in Ohio are sold in bankruptcy proceedings and split between the Little Miami Railroad and Columbus and Xenia Railroad. [Morris, J.C., Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs (December 31 1902), " [http://www.railsandtrails.com/ohiorailwayreport/1902/1850.html Annual Report of the Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs, Part II. History of the Railroads of Ohio] ". Retrieved February 4 2006.]
* February 9 - The Colorado and Clear Creek Railroad, predecessor to the Colorado Central Railroad, is chartered.
* February 15 - The Chicago and North Western Railway and Galena and Chicago Union Railroad merge.

March events

* March 17 – The Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing Company shops in Berwick, Pennsylvania, are destroyed by fire. [cite web| url=http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/jacksonwoodin.htm| title=Jackson & Woodin Manufacturing Company| publisher=Mid-Continent Railway Museum| date=2006-04-11| accessdate=2008-04-16| ]

April events

* April - The funeral train for Abraham Lincoln travels from Washington, DC to Illinois.

May events

*May 25 - The first steel rails are rolled at a foundry in Chicago from Bessemer steel made in blast furnaces in Wyandotte, Michigan. [Barnett, Leroy "Making America's First Steel in Wyandotte", Michigan History, Vol. 88 No. 4 July/August 2004]

June events

*June 9 - Rail accident at Staplehurst, United Kingdom: 10 killed, 49 injured; Charles Dickens is amongst the survivors.

August events

* August 7 - The Lawrence Railroad and Transportation Company, with tracks in Pennsylvania and Ohio, is reorganized as the Lawrence Railroad Company. [Morris, J. C., compiler (December 31 1902), " [http://www.railsandtrails.com/ohiorailwayreport/1902/1840.html Annual Report of the Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs: Part II. History of the Railroads of Ohio] ". Retrieved August 7 2005.]

eptember events

* September 1 - The English company John Trevor-Barkley begins construction on the Bucharest-Giurgiu line, the first railroad line built in the territory of Romania.
* September 13 - Algernon S. Buford becomes president of the Richmond and Danville Railroad.
* September 14 - The Brockville and Ottawa Railway begins operations between Arnprior and Sand Point, Ontario, a distance of about 6 miles (10 km). [Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (September 7 2005), " [http://www.railways.incanada.net/candate/ottawa.htm Significant dates in Ottawa railway history] ". Retrieved September 13 2005.]

October events

* October 2 - First section of Sri Lanka Railway, then known as Ceylon Government Railways, officially opens from Colombo to Ambepussa (km to mi|54|abbr=yes) on 5ft 6in (1676 mm) gauge. [cite book|author=Marshall, John|title=The Guinness Railway Book|date=1989|publisher=Guinness|location=Enfield|isbn=0-85112-359-7]

Unknown date events

* The Union Pacific Railway, later to become the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and not to be confused with the Union Pacific Railroad, begins operations.
* A group of businessmen in San Francisco, California, led by Timothy Guy Phelps, found the Southern Pacific Railroad to build a rail connection between San Francisco and San Diego, California.
* Erastus Corning resigns from his executive post for the New York Central.
* The Canadian Engine and Machinery Company, predecessor of the Canadian Locomotive Company, is founded from the assets of the bankrupt Kingston Locomotive Works.
* Missouri Car and Foundry Company, later to become part of American Car and Foundry, is founded in St. Louis, Missouri.

Births

March births

* March 2 - Frederick Methvan Whyte, mechanical engineer for the New York Central Railroad, creator of Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives (d. 1941). [cite book| author=Lane, Harold Francis, editor| title=The Biographical Directory of the Railway Officials of America, 1913 Edition| publisher=Simmons-Boardman, New York| year=1913| pages=p 588]

October births

* October 9 - George Hughes, Chief Mechanical Engineer for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 1904–1922, the London and North Western Railway 1922–1923 and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1925–1931 (d. 1945).

Deaths

Unknown date deaths

* William T. James, American inventor of the link motion and spark arrester (b. 1786).

References

Further reading

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