1903 in rail transport
| Years in rail transport |
|---|
| Timeline of railway history |
This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1903.
Events
January events
- January 20 - The Grand Trunk Western Railroad opens a passenger depot in Lansing, Michigan.
April events
- April 7 - Apalachicola Northern Railroad, later to become AN Railway, is chartered.
May events
- May 3 - The Mersey Railway, operating between Birkenhead and Liverpool by tunnel beneath the River Mersey, England, converts from steam to electric traction.[1]
- May 13 - The Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad (later to become part of Chicago and North Western Railway) begins passenger train service to Casper, Wyoming. [1]
- May 25 - The Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad opens, becoming the first railroad in the United States to use an electrified third rail to power its trains.
July events
- July 1 - Opening of the Albula line of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) (metre gauge) in Switzerland, passing through the Albula Tunnel, the highest of the principal Alpine tunnels at 1370 m.[2]
- July 13 - Danbury Union Station in Danbury, Connecticut, on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, opens.
- July 27 - Construction begins on the Baghdad Railway with the 200 km segment between Konya and Bulgurlu in the Ottoman Empire (present day Turkey).
August events
- August 10 - Paris Metro train fire, France: fire on Paris Métro, 84 killed.
- August 17 - Great Western Railway of England becomes the first British railway company to operate its own "road motor services" (i.e. buses), between Helston and The Lizard in Cornwall.[3]
September events
- September 27 - Wreck of the Old 97, Danville, Virginia, United States: A southbound Southern Railway passenger train derails on a trestle in Danville; 11 people are killed.
October events
- October - Experimental electric trains, built by AEG and Siemens & Halske, reach 210.2 km/h (130.6 mph) between Marienfelde and Zossen in Germany.
- October 1 - The first railway in Norway is rebuilt to double track, from Bryn to Lillestrøm on Hovedbanen, is opened.[4]
- October 21 - Howard Elliott succeeds Charles Sanger Mellen as president of Northern Pacific Railway.[5]
November events
- November 9 - The 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway opens in India.
Unknown date events
- Southern Pacific Railroad gains 50% control of the Pacific Electric system in Los Angeles, California.
- The provisions of the US Railroad Safety Appliance Act, enacted in 1893, are extended to include all railroad cars whether or not the cars themselves are used in interchange service.
- E. H. Harriman becomes president of the Union Pacific Railroad.
- George Whale succeeds Francis William Webb as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway.
Births
April births
- April 10 - Edward T. Reidy, last president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1957-1968.
Deaths
March deaths
- March 29 - Gustavus Franklin Swift, founder of Swift and Company which pioneered the use of refrigerator cars in late 19th century America (b. 1839)
July deaths
- July 27 - Frederick J. Kimball, American civil engineer who was instrumental in the formation of Norfolk and Western (b. 1844).
Unknown date deaths
- J. Elfreth Watkins, railroad civil engineer and first curator for the Smithsonian Institution's railroad artifacts including John Bull.
External Links
- Casper Star-Tribune (June 22 2005), BP Amoco Timeline. Retrieved June 22, 2005.
- Gulder, Bill, A Brief History of the Danbury Railway Museum. Retrieved July 12 2005.
- (December 1 2004), Trains of Turkey: Baghdad Railway. Retrieved July 22 2005.
- ^ Gahan, John W. (1983). The Line Beneath the Liners – a hundred years of Mersey Railway sights and sounds. Birkenhead: Countyvise. ISBN 0-907768-40-7.
- ^ Marshall, John (1989). The Guinness Railway Book. Enfield: Guinness. ISBN 0-85112-359-7.
- ^ Cummings, John (1980). Railway Motor Buses and Bus Services in the British Isles 1902-1933, volume 2. Oxford: Oxford Publishing Company. ISBN 0-86095-050-5.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: checksum (help) - ^ Norsk Jernbaneklubb (1994). Banedata '94 (in Norwegian). ISBN 8290286155.
- ^ Railway Age Gazette (August 1, 1913) pp. 177-8.