1854 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1854.

Events

January events

• January 16 – The permanent
  Paddington station, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway of England, is opened.^[1]
• January 20 – The
  seaport of Morehead City near Beaufort.^[2]

• February 15 – Pennsylvania Railroad's Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, Pennsylvania, opens for railroad traffic.
• February 22 – Chicago & Rock Island Railroad opens throughout to Rock Island, Illinois, making it the first railroad to connect Chicago with the Mississippi River.

April events

• April 30 – Opening of first railway in
  gauge.^{[3][page needed}
  ]

• May 15 – Opening of railway over the Semmering Pass in Austria.^{[3][page needed]}

June events

• 1 June – Birmingham New Street station is opened in Birmingham, England.
• June – The
  St. Paul, Minnesota, by steamboat
  .

July events

• July 1 – The Harcourt Street railway line opens between Dublin and Bray, Ireland.
• July 3 – The
  Brooklyn, New York
  , opens for passenger service.

August events

• August 12 – The first section of what is now Belgian railway line 161 opens connecting Brussels-Luxembourg and La Hulpe stations.^[4]
• August 15 – First section of
  Howrah to Hooghly (37 km).^[5][6]
• August 20 – The first trains operate in what is now
  Baziaş, on the Danube
  .
• August 21 – The
  Great Western Railway of Canada
  opens its Galt Branch.
• August 28 – The
  Somerset Central Railway opens and is leased to the Bristol and Exeter Railway
  for a seven-year term.

• September 1 – Opening of first railway in
  Hovedjernbanen, from Christiania (Oslo) to Eidsvoll (67.6 km).^{[3][page needed}
  ]
• September 12 – Opening of first steam railway in Australia, the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company's Port Melbourne line, from Melbourne Terminus to Sandridge on 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) gauge.
• September 20 – The Great North of Scotland Railway operates its first passenger train over the 39-mile (63 km) route from Kittybrewster, in Aberdeen, to Huntly.

October events

• October 20 – Kingston Locomotive Works, the predecessor of the Canadian Locomotive Company, completes construction of its first steam locomotive.
• October 25 – The Carillon and Grenville Railway, in Canada, opens.

November events

• November 13 – Opening London Necropolis railway station at Waterloo, London, a special railway station constructed by the London Necropolis Company for funeral trains.

Unknown date events

• Opening of first section of railway in
  Kafr el-Zayyat in Egypt
  .
• Aretas Blood purchases the steam locomotive manufacturing business of Amoskeag Locomotive Works and folds it into Manchester Locomotive Works.
• Henry Farnam becomes president of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.

Births

January births

• January 6 –
  William N. Page, American civil engineer, builder of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the Virginian Railway
  (d. 1932).

• February 14 – Job A. Edson, president of Kansas City Southern Railway 1905–1918 and 1920–1927 (d. 1928).^[8]

December births

• December 26 –
  Southern Pacific Railroad
  (d. 1897).

Deaths

February deaths

• February 19 – Whitmell P. Tunstall, first president of the Richmond and Danville Railroad (b. 1810).

References

• Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (August 16, 2005), Significant dates in Canadian railway history. Retrieved October 25, 2005.
• (April 3, 2005), Significant dates in Canadian railway history. Retrieved August 16, 2005.