1865 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1865.

[edit] Events

[edit] 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.^[1]
• January 10 - The California Pacific Railroad absorbs the Sacramento and San Francisco Rail Road Company and the San Francisco and Marysville Rail Road Company.

[edit] 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.^[2]
• 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.

[edit] March events

• March 17 – The Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing Company shops in Berwick, Pennsylvania, are destroyed by fire.^[3]

[edit] April events

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

[edit] 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.^[4]

[edit] June events

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

[edit] August events

• August 7 - The Lawrence Railroad and Transportation Company, with tracks in Pennsylvania and Ohio, is reorganized as the Lawrence Railroad Company.^[5]

[edit] September 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).^[6]

[edit] October events

• October 2 - First section of Sri Lanka Railway, then known as Ceylon Government Railways, officially opens from Colombo to Ambepussa (54 km (34 mi)) on 5ft 6in (1676 mm) gauge.^[7]

[edit] 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.

[edit] Births

[edit] 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).^[8]

[edit] 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).

[edit] Deaths

[edit] Unknown date deaths

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

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• White, John H., Jr. (Spring 1986). "America's most noteworthy railroaders". Railroad History 154: pp. 9-15. ISSN 0090-7847. OCLC 1785797. 
• 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.