1906 in rail transport

Events

January events

* January 3 - At the annual stockholder's meeting, the charter for the Cleveland Short Line Railway is amended to specify Collinwood, Ohio and Rockport, Ohio as the terminals of the railroad.
* January 17 - Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway fully acquires its subsidiary Southern California Railway. [cite book|author=Duke, Donald|coauthors=Kistler, Stan|title=Santa Fe ...Steel Rails Through California|year=1963|publisher=Golden West Books|location=San Marino, California|isbn=0-87095-009-6|pages=p 45-46] [cite book|author=Serpico, Philip C.|title=Santa Fé Route to the Pacific|year=1988|publisher=Omni Publications|location=Palmdale, California|isbn=0-88418-000-X|pages=p 34]

February events

* February 2 - The Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oases Company is formed.

April events

* April 18 - The great 1906 San Francisco earthquake strikes, damaging the Southern Pacific Railroad's headquarters building and destroying the mansions of the now-deceased Big Four. Also destroyed are many cable car routes, which will be replaced with electric streetcars.

May events

* May 8 - A special train carrying E.H. Harriman makes a run from Oakland CA to New York in 761 hours and 27 minutes. This record will stand until October 1934, when it will be broken by Union Pacific Streamliner M-10000.
* May 17 - The Simplon Tunnel between Italy and Switzerland, the world’s longest tunnel until 1979, opens to rail traffic.

June events

* June 30 - 24 passengers and 4 railwaymen die as the result of the Salisbury rail crash on the London and South Western Railway of England when an express train passes through Salisbury railway station at excessive speed. [cite book|author=Pattenden, Norman|title=Salisbury, 1906: an answer to the enigma?|location=Swindon|publisher=South Western Circle|date=2001|isbn=0-950374-16-4]

July events

* July 7 - Completion of the Tauern Tunnel (km to mi|8.5|abbr=yes) in Austria. [cite book|last=Marshall|first=John|title=The Guinness Railway Book|year=1989|publisher=Guinness|location=Enfield|isbn=0-85112-359-7]
* July 22 - The State Street Line, Chicago's last cable car route, ends operations.

September events

* September 8 - Ottawa's Bank Street subway is opened as streetcar number 253 of the Ottawa Electric Railway traverses the tunnel.
* September 21 - A Grand Trunk Railway passenger train hits a stopped freight train at a crossover in Napanee, Ontario; the engineer stayed at the controls trying to slow his train as much as possible and became the only fatality. The train's passengers later erected a monument in the engineer's honor.

October events

* October 10 - Valdresbanen is completed from Oslo to Fagernes, Norway.

November events

* November 13 - Shinpei Goto begins his term as the first president of South Manchuria Railway.

December events

* December 2 - Construction begins on Santa Fe's Rocky Ford, Colorado, station; the station is completed and occupied by the end of March 1907.
* December 7 - The Southern Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad jointly form the Pacific Fruit Express Company (PFE) refrigerator car line.
* December 14 - John D. Spreckels announces he will form the San Diego & Arizona Railway Company and build a 148 mile (238 km) line between San Diego and El Centro, California. Spreckels has an agreement with the Southern Pacific Railroad to silently fund the project.
* December 28 - After his death, Alexander J. Cassatt is succeeded as president of the Pennsylvania Railroad by James McRea.
* December 30 - A train wreck at Terra Cotta near present day Fort Totten in Washington, D.C., kills 52; the accident leads to the Interstate Commerce Commission banning future wooden body passenger car construction.

Unknown date events

* The Green Bay and Western acquires a majority interest in the Ahnapee and Western Railway.
* Samuel Spencer is succeeded by William Finley as president of the Southern Railway.

Births

Deaths

June deaths

* June 4 – Francis Webb, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway (b. 1836). [cite book| author=Marshall, John| title=Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers| date=2003| publisher=Railway & Canal Historical Society| location=Oxford| isbn=0-901461-22-9]

December deaths

* December 28 – Alexander J. Cassatt, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad 1899–1906 (b. 1839).

References

* Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (December 3 2004), " [http://www.railways.incanada.net/candate/street.htm Significant dates in Ottawa/Hull street and light railway history] ". Retrieved September 8 2005.
* Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (September 7 2005), " [http://www.railways.incanada.net/candate/ottawa.htm Significant dates in Ottawa railway history] ". Retrieved September 21 2005.
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* " [http://www.s363.com/dkny/lsms.html History of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company] ". Retrieved August 6 2005.
* " [http://pages.ivillage.com/generaljim1/theerielackawannalimited/id19.html Norfolk Southern Railway] ". Retrieved February 22 2005.
* Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2005), " [http://www.rpi.edu/about/hof/cassatt.html RPI: Alumni hall of fame: Alexander J. Cassatt] ". Retrieved February 22 2005.
* Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005), " [http://avenue.org/nrhs/histjul.htm This Month in Railroad History: July] ". Retrieved July 18 2005.
* Spencer, D. K., " [http://www.atsfry.com/dkspencer/rockford.htm The History of the Rocky Ford, Colorado Depot] ". Retrieved December 2 2005.
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* White, John H., Jr. (Spring 1986), America's most noteworthy railroaders, "Railroad History", Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, 154, p. 9-15.