1889 in rail transport

Events

January events

* January 16 – The Mito Railway between Mito and Oyama, Japan, begins passenger train operations.

June events

* June 1 – The first direct "Orient Express" is operated from Paris to Constantinople.
* June 12 – The Armagh rail disaster occurs near Armagh, Ireland: runaway carriages collided with an oncoming train, killing 88, and spurring the Parliament of the United Kingdom to pass the Regulation of Railways Act 1889, mandating improved brake and signal systems. [cite book|author=Currie, J. R. L.|title=The Runaway Train – Armagh (1889)|date=1971|publisher=David & Charles|location=Newton Abbot|isbn=0-7153-5198-2]
* June 30 – The Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (the "Big Four" Railroad) is formed through the merger of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway Company, the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago Railway Company and the Indianapolis and St. Louis Railway Company.

July events

* July 1 – The railway between Tokyo and Kobe, Japan (now known as the Tōkaidō Main Line) is completed.
* July 9 – The Housatonic Railroad leases the New Haven and Derby Railroad. [cite web|author=Blakeslee, Philip C.|url=http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/abnere2.Html|title=A Brief History – Lines west of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Co.|accessdate=2005-07-07]
* July 17 – The Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad, in Colorado, is sold from receivership to the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Railway.

September events

* September 18 – The Minneapolis and St. Cloud Railroad is reorganized as the Great Northern Railway. [cite web|author=Great Northern Railway Historical Society|url=http://www.gnrhs.org/gn_history.htm|title=GN History|accessdate=2005-09-18]

October events

* October 15 – Amsterdam's Centraal Station, designed by P. J. H. Cuypers and Al Van Gendt, opens.

November events

* November 7 – Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway consolidates several of its subsidiary railroads in California into the Southern California Railway. [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 30]

Unknown date events

Births

Unknown date births

* Fred Gurley, president of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway 1944-1957 (d. 1976). [cite journal|journal=Railway Age|title=Short and Significant: Santa Fe's Fred Gurley dies at 87|month=July 26|year=1976|pages=p 8|volume=177|issue=13]

Deaths

October deaths

* October 15 – Sir Daniel Gooch, Chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway 1837-1864 (b. 1816). [cite web|author=Steamindex|date=September 24 2004|url=http://www.steamindex.com/people/gooch.htm|title=Sir Daniel Gooch|accessdate=2005-02-09]

November deaths

* November 13 – Samuel Morton Peto, English railway contractor (b. 1809). [cite book|author=Brooks, Edward C.|title=Sir Samuel Morton Peto Bt: eminent Victorian, railway entrepreneur, country squire, MP|publisher=Bury Clerical Society|date=1996|isbn=0950298826]

December deaths

* December 13 – Franklin B. Gowen, president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad 1866-1883 (b. 1836). [cite web|url=http://www.readinganthracite.com/death.htm|title=Death of Franklin B. Gowen]

References