January 1 in rail transport

Events

19th century

* 1838 – The United States government contracts with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to carry mail; the B&O is the first railroad to be awarded such a contract in the US.
* 1839 – The New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company opens its route between Trenton and New Brunswick, New Jersey.
* 1862 – Maj. Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson marches his troops northward with the objective of disrupting traffic on the B&O Railroad and C&O Canal; the Battle of Hancock is unsuccessful and the Confederate Army withdraws.
* 1868 – Construction begins on the Colorado and Clear Creek Railroad mainline that will connect Denver to Golden, Colorado.
* 1900 – The Pere Marquette Railroad is incorporated and created from the merger of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railway, Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad and Chicago and West Michigan Railway.

20th century

* 1902 – The Swiss Federal Railways is formed through the merger and nationalization of several smaller railroads.
* 1923 – The London and North Eastern Railway is formed through the merger of several smaller railways in Great Britain.
* 1932 – William Stanier succeeds Ernest Lemon as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
* 1932 – Ralph Budd leaves the Great Northern Railway and becomes president of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
* 1933 – The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway's "Southern Belle" is re-equipped with electric multiple unit cars to replace steam power.
* 1945 – The national railway operator in the Republic of Ireland, Great Southern Railways, with responsibility for the southern part of the Irish railway network is merged into a new national transport operator, Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ).
* 1948 – British railroads are nationalized and merged to form British Railways.
* 1957 – The Chicago and North Western Railway leases the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway (the Omaha Road).
* 1958 – The Chicago and North Western Railway acquires the Litchfield and Madison Railroad.
* 1966 – Members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) go on strike after the expiration of their contract with the New York City Transit Authority. See 1966 New York City transit strike.
* 1986 – The Soo Line fully absorbs the Milwaukee Road after attempting to operate it as a subsidiary railroad.
* 1994 – Rail Management Corporation takes over operations of the Atlanta and St. Andrews Bay Railroad.
* 1994 – Deutsche Reichsbahn and Deutsche Bundesbahn are merged to form Deutsche Bahn AG.

21st century

* 2003 – E. Hunter Harrison is promoted to president of Canadian National Railway. [cite web| author=Canadian National Railway| year=2005| url=http://cn.ca/investors/directorsofficers/companyofficers/en_InvHarrison.shtml| title=E. Hunter Harrison - President and Chief Executive Officer| accessmonthday=June 11 | accessyear=2005| ]
* 2004 – METRORail light rail service in Houston, Texas, opens.
* 2005 – ÖBB, the national railway of Austria, is reorganized into ÖBB-Holding AG, a holding company to manage subsidiaries ÖBB-Dienstleistungs GmbH, ÖBB-Personenverkehr AG (for passenger train operations) and Rail Cargo Austria AG (for freight train operations).

Births

Deaths

* 1880 – Morris Ketchum, partner in Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor, director of Illinois Central Railroad (b. 1796). [cite web| author=Reitwiesner, William Addams| url=http://www.wargs.com/political/thorne.html| title=The Ancestors of Julia Stimson Thorne| accessmonthday=October 11 | accessyear=2005| ]

References