May 27 in rail transport

Events

* 1971 – Dahlerau train disaster: A special train full of schoolchildren collides with a freight train in Dahlerau, West Germany, on the line between Wuppertal and Radevormwald due to a misunderstanding of signals. 46 die and 25 are injured, making this the worst rail accident in West Germany during Deutsche Bundesbahn times.
* 2005 – Canadian Pacific Railway commemorates the contributions of Chinese railroad workers who helped build the railroad by renaming an interchange in Kamloops, British Columbia, after one such worker, Cheng Ging Butt. The interchange, just east of the station in Kamloops is officially named Cheng Interchange.

Births

* 1794 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American financier who created the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad from the merger of several smaller railroads in New York, is born (d. 1877).
* 1835 – Charles Francis Adams, Jr., president of Union Pacific Railroad 1884–1890, is born (d. 1915).
* 1836 – Jay Gould, American financier who, with Jim Fisk, took control of the Erie Railroad, is born (d. 1892).
* 1876 – William Stanier, Chief mechanical engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1932–1944, is born (d. 1965).

Deaths

* 1874 – John Edgar Thomson, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad 1852–1874, dies (b. 1808).

References