1847 in rail transport
| Years in rail transport |
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| Timeline of railway history |
This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1847.
Events[edit]
February events[edit]
- February 26 – The Somerville and Easton Railroad, a predecessor of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, is chartered.
March events[edit]
- March 9 – The Richmond and Danville Railroad is chartered in Virginia.
- March 15 – The Amiens-Boulogne line in France opens between Abbeville and Étaples.
- March 16 – The Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway opens between Shipley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England.[1]
- March – First ever 4-6-0 locomotive, the Chesapeake, completed by the Norris Locomotive Works for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.[2]
April events[edit]
- April 19 – The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, a predecessor of the New York Central Railroad, officially changes its name to Albany and Schenectady Railroad.
May events[edit]
- May 24 – The Dee bridge disaster: a cast iron girder bridge across the river Dee at Chester, England, designed by Robert Stephenson for the Chester and Holyhead Railway, collapses under a Shrewsbury and Chester Railway train with five fatalities.[3]
- May 31 – The first railway connection between Rotterdam and The Hague opens in the Netherlands.[4]
June events[edit]
- June – The first Bradshaws Continental Railway Guide timetable is published by George Bradshaw in England.
- June 26 – Opening of first railway wholly within modern-day Denmark, from Copenhagen to Roskilde.[5][page needed]
July events[edit]
- July 9 – The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway is incorporated as an amalgamation of several important railway lines in Northern England.[6]
- July 28 – Bristol and Exeter Railway's Clevedon branch line opens.
August events[edit]
- August 9 – Opening of first railway wholly within Switzerland, the Swiss Northern Railway from Zürich to Baden.[5][page needed]
September events[edit]
- September 22 – The Railway Clearing House in Great Britain recommends that Greenwich Mean Time be adopted as the standard time for all railways in the United Kingdom.[7]
October events[edit]
- October – Portland Company's locomotive erecting shops opened for business.[8]
December events[edit]
- December 1
- The London and North Western Railway opens its Trent Valley Line to give a more direct route for the West Coast Main Line to North West England, bypassing Birmingham.[9]
- The first time zone in the world is established by British railways with GMT hand-carried on chronometers.
Unknown date events[edit]
- John Urpeth Rastrick retires from Foster, Rastrick and Company, the English firm that built the first steam locomotives for the Delaware and Hudson Railroad.[10]
Births[edit]
October births[edit]
- October 6 – Webb C. Ball, watchmaker who introduced the first truly reliable and accurate timepieces on American railroads.
Deaths[edit]
- November 16 – Thomas Kirtley, locomotive superintendent of North Midland Railway 1843–1844, and London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1847, dies (b. 1811).
References[edit]
- ^ Bairstow, Martin (2004). Railways Through Airedale & Wharfedale. Leeds: Martin Bairstow. ISBN 978-1-871944-28-0.
- ^ Balkwill, Richard; Marshall, John (1993). The Guinness Book of Railway Facts and Feats (6th ed.). Enfield: Guinness Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85112-707-1.
- ^ Lewis, Peter R. (2007). Disaster on the Dee: Robert Stephenson's Nemesis of 1847. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7524-4266-2.
- ^ BrainyMedia.com (2005). "Rotterdam-Hague Railway opens". Retrieved 2005-05-27.
- ^ a b Marshall, John (1989). The Guinness Railway Book. Enfield: Guinness Books. ISBN 0-8511-2359-7. OCLC 24175552.
- ^ Marshall, John (1969). The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, vol. 1. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-7153-4352-4.
- ^ "Daylight Saving Time – Standard time began with the railroads". Archived from the original on 15 September 2005. Retrieved 2005-09-22.
- ^ Holt, Jeff (1985). The Grand Trunk in New England. Railfare. p. 124. ISBN 0-919130-43-7.
- ^ Clinker, C. R. Railways of the West Midlands – a chronology, 1808–1954. London: Stephenson Locomotive Society.
- ^ Bedwell, Carolyn (2002). "John Urpeth Rastrick". Archived from the original on 2005-03-09. Retrieved 2005-04-04.