1820 in rail transport

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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1820.

Events

• May 1 – The Kington Tramway, a horse-worked plateway, is opened from Eardisley to Kington, Herefordshire, England. Together with the Hay Railway it forms a continuous system 36 miles (45 km) in length, the longest in the United Kingdom at this date. ^[1]
• October - John Birkinshaw of Bedlington Ironworks patents improvements in the production of wrought iron rails.
• Thomas Gray publishes his first of five editions of Observations on a General Iron Railway, a book that accelerates the British debate on this means of transportation and promotes the concept of a national rail network.
• An early form of monorail in Russia is operated by Ivan Elmanov in Myachkovo, Moscow Oblast.

Births

January births

• January 21 – Egide Walschaerts, Belgian inventor of a steam locomotive valve gear (d. 1901). ^[2]

April births

• April 8 - John Taylor Johnston, president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, 1848–1877 (d. 1893).

May births

• May 2 - Robert Gerwig, German civil engineer, designer of Schwarzwald Railway and the Hell Valley Railway (d. 1885). ^[3]

July births

• July 31 – John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from 1858 (d. 1884). ^[4]

August births

• August 6 – Donald Smith, afterwards Lord Strathcona, Scottish financier, promoter of the Canadian Pacific Railway (d. 1914).

September births

• September 20 – Alfred Belpaire, Belgian inventor of the Belpaire firebox used on steam locomotives (d. 1893). ^[2]

December births

• December 21 – William H. Osborn, president of Illinois Central Railroad 1855–1865, president of Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans Railroad 1875–1882, is born (d. 1894).

Unknown death dates

• James Beatty, Irish engineer who was involved in building the European and North American Railway and the Grand Crimean Central Railway (d. 1856)

References

• White, John H Jr. (Spring 1986). "America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders". Railroad History. 154: 9–15.

1. Rattenbury, Gordon; Cook, Ray (1996). The Hay and Kington Railways. Gwernymynydd: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN   0-901461-19-9.
2. Marshall, John (2003). Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers (2nd ed.). Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN   0-901461-22-9.
3. "Continental engineers". steamindex.com. 7 June 2018. Gerwig, Robert. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
4. Biography of John Work Garrett. Archived from the original on 8 February 2005. Retrieved 2005-03-02.