1820 in rail transport

Years in rail transport

1819 in rail transport 1820 in rail transport 1821 in rail transport

Timeline of railway history

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.