1903 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1903.

Events

January events

• January 20 – The Grand Trunk Western Railroad opens a passenger depot in Lansing, Michigan.
• January 28 – Esmond Train Wreck: fourteen people are killed when the Crescent City Express (No. 8, bound for Benson, Arizona) collides head-on with the bound Pacific Coast Express (No. 7, bound for Tucson).

February events

• February 12 – North British Locomotive Company established as a locomotive builder in Glasgow, Scotland, by merger of Dübs & Company, Neilson, Reid & Company, and Sharp, Stewart & Company. ^[1] In April it receives its first new order for steam locomotives, from India. ^[2]

March events

• March 3 – Baker valve gear for steam locomotives is first patented in the United States. ^[3]

April events

• April 7 – Apalachicola Northern Railroad, later to become AN Railway, is chartered.

May events

• May 3 – The Mersey Railway, operating between Birkenhead and Liverpool by tunnel beneath the River Mersey, England, converts from steam to electric traction. ^[4]
• May 13 – The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad (later to become part of Chicago & North Western Railway) begins passenger train service to Casper, Wyoming. ^[5]
• May 25 – The Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad opens, becoming the first railroad in the United States to use an electrified third rail to power its trains.

July events

• July – Regular passenger traffic from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok over the Trans-Siberian and Chinese Eastern Railways begins.
• July 1 – Opening of the Albula Railway portion of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) (metre gauge) in Switzerland, passing through the Albula Tunnel, the highest of the principal Alpine tunnels at 1370 m. ^{[6] [ page needed ]}
• July 13 – Danbury Union Station in Danbury, Connecticut, on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, opens. ^[7]
• July 27
  • Construction begins on the Baghdad Railway with the 200-kilometre (120 mi) segment between Konya and Bulgurlu in the Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey). ^[8]
  • Glasgow St Enoch rail accident, Scotland: sixteen killed when a train crashes into the buffers.

August events

• August 10 – Paris Metro train fire, France: electric fire on Paris Métro at Couronnes; 84 killed.
• August 17 – The Great Western Railway becomes the first British railway company to operate its own road motor services (i.e. buses), between Helston and The Lizard in Cornwall. ^[9]

September events

Aftermath of the Wreck of the Old 97 a few days after the accident.

• September 27 – Wreck of the Old 97, Danville, Virginia, United States: A southbound Southern Railway passenger train derails on a trestle in Danville; eleven people are killed. ^{[10] [11]}

October events

• October – Experimental electric trains, built by AEG and Siemens & Halske, reach 210.2 km/h (130.6 mph) between Marienfelde and Zossen in Germany.
• October 1
  • The first railway in Norway rebuilt to double track, from Bryn to Lillestrøm on the Hovedbanen, is opened. ^[12]
  • The Gold Coast Government Railway is extended from Obuasi to Kumasi.
• October 21 – Howard Elliott succeeds Charles Sanger Mellen as president of Northern Pacific Railway. ^[13]
• October 26 – The Key System begins operating their first streetcar-ferry service, the Berkeley line in Berkeley, California. ^[14]
• October 31 – The Purdue Wreck, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA: A Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis Railway football special carrying the Purdue University football team and fans to the annual game with Indiana University collides with a coal train. Fourteen of the team and three other passengers are killed.

November events

Kalka-Shimla Railway

• November 9 – The 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway opens in India. ^[15]

December events

• December 14 – The New York, New Haven and Hartford introduces the all-parlor car Merchants Limited between Boston and New York City. ^[16]

Unknown date events

• The British Engineering Standards Committee draws up specifications for eight standard steam locomotive designs for the broad gauge Indian Railways. ^[17]
• Southern Pacific Railroad gains 50% control of the Pacific Electric system in Los Angeles, California.
• The Wilkes-Barre & Hazleton Railway opens as the first railroad to have a guarded third rail.
• The provisions of the Railroad Safety Appliance Act, enacted in 1893, are extended to include all railroad cars whether or not the cars themselves are used in interchange service.
• Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway introduces the first 2-10-2 compound locomotives (built by Baldwin Locomotive Works) into service. ^[18]
• Edward Harriman becomes president of the Union Pacific.
• George Whale succeeds Francis William Webb as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London & North Western Railway.

Births

April births

• April 10 – Edward T. Reidy, last president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1957–1968.

Deaths

March deaths

• March 29 – Gustavus Franklin Swift, founder of Swift & Company which pioneered the use of refrigerator cars in late 19th century America (born 1839)

July deaths

• July 27 – Frederick Kimball, American civil engineer who was instrumental in the formation of Norfolk & Western (born 1844).

Unknown date deaths

• John Elfreth Watkins, railroad civil engineer and first curator for the Smithsonian Institution's railroad artifacts including John Bull .

References

1. Lowe, James W. (1975). British Steam Locomotive Builders. Cambridge: Goose and Son. ISBN   0-900404-21-3.
2. Nicolson, Murdoch; O'Neill, Mark (1987). Glasgow: Locomotive Builder to the World. Edinburgh: Polygon. ISBN   0-948275-46-4.
3. Blake, LeRoy W. (May–June 1979). "Remembering the A.D. Baker Company". Farm Collector: 4. Archived from the original on 2012-05-10. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
4. Gahan, John W. (1983). The Line Beneath the Liners – a hundred years of Mersey Railway sights and sounds. Birkenhead: Countyvise. ISBN   0-907768-40-7.
5. "BP Amoco Timeline". Casper Star-Tribune. June 22, 2005. Retrieved June 22, 2005.
6. Marshall, John (1989). The Guinness Railway Book. Enfield: Guinness Books. ISBN   0-8511-2359-7. OCLC   24175552.
7. Gulder, Bill. "A Brief History of the Danbury Railway Museum". Archived from the original on 2005-07-25. Retrieved 2005-07-12.
8. "Baghdad Railway". Trains of Turkey. 2004-12-01. Retrieved 2005-07-22.
9. Cummings, John (1980). Railway Motor Buses and Bus Services in the British Isles 1902-1933, volume 2. Oxford: Oxford Publishing Company. ISBN   0-86093-050-5.
10. "Many People Killed". The Anglo-Saxon. Rockingham, NC. October 1, 1903. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
11. "Nine Are Killed". The Topeka State Journal. Topeka, KS. September 28, 1903. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
12. Norsk Jernbaneklubb (1994). Banedata '94 (in Norwegian). ISBN   82-90286-15-5.
13. Railway Age Gazette (August 1, 1913) pp. 177-8.
14. Demoro, Harre W. (1985). The Key Route: Transbay Commuting by Train and Ferry, Part 1. Interurbans Specials. Vol. 95. Glendale, California: Interurban Press. pp. 17–20. ISBN   0-916374-66-1.
15. Northern Railways of India. "Kalka-Shimla Railway". Archived from the original on November 18, 2005. Retrieved November 8, 2005.
16. Lynch, Peter E. (2005). New Haven Railroad passenger trains. St. Paul, Minnesota: MBI Publishing Company. p. 31. ISBN   978-0-7603-2288-8.
17. Bhandari, R.R. (2000). "Steam in History". Indian Railways Fan Club. Archived from the original on 26 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-10-07.
18. Balkwill, Richard; Marshall, John (1993). The Guinness Book of Railway Facts and Feats (6th ed.). Enfield: Guinness Publishing. ISBN   0-85112-707-X.