Rahul Sharma (Editor)

1847 in rail transport

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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1847.

Contents

February events

  • February 26 – The Somerville and Easton Railroad, a predecessor of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, is chartered.
  • March events

  • 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.
  • March – First ever 4-6-0 locomotive, the Chesapeake, completed by the Norris Locomotive Works for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.
  • April events

  • 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

  • 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.
  • May 31 – The first railway connection between Rotterdam and The Hague opens in the Netherlands.
  • June events

  • 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.
  • July events

  • July 9 – The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway is incorporated as an amalgamation of several important railway lines in Northern England.
  • July 28 – Bristol and Exeter Railway's Clevedon branch line opens.
  • August events

  • August 9 – Opening of first railway wholly within Switzerland, from Zürich to Baden.
  • September events

  • 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.
  • October events

  • October – Portland Company's locomotive erecting shops opened for business.
  • December events

  • 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.
  • The first time zone in the world is established by British railways with GMT hand-carried on chronometers.
  • Unknown date events

  • John Urpeth Rastrick retires from Foster, Rastrick and Company, the English firm that built the first steam locomotives for the Delaware and Hudson Railroad.
  • October births

  • October 6 - Webb C. Ball, watchmaker who introduced the first truly reliable and accurate timepieces on American railroads.
  • Deaths

  • 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

    1847 in rail transport Wikipedia