Rahul Sharma (Editor)

1856 in rail transport

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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1856.

Contents

January events

  • January - Opening throughout of first railroad in Africa and the Middle East, from Alexandria to Cairo, Egypt (208 km or 129 mi).
  • January 29 - The 223-mile North Carolina Railroad is completed from Goldsboro through Raleigh and Salisbury to Charlotte.

    • March events

  • March 23 or 26 - Cambridge Railroad street railway opens in Boston (United States), giving the city the world's oldest continuously working streetcar system.

    • April events

  • April 19 - Death of American locomotive builder Thomas Rogers, following which his son, Jacob S. Rogers, reorganizes Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor as Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works.
  • April 21 - The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River opens between Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.

    • May events

  • May 1 - First section of Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway opens, between Ankleshwar and Utran.
  • May 6 - The newly constructed sidewheeler Effie Afton runs into one of the supports for the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River, causing a fire that destroys the bridge just two weeks after it had opened.

    • June events

  • June 21 - The Illinois Central Railroad opens its Great Central Station in Chicago.

    • July events

  • July 14 - The Rome and Frascati Rail Road opens for service.
  • July 17 - The Great Train Wreck (the worst railroad calamity in the world up to this date) occurs near Philadelphia in the United States.

    • September events

  • September 16 - Tarragona–Reus line in Spain opens.
  • September 21 - The Illinois Central Railroad connects Chicago to Cairo, Illinois, completing 700 miles (1,126 km) of track to become the longest railway in the United States.
  • September 22 - The Oriental Railway Company is granted the concession to build the first railway in Turkey, from İzmir to Aydın.

    • October events

  • October 23 – The line that is now Belgian railway line 161 is completed and opened connecting Brussels-North and Namur stations.
  • October 28 - Opening of first railway in Portugal, from Lisbon to Carregado (37 km or 23 mi).

    • December events

  • December 1 - Opening of first steam-operated passenger railways in Sweden, from Gothenburg to Jonsered (15 km or 9.3 mi) and Malmö to Lund (17 km or 11 mi).

    • February births

  • February 2 - Frederick William Vanderbilt, director of the New York Central system (d. 1938).

    • December births

  • December 30 - Sam Fay, General manager of the Great Central Railway of England, 1902-1922 (d. 1953).

    • January deaths

  • January 8 - Charles "Joe" Baldwin, conductor on the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad

    • March deaths

  • March 11 - James Beatty, Irish engineer who was involved in building the European and North American Railway and the Grand Crimean Central Railway (b. 1820).

    • April deaths

  • April 19 - Thomas Rogers, American steam locomotive builder, dies in New York (b. 1792).
  • April 20 – Robert L. Stevens, president of Camden and Amboy Railroad (b. 1787).

    • November deaths

  • November 1 - John Urpeth Rastrick, English steam locomotive builder and partner in Foster, Rastrick and Company (b. 1780).

    • References

    1856 in rail transport Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA