This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1898.
March 16 – Original Finnish Railway Museum opens in Helsinki.
April 1 – The Aberlady, Gullane and North Berwick Railway opens between Aberlady Junction and Gullane, Scotland.
April 20 – Electrification of the South Side Elevated Railway in Chicago is completed ending all steam locomotive operations on the route. Multiple-unit (M.U.) train control is also introduced by railroad engineer Frank J. Sprague.
May – E. H. Harriman becomes chairman of the executive committee for the Union Pacific Railroad.
May 11 – The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway in England opens.
May 16 – Passenger service is inaugurated on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway.
June 12 – Regular revenue service begins on the Detroit, Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor Railway in Michigan.
July 3 – Rail transport in Sudan: Desert railway from Wadi Halfa completed to Atbara by British military engineers on 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge.
July 11 – Opening of the London and South Western Railway’s Waterloo & City line, the second deep-level electrified "tube" railway in London.
July 21 – First section of White Pass and Yukon Route opens out of Skagway, Alaska, first railroad in the territory.
July 23 – Brooks Locomotive Works completes its 3,000th new steam locomotive.
July 30 – The Société des Chemins de fer vicinaux du Mayumbe (CVM) is created to build and operate a network of 2 ft (610 mm) gauge railways in the province of Lower Congo, in the Congo Free State, with a planned extension to the Republic of Congo.
September 2 – The Wellingborough rail accident in England kills 7 people.
October 17 – The Wrawby Junction rail crash in England kills 9 people.
Sunset magazine is founded as a promotional tool of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
The Loup Creek & Deepwater railway is officially renamed Deepwater Railway
March 6 – Hugh J. Jewett, president of the Erie Railroad 1874–1884 (b. 1817).
October 12 – John M. Forbes, president of the Michigan Central Railroad and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (b. 1813).
November 20 – Sir John Fowler, British civil engineer (b. 1817).
December 15 – Calvin S. Brice, president of Lake Erie and Western Railroad, builder of Nickel Plate Road (b. 1845).
Wilson Eddy, American steam locomotive manufacturer (b. 1813).
1898 in rail transport Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA