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1959 in rail transport

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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1959.

Contents

January events

  • January 4 - Passenger service resumes on the Strasburg Rail Road for tourists.
  • January 5 - Foulridge railway station closes on the Midland Railway (originally the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway) in Lancashire.

    • February events

  • February 28 - The Eastern Region of British Railways closes most of the former Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway.

    • March events

  • March 28 - The Niagara, St. Catharines and Toronto Railway, the last interurban railroad in Canada, operates its last revenue train.

    • April events

  • April 3 - Construction begins on Japanese National Railways’ Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Osaka and Tokyo.
  • April 4 - Maine Central Railroad ends passenger service to Samoset destination hotel in Rockland, Maine.
  • SAFEGE test monorail built in France.

    • June events

  • June 9 - The Chicago, Aurora and Elgin Railroad, interurban railway serving Chicago's western suburbs, ceases freight operations, thus bringing an end to all of the railroad's operations.
  • June 15 - The Disneyland Monorail System built by Alweg opens, making it the first daily operating monorail system in the western hemisphere.
  • June 21 - Soo Line 2719 hauls the last of Soo Line Railroad's steam locomotive-powered trains in revenue service on a round-trip excursion between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Ladysmith, Wisconsin.

    • July events

  • July 1 - Colorado Railroad Museum opens in Golden.
  • July 14 - Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) 0-6-0 number 5244, class B-6sb, becomes the last steam locomotive to operate on the PRR.
  • July 18 - The last steam locomotive runs on the Nickel Plate Road as a pair of 0-8-0 switchers are called out to cover a traffic surge.
  • July 27 - Southern Pacific Company opens new embankment replacing Lucin Cutoff trestle across Great Salt Lake, Utah.

    • August events

  • August 30 - Streetcar service in Montreal, Quebec, Canada is discontinued.

    • October events

  • October 6 - The Carmelit, Haifa's underground funicular railway, opens.
  • October 28 - The Canadian National Railway line between St. Felicien and Chibougamau, Quebec, opens.

    • December events

  • December 1 - The Virginian Railway is merged into the Norfolk and Western Railroad.
  • December 29 - First section of Lisbon Metro (Metropolitano de Lisboa) opens in Lisbon, Portugal, first metro (subway) system in the country.

    • Unknown date events

  • General Electric announces that it will begin manufacturing diesel locomotives on its own.
  • ACF Industries completes the last passenger car that it is to build.
  • The Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway runs its last train, ending 62 years of service.
  • Israel Railways officially withdraws all steam locomotives; the last, Baldwin-built Palestine Railways H class 4-6-0 no. 901, surviving in traffic into the following year.
  • Opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway encourages improved ice-breaking on the Saint Lawrence River and initiates declining winter freight volume on Canadian railways east of Montreal.

    • August deaths

  • August 26 - William Valentine Wood, President of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1941-8 (born 1883).

    • References

    1959 in rail transport Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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