1847 in rail transport
Encyclopedia
February events
- February 26 – The Somerville and Easton Railroad, a predecessor of the Central Railroad of New JerseyCentral Railroad of New JerseyThe Central Railroad of New Jersey , commonly known as the Jersey Central Lines or CNJ, was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s, lasting until 1976 when it was absorbed into Conrail with the other bankrupt railroads of the Northeastern United States...
, is chartered.
March events
- March 9 – The Richmond and Danville RailroadRichmond and Danville RailroadThe Richmond and Danville Railroad was chartered in Virginia in the United States in 1847. The portion between Richmond and Danville, Virginia was completed in 1856...
is chartered in VirginiaVirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. - March 15 – The AmiensAmiensAmiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy...
-BoulogneBoulogne-sur-Mer-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....
line in FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
opens between AbbevilleAbbevilleAbbeville is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Location:Abbeville is located on the Somme River, from its modern mouth in the English Channel, and northwest of Amiens...
and ÉtaplesÉtaplesÉtaples or Étaples-sur-Mer is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is a fishing and leisure port on the Canche river.There is a separate commune named Staple, Nord.-History:...
. - March 16 – The Leeds and Bradford Extension RailwayLeeds and Bradford Extension RailwayThe Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway was an early British railway company in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It built a line from near Bradford through and to...
opens between ShipleyShipley railway stationShipley railway station serves the town of Shipley in West Yorkshire, England.Train services are mostly commuter services between Leeds and Bradford, the Airedale Line , and the Wharfedale Line...
and KeighleyKeighley railway stationKeighley railway station serves the town of Keighley in West Yorkshire, England.First opened in March 1847 by the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway , the station is located on the Airedale Line north west of Leeds. It is managed by Northern Rail, who operate most of the passenger trains...
in West YorkshireWest YorkshireWest Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. - March – First ever 4-6-04-6-0Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. This wheel arrangement became the second-most popular...
locomotive, the Chesapeake, completed by the Norris Locomotive WorksNorris Locomotive WorksThe Norris Locomotive Works was a steam locomotive manufacturing company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that produced about a thousand railroad engines between 1832 and 1866. It was the dominant American locomotive producer during most of that period, and even sold its popular 4-2-0 engines...
for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.
April events
- April 19 – The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, a predecessor of the New York Central RailroadNew York Central RailroadThe New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
, officially changes its name to Albany and Schenectady RailroadAlbany and Schenectady RailroadThe Albany & Schenectady Railroad, originally the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, was the first railroad built in the State of New York and one of the first railroads in the United States....
.
May events
- May 24 – The Dee bridge disasterDee bridge disasterThe Dee bridge disaster was a rail accident that occurred on 24 May 1847 in Chester with five fatalities.A new bridge across the River Dee was needed for the Chester and Holyhead Railway, a project planned in the 1840s for the expanding British railway system. It was built using cast iron girders,...
: a cast ironCast ironCast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
girder bridge across the river DeeRiver Dee, WalesThe River Dee is a long river in the United Kingdom. It travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries....
at ChesterChesterChester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
, EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, designed by Robert StephensonRobert StephensonRobert Stephenson FRS was an English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son.-Early life :He was born on the 16th of...
for the Chester and Holyhead RailwayChester and Holyhead RailwayThe Chester and Holyhead Railway was incorporated out of a proposal to link Holyhead, the traditional port for the Irish Mail, with London by way of the existing Chester and Crewe Railway, and what is now the West Coast Main Line...
, collapses under a Shrewsbury and Chester Railway train with five fatalities. - May 31 – The first railway connection between RotterdamRotterdamRotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
and The HagueThe HagueThe Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
opens in the NetherlandsNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.
June events
- June – The first Bradshaws Continental Railway Guide timetablePublic transport timetableA public transport timetable is a representation of public transport information to assist a passenger with planning a trip using public transport. A timetable details when vehicle will arrive and depart specified locations and may be organised for by route or for a particular stop...
is published by George BradshawGeorge BradshawGeorge Bradshaw was an English cartographer, printer and publisher. He is best known for developing the most successful and longest published series of combined railway timetables.-Biography:...
in EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. - June 26 – Opening of first railway wholly within modern-day DenmarkDenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, from CopenhagenCopenhagenCopenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
to RoskildeRoskildeRoskilde is the main city in Roskilde Municipality, Denmark on the island of Zealand. It is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network....
.
July events
- July 9 – The Lancashire and Yorkshire RailwayLancashire and Yorkshire RailwayThe Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways...
is incorporated as an amalgamation of several important railway lines in Northern EnglandNorthern EnglandNorthern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...
.
August events
- August 9 – Opening of first railway wholly within SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, from ZürichZürichZurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
to BadenBaden, SwitzerlandBaden is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Aargau, on the west bank of the river Limmat, located in the Limmat Valley , northwest of Zürich. It is the seat of the district of Baden...
.
September events
- September 22 – The Railway Clearing HouseRailway Clearing HouseThe British Railway Clearing House was an organisation set up to manage the allocation of revenue collected by numerous pre-grouping railway companies...
in Great BritainGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
recommends that Greenwich Mean TimeGreenwich Mean TimeGreenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United...
be adopted as the standard time for all railways in the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
December events
- December 1
- The London and North Western RailwayLondon and North Western RailwayThe London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
opens its Trent Valley LineTrent Valley lineThe Trent Valley Line is a railway line between Rugby and Stafford in England, forming part of the West Coast Main Line.The line was electrified on 25 kV AC system during the 1960s, in the wake of the 1955 British Rail modernisation plan....
to give a more direct route for the West Coast Main LineWest Coast Main LineThe West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
to North West EnglandNorth West EnglandNorth West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...
, bypassing BirminghamBirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. - The first time zoneTime zoneA time zone is a region on Earth that has a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. In order for the same clock time to always correspond to the same portion of the day as the Earth rotates , different places on the Earth need to have different clock times...
in the world is established by BritishGreat BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
railways with GMTGreenwich Mean TimeGreenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United...
hand-carried on chronometersChronometer watchA chronometer watch is a specific type of watch tested and certified to meet certain precision standards. In Switzerland, only timepieces certified by the COSC may use the word 'Chronometer' on them....
.
- The London and North Western Railway
Unknown date events
- John Urpeth RastrickJohn Urpeth RastrickJohn Urpeth Rastrick was one of the first English steam locomotive builders. In partnership with James Foster, he formed Foster, Rastrick and Company, the locomotive construction company that built the Stourbridge Lion in 1829 for export to the Delaware and Hudson Railroad in America.-Early...
retires from Foster, Rastrick and CompanyFoster, Rastrick and CompanyFoster, Rastrick and Company was one of the pioneering steam locomotive manufacturing companies of England. It was based in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, now West Midlands....
, the EnglishEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
firm that built the first steam locomotiveSteam locomotiveA steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
s for the Delaware and Hudson Railroad.
October births
- October 6 - Webb C. BallWebb C. BallWebster Clay Ball was a jeweler and watchmaker born in Fredericktown, Ohio. After a two-year apprenticeship to a jeweler, Ball settled in Cleveland, Ohio to join a jewelry store...
, watchmakerWatchmakerA watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since virtually all watches are now factory made, most modern watchmakers solely repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand...
who introduced the first truly reliable and accurate timepieces on AmericanUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
railroads.