1890 in rail transport
Encyclopedia
January events
- January 28 – Pittsburgh and Lake Erie RailroadPittsburgh and Lake Erie RailroadThe Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad , also known as the "Little Giant", was formed on May 11, 1875. Company headquarters were located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The line connected Pittsburgh in the east with Youngstown, Ohio at nearby Haselton, Ohio in the west and Connellsville, ...
acquires a section of the McKeesport and Belle Vernon Railroad around Belle Vernon, PennsylvaniaBelle Vernon, PennsylvaniaBelle Vernon is a borough located in Fayette County, Pennsylvania along the Monongahela River. The population was 1,211 at the 2000 census. The town is served by the Belle Vernon Area School District, which is actually centered in Rostraver, Westmoreland County.geographical anomaly: The...
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February events
- February 22 – Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis RailwayCleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis RailwayThe Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as the Big Four Railroad and commonly abbreviated CCC&StL, was a railroad company in the Midwestern United States....
(the "Big Four Railroad") gains control of the Peoria and Eastern RailwayPeoria and Eastern RailwayThe Peoria and Eastern Railway was incorporated on February 21, 1890, for the purpose of constructing or acquiring a railway between Pekin, Illinois, and Indianapolis, Indiana. The following day, the company acquired such a railroad from Charles H...
in southern IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
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March events
- March – Émile ZolaÉmile ZolaÉmile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
's psychological novel with a railway setting, La Bête HumaineLa Bête humaineLa Bête Humaine is an 1890 novel by Émile Zola. The story has been adapted for the cinema on several occasions. It is based around the railway between Paris and Le Havre in the 19th century and is a tense, psychological thriller....
, is published in book form. - March 4 – The Forth BridgeForth Bridge (railway)The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge over the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland, to the east of the Forth Road Bridge, and 14 kilometres west of central Edinburgh. It was opened on 4 March 1890, and spans a total length of...
across the Firth of ForthFirth of ForthThe Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
in ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
is officially opened and its contractor, William ArrolWilliam ArrolSir William Arrol was a Scottish civil engineer, bridge builder, and Liberal Party politician.The son of a spinner, he was born in Houston, Renfrewshire, and started work in a cotton mill at only 9 years of age. He started training as a blacksmith by age 13, and went on to learn mechanics and...
, knightKnightA knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
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July events
- July 23 – Narrow gaugeNarrow gaugeA narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...
Kennebec Central Railroad opens to Togus, MaineTogus, MaineTogus is a facility operated by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in Chelsea, Maine. The facility was built as a resort hotel, and housed Union veterans of the American Civil War prior to being converted to a veterans hospital....
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August events
- August 18 – The Kansas City Suburban Belt RailroadKansas City Suburban Belt RailroadThe Kansas City Suburban Belt Railroad was a railway located throughout the suburban Kansas City area. The railway was incorporated by Arthur Stilwell and Edward L. Martin in 1887, and began operation in 1890....
, a predecessor of Kansas City Southern RailwayKansas City Southern RailwayThe Kansas City Southern Railway , owned by Kansas City Southern Industries, is the smallest and second-oldest Class I railroad company still in operation. KCS was founded in 1887 and is currently operating in a region consisting of ten central U.S. states...
, begins operations between Kansas CityKansas City, KansasKansas City is the third-largest city in the state of Kansas and is the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the third largest city in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The city is part of a consolidated city-county government known as the "Unified...
and ArgentineArgentine, KansasArgentine is a community of Kansas City, Kansas, located in the southern part of Wyandotte County. It is bordered on the west by the Turner community, on the east by the Rosedale community, on the south by Johnson County, and on the north by Armourdale community and by the Kansas River. Argentine...
. - August 19 – Pennsylvania RailroadPennsylvania RailroadThe Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
subsidiary Ohio Valley Railway reorganized as the Pittsburg, Ohio Valley and Cincinnati Railroad.
November events
- November 4 – Official opening of the City & South London RailwayCity & South London RailwayThe City and South London Railway was the first deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction...
, earliest constituent of the Northern LineNorthern LineThe Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
of the London UndergroundLondon UndergroundThe London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
and the first real deep-level electrified "tube" railway in the world. - November 26 – The Mito Railway, in JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, operates its first freight trains.
Unknown date events
- First Class ОSteam locomotive OThe russian steam locomotive class O was an early type of russian steam locomotives. Between 1890 and 1928, 9129 locomotives were built; the type was the most numerous in Russia.....
0-8-00-8-0Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels...
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...
built for service in RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. 9129 locomotives of this type will be built up to 1928, making it the country's most numerous. - Hugh J. ChisholmHugh J. ChisholmHugh Joseph Chisholm was a Canadian industrialist who later became a citizen of the United States. He was born in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, to parents of Scottish ancestry. His early years as an entrepreneur in the news distribution business provided a foundation for his later accomplishments...
forms the Portland and Rumford Falls Railway to link Androscoggin RiverAndroscoggin RiverThe Androscoggin River is a river in the U.S. states of Maine and New Hampshire, in northern New England. It is long and joins the Kennebec River at Merrymeeting Bay in Maine before its water empties into the Gulf of Maine on the Atlantic Ocean. Its drainage basin is in area...
papermills to the Maine Central RailroadMaine Central RailroadThe Maine Central Railroad Company was a railroad in central and southern Maine. It was chartered in 1856 and began operations in 1862. It operated a mainline between South Portland, Maine, east to the Canada-U.S...
. - Leland StanfordLeland StanfordAmasa Leland Stanford was an American tycoon, industrialist, robber baron, politician and founder of Stanford University.-Early years:...
begins his term as Chairman of the Executive Committee for Southern Pacific RailroadSouthern Pacific RailroadThe Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
. - Charles Francis Adams, Jr.Charles Francis Adams, Jr.Charles Francis Adams II was a member of the prominent Adams family, and son of Charles Francis Adams, Sr. He served as a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War...
steps down from the presidency of the Union Pacific RailroadUnion Pacific RailroadThe Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
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August births
- August 16 - C. P. CouchC. P. CouchC. P. "Pete" Couch succeeded his brother Harvey C. Couch as president of Kansas City Southern Railway on August 11, 1939.-References:* Kansas City Southern Historical Society, . Retrieved August 15, 2005....
, president of Kansas City Southern RailwayKansas City Southern RailwayThe Kansas City Southern Railway , owned by Kansas City Southern Industries, is the smallest and second-oldest Class I railroad company still in operation. KCS was founded in 1887 and is currently operating in a region consisting of ten central U.S. states...
1939-1941 (d. 1955).
September deaths
- September 30 – Frederick H. BillingsFrederick H. BillingsFrederick Billings was an American lawyer and financier. From 1879 to 1881 he was President of the Northern Pacific Railway....
, president of Northern Pacific RailwayNorthern Pacific RailwayThe Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...
1879-1881 (b. 1823).