1917 in rail transport
Encyclopedia
February events
- February 27 - The Milwaukee Road completes the electrification of its 440 miles (708.1 km) line from Harlowton, MontanaHarlowton, MontanaHarlowton is a city in and the county seat of Wheatland County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,062 at the 2000 census. The city was once the eastern terminus of electric operations of the Milwaukee Road railroad's "Pacific Extension" route, which went all the way to Avery, Idaho. ...
, to Avery, IdahoAvery, IdahoAvery is a small unincorporated town nestled in the St. Joe River Valley in Shoshone County, Idaho, United States. Avery is located in the middle of the St. Joe District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest...
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March events
- March 9 - Official opening of the Hell Gate BridgeHell Gate BridgeThe Hell Gate Bridge or Hell's Gate Bridge is a steel through arch railroad bridge between Astoria in the borough of Queens and Randall's and Wards Islands in New York City, over a portion of the East River known...
in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. - March 12 - The Pere Marquette Railroad is reincorporated as the Pere Marquette RailwayPere Marquette RailwayThe Pere Marquette Railway was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. The railroad had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago.The company was...
. - March 19 - The United States Supreme CourtSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
upholds the eight-hour workday for railroads.
April events
- April 3–16 - V.I. LeninVladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
journeys from 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....
across GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
by so-called “sealed train”, eventually arriving to a tumultuous reception at Finland Station in Petrograd to play a leading role in the Russian RevolutionOctober RevolutionThe October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
. - April 21 - Colorado Midland declares bankruptcy for the second and final time.
May events
- May 9 - Completion of the 784 km-long railway line linking the port of DjiboutiDjiboutiDjibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
in French SomalilandFrench SomalilandFrench Somaliland was a French colony in the Horn of Africa. Established after the French signed various treaties between 1883 and 1887 with the then ruling Somali Sultans, the colony lasted from 1896 until 1946, when it became an overseas territory of France....
to Addis AbabaAddis AbabaAddis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...
, the capital of EthiopiaEthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
.
July events
- July 31 - Simbei Kunisawa succeeds Yujiro Nakamura as president of South Manchuria RailwaySouth Manchuria RailwayThe , and operated within China in the Japanese-controlled South Manchuria Railway Zone. The railway itself ran from Lüshun Port at the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula to Harbin, where it connected to the Chinese Eastern Railway.-History:...
.
September
- September 24 - The Bere Ferrers rail accidentBere Ferrers rail accidentThe Bere Ferrers rail accident occurred at Bere Ferrers railway station in Devon on 24 September 1917 when ten soldiers from New Zealand alighted from their troop train on the wrong side of the train, having assumed they should leave by the same side they had entered, and were struck and killed by...
in England kills 10 New Zealand soldiers.
October events
- October 22 – Opening of Trans-Australian RailwayTrans-Australian RailwayThe Trans-Australian Railway crosses the Nullarbor Plain of Australia from Port Augusta in South Australia to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia...
, 1051.7 miles (1692.6 km) of standard gaugeStandard gaugeThe standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
between Port AugustaPort Augusta, South Australia-Electricity generation:Electricity is generated at the Playford B and Northern power stations from brown coal mined at Leigh Creek, 250 km to the north...
in South AustraliaSouth AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
and Kalgoorlie in Western AustraliaWestern AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
(heads of steel meet on 17 October). During the crossing of the Nullarbor PlainNullarbor PlainThe Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world's largest single piece of limestone, and occupies an area of about...
the line runs for 309 miles (497 km) without a curve, the world’s longest railway straight. - October 23 - The Canadian Railway War Board (predecessor of the Railway Association of CanadaRailway Association of CanadaThe Railway Association of Canada was originally founded in 1917 as the Canadian Railway War Board in order to coordinate railway activities during World War I. The first meeting of the organization was held on October 23, 1917, and the name was changed to Railway Association of Canada in 1919. ...
) meets for the first time at Windsor StationWindsor Station (Montreal)Windsor Station is a former train station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, formerly serving as the city's Canadian Pacific Railway Station.Windsor Station was the Canadian Pacific Railway's headquarters built between 1887 and 1889. The Romanesque Revival building was designed by New York architect...
, MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
.
December events
- December 12 - Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailmentSaint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment-Summary:The Saint Michel de Maurienne derailment of December 12, 1917, is the most serious railway accident in France’s history. The derailment of an overloaded train carrying nearly 1,000 French soldiers on leave returning from the Italian front, as the train descended the Maurienne valley rail...
, on the Culoz–Modane railway in the FrenchFranceThe 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...
AlpsAlpsThe Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
, a grossly overloaded troop train jumps the tracks near the entrance of the station at Saint-Michel-de-MaurienneSaint-Michel-de-MaurienneSaint-Michel-de-Maurienne is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.-See also:*Communes of the Savoie department*The 1917 Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment, which killed several hundred French troops....
, after running away down a steep gradient from the entrance to the Fréjus Rail TunnelFréjus Rail TunnelThe Fréjus Rail Tunnel is a rail tunnel of length in the European Alps, carrying the Turin–Modane railway through Mount Cenis to an end on connection with the Culoz–Modane railway and linking Modane, France and Bardonecchia, Italy...
due to inadequate brake power. At least 543 are killed, hundreds more are injured by the official count; the actual count is assumed to be considerably higher. Until 1981 this was the worst train wreck in history. - December 26 - United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
PresidentPresident of the United StatesThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Woodrow WilsonWoodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
uses the Federal Possession and Control Act to nationalize American railroads under the United States Railroad AdministrationUnited States Railroad AdministrationThe United States Railroad Administration was the name of the nationalized railroad system of the United States between 1917 and 1920. It was possibly the largest American experiment with nationalization, and was undertaken against a background of war emergency.- Background :On April 6, 1917, the...
during World War IWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. - December 28 - The United States Railroad AdministrationUnited States Railroad AdministrationThe United States Railroad Administration was the name of the nationalized railroad system of the United States between 1917 and 1920. It was possibly the largest American experiment with nationalization, and was undertaken against a background of war emergency.- Background :On April 6, 1917, the...
officially takes control of AmericanUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
railroads.
Unknown date events
- The Tanana Valley Railroad in Fairbanks, AlaskaFairbanks, AlaskaFairbanks is a home rule city in and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska.Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska, and second largest in the state behind Anchorage...
(a predecessor of the Alaska RailroadAlaska RailroadThe Alaska Railroad is a Class II railroad which extends from Seward and Whittier, in the south of the state of Alaska, in the United States, to Fairbanks , and beyond to Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright in the interior of that state...
) enters receivership. - The Arcade and Attica Railroad is incorporated.
- The longest cantilever bridgeCantilever bridgeA cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from...
in the world, Canadian National RailwayCanadian National RailwayThe Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
's bridge across the St. Lawrence River at Quebec CityQuebec CityQuebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, opens for rail traffic. - Estación ConstituciónEstación ConstituciónConstitución railway station is a large railway terminus in Barrio Constitución in central Buenos Aires, Argentina...
in Buenos AiresBuenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, ArgentinaArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, opens. - 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...
's Railway Worker Day national holiday, established in 1886, is abolished under BolshevikBolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
rule.
October deaths
- October 2 - William Sykes, 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...
railway signallingRailway signallingRailway signalling is a system used to control railway traffic safely, essentially to prevent trains from colliding. Being guided by fixed rails, trains are uniquely susceptible to collision; furthermore, trains cannot stop quickly, and frequently operate at speeds that do not enable them to stop...
engineer (b. 1840).