1842 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1842.

Years in rail transport

1841 in rail transport 1842 in rail transport 1843 in rail transport

Events

January events

• January 1 – Boston and Maine Railroad, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts Railroad and Boston and Portland Railroad merge with the new company keeping the Boston & Maine name.
• January 2 — Commencement of operation of the Railway Clearing House in London, established to settle the division of payments for through traffic over different railways in Britain.[1]
• January 24 — Frederick William IV of Prussia makes the first train journey by a reigning monarch.[2]

February events

• February 21 — Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway opens in Scotland.[3]

March events

• March 31 — The Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway opens to Oldham Werneth railway station in northwest England.

April events

• April 11 — The French government enacts the Loi relative à l'établissement des grandes lignes de chemins de fer which establishes the plan for French railroads' placement in a star pattern centered on Paris.

May events

• May 1 — Opening of first section of Upper Silesian Railway, between Wrocław and Oława, the first line within the borders of modern-day Poland. By August it reaches Brzeg.[4]
• May 8 — Versailles rail accident: A train traveling between Versailles and Paris derails due to a broken locomotive axle near Moudon and catches fire, killing at least 55 passengers in the locked carriages.

June events

• June 13 — Queen Victoria makes the first train journey by a reigning British monarch, on the Great Western Railway of England (Slough to Paddington).[5]

July events

• July 1 – The Bristol and Exeter Railway extension to Taunton opens in England.

September events

• September — Robert Davidson's experimental battery-electric locomotive Galvani is demonstrated on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway.

December events

• December — William Maxwell succeeds James Bowen as president of the Erie Railroad.[6]

Births

October births

• October 12 — Robert Gillespie Reid, builder of many Canadian railway bridges as well as the Newfoundland Railway (d. 1908).

December births

• December 7 — George Whale, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway 1903–1909 (d. 1910).

Unknown date births

• George Frederick Baer, president of Reading Company (d. 1914).
• Melville E. Ingalls, president of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (d. 1914).[7]

References

1. Bagwell, Philip S. (1968). The Railway Clearing House in the British Economy 1842–1922. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-04-331037-0.
2. Balkwill, Richard; Marshall, John (1993). The Guinness Book of Railway Facts and Feats (6th ed.). Enfield: Guinness Publishing. ISBN 0-85112-707-X.
3. Glasgow Constitutional (1842-02-22). "Opening Of The Edinburgh And Glasgow Railway". The Times (17913). London. p. 6.
4. Halor, Jakub (2006-10-12). "160 lat Kolei Górnośląskiej". WPK Katowice (in Polish). Łódź: Emipress. Retrieved 2016-08-07.
5. Body, Geoffrey (1985). Western Handbook — a digest of GWR and WR data. Weston-super-Mare: British Rail (Western). ISBN 0-905466-70-5.
6. Stratton, Fred. "Erie Railroad presidents". Archived from the original on 18 March 2005. Retrieved 2005-03-02.
7. Indiana Historical Society. "Melville E. Ingalls Papers, 1870–1907, Collection Guide, biographical sketch" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-08-19. Retrieved 2012-10-19.