1808 in rail transport explained

Events

February 8 – The Washington Bridge Company is granted authority in Washington, D.C., to build the Long Bridge over the Potomac River, a bridge that will eventually be rebuilt to carry the first railroad tracks to cross the river.^[1]

May 27 – The Kilmarnock and Troon Railway becomes the first railway line in Scotland authorised by Act of Parliament.^[2]

July 8 through September 18 – Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive Catch Me Who Can is demonstrated in London.

January 8 – John A. Poor, first president of the Portland Company is born in Andover, Maine (d. 1871).^[3]

February 10 – John Edgar Thomson, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad 1852-1874 (d. 1874).

March 19 – Johann Andreas Schubert, builder of the first German steam locomotive, Saxonia, is born in Wernesgrün (d. 1870).

May 12 – Joseph Hamilton Beattie, locomotive engineer for London and South Western Railway 1850–1871 (d. 1871), is born.^[4]

July 25 – Francis Thompson, English architect working chiefly on railways (d. 1895).

George Muirson Totten, chief construction engineer for the Panama Railway (d. 1884).^[5]

Web site: ((Washington, D.C., Chapter, National Railway Historical Society)) . Washington, D.C. Railroad History . February 8, 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20060205100435/http://www.dcnrhs.org/dc_rail_history.htm . February 5, 2006 . dead .
Book: Lewin, Henry Grote. 1925. Early British Railways: a short history of their origin & development, 1801–1844. London. Locomotive Publishing Co.
Book: The Grand Trunk in New England . Holt, Jeff . Railfare . 1985 . 0-919130-43-7 .
Book: Marshall, John . John Marshall (railway historian) . A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers . 1978 . . Newton Abbot . 0-7153-7489-3. 24.
Web site: George Muirson Totten. February 9, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20050204143715/http://www.trainweb.org/panama/totten.html. 4 February 2005 .