1820 in rail transport explained

Events

• May 1 – The Kington Tramway, a horse-worked plateway, is opened from Eardisley to Kington, Herefordshire, England. Together with the Hay Railway it forms a continuous system 36 miles (45 km) in length, the longest in the United Kingdom at this date.^[1]
• October - John Birkinshaw of Bedlington Ironworks patents improvements in the production of wrought iron rails.
• Thomas Gray publishes his first of five editions of Observations on a General Iron Railway, a book that accelerates the British debate on this means of transportation and promotes the concept of a national rail network.
• An early form of monorail in Russia is operated by Ivan Elmanov in Myachkovo, Moscow Oblast.

Births

January births

• January 21 – Egide Walschaerts, Belgian inventor of a steam locomotive valve gear (d. 1901).^[2]

April births

• April 8 - John Taylor Johnston, president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, 1848–1877 (d. 1893).

May births

• May 2 - Robert Gerwig, German civil engineer, designer of Schwarzwald Railway and the Hell Valley Railway (d. 1885).^[3]

July births

• July 31 – John W. Garrett, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from 1858 (d. 1884).^[4]

August births

• August 6 – Donald Smith, afterwards Lord Strathcona, Scottish financier, promoter of the Canadian Pacific Railway (d. 1914).

September births

• September 20 – Alfred Belpaire, Belgian inventor of the Belpaire firebox used on steam locomotives (d. 1893).

December births

• December 21 – William H. Osborn, president of Illinois Central Railroad 1855–1865, president of Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans Railroad 1875–1882, is born (d. 1894).

Unknown death dates

• James Beatty, Irish engineer who was involved in building the European and North American Railway and the Grand Crimean Central Railway (d. 1856)

References

• White. John H Jr.. Spring 1986. America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders. Railroad History. 154. 9–15.

Notes and References

1. Book: Rattenbury, Gordon. Cook, Ray. The Hay and Kington Railways. Gwernymynydd. Railway and Canal Historical Society. 1996. 0-901461-19-9.
2. Book: Marshall, John. John Marshall (railway historian). Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers. 2nd. Oxford. Railway and Canal Historical Society. 2003. 0-901461-22-9.
3. Web site: Continental engineers . 30 March 2024 . Gerwig, Robert . 7 June 2018 . steamindex.com .
4. Book: Biography of John Work Garrett. 2005-03-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20050208200709/http://www.bookrags.com/biography/john-work-garrett/. 8 February 2005 .