1842 in rail transport explained

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]

Notes and References

1. Book: Bagwell, Philip S.. The Railway Clearing House in the British Economy 1842–1922. 1968. Allen & Unwin. London. 0-04-331037-0.
2. Book: Balkwill, Richard. Marshall, John. John Marshall (railway historian). The Guinness Book of Railway Facts and Feats. 6th. Enfield. Guinness Publishing. 1993. 0-85112-707-X.
3. News: Glasgow Constitutional. Opening Of The Edinburgh And Glasgow Railway. The Times. London. 1842-02-22. 6. 17913.
4. Web site: Jakub. Halor. 160 lat Kolei Górnośląskiej. 2006-10-12. WPK Katowice. Łódź. Emipress. Polish. 2016-08-07.
5. Book: Body, Geoffrey. Western Handbook — a digest of GWR and WR data. 1985. British Rail (Western). Weston-super-Mare. 0-905466-70-5.
6. Web site: Stratton, Fred. Erie Railroad presidents. 2005-03-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20050318171642/http://erierr.railfan.net/eriepres.html. 18 March 2005 . dead.
7. Web site: Indiana Historical Society. Melville E. Ingalls Papers, 1870–1907, Collection Guide, biographical sketch. 2012-10-19. 2012-08-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20120819115219/http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/collection-guides/melville-e-ingalls-papers-1870-1907.pdf. dead.