1856 in rail transport explained

Events

January – Opening throughout of first railroad in Africa and the Middle East, from Alexandria to Cairo, Egypt (208km (129miles)).^[1]
January 29 – The 223-mile North Carolina Railroad is completed from Goldsboro through Raleigh and Salisbury to Charlotte.^[2]

March 23 or 26 – Cambridge Railroad street railway opens in Boston (United States), giving the city the world's oldest continuously working streetcar system.

April 19 – Death of American locomotive builder Thomas Rogers, following which his son, Jacob S. Rogers, reorganizes Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor as Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works.
April 21 – The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River opens between Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.^[3]

May 1 – First section of Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway opens, between Ankleshwar and Utran.^[4]
May 6 – The newly constructed sidewheeler Effie Afton runs into one of the supports for the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River, causing a fire that destroys the bridge just two weeks after it had opened.

July 14 – The Rome and Frascati Rail Road opens for service.
July 17 – The Great Train Wreck (the worst railroad calamity in the world up to this date) occurs near Philadelphia in the United States.

September 16 – Tarragona–Reus line in Spain opens.
September 21 – The Illinois Central Railroad connects Chicago to Cairo, Illinois, completing 700 miles (1,126 km) of track to become the longest railway in the United States.
September 22 – The Oriental Railway Company is granted the concession to build the first railway in Turkey, from İzmir to Aydın.

October 23 – The line that is now Belgian railway line 161 is completed and opened connecting Brussels-North and Namur stations.^[5]
October 28 – Opening of first railway in Portugal, from Lisbon to Carregado (37km (23miles)).

December 1 – Opening of first steam-operated passenger railways in Sweden, from Gothenburg to Jonsered (15km (09miles)) and Malmö to Lund (17km (11miles)).

February 2 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, director of the New York Central system (d. 1938).

December 30 – Sam Fay, General manager of the Great Central Railway of England, 1902–1922 (d. 1953).^[6]

January 8 – Charles "Joe" Baldwin, conductor on the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad

March 11 – James Beatty, Irish engineer who was involved in building the European and North American Railway and the Grand Crimean Central Railway (b. 1820).

April 19 – Thomas Rogers, American steam locomotive builder, dies in New York (b. 1792).^[7]
April 20 – Robert L. Stevens, president of Camden and Amboy Railroad (b. 1787).^[8]

Rivanna Chapter National Railway Historical Society (2005), This month in railroad history: September. Retrieved September 21, 2005.

News: Raafat . Jordan . Jordan Star . 1998-03-05 . Desert Train Heralds Train Tourism In Egypt . 2007-03-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20061207064829/http://www.egy.com/community/98-03-05.shtml . 2006-12-07 . dead .
Web site: Railroads — prior to the Civil War. North Carolina Business History. 2006. 2011-08-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20110726152211/http://historync.org/railroads.htm. 26 July 2011. dead.
News: Willard. John. Quad City Times. 2006-01-31. Dinner marks 150th birthday of the first railroad crossing on the Mississippi. 2006-01-31.
Web site: Indian Railway History Time Line. Saxena. R. P.. 2008. 2009-12-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20120229092028/http://irse.bravehost.com/IRHTML.htm. 2012-02-29. dead.
Web site: Ligne 161: Bruxelles-Nord – Namur. Chemins de fer Belges. nl.
Book: Dow, George. Great Central, Vol. 3: Fay sets the pace 1900–1922. Locomotive Publishing Co. London. 1965.
Book: Marshall, John. Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers. Railway and Canal Historical Society. Oxford. 2003. 0-901461-22-9.
Web site: American engineers . 5 May 2020 . steamindex.com . Stevens, Robert Livingston . 4 April 2024 .
Web site: John Urpeth Rastrick . 12 August 2012 . steamindex.com . 4 April 2024 .