1903 in rail transport explained

Events

January events

• January 20  - The Grand Trunk Western Railroad opens a passenger depot in Lansing, Michigan.
• January 28  - Esmond Train Wreck: fourteen people are killed when the Crescent City Express (No. 8, bound for Benson, Arizona) collides head-on with the bound Pacific Coast Express (No. 7, bound for Tucson).

February events

• February 12  - North British Locomotive Company established as a locomotive builder in Glasgow, Scotland, by merger of Dübs & Company, Neilson, Reid & Company, and Sharp, Stewart & Company.^[1] In April it receives its first new order for steam locomotives, from India.^[2]

March events

• March 3  - Baker valve gear for steam locomotives is first patented in the United States.^[3]

April events

• April 7  - Apalachicola Northern Railroad, later to become AN Railway, is chartered.

May events

• May 3  - The Mersey Railway, operating between Birkenhead and Liverpool by tunnel beneath the River Mersey, England, converts from steam to electric traction.^[4]
• May 13  - The Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad (later to become part of Chicago & North Western Railway) begins passenger train service to Casper, Wyoming.^[5]
• May 25  - The Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad opens, becoming the first railroad in the United States to use an electrified third rail to power its trains.

July events

• July  - Regular passenger traffic from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok over the Trans-Siberian and Chinese Eastern Railways begins.
• July 1  - Opening of the Albula Railway portion of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) (metre gauge) in Switzerland, passing through the Albula Tunnel, the highest of the principal Alpine tunnels at 1370 m.
• July 13  - Danbury Union Station in Danbury, Connecticut, on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, opens.^[6]
• July 27
  • Construction begins on the Baghdad Railway with the 200km (100miles) segment between Konya and Bulgurlu in the Ottoman Empire (modern day Turkey).^[7]
  • Glasgow St Enoch rail accident, Scotland: sixteen killed when a train crashes into the buffers.

August events

• August 10  - Paris Metro train fire, France: electric fire on Paris Métro at Couronnes; 84 killed.
• August 17  - The Great Western Railway becomes the first British railway company to operate its own road motor services (i.e. buses), between Helston and The Lizard in Cornwall.^[8]

September events

• September 27  - Wreck of the Old 97, Danville, Virginia, United States: A southbound Southern Railway passenger train derails on a trestle in Danville; eleven people are killed.^{[9] [10]}

October events

• October  - Experimental electric trains, built by AEG and Siemens & Halske, reach 210.2 km/h (130.6 mph) between Marienfelde and Zossen in Germany.
• October 1
  • The first railway in Norway rebuilt to double track, from Bryn to Lillestrøm on the Hovedbanen, is opened.^[11]
  • The Gold Coast Government Railway is extended from Obuasi to Kumasi.
• October 21  - Howard Elliott succeeds Charles Sanger Mellen as president of Northern Pacific Railway.^[12]
• October 26  - The Key System begins operating their first streetcar-ferry service, the Berkeley line in Berkeley, California.^[13]
• October 31  - The Purdue Wreck, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA: A Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis Railway football special carrying the Purdue University football team and fans to the annual game with Indiana University collides with a coal train. Fourteen of the team and three other passengers are killed.

November events

• November 9  - The gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway opens in India.^[14]

December events

• December 14  - The New York, New Haven and Hartford introduces the all-parlor car Merchants Limited between Boston and New York City.

Unknown date events

• The British Engineering Standards Committee draws up specifications for eight standard steam locomotive designs for the broad gauge Indian Railways.^[15]
• Southern Pacific Railroad gains 50% control of the Pacific Electric system in Los Angeles, California.
• The Wilkes-Barre & Hazleton Railway opens as the first railroad to have a guarded third rail.
• The provisions of the Railroad Safety Appliance Act, enacted in 1893, are extended to include all railroad cars whether or not the cars themselves are used in interchange service.
• Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway introduces the first 2-10-2 compound locomotives (built by Baldwin Locomotive Works) into service.^[16]
• Edward Harriman becomes president of the Union Pacific.
• George Whale succeeds Francis William Webb as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London & North Western Railway.

Births

April births

• April 10  - Edward T. Reidy, last president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1957–1968.

Deaths

March deaths

• March 29  - Gustavus Franklin Swift, founder of Swift & Company which pioneered the use of refrigerator cars in late 19th century America (born 1839)

July deaths

• July 27  - Frederick Kimball, American civil engineer who was instrumental in the formation of Norfolk & Western (born 1844).

Unknown date deaths

• John Elfreth Watkins, railroad civil engineer and first curator for the Smithsonian Institution's railroad artifacts including John Bull.

Notes and References

1. Book: Lowe, James W.. British Steam Locomotive Builders. Cambridge. Goose and Son. 1975. 0-900404-21-3.
2. Book: Murdoch. Nicolson. Mark. O'Neill. Glasgow: Locomotive Builder to the World. Edinburgh. Polygon. 1987. 0-948275-46-4.
3. Remembering the A.D. Baker Company. Blake. LeRoy W.. May–June 1979. Farm Collector. 4. 2012-07-09. 2012-05-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20120510141722/http://steamtraction.farmcollector.com/Farm-life/AD-BAKER-COMPANY-INCIDENTS.aspx?page=4. dead.
4. Book: Gahan, John W.. The Line Beneath the Liners  - a hundred years of Mersey Railway sights and sounds. 1983. Countyvise. Birkenhead. 0-907768-40-7.
5. News: Casper Star-Tribune. June 22, 2005. BP Amoco Timeline. June 22, 2005.
6. Web site: Gulder, Bill. A Brief History of the Danbury Railway Museum. 2005-07-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20050725081841/http://www.danbury.org/drm/history/DRM-history-1.html. 2005-07-25. live.
7. Web site: 2004-12-01. Baghdad Railway. Trains of Turkey. 2005-07-22.
8. Book: Cummings, John. Railway Motor Buses and Bus Services in the British Isles 1902-1933, volume 2. Oxford Publishing Company. 1980. Oxford. 0-86093-050-5.
9. News: Many People Killed. The Anglo-Saxon. Rockingham, NC. October 1, 1903. 5. Newspapers.com.
10. News: Nine Are Killed. The Topeka State Journal. Topeka, KS. September 28, 1903. 1. Newspapers.com.
11. Book: Norsk Jernbaneklubb. Norsk Jernbaneklubb. Banedata '94. 82-90286-15-5. 1994. Norwegian.
12. Railway Age Gazette (August 1, 1913) pp. 177-8.
13. Book: Demoro, Harre W. . The Key Route: Transbay Commuting by Train and Ferry, Part 1 . . 1985 . 0-916374-66-1 . Interurbans Specials . 95 . Glendale, California . 17–20 .
14. Web site: Northern Railways of India. Kalka-Shimla Railway. November 8, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20051118111332/http://ksr100.com/History.asp. November 18, 2005.
15. Web site: R.R.. Bhandari. Steam in History. Indian Railways Fan Club. 2000. 2010-10-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20100926150918/http://irfca.org/articles/isrs/isrs082004-steam-history.html. 26 September 2010 . live.
16. 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.