1917 in rail transport explained

Events

January events

• January 3 - Ratho rail crash in Scotland: North British Railway H class locomotive 874 Dunedin, in charge of an Edinburgh to Glasgow express train, collides with a light engine at Queensferry Junction near Ratho Station, leaving 12 people dead and 46 seriously injured; the cause is found to be inadequate signalling procedures.^[1]

February events

• February 27 - The Milwaukee Road completes the electrification of its 440miles line from Harlowton, Montana, to Avery, Idaho.

March events

• March 9 - Official opening of the Hell Gate Bridge in New York City.
• March 12 - The Pere Marquette Railroad is reincorporated as the Pere Marquette Railway.
• March 19 - The United States Supreme Court upholds the eight-hour workday for railroads.

April events

• April 3–16 (NS) - Vladimir Lenin journeys from Switzerland across Germany by so-called "sealed train", eventually arriving to a tumultuous reception at Finland Station in Petrograd to play a leading role in the Russian Revolution.^[2]
• April 21 - Colorado Midland declares bankruptcy for the second and final time.

May events

• May 9 - Completion of the 784 km-long railway line linking the port of Djibouti in French Somaliland to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

July events

• July 31
  • The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway opens the Sciotoville Bridge across the Ohio River in the United States to rail traffic. It has a continuous truss across two 775-foot (236 m) spans, the world's longest until 1945.^[3]
  • Simbei Kunisawa succeeds Yujiro Nakamura as president of South Manchuria Railway.

September

• September 24 - The Bere Ferrers rail accident in England kills 10 New Zealand soldiers.

October events

• October – First North British Railway C Class steam locomotives are allocated from Scotland for loan to the British Royal Engineers' Railway Operating Division on the Western Front (World War I).
• October 22 – Opening of Trans-Australian Railway, 1051.7 miles (1692.6 km) of standard gauge between Port Augusta in South Australia and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia (heads of steel meet on 17 October).^{[4] [5] [6]} In crossing of the Nullarbor Plain the line runs for 309 miles (497 km) without a curve, the world’s longest railway straight.
• October 23 - The Canadian Railway War Board (predecessor of the Railway Association of Canada) meets for the first time at Windsor Station, Montreal.^{[7] [8]}

November events

• November 1  - Takatoku station, now known as Shin-Takatoku Station on Tobu Railway's Kinugawa Line in Nikkō, Tochigi, Japan, is opened.^[9]

December events

• December 3 - The longest cantilever bridge in the world, Canadian National's Quebec Bridge across the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City, opens for rail traffic^[10] after nearly 20 years of planning and construction including two partial collapses.
• December 12 - Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment, on the Culoz–Modane railway in the French Alps, a grossly overloaded troop train jumps the tracks near the entrance of the station at Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, after running away down a steep gradient from the entrance to the Fréjus Rail Tunnel due to inadequate brake power. At least 543 are killed, hundreds more are injured by the official count; the actual count is assumed to be considerably higher. Until 1981 this was the worst train wreck in history.^[11]
• December 26 - United States President Woodrow Wilson uses the Federal Possession and Control Act to nationalize American railroads under the United States Railroad Administration during World War I.
• December 28 - The United States Railroad Administration officially takes control of American railroads.

Unknown date events

• The Tanana Valley Railroad in Fairbanks, Alaska (a predecessor of the Alaska Railroad) enters receivership.
• The Arcade and Attica Railroad is incorporated.
• Estación Constitución in Buenos Aires, Argentina, opens.
• The Hershey Electric Railway in Cuba opens.
• Russia's Railway Worker Day national holiday, established in 1886, is abolished under Bolshevik rule.^[12]

Births

Unknown date births

• John Shedd Reed, president of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway 1967-1986 (died 2008).

Deaths

October deaths

• October 2 - William Sykes, English railway signalling engineer (born 1840).^[13]

Notes and References

1. Web site: UK train accidents in which passengers were killed 1825-1924. Duncan. MacLeod. 2006-08-14. PureCollector. 2017-12-06.
2. Book: Moorehead, Alan. The Russian Revolution. New York. Harper. 1958. 183–187.
3. Web site: Colossus on the Ohio . . 2004-01-11 . 2016-10-05 . William D. . Middletown . https://web.archive.org/web/20070311235551/http://www.minford.k12.oh.us/mhs/history/PortsmouthHistory/SciotovilleRRBridge/Jan2004article.htm . 2007-03-11 . dead .
4. The Golden Jubilee of the Trans Australian Railway. Chambers, T.F. . . 267–75 . November 1968.
5. Book: Burke, David. 1991. Road through the Wilderness: the story of the transcontinental railway, the first great work of Australia’s federation. Kensington. New South Wales University Press. 0-86840-140-4.
6. Book: Ferneyhough, Frank. The History of Railways in Britain. Reading. Osprey. 1975. 0-85045-060-8.
7. Web site: Significant dates in Canadian railway history . Colin Churcher's Railway Pages . 2006-09-15 . 2006-10-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20061023182151/http://www.railways.incanada.net/candate/candate.htm . 23 October 2006 . dead .
8. Historic Anniversary for the Railway Association of Canada. 2007-10-23. 2007-10-23. Railway Association of Canada. 2011-06-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20110609200746/http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2007/23/c7258.html. dead.
9. Book: Terada, Hirokazu. データブック日本の私鉄. Databook: Japan's Private Railways. Neko Publishing. July 2002. Japan. 199. 4-87366-874-3.
10. Middleton. William D. . Quebec lights up its big bridge. Trains. 16–17 . February 2002.
11. Web site: Modane, France (1917). Danger Ahead!. 2009-02-24.
12. News: Railway Worker Day marked in Russia. 2006-08-06. 2006-08-07. ITAR-TASS.
13. Book: John Marshall (railway historian)

    . Marshall, John. Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers. 2nd. Oxford. Railway and Canal Historical Society. 2003. 0-901461-22-9. John Marshall (railway historian).