1959 in rail transport explained

Events

January events

• January 4 - Passenger service resumes on the Strasburg Rail Road in Pennsylvania for tourists.
• January 5 - Foulridge railway station closes on the Midland Railway (originally the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway) in Lancashire, England.^[1]

February events

• February 28 - The Eastern Region of British Railways closes most of the former Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway.^[2]

March events

• March 28 - The Niagara, St. Catharines and Toronto Railway, the last interurban railroad in Canada, operates its last revenue service.

April events

• April 3 - Construction begins on Japanese National Railways’ Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Osaka and Tokyo.
• April 4 - Maine Central Railroad ends passenger service to Samoset destination hotel in Rockland, Maine.^[3]
• April 25 - Opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway encourages improved ice-breaking on the Saint Lawrence River and initiates declining winter freight volume on Canadian railways east of Montreal.
• SAFEGE test monorail built in France.^[4]

May events

• May - The Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway runs its last train, ending 62 years of service.
• May 28 - A passenger train in Indonesia derails and falls into a ravine, killing 85 people and injuring 47 in the Tasikmalaya area of West Java; sabotage is suspected.^[5]

June events

• June 9 - The Chicago, Aurora and Elgin Railroad, interurban railway serving Chicago's western suburbs, ceases freight operations, thus bringing an end to all of the railroad's operations.
• June 15 - The Disneyland Monorail System built by Alweg opens, making it the first daily operating monorail system in the western hemisphere.
• June 21 - Soo Line 2719 hauls the last of Soo Line Railroad's steam locomotive-powered trains in revenue service on a round-trip excursion between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Ladysmith, Wisconsin.^[6]

July events

• July 1 - Colorado Railroad Museum opens in Golden.^[7]
• July 14 - Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) 0-6-0 number 5244, class B-6sb, becomes the last steam locomotive to operate on the PRR.
• July 18 - The last steam locomotive runs on the Nickel Plate Road as a pair of 0-8-0 switchers are called out to cover a traffic surge.
• July 27 - Southern Pacific Company opens new embankment replacing Lucin Cutoff trestle across Great Salt Lake, Utah.^[8]

August events

• August 25 - Baltimore and Ohio Railroad opens Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge over Staten Island Sound in the United States.
• August 30 - Streetcar service in Montreal, Quebec, Canada is discontinued.

October events

• October 6 - The Carmelit, Haifa's underground funicular railway, opens.
• October 12 - First R28 (New York City Subway car) enters service, from the last batch of passenger cars that the American Car and Foundry Company is to build.
• October 28 - The Canadian National Railway line between St. Felicien and Chibougamau, Quebec, opens.

November events

• November 2 - The Pacific Electric Watts Line, then under operation by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, is discontinued. The service is replaced with buses.^[9]

December events

• December 1 - The Virginian Railway is merged into the Norfolk and Western Railroad.
• December 29 - First section of Lisbon Metro (Metropolitano de Lisboa) opens in Lisbon, Portugal, first metro (subway) system in the country.

Unknown date events

• General Electric announces that it will begin manufacturing diesel locomotives on its own.
• Israel Railways officially withdraws all steam locomotives; the last, Baldwin-built Palestine Railways H class 4-6-0 no. 901, surviving in traffic into the following year.^[10]

Births

May births

• May 1 - Ning Bin, Chinese signalling control systems engineer (died 2019).

Deaths

August deaths

• August 26 - William Valentine Wood, President of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1941-8 (born 1883).

References

• Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (August 16, 2005), Significant dates in Canadian railway history. Retrieved August 30 and October 28, 2005.

Notes and References

1. Book: Binns, Donald. Midland Lines Railway Stations Past and Present. Trackside Publications. 2005. 1-900095-26-2.
2. Book: Wrottesley, A. J. F.. 1970. The Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway. Newton Abbot. David & Charles. 0-7153-4340-8.
3. Book: The Best of Maine Railroads . Johnson, Ron . Portland Litho . 1985 . 112.
4. Web site: Suspended - SAFEGE. Technical Pages. Monorail Society. 2009-12-22.
5. News: 185 Believed Dead in Java Train Wreck. Oakland Tribune. 1959-05-29. 1.
6. Gilchinski. Steve. February 1997. Soo Line 2-8-2 back in steam. Trains Magazine. 57. 2. 24–25.
7. Web site: Colorado Railroad Museum. 2009-12-22. http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20040113091701/http%3A//www.crrm.org/. 2004-01-13. dead.
8. 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.
9. Watts Rail Line Goes to Bus . The MTA Emblem . 11 April 2021 . . December 1959 . 12.
10. Book: Cotterell, Paul. 1984. The Railways of Palestine and Israel. Abingdon. Tourret Publishing. 0-905878-04-3. 29.