1986 in rail transport explained

Events

January events

• January 1  - The Soo Line Railroad fully absorbs the Milwaukee Road after attempting to operate it as a subsidiary railroad.
• January 3  - Vancouver's SkyTrain begins operations between the waterfront and New Westminster.

February events

• February 8  - 23 people are killed in the Hinton train collision when a Via Rail passenger train collides with a Canadian National freight train near Hinton, Alberta.
• February 17  - Class 59 Co-Co diesel locomotives built by EMD for Foster Yeoman introduced into heavy freight service on British Rail, the first US-built (and privately owned) diesel locomotives to operate regularly on the English network.^[1]

March events

• March 3  - Shin-Narashino Station, on what is now JR East's Keiyō Line in Narashino, Chiba, Japan, is opened.^[2]
• March 24  - Edinburgh–Bathgate line in Scotland reopened to rail passengers.
• March 25  - Conrail makes its initial public offering of stock starting at US$28 per share.^[3]

April events

• April 1  - The Prince and Princess of Wales (Charles and Diana) open Heathrow Terminal 4 tube station on London Underground's Piccadilly line. Trains do not start serving the station until April 12, when the corresponding terminal starts handling flights.^[4]

June events

• June 1  - The Amsterdam–Schiphol railway is opened by Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

July events

• July 24  - The Interstate Commerce Commission denies the merger of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific,^[5] citing an excessive amount of parallel track as one reason for the denial.
• July 26  - The Lockington rail crash at Lockington, Humberside, England occurs when a van is struck on a level crossing. Eight passengers on the train, and a boy of 11 in the van, lose their lives.

September events

• September 5  - The Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad begins operations in Minnesota and South Dakota.
• September 5  - Portland, Oregon's light rail system, MAX, opens for service.^[6]
• September 8  - The Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad becomes the last common carrier freight railroad in America to cease using steam locomotives as primary power when the dry-pipe in its Canadian Locomotive Company 2-8-0 No. 17 steamer collapses.
• September 14 – The Toei Shinjuku Line is extended from Funabori to Shinozaki in Tokyo, Japan; the third extension of the line since opening in 1978.^[7]
• September 19  - Two high speed trains collide near Rugeley, Staffordshire, England, in the Colwich rail crash; the driver of one of the two trains was the only fatality of this accident.

October events

• October 1 – Opening of the first phase of the Kintetsu Keihanna Line in Osaka, Japan, between Nagata Station and Ikoma Station.
• October 31  - Closure of the "Corkickle Brake" serving a chemical works at Whitehaven, Cumbria, the last commercially operated standard gauge cable railway in the United Kingdom.^[8]

November events

• November 11  - Preserved steam locomotive British Railways Standard class 8 71000 Duke of Gloucester is recommissioned on the Great Central Railway following a 13-year restoration from part-dismantled condition.^[9]
• November 15  - Australia's well known steam locomotive 3801 is recommissioned at the Hunter Valley Training Company in New South Wales.^[10]
• November 21  - The Florida Central Railroad begins operations in Florida, United States.
• November 27  - Oslo Central Station in Oslo, Norway is taken into use.

December events

• December 30  - The Trans-Gabon Railway is completed.

Deaths

July deaths

• July 14  - Raymond Loewy, industrial designer who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad designing the shape of equipment such as the GG1 (born 1893).

References

• Web site: April 3, 2005 . Significant dates in Canadian railway history . August 6, 2005 . https://web.archive.org/web/20050905040306/http://www.railways.incanada.net/candate/candate.htm . September 5, 2005 . dead .
• Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005), This Month in Railroad History: July. Retrieved July 22, 2005.

Notes and References

1. Book: Marsden, Colin J.. Foster Yeoman  - The Rail Story. Channel AV Publishing. Bournemouth. 1998. 1-901419-03-7.
2. Web site: http://www.jreast.co.jp/estation/station/info.aspx?StationCd=874. ja:各駅情報(新習志野駅). Station Information (Shin-Narashino Station). East Japan Railway Company. Japan. Japanese. September 2, 2012.
3. Web site: Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. This month in railroad history: March. March 24, 2006. 24 March 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060417075629/http://avenue.org/nrhs/histmar.htm. April 17, 2006. live. mdy.
4. Book: Green, Oliver. The London Underground - An Illustrated History. Ian Allan Publishing. 1988. 63. 0-7110-1720-4.
5. http://original.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/568/40106/september-1986-page-4 "Santa Fe-SP Merger Denied by ICC Vote"
6. Koberstein, Paul (September 7, 1986). "Riders swamp light rail as buses go half-full and schedules go by the way". The Oregonian, p. A1.
7. Web site: 東京都交通局,交通局について,都営地下鉄 . History of the Transportation Bureau . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20240223031608/https://www.kotsu.metro.tokyo.jp/about/ayumi/subway.html . 23 February 2024 . 12 July 2024 . kotsu.metro.tokyo.jp . ja.
8. The Corkickle Brake. Industrial Railway Record. 111. December 1987. 169–81.
9. Book: King, Peter. 71000 Duke of Gloucester  - the impossible dream. 1987. Ian Allan Publishing. Shepperton. 0-7110-1753-0.
10. 3801 Hits the Tracks Again State Wide December 1986 page 1