1896 in rail transport

Years in rail transport

* 1895 in rail transport
* 1896 in rail transport
* 1897 in rail transport

Timeline of railway history

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1896.

## Events

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### January events

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* January 23 – Construction begins on the Northwestern Elevated Railroad of the Chicago "L" with the first structure erected at the intersection of Fullerton and Sheffield Avenues.[1]

### February events

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* February 14 – Northern Pacific Railway opens its Union Station in Portland, Oregon.
* February 19 – Braamfontein Explosion: A train carrying 56 tons of dynamite explodes at Braamfontein, Johannesburg, killing more than 78 people.[2]
* February 24 – Erie Railroad purchases the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad.[3]

### March events

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* March 20 – The Grand Trunk Railway purchases the Central Vermont Railway and begins operating it as a wholly owned subsidiary.

### April events

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* April 6 – The Snowdon Mountain Railway in North Wales, the only Abt rack system line in the British Isles, commences public operation; however, a derailment leading to one fatality causes services to be suspended for a year.[4]
* April 15 – Passenger rail service of the Henry Flagler Florida East Coast Railway arrives at its new terminus in Miami from West Palm Beach at the persuasion of Julia Tuttle; this quickly leads to incorporation of the city of Miami months later and extensive development of the Greater Miami, South Florida and the Keys.[5][6][7][8]

Budapest Metro

### May events

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* May 2 – Budapest Metro Line 1 (Hungary), the world's second, is opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.[9]
* May 9 – First Nord Express, Paris, France/Oostend, Belgium, to Saint Petersburg, Russia.
* May 13 – The Pretoria–Pietersburg Railway, a predecessor of the Central South African Railways, is incorporated in London.
* May 30 – Construction of the Uganda Railway starts at Mombasa.[10]

### June events

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* June 29 – The St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Company (predecessor of the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway) is incorporated.

### July events

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* July 23 – Delivery of world's first commercially-built oil-engined locomotive, from Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham, England to the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London (18 in (460 mm) gauge).[11]
* July 30 – Atlantic City rail crash: Shortly after 6:30 PM, at a crossing just west of Atlantic City, New Jersey, two trains collide, crushing five loaded passenger coaches, killing 50 and seriously injuring around 60.

### August events

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* August 14 – The Uganda Railway Act, 1896, is approved in the United Kingdom for construction of a railway in Africa from Mombasa to Lake Victoria.[12]

### September events

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* September 15 – The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad (the 'Katy') conveys 40,000 people to Crush, Texas to witness a staged train wreck as a publicity stunt arranged by its general passenger agent, William George Crush. Three spectators are accidentally killed.[13]

### October events

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* October 5 – Norwegian Railway Museum established at Hamar.[14]

### December events

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* December 14 – Glasgow Subway, the third oldest metro system in the world, begins operations in Glasgow, Scotland.
* December 25 – Japanese National Railways opens two lines out of Tabata: an extension of the Tsuchiura Line from Tsuchiura, and the Sumidagawa Line to Sumidagawa.
* December 30 – SS Pere Marquette, the first steel train ferry, makes its first voyage.

### Unknown date events

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* The Green Bay & Western Railroad is formed from the bankruptcy proceedings of the Green Bay, Winona and Saint Paul Railroad.
* The Loup Creek & Deepwater Railway (predecessor of the Deepwater Railway) is formed.
* Atlas Car & Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, begins building steam locomotives.
* Beyer, Peacock & Company of Manchester, England, deliver the first five New South Wales T524 class 'Australian Consolidation' 2-8-0 type heavy goods locomotives to the New South Wales Government Railways, forerunners of the system's numerically largest class, finally totalling 280 representatives.
* Narrow gauge Ferrocarril de Tacubaya begins passenger service to Mexico City's Tacubaya amusement park.[15]
* The first narrow gauge (750 mm) railway in Estonia connecting Valga with Pärnu is opened.[16]

## Deaths

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### January deaths

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* January 23 – Ferdinand Schichau, German mechanical engineer and founder of locomotive manufacturing company Schichau-Werke, dies (b. 1814).

### June deaths

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* June 4 – Austin Corbin, president of Long Island Rail Road (b. 1827).

### October deaths

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* October 21 – James Henry Greathead, English inventor of the tunnelling shield used for the London Underground (b. 1844).[17]

## References

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1. ^ Chicago "L".org, Northwestern Elevated (1893–1924). Retrieved January 23, 2006.
2. ^ The Great Dynamite Explosion, report by J. G. Blumberg, Fairmount School, Johannesburg, excerpt from the autobiography of Dutch immigrant Jan de Veer who came to South Africa in 1893.
3. ^ Western New York Railroad Archive (December 17, 2005), Erie Railroad – History Archived 2006-05-02 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 28, 2005.
4. ^ Kardas, Handel (April 1997). "Britain's worst railway opening day – Ladas and the Snowdon Mountain Railway". Railway World. 58 (683): 66–71.
5. ^ "The first train of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad arrived in Miami". Florida Historical Quarterly. Cocoa, Florida: Florida Historical Society. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
6. ^ Bramson, Seth (2003). Speedway to Sunshine: The Story of the Florida East Coast Railway. Boston Mills Press. pp. 145–. ISBN 978-1-55046-358-3.
7. ^ Burke, J. Wills (2004). The Streets of Key West: A History Through Street Names. Pineapple Press Inc. pp. 176–. ISBN 978-1-56164-317-2.
8. ^ Bramson, Seth H. (2007). Miami: The Magic City. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 130–. ISBN 978-0-7385-4368-0.
9. ^ The Millennium Subway Line of Budapest
10. ^ Miller, Charles (1971). The Lunatic Express. New York: Macdonald. ISBN 978-0-02-584940-2.
11. ^ Webb, Brian (1973). The British Internal Combustion Locomotive 1894–1940. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-6115-5.
12. ^ The Law Journal Reports for the Year 1896 (Stevens and Sons, Ltd., 1896), Volume 65. p. 247.
13. ^ Hamilton, Allen Lee. "Crash at Crush". Handbook of Texas. University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2007-04-15.
14. ^ "Norwegian Railway Museum – Hamar". Retrieved 2010-01-28.
15. ^ Best, Gerald M. (1968). Mexican Narrow Gauge. Howell-North.
16. ^ "Ajalugu" (in Estonian). Eesti Raudtee. Archived from the original on 2017-09-23. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
17. ^ Marshall, John (2003). Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers (2nd ed.). Oxford: Railway & Canal Historical Society. ISBN 0-901461-22-9.