Rail History

Patrick H. Joyce, president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1931-1946, dies (b. 1879).

Amtrak operates its first Roadrailer in regular revenue service hauled behind the Three Rivers from Chicago, Illinois, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1979 Mississauga train derailment A CP Rail train develops a hot box and derails 24 cars carrying hazardous materials near Mississauga, Ontario; almost 250,000 people are evacuated for up to five days at a time while cleanup commences.

Yatsumori Station in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, is opened.

Louis Brennan successfully demonstrates his gyroscopically-balanced monorail system, which he designed for military use and patented in 1903, at Gillingham, England.

Canada Atlantic Railway becomes the first Canadian railway to use steam from a train's locomotive to heat the passenger cars instead of coal or wood stoves in each car.

Chicago and North Western Railway reaches Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Canada's Great Western Railway opens the line from Hamilton, Ontario, to the suspension bridge at Niagara Falls.

Henry Clay Hall, commissioner for Interstate Commerce Commission beginning in 1914, chairman of same 1917-1928 (born 1860).

Charles Donnelly, president of Northern Pacific Railway 1920-1939, is born (d. 1939).

Henry Farnam, president of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad 1854–1863, is born (d. 1883).

The St. Thomas and Eastern Railway begins operations on a former Canadian National Railway branch line between St. Thomas and Delhi, Ontario.

Two passenger trains collide with a derailed freight train on the Tokaido Main Line in Yokohama, Japan; the Yokohama rail crash results in 161 deaths.

Canadian Pacific Railway introduces Budd Rail Diesel Car service, "Dayliners", for lighter passenger train duties on some branch lines.

Canadian National Railway extends the line from Lynn Lake to Sherridon, Manitoba.

Canadian National Railway's line to Lynn Lake, Manitoba, opens.

The 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway opens in India.