1820 in rail transport
Encyclopedia
Events
- May 1 - The Kington TramwayKington TramwayThe Kington Tramway was an early narrow gauge horse tramway that linked limestone quarries at Burlinjob in Radnorshire to Eardisley in Herefordshire.-Parliamentary authorisation, construction and opening:...
, a horse-worked platewayPlatewayA plateway is an early kind of railway or tramway or wagonway, with a cast iron rail. They were mainly used for about 50 years up to 1830, though some continued later....
, is opened from EardisleyEardisleyEardisley is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire about south of the centre of Kington. Eardisley is in the Wye valley in the northwest of the county, close to the border with Wales....
to Kington, HerefordshireKington, HerefordshireKington is a market town and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,597.-Location:Kington is near the Wales-England border and, despite being on the western side of Offa's Dyke, has been English for over a thousand years. The town is in the...
, EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Together with the Hay RailwayHay RailwayThe Hay Railway was an early Welsh narrow gauge horse tramwaythat connected Eardisley Hay-on-Wye with Watton Wharf on the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal.-Parliamentary authorisation, construction and opening:...
it forms a continuous system 36 miles (45 km) in length, the longest in the United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
at this date. - October - John BirkinshawJohn BirkinshawJohn Birkinshaw was a 19th Century railway engineer from Bedlington, Northumberland noted for his invention of wrought iron rails in 1820. Up to this point, rail systems had used either wooden rails, which were totally incapable of supporting steam engines, or cast iron rails typically only 3 feet...
of BedlingtonBedlingtonBedlington is a town in Northumberland, to the north of the Tyne and Wear urban area. It lies north of Newcastle and southeast of the county town of Morpeth. Other nearby places include Ashington to the north northeast, Blyth to the east and Cramlington to the south.The parish of Bedlington...
Ironworks patentPatentA patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s improvements in the production of wrought ironWrought ironthumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
rails. - Thomas Gray publishes his first of five editions of Observations on a General Iron Railway, a book that accelerates the British debate on this means of transportation and promotes the concept of a national rail networkRail transportRail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
.
January births
- January 21 - Egide WalschaertsEgide WalschaertsEgide Walschaerts was a Belgian mechanical engineer, best known as the inventor of the Walschaerts valve gear for use in steam locomotives.He was born in Belgium at Fl. Mechelen...
, BelgianBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
inventor of a steam locomotiveSteam locomotiveA steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
valve gear (d. 1901).
April births
- April 8 - John Taylor JohnstonJohn Taylor JohnstonJohn Taylor Johnston was born on April 8, 1820, the son of John Johnston, a prominent merchant banker in New York City. Johnston was the founding president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870, as well as the President of the Central Railroad of New Jersey from 1848 to 1877...
, president of the Central Railroad of New JerseyCentral Railroad of New JerseyThe Central Railroad of New Jersey , commonly known as the Jersey Central Lines or CNJ, was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s, lasting until 1976 when it was absorbed into Conrail with the other bankrupt railroads of the Northeastern United States...
, 1848–1877 (d. 1893).
May births
- May 2 - Robert GerwigRobert GerwigRobert Gerwig was a German civil engineer.Gerwig was born on 2 May 1820 and attended the Großherzogliches Polytechnikum where he studied civil engineering, primarily road construction....
, GermanGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
civil engineerCivil engineerA civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
, designer of Schwarzwald Railway and the Hell Valley Railway (d. 1885).
July births
- July 31 - John W. GarrettJohn W. GarrettJohn Work Garrett was an American banker, philanthropist, and president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ....
, president of the Baltimore and Ohio RailroadBaltimore and Ohio RailroadThe Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...
from 1858 (d. 1884).
August births
- August 6 - Donald SmithDonald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount RoyalSir Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, GCMG, GCVO, PC, DL was a Scottish-born Canadian fur trader, financier, railroad baron and politician.-Early life:...
, afterwards Lord Strathcona, ScottishScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
financier, promoter of the Canadian Pacific RailwayCanadian Pacific RailwayThe Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
(d. 1914).
September births
- September 20 - Alfred BelpaireAlfred BelpaireAlfred Jules Belpaire was a Belgian locomotive engineer who invented the square-topped Belpaire firebox in 1860....
, BelgianBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
inventor of the Belpaire fireboxBelpaire fireboxThe Belpaire firebox is a type of firebox used on steam locomotives. It was invented by Alfred Belpaire of Belgium. It has a greater surface area at the top of the firebox, improving heat transfer and steam production...
used on steam locomotiveSteam locomotiveA steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
s (d. 1893).
Unknown death dates
- James BeattyJames Beatty (engineer)James Beatty was an Irish railway engineer.The son of a doctor from Enniskillen, Beatty was first employed in 1842 at the age of 22 by Peto and Betts on building the Norwich and Lowestoft line. In 1853 he was in Nova Scotia surveying the European and North American Railway and despite adverse...
, Irish engineer who was involved in building the European and North American RailwayEuropean and North American RailwayThe European and North American Railway is the name for three historic Canadian and American railways which were built in New Brunswick and Maine....
and the Grand Crimean Central RailwayGrand Crimean Central RailwayThe Grand Crimean Central Railway was built in 1855 during the Crimean War. Its purpose was to supply ammunition and provisions to Allied soldiers engaged in the siege of Sevastopol who were stationed on a plateau between Balaclava and Sevastopol...
(d. 1856)