1946 in rail transport
Encyclopedia

January events

  • January 1 - The Lichfield rail crash
    Lichfield rail crash
    On New Year's Day 1946 Lichfield Trent Valley station in Staffordshire, England was the site of a rail crash in which 20 people were killed. The disaster was caused by a points failure which routed the 14:50 fish express from Fleetwood to London Broad Street consisting of seven four-wheel fish vans...

     in England kills 20 people.
  • January 18 - The Harvey Girls
    The Harvey Girls
    The Harvey Girls is a 1946 MGM musical film based on a 1942 novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams about Fred Harvey's famous Harvey House restaurants. Directed by George Sidney, the film stars Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury, Virginia O'Brien, Ray Bolger, and Marjorie Main...

    , a movie starring Judy Garland
    Judy Garland
    Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

     and Ray Bolger
    Ray Bolger
    Raymond Wallace "Ray" Bolger was an American entertainer of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of the Scarecrow and Kansas farmworker Hank in The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...

     and set in a Harvey House Hotel
    Fred Harvey Company
    The origin of the Fred Harvey Company can be traced to the 1875 opening of two railroad eating houses located at Wallace, Kansas and Hugo, Colorado on the Kansas Pacific Railway. These cafés were opened by Fred Harvey, then a freight agent for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad...

    , makes its American debut. The movie will win a Best Song Oscar
    Academy Awards
    An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

     for Johnny Mercer
    Johnny Mercer
    John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...

    ’s “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe
    On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe
    "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" is a popular song which refers to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It was written for the 1946 film, The Harvey Girls, where it was sung by Judy Garland. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year.The music was written by Harry...

    ”.
  • January 21 - The Hull Electric Railway in Ottawa
    Ottawa
    Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

     is fined $
    Canadian dollar
    The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...

    50 for violating a local law against moving freight on the city streets between midnight and 5:00 AM when it was delivering loads to oil companies along Laurier Avenue.

February events

  • February 1 - Henry G. Ivatt is promoted to Chief Mechanical Engineer
    Chief Mechanical Engineer
    Chief Mechanical Engineer and Locomotive Superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotives and rolling stock...

     of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
    London, Midland and Scottish Railway
    The London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...

    , succeeding Charles Fairburn
    Charles Fairburn
    Charles Edward Fairburn was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.- Biography :...

    .
  • February 20 - Pullman Standard delivers the first passenger car built after World War II
    World War II
    World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

    .

March events

  • March 29 - The north end of Ottawa
    Ottawa
    Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

    's Interprovincial Bridge is destroyed by fire, severing Château Laurier
    Château Laurier
    The Fairmont Château Laurier is a landmark hotel in Downtown Ottawa, Ontario located near the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive designed in the Châteauesque style.-History:...

     from Hull Electric Railway passenger service.

April events

  • April 5 - The Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway Act is amended by the Ontario government, to change the name of the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway to the Ontario Northland Railway
    Ontario Northland Railway
    The Ontario Northland Railway is a Canadian railway operated by the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, a provincial Crown agency of the government of Ontario....

    .
  • April 26 - Naperville train disaster
    Naperville train disaster
    The Naperville train disaster occurred on April 26, 1946, at the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad station in Naperville, Illinois when the railroad's Exposition Flyer rammed into the Advance Flyer, which had made an unscheduled stop to check its running gear. The Exposition Flyer had been...

     in Naperville, Illinois
    Naperville, Illinois
    Naperville is a city in DuPage and Will Counties in Illinois in the United States, voted the second best place to live in the United States by Money Magazine in 2006. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 141,853. It is the fifth largest city in the state, behind Chicago,...

    , United States
    United States
    The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

    : Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
    Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
    The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the Burlington Route served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,...

    's Advance Flyer, stopped in the station, is rammed by the railroad's Exposition Flyer. 45 killed, more than 100 injured.

May events

  • May 17 - President Harry Truman seizes control of the railroads to prevent a nationwide strike
    Strike action
    Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

    .
  • May 30 - After a short strike
    Strike action
    Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

     earlier in the month, Hudson and Manhattan Railroad trainmen go on strike again when the Pennsylvania Railroad
    Pennsylvania Railroad
    The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....

     (which owned the H&M at this time) management decides that the recent PRR pay increase does not apply to H&M employees.

June events

  • June 20 - First use of a Public Address system on a passenger train for station announcements. The system was installed in a New York City
    New York City
    New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

     subway car.

July events

  • July - General Motors Electro-Motive Division
    General Motors Electro-Motive Division
    Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc., also referred to as "EMD", is a wholly owned subsidiary of Progress Rail Services Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., that designs, manufactures and sells diesel-electric locomotives and diesel power engines worldwide under the Electro-Motive...

     introduces the EMD F2
    EMD F2
    The EMD F2 was a freight-hauling diesel locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between July 1946 and November 1946. It succeeded the FT model in GM-EMD's F-unit sequence, and was replaced in turn by the F3...

    .
  • July 1 - Opening of replacement Hawkesbury River Railway Bridge
    Hawkesbury River Railway Bridge
    The Hawkesbury River Railway Bridge spans the Hawkesbury River just north of the town of Brooklyn on the northern outskirts of Sydney, Australia...

     north of Sydney
    Sydney
    Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

    , Australia
    Australia
    Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

    .

August events

  • August 10 - The Pere Marquette Railroad inaugurates the Pere Marquette
    Pere Marquette (passenger train)
    Pere Marquette is a passenger train service operated by Amtrak as part of its Michigan Services. The 176-mile line connects Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois. Pere Marquette is funded in part by the Michigan Department of Transportation...

    passenger train between Detroit
    Detroit, Michigan
    Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

     and Grand Rapids, Michigan
    Grand Rapids, Michigan
    Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...

    .
  • August 24 - The Boston and Maine Railroad
    Boston and Maine Railroad
    The Boston and Maine Corporation , known as the Boston and Maine Railroad until 1964, was the dominant railroad of the northern New England region of the United States for a century...

     replaces electric locomotive
    Electric locomotive
    An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or an on-board energy storage device...

     operation through the Hoosac Tunnel
    Hoosac Tunnel
    The Hoosac Tunnel is a 4.75-mile-long railroad tunnel in western Massachusetts which passes through the Hoosac Range, an extension of Vermont's Green Mountains. Work began in 1848 and was finally completed in 1875...

     with diesel locomotive
    Diesel locomotive
    A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

    s.
  • August 27 - The last T1
    PRR T1
    The Pennsylvania Railroad's 52 T1 class duplex-drive 4-4-4-4 steam locomotives, introduced in 1942 and 1946 , were their last-built steam locomotives and their most controversial. They were ambitious, technologically sophisticated, powerful, fast, and uniquely streamlined by Raymond Loewy...

     class steam locomotive
    Steam locomotive
    A 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...

     built by Baldwin Locomotive Works
    Baldwin Locomotive Works
    The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally, and later in nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as a producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of...

     for Pennsylvania Railroad
    Pennsylvania Railroad
    The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....

     enters service.

September events

  • September 29 - The Illinois Central Railroad
    Illinois Central Railroad
    The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...

     fully dieselizes all passenger trains that it is operating between Chicago, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri
    St. Louis, Missouri
    St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

    .

December events

  • December 7 - The power car from the M-10002
    M-10002
    The Union Pacific Railroad's M-10002 was a diesel-electric streamliner train built in 1936 by Pullman-Standard with a prime mover from the Winton engine division of General Motors Corporation and General Electric generator, control equipment and traction motors...

     streamliner
    Streamliner
    A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles...

     trainset is sold to Northrup-Hendy for gas turbine
    Gas turbine
    A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....

     train testing.
  • December 8 - General Motors Electro-Motive Division
    General Motors Electro-Motive Division
    Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc., also referred to as "EMD", is a wholly owned subsidiary of Progress Rail Services Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., that designs, manufactures and sells diesel-electric locomotives and diesel power engines worldwide under the Electro-Motive...

     introduces the EMD NW5
    EMD NW5
    The EMD NW5 was a 1,000 hp road switcher diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division of La Grange, Illinois between December 1946 and February 1947....

    .
  • December 23 - 8,872,244 ride the New York City subway
    New York City Subway
    The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...

     system, the current one-day record.

Unknown date events

  • Vulcan Foundry
    Vulcan Foundry
    Vulcan Foundry was a British locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire .-History:It was originally opened in 1832 as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches and crossings, and other ironwork following the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway...

     of Newton-le-Willows
    Newton-le-Willows
    Newton-le-Willows is a small market town within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it is situated about midway between the cities of Manchester and Liverpool, to the east of St Helens, to the north of Warrington and to the south of...

    , England
    England
    England 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...

    , builds 120 Liberation Class
    Liberation Class
    The Liberation Class was a class of 2-8-0 steam locomotives designed for heavy freight work in post-Second World War Europe. 120 were built by the Vulcan Foundry of Newton-le-Willows in 1946....

     2-8-0
    2-8-0
    Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle , eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels...

     steam locomotive
    Steam locomotive
    A 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 to British
    United Kingdom
    The 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...

     Ministry of Supply
    Ministry of Supply
    The Ministry of Supply was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. There was, however, a separate ministry responsible for aircraft production and the Admiralty retained...

     order for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
    United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
    The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in 1943, it became part of the United Nations in 1945, was especially active in 1945 and 1946, and largely shut down...

     to supply to Eastern Europe
    Eastern Europe
    Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

    .
  • General Electric
    GE Transportation Systems
    GE Transportation, formerly known as GE Rail, is a division of General Electric. The organization manufactures equipment for the railroad, marine, mining, drilling and energy generation industries. It is based in Erie, Pennsylvania. Locomotives are assembled at the Erie plant, while engine...

     builds the electric locomotive
    Electric locomotive
    An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or an on-board energy storage device...

     model that will soon become known as the Little Joe
    Little Joe (electric locomotive)
    The Little Joe is a type of railroad electric locomotive built by General Electric for export to the Soviet Union in 1946. The locomotives had twelve axles, eight of them powered, in a 2-D+D-2 arrangement...

    .
  • André Chapelon
    André Chapelon
    André Chapelon was a noted French mechanical engineer and designer of advanced steam locomotives. Engineer of Ecole Centrale Paris, he was one of very few locomotive designers who brought a rigorous scientific method to their design, and he sought to apply up-to-date knowledge and theories in...

    ’s 4-8-4 SNCF 242A1 prototype compound locomotive
    Compound locomotive
    A compound engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages.A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure cylinder, then having given up heat and losing pressure, it exhausts directly into one or more larger...

     is completed in France
    France
    The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

    ; it goes on to achieve extraordinary power outputs and efficiencies in coal and water use.
  • John W. Barriger III
    John W. Barriger III
    John Walker Barriger III was an American railroad executive; he successively led the Monon Railroad, Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and the Boston and Maine Railroad...

     becomes president of the Monon Railroad
    Monon Railroad
    The Monon Railroad , also known as the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway from 1897–1956, operated almost entirely within the state of Indiana...

    .
  • The Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad
    Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad
    The Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad was organized in 1926 to replace the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway. The AB&C was controlled by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, which owned a majority of the stock. In 1946, the AB&C was bought by the ACL and the became the latter company's...

     is merged into the Atlantic Coast Line
    Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
    The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was an American railroad that existed between 1900 and 1967, when it merged with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, its long-time rival, to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad...

    .
  • The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, under the direction of Robert R. Young
    Robert R. Young
    Robert Ralph Young was a United States financier and industrialist. He is best-known for leading the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and New York Central Railroad during and after World War II. He was a brother-in-law of the famous western painter Georgia O'Keeffe.Because of his initials, R.R...

    , places the largest single passenger car order with Pullman-Standard for nearly 300 cars. These cars entered service beginning in 1950.

March deaths

  • March 21 - Oliver Robert Hawke Bury
    Oliver Robert Hawke Bury
    Oliver Robert Hawke Bury , was an English railway engineer, chief mechanical engineer on the Great Western Railway of Brazil, General Manager of the Great Northern Railway in England and Director of the London and North Eastern Railway.Bury, the son of a barrister, was educated at Westminster School...

    , Chief mechanical engineer
    Chief Mechanical Engineer
    Chief Mechanical Engineer and Locomotive Superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotives and rolling stock...

     and manager of Great Western Railway of Brazil 1892–1894, general manager of the Great Northern Railway
    Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)
    The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....

     in England
    England
    England 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...

     1902–1912, Director of the London and North Eastern Railway
    London and North Eastern Railway
    The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...

     1912–1945 (b. 1861).

November deaths

  • November 10 - Patrick H. Joyce
    Patrick H. Joyce
    Patrick H. "Pat" Joyce was an American railroad executive. He acted as chairman, president and trustee of the Chicago Great Western Railway between 1931 and 1946.-Notes:# Chicago Daily Tribune November 11, 1946....

    , president of Chicago Great Western Railway
    Chicago Great Western Railway
    The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the Iowa state line called the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad...

    1931-1946, dies (b. 1879).
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