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1917 in rail transport
Events
January events
January 3 -
Ratho rail crash
in Scotland:
North British Railway
H class
locomotive 874
Dunedin
, in charge of an
Edinburgh
to
Glasgow
express train, collides with a
light engine
at Queensferry Junction near
Ratho Station
, leaving 12 people dead and 46 seriously injured; the cause is found to be inadequate signalling procedures.
February events
February 27 - The
Milwaukee Road
completes the electrification of its line from
Harlowton, Montana
, to
Avery, Idaho
.
March events
March 9 - Official opening of the
Hell Gate Bridge
in
New York City
.
March 12 - The
Pere Marquette Railroad
is reincorporated as the
Pere Marquette Railway
.
March 19 - The
United States Supreme Court
upholds the
eight-hour workday
for railroads.
April events
April 3âÂÂ16 (
NS
) -
Vladimir Lenin
journeys from
Switzerland
across
Germany
by so-called "
sealed train
", eventually arriving to a tumultuous reception at
Finland Station
in
Petrograd
to play a leading role in the
Russian Revolution
.
April 21 -
Colorado Midland
declares
bankrupt
cy for the second and final time.
May events
May 9 - Completion of the 784 km-long railway line linking the port of
Djibouti
in
French Somaliland
to
Addis Ababa
, the capital of
Ethiopia
.
July events
July 31
The
Chesapeake & Ohio Railway
opens the
Sciotoville Bridge
across the
Ohio River
in the United States to rail traffic. It has a
continuous truss
across two 775-foot (236 m) spans, the world's longest until 1945.
Simbei Kunisawa
succeeds
Yujiro Nakamura
as president of
South Manchuria Railway
.
September
September 24 - The
Bere Ferrers rail accident
in England kills 10 New Zealand soldiers.
October events
October â First
North British Railway
C Class
steam locomotive
s are allocated from Scotland for loan to the British
Royal Engineers
'
Railway Operating Division
on the
Western Front (World War I)
.
October 22 â Opening of
Trans-Australian Railway
, 1051.7 miles (1692.6 km) of
standard gauge
between
Port Augusta
in
South Australia
and
Kalgoorlie
in
Western Australia
(heads of steel meet on 17 October). In crossing of the
Nullarbor Plain
the line runs for 309 miles (497 km) without a curve, the worldâÂÂs longest railway straight.
October 23 - The
Canadian Railway War Board
(predecessor of the
Railway Association of Canada
) meets for the first time at
Windsor Station
,
Montreal
.
November events
November 1 – Takatoku station, now known as
Shin-Takatoku Station
on
Tobu Railway
's
Kinugawa Line
in
Nikkà Â, Tochigi
,
Japan
, is opened.
December events
December 3 - The longest
cantilever bridge
in the world,
Canadian National
's
Quebec Bridge
across the
St. Lawrence River
near
Quebec City
, opens for rail traffic after nearly 20 years of planning and construction including two partial collapses.
December 12 -
Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment
, on the
CulozâÂÂModane railway
in the
French
Alps
, a grossly overloaded troop train jumps the tracks near the entrance of the station at
Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne
, after running away down a steep gradient from the entrance to the
Fréjus Rail Tunnel
due to inadequate brake power. At least 543 are killed, hundreds more are injured by the official count; the actual count is assumed to be considerably higher. Until 1981 this was the worst train wreck in history.
December 26 -
United States
President
Woodrow Wilson
uses the
Federal Possession and Control Act
to nationalize American railroads under the
United States Railroad Administration
during
World War I
.
December 28 - The
United States Railroad Administration
officially takes control of
American
railroads.
Unknown date events
The Tanana Valley Railroad in
Fairbanks, Alaska
(a predecessor of the
Alaska Railroad
) enters receivership.
The
Arcade and Attica Railroad
is incorporated.
Estación Constitución
in
Buenos Aires
,
Argentina
, opens.
The
Hershey Electric Railway
in
Cuba
opens.
Russia
's
Railway Worker Day
national holiday, established in 1886, is abolished under
Bolshevik
rule.
Births
Unknown date births
John Shedd Reed
, president of
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
1967-1986 (died 2008).
Deaths
October deaths
October 2 -
William Sykes
,
English
railway signalling
engineer (born 1840).
References