1946 in rail transport

Events

January events

• January 1 – The Lichfield rail crash in England kills 20 people.
• January 18 – The Harvey Girls, a movie starring Judy Garland and Ray Bolger and set in a Harvey House Hotel, makes its American debut. The movie will win a Best Song Oscar for Johnny Mercer’s “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe”.
• January 21 – The Hull Electric Railway in Ottawa is fined $50 for violating a local law against moving freight on the city streets between midnight and 5:00 <small>AM</small> when it was delivering loads to oil companies along Laurier Avenue.

February events

• February 1 – Henry G. Ivatt is promoted to Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, succeeding Charles Fairburn.
• February 20 – Pullman Standard delivers the first passenger car built after World War II.
• February 25 – The worst-ever train crash in Japan kills 184 people.

March events

• March 29 – The north end of Ottawa's Interprovincial Bridge is destroyed by fire, severing Château Laurier 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.
• April 25 – Naperville train disaster in Naperville, Illinois, United States: Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad'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.
• May 30 – After a short strike earlier in the month, Hudson and Manhattan Railroad trainmen go on strike again when the Pennsylvania Railroad (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 Subway car.

July events

• July – General Motors Electro-Motive Division introduces the EMD F2.
• July 1 – Opening of replacement Hawkesbury River Railway Bridge north of Sydney, Australia.

August events

• August 10 – The Pere Marquette Railway inaugurates the Pere Marquette passenger train between Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan, the first new postwar streamliner.
• August 14 – Fréjus Rail Tunnel reopened as reconstructed after wartime closure (first public train September 11).
• August 24 – The Boston and Maine Railroad replaces electric locomotive operation through the Hoosac Tunnel with diesel locomotives.
• August 27 – The last T1 class steam locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Pennsylvania Railroad enters service.

September events

• September – The first production ALCO PA diesel-electric units are delivered for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in the United States.
• September 29 – The Illinois Central Railroad fully dieselized all passenger trains that it is operating between Chicago, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri.

December events

• December 7 – The power car from the M-10002 streamliner trainset is sold to Northrup-Hendy for gas turbine train testing.
• December 8 – General Motors Electro-Motive Division introduces the EMD NW5.
• December 20 – Libyan section of Western Desert Extension Railway closed.
• December 23 – 8,872,244 ride the New York City Subway system, the current one-day record.

Unknown date events

• Vulcan Foundry of Newton-le-Willows, England, construct 120 Liberation Class 2-8-0 steam locomotives to British Ministry of Supply order for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to supply to Eastern Europe.
• United States builders construct 160 KD7 Class 2-8-0 steam locomotives for the UNRRA to supply to China Railway; a similar design is supplied as Class 29 to Belgian Railways.
• General Electric builds the electric locomotive model that will soon become known as the Little Joe.
• André Chapelon’s 4-8-4 SNCF 242A1 prototype compound locomotive is completed in France; it goes on to achieve extraordinary power outputs and efficiencies in coal and water use.
• John W. Barriger III becomes president of the Monon Railroad.
• The Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad is merged into the Atlantic Coast Line.
• The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, under the direction of Robert R. Young, places the largest single passenger car order with Pullman-Standard for nearly 300 cars. These cars entered service beginning in 1950.

Births

Deaths

March deaths

• March 21 – Oliver Bury, Chief mechanical engineer and manager of Great Western Railway of Brazil 1892&ndash;1894, general manager of the Great Northern Railway in England 1902&ndash;1912, Director of the GNR and London and North Eastern Railway 1912&ndash;1945 (born 1861).

November deaths

• November 10 – Patrick H. Joyce, president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1931–1946 (born 1879).

References

Sources

• Monon Railroad Historical and Technical Society (2004), History of the Monon. Retrieved February 9, 2005.
• Rivanna Chapter National Railway Historical Society (2005), This month in railroad history – August. Retrieved August 23, 2005.