1856 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1856.

Events

January – Opening throughout of first railroad in Africa and the Middle East, from Alexandria to Cairo, Egypt (208 km or 129 mi).^[1]^{[page needed]}^[2]
January 29 – The 223-mile North Carolina Railroad is completed from Goldsboro through Raleigh and Salisbury to Charlotte.^[3]

March 23 or 26 – Cambridge Railroad street railway opens in Boston (United States), giving the city the world's oldest continuously working streetcar system.

April 19 – Death of American locomotive builder Thomas Rogers, following which his son, Jacob S. Rogers, reorganizes Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor as Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works.
April 21 – The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River opens between Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.^[4]

May 1 – First section of Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway opens, between Ankleshwar and Utran.^[5]
May 6 – The newly constructed sidewheeler Effie Afton runs into one of the supports for the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River, causing a fire that destroys the bridge just two weeks after it had opened.^[4]

July 14 – The Rome and Frascati Rail Road opens for service.
July 17 – The Great Train Wreck (the worst railroad calamity in the world up to this date) occurs near Philadelphia in the United States.

September 16 – Tarragona–Reus line in Spain opens.
September 21 – The Illinois Central Railroad connects Chicago to Cairo, Illinois, completing 700 miles (1,126 km) of track to become the longest railway in the United States.
September 22 – The Oriental Railway Company is granted the concession to build the first railway in Turkey, from İzmir to Aydın.

October 23 – The line that is now Belgian railway line 161 is completed and opened connecting Brussels-North and Namur stations.^[7]
October 28 – Opening of first railway in Portugal, from Lisbon to Carregado (37 km or 23 mi).^[1]^{[page needed]}

December 1 – Opening of first steam-operated passenger railways in Sweden, from Gothenburg to Jonsered (15 km or 9.3 mi) and Malmö to Lund (17 km or 11 mi).^[1]^{[page needed]}

February 2 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, director of the New York Central system (d. 1938).

December 30 – Sam Fay, General manager of the Great Central Railway of England, 1902–1922 (d. 1953).^[8]

March 11 – James Beatty, Irish engineer who was involved in building the European and North American Railway and the Grand Crimean Central Railway (b. 1820).

April 19 – Thomas Rogers, American steam locomotive builder, dies in New York (b. 1792).^[9]
April 20 – Robert L. Stevens, president of Camden and Amboy Railroad (b. 1787).^[10]

Rivanna Chapter National Railway Historical Society (2005), This month in railroad history: September. Retrieved September 21, 2005.
White, John H. Jr. (1968). A history of the American locomotive; its development: 1830–1880. New York, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-23818-0.

^ ^a ^b ^c Marshall, John (1989). The Guinness Railway Book. Enfield: Guinness Books. ISBN 0-8511-2359-7. OCLC 24175552.
^ Raafat, Jordan (1998-03-05). "Desert Train Heralds Train Tourism In Egypt". Jordan Star. Archived from the original on 2006-12-07. Retrieved 2007-03-18.
^ "Railroads — prior to the Civil War". North Carolina Business History. 2006. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
^ ^a ^b Willard, John (2006-01-31). "Dinner marks 150th birthday of the first railroad crossing on the Mississippi". Quad City Times. Retrieved 2006-01-31.
^ Saxena, R. P. (2008). "Indian Railway History Time Line". Archived from the original on 2012-02-29. Retrieved 2009-12-23.
^ Lind, Alan R. (1986). Limiteds Along the Lakefront: The Illinois Central in Chicago. Park Forest, IL: Transport History Press. pp. 5–7. OCLC 20171887.
^ "Ligne 161: Bruxelles-Nord – Namur". Chemins de fer Belges (in Dutch).
^ Dow, George (1965). Great Central, Vol. 3: Fay sets the pace 1900–1922. London: Locomotive Publishing Co.
^ Marshall, John (2003). Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers. Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 0-901461-22-9.
^ "American engineers". steamindex.com. 5 May 2020. Stevens, Robert Livingston. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
^ "John Urpeth Rastrick". steamindex.com. 12 August 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2024.