This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1864.
Events
editJanuary events
edit- The Central Pacific Railroad hires its first Chinese workers. One of them, Hung Wah, will go on to command the largest and longest-working work crew on the CPRR.[1]
- January 10 – The Illinois Central, Columbus and Indianapolis and Richmond and Covington railroads sign an agreement for joint operation as the Great Central Line between Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana, headed by the Indiana Central Railway.
- January 13 – Samuel C. Pomeroy succeeds Cyrus K. Holliday as president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
- January 16 – The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad is completed to San Jose, California.[2]
June events
edit- The first railway track in Indonesia was laid between Semarang and Tanggung, Central Java by the Dutch colonial government.[3]
- June 3 – The first revenue trains operate over the Central Pacific Railroad between Sacramento, California and Newcastle, California.
- June 29 – St-Hilaire train disaster, Beloeil, Quebec, Canada: 99 killed when an immigrant train fails to stop at an open swing bridge and falls into the Richelieu River.
July events
edit- July – Samuel Marsh succeeds Nathaniel Marsh for a second term as president of the Erie Railroad.[4]
- July 2 – The Northern Pacific Railway is chartered to build a northern transcontinental railroad in the United States.
- July 9 – Franz Muller kills Thomas Briggs in a North London Railway train, the first British railway murder.[5]
August events
edit- August 24 - The United States Postal Service inaugurates the first railway post office route in the United States when Chicago Assistant Postmaster George B. Armstrong authorizes the route on the Chicago and North Western Railway between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa.[6]
- August 25 - The San Francisco and Alameda Railroad begins operation between Alameda Terminal and San Leandro, California.[7]
October events
edit- October – Robert H. Berdell succeeds Samuel Marsh as president of the Erie Railroad.[4]
Unknown date events
edit- Cornelius Vanderbilt acquires the Hudson River Railroad.
- Murray, Dougal and Company, later to become part of American Car and Foundry, is founded in Milton, Pennsylvania.
Births
editFebruary births
edit- February 6 – George Jay Gould I, eldest son of Jay Gould, president of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and the Western Pacific Railroad (d. 1923).
June births
edit- June 8 – Herbert William Garratt, English steam locomotive builder and inventor of the Garratt locomotive type (d. 1913).[8]
July births
edit- July 15 – Franklin Knight Lane, Interstate Commerce Commission commissioner 1905–1913, chairman of same in 1913, is born (d. 1921).
October births
edit- October 23 – Victor Spencer, 1st Viscount Churchill, chairman of the Great Western Railway (Great Britain) 1908–1934 (d. 1934).
Deaths
editUnknown date deaths
edit- Stephen H. Long, American steam locomotive mechanical engineer who helped build the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (b. 1784).
References
edit- Waters, Lawrence Leslie (1950). Steel Trails to Santa Fe. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press.
- White, John H. History of the American locomotive.
- ^ Chew, Wm. F. "Nameless Builders of the Transcontinental Railroad" (PDF)., pp. 37 ff. 2004.
- ^ "Grand Celebration of the Opening of the San Jose Railroad". Daily Alta California. Vol. 16, no. 5070. 17 January 1864. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
- ^ Hamdani, Sylviana (3 February 2010). "Taking a Train Trip Down Memory Lane in Indonesia". Jakarta Globe. Archived from the original on 7 October 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
- ^ a b "Erie Railroad presidents". Archived from the original on 18 March 2005. Retrieved March 15, 2005.
- ^ Irving, H. B. (1986). "The first railway murder". In Goodman, Jonathan (ed.). The Railway Murders. London: Sphere. pp. 13–35. ISBN 0-7221-3871-7.
- ^ "History of the United States Postal Service 1775–1993: The Postal Role in U.S. Development". United States Postal Service. Archived from the original on August 15, 2005. Retrieved August 28, 2005.
- ^ Evanosky, Dennis (Fall 2015). "Failed Railroad led to Thriving Ferry Service" (PDF). Alameda Museum Quarterly. No. 4. Alameda Museum. pp. 1–3.
- ^ "Herbert William Garratt". April 27, 2004. Retrieved February 9, 2005.