Portal:Trains/Anniversaries/February 1/More

This article lists anniversary events related to rail transport that occurred on February 1.

Events

1860 – Stockholders and officials take an inaugural ride on the first Staten Island Railway line between Vanderbilt's Landing and Eltingville.^[1]
1862 – London and South Western Railway begins operations over an extension from Exeter to St Davids then via dual gauge track on the line from there to Crediton.^[2]

1912 – Stamford Brook station opens serving District Railway and London and South Western Railway trains.
1913 – New York City's Grand Central Station opens as the world's largest train station to date.
1933 – The San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway is incorporated and assumes all operations of the San Diego and Arizona Railway.
1946 – Henry G. Ivatt is promoted to Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, succeeding Charles Fairburn.
1968 – The Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad merge to form the Penn Central. Terms of the merger with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad have not yet been agreed with the Interstate Commerce Commission; in the interim, the Penn Central will financially support the New Haven.
1979 – The Southern Railway's Southern Crescent becomes Amtrak's Crescent as Southern discontinues independent passenger train service.
1988 – MBTA restores passenger train service to Rhode Island, but only during peak rush-hour times.
1995 – The last Algoma Central Railway train arrives at Steelton Yard in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, at 1:45 AM local time; Wisconsin Central takes ownership of the railway effective with the next train out of the yard at 2:45 AM.^[3]

2003 – A signal transmission failure leads to a passenger train not receiving a warning signal; the train crashes into a slow-moving freight train in the Dete train crash in Zimbabwe, about 90 miles (140 km) from Victoria Falls; 50 of the train's 1,100 passengers die in the accident.

^ Roess, Roger P.; Sansome, Gene (2013). The Wheels That Drove New York: A History of the New York City Transit System. Springer. pp. 223–247. ISBN 978-3-642-30484-2. Retrieved 4 October 2015 – via Google Books.
^ MacDermot, E.T. (1931). History of the Great Western Railway. Vol. II. London: Great Western Railway. pp. 159–160.
^ Gilchinski, Steve (May 1995). "New owners for the black bear". Trains Magazine: 17–18.