1986 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1986.

[edit] Events

[edit] January events

• January 1 – The Soo Line Railroad fully absorbs the Milwaukee Road after attempting to operate it as a subsidiary railroad.
• January 3 – Vancouver's SkyTrain begins operations between the waterfront and New Westminster.

[edit] February events

• February 8 – 23 people are killed in the Hinton train collision when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a Canadian National Railway freight train near Hinton, Alberta.
• February 17 – Class 59 Co-Co diesel locomotives built by EMD for Foster Yeoman introduced into heavy freight service on British Rail, the first US-built (and privately-owned) diesel locomotives to operate regularly on the English network.^[1]

[edit] March events

• March 25 – Conrail makes its initial public offering of stock starting at $28 per share.^[2]

[edit] July events

• July 24 – The United States Interstate Commerce Commission denies the merger of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroad citing an excessive amount of parallel track as one reason for the denial.

[edit] September events

• September 5 – The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad begins operations in Minnesota and South Dakota.
• September 19 – Two high speed trains collide near Rugeley, Staffordshire, England, in the Colwich rail crash; the driver of one of the two trains was the only fatality of this accident.

[edit] October events

• October 31 – Closure of the "Corkickle Brake" serving a chemical works at Whitehaven, Cumbria, the last commercially operated standard gauge cable railway in the United Kingdom.^[3]

[edit] November events

• November 11 – Preserved steam locomotive British Railways Standard class 8 71000 Duke of Gloucester is officially recommissioned to service on the Great Central Railway following a 13-year restoration from part-dismantled condition.^[4]
• November 15 – Australia's well known steam locomotive 3801 is recommissioned at the Hunter Valley Training Company in NSW.
• November 21 – The Florida Central Railroad begins operations in Florida, United States.
• November 27 – Oslo Central Station in Oslo, Norway is taken into use.

[edit] December events

• December 30 – The Trans-Gabon Railway is completed.

[edit] Deaths

[edit] July deaths

• July 14 – Raymond Loewy, industrial designer who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad designing the shape of equipment such as the GG1 (b. 1893).

[edit] References

• "Significant dates in Canadian railway history" (April 3, 2005). Retrieved on 2005-08-06.
• Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005), This Month in Railroad History: July. Retrieved July 22, 2005.