1951 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1951.

Events

January events

• January - Fairbanks-Morse and Canadian Locomotive Company introduce the H-16-66 diesel locomotive.
• January 11 - The San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway discontinues passenger train service.
• January 20 - Canadian Pacific Railway's eastbound The Dominion passenger train hits a truck at a level crossing in Ottawa; most of the train remains on the rails, but the engineer is fatally burned in the derailment.^[1]

February events

• February 6 - The Woodbridge train wreck, The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey killing 85 people and injuring over 500 more.
• February 25 - The Chicago Transit Authority's Milwaukee-Dearborn Subway (3.7 miles/6.0 km), Chicago's second subway route, is placed in operation. Milwaukee 'L' trains are routed into the subway between Division & Milwaukee and the Central Business District, using St. Louis-built 6000-Series rapid transit cars.

March events

• March 16 - The Doncaster rail crash in England kills 14.

April events

• April 14 - Southern Railway (India) created as the first zone of Indian Railways by merger of South Indian Railway, Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway and Mysore State Railway.^[2]
• April 24 - Sakuragichō train fire in Japan kills 106.

May events

Talyllyn Railway No. 2 Dolgoch at Abergynolwyn in 1951

• May 3 - General Motors Electro-Motive Division produces its first six-axle freight diesel locomotive, an SD7. It tours as demonstrator number 990 before being sold to the Southern Pacific Railroad, which numbers it 1518. It is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum.
• May 14 - Talyllyn Railway (Wales) reopened by Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society, generally reckoned to be the first such voluntary body to operate a railway.

June events

• June 7 - A commuter train collides with a truck carrying gasoline at a level crossing at Nova Iguacu in northwestern Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing at least 54.^[3]

July events

• July 22 - At Tatranská Lomnica, Czechoslovakia, in the Tatra Mountains, two ČSD passenger cars collide; 19 are killed.^[4]

August events

• The direction on station Finlyandsky Rail Terminal to Zelenogorsk station in Saint Petersburg Railway Division of the Oktyabrskaya Railway, Russia has been electrified. In 1 hour and 30 minutes electric power dispatcher gave command to bring the current in the contact network. In 1 hour 50 minutes en route to a trial trip off the first electric train.^[5]
• August 23 - The Cangkring (near Cirebon, Indonesia) train station is destroyed by fire.
• August 24 – GM1, the first mainline diesel-electric locomotive built in Australia, begins road trials prior to entering service with Commonwealth Railways on September 20. The locomotive, built by Clyde Engineering of Granville, New South Wales, is adapted by Fred Shea from the EMD F7 design with A1A-A1A bogie configuration.^[6]
• August 26 - Railroad operations across Canada are standardized with the introduction of the Uniform Code of Operating Rules.
• August 28 - The last mainline train leaves Berlin, Germany's, Lehrter Bahnhof headed for the Wustermark and Nauen.

September events

• September 6 - Lehigh Valley Transit Company announces replacement of its Philadelphia Division operations by buses effective the next day.^[7]
• September 12 - Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation brings its last railroad locomotive out of the Lima, Ohio, factory, a 2,500 horsepower (1,900 kW) transfer diesel, Pennsylvania Railroad number 5683.
• September 21 - A rail crash in Weedon in England kills 15 people.

October events

• October 26 - Quebec Railway Light and Power Company sells its Montmorency division, 26 miles (42 km) of track between Quebec City and St. Joachim, to Canadian National Railway.^[8]

November events

• November 5 - Western Railway (India) created as a zone of Indian Railways by merger of the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway with the Saurashtra, Rajputana and Jaipur railways; Central Railway created by merger of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway with local state railways.^[2]

December events

• December 17 - The Rock Island Railroad converts all of its Chicago-area commuter trains to diesel locomotive power. Seventeen new units replace the 23 Pacific type steam locomotives previously used.
• December 31 - Common-carrier rail service on Cyprus ends.

Unknown date events

• Southern Pacific Railroad subsidiary Sud Pacifico de Mexico is sold to the Mexican government.
• Train service ends on Ferrocarril Mexicano's narrow gauge Córdoba branch.^[9]
• Armand Mercier steps down from the presidency of the Southern Pacific Company, parent company of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
• The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad's streamlined Comet passenger trainset (built in 1935) is retired from revenue service and scrapped.
• Earnest E. Norris is succeeded by Harry A. deButts as president of the Southern Railway.

Births

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Deaths

March deaths

• March 2 - Edgar Alcock, general manager and chairman of Hunslet Engine Company (born 1877).

July deaths

• July 10 - Charles E. Johnston, president of Kansas City Southern Railway 1928-1938 (born 1881).

References

• Brief biographies of major mechanical engineers. Retrieved February 9, 2005.
• Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (August 16, 2005), Significant dates in Canadian railway history. Retrieved August 26, 2005.
• Kansas City Southern Historical Society, The Kansas City Southern Lines. Retrieved August 15, 2005.
• Krishnamurti, Indra (June 25, 2005), History of railways in Indonesia. Retrieved August 22, 2005.
• Norfolk Southern Railway. Retrieved February 22, 2005.