1826 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1826.

Events

March events

• March 4 – Gridley Bryant's Granite Railway is incorporated.^[1][2]

April events

• April 1 – Construction begins in Massachusetts on the Granite Railway, one of the first railroads in North America, under the direction of Gridley Bryant.^[2]
• April 17 – The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad is chartered to build a railroad between Albany and Schenectady, the first in New York State.

May events

• May 5 – Liverpool and Manchester Railway, designed by George Stephenson and Joseph Locke, and which in 1830 is to become the world's first purpose-built passenger railway operated by steam locomotives to be opened, is authorised by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.^[3]
• May 26 – Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway in Scotland is authorised by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.^[4]

October events

• October 1 – Opening of the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway in Scotland.^[5]
• October 7 – The first train operates over the Granite Railway in Massachusetts.^[1][2]

Births

January births

• January 2 – Algernon S. Buford, president of the Richmond and Danville Railroad (d. 1911).

March births

• March 4 – Theodore Judah, American engineer who argued the case for construction of the First transcontinental railroad (d. 1863).

April births

• April 3 – Cyrus K. Holliday, cofounder of Topeka, Kansas, and first president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (d. 1900).^[6]

November births

• November 10 – Oden Bowie, the 34th Governor of the State of Maryland in the United States from 1869 to 1872,^[7] founder and first President of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad^[8][9] and also president of the Baltimore City Passenger Railway.^[8]

December births

• December 1 – William Mahone, American civil engineer and Confederate Army Major General who built the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, a predecessor of the Norfolk and Western (d. 1895).

Unknown date births

• John P. Laird, Scottish engineer, designer and patentee of the two-wheel equalized leading truck for steam locomotives (d. 1882).

Deaths

February deaths

• February 20 – Matthew Murray, English steam engine manufacturer (b. 1765).^[10]

References

• White, John H. Jr. (Spring 1986). "America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders". Railroad History. 154: 9–15. ISSN 0090-7847. JSTOR 43523785. OCLC 1785797.
• 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.

1. "Granite Railway". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
2. "The First Railroad in America". Catskill Archive. Granite City B.P.O.E. – Quincy Lodge No. 943. 1924. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
3. Carlson, Robert E. (1969). The Liverpool & Manchester Railway Project 1821–1831. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-4646-6.
4. Whishaw, Francis (1969) [1840]. The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland practically described and illustrated (3rd ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-4786-1.
5. Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-049-7.
6. Waters, Lawrence Leslie (1950). Steel Trails to Santa Fe. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press.
7. Hall, Clayton Colman (1912). Baltimore: Its History and Its People, vol.3. Lewis Historical Publishing Co. pp. 304–306.
8. Hollander, Jacob Harry (1982). The Financial History of Baltimore. AMS Press. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-404-61368-6.
9. Wilson, William Bender (1895). History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company: With Plan of Organization. Henry T. Coates & Company. pp. 333–334.
10. Chrimes, Mike (2002). "Murray, Matthew". In Skempton, A. W.; Chrimes, M M.; Cox, R. C.; Cross-Rudkin, P. S. M.; Rennison, R. W.; Ruddock, E. C. (eds.). A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers. Vol. 1. London: Thomas Telford on behalf of the Institution of Civil Engineers. pp. 461–462. ISBN 0-7277-2939-X.