1923 in rail transport
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "1923_in_rail_transport".

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1923.

Events

January events

• January 1 - All major railways in Great Britain are amalgamated into the "Big Four" companies, the Great Western Railway, London and North Eastern Railway, London, Midland and Scottish Railway and Southern Railway, under terms of Railways Act 1921.¹
• January 30 - The Canadian National Railway (CN) absorbs the Grand Trunk Railway and spins off the portion of the Grand Trunk within the United States to form the Grand Trunk Western Railroad (GTW); CN operates GTW as a subsidiary railroad.

February events

• February 7 - London and North Eastern Railway (Great Britain) takes delivery of express passenger 4-6-2 steam locomotive Flying Scotsman from its Doncaster Works.²

March events

• March 10 - Norfolk and Western Railroad (United States) takes delivery of its first Y3a Class 2-8-8-2 steam locomotive from ALCO.³⁴

July events

• July 15 - Warren G. Harding, President of the United States, drives the golden spike on the Alaska Railroad.
• July 18 - In U.S. Fruit Growers Express (FGE) and the Great Northern Railway form the Western Fruit Express (WFE) in order to compete with the Pacific Fruit Express and Santa Fe Refrigerator Despatch in the west.

August events

• August 1 - City of Glasgow (Scotland) takes over operation of the Glasgow Subway.⁵
• August 4 - the Otira Tunnel (8.5 km) on the Midland Line in New Zealand opens; construction had started in 1907.
• August - Great Western Railway (Great Britain) takes delivery of its first 'Castle' Class 4-6-0 express passenger steam locomotive from its Swindon Works, No. 4073 Caerphilly Castle.⁶

September events

• September 27 - Following soon after the washout of Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's bridge over Coal Creek (near Glenrock, Wyoming), a passenger train falls through the washout, killing 30 of the train's 66 passengers. The accident is the worst railroad accident in Wyoming's history.⁷

Unknown date events

• U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission allows Southern Pacific Railroad's control of the Central Pacific Railroad to continue, ruling that it is in the public's interest.
• Munising, Marquette and South Eastern Railway and Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railway merge to form the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad.⁸

Births

Unknown date births

• Robert R. Dowty, construction foreman for the Jupiter and 119 steam locomotive replicas at the Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory, Utah (d. 2004).
• Margaret Landry Moore, "Miss Southern Belle" spokesmodel for Kansas City Southern's Southern Belle passenger trains (d. 2005).⁹
• Frank Turpin, CEO of Alaska Railroad, 1985–1993 (d. 2005).¹⁰

Deaths

April deaths

• April 10 - Stuyvesant Fish, president of Illinois Central Railroad 1887-1907 (b. 1851).

May deaths

• May 16 - George Jay Gould I, eldest son of Jay Gould, president of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the Western Pacific Railroad (b. 1864).

October deaths

• October 25 - Henry Ivatt, Chief Mechanical Engineer of Great Northern Railway of England 1896-1911 (b. 1851).

December deaths

• December 5 - Sir William Mackenzie, part owner of Toronto Street Railway, builder of Canadian Northern Railway predecessors (b. 1849).
• December 10 - Thomas George Shaughnessy, president of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited 1899-1918 (b. 1853).

References

1. ^ Bonavia, Michael R. (1980). The Four Great Railways. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7842-2. 
2. ^ Clifford, David (comp) (1997). The World's Most Famous Steam Locomotive – Flying Scotsman'. Swanage: Finial Publishing. ISBN 0-900467-02-X. 
3. ^ Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. "This Month in Railroad History - March". Retrieved on 2006-03-10.
4. ^ SteamLocomotive.com. "Norfolk and Western Class Y Locomotives". Retrieved on 2006-03-10.
5. ^ Wright, John; Maclean, Ian (1997). Circles Under the Clyde: a history of the Glasgow Underground. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-190-2. 
6. ^ Nock, O. S. (1967). The GWR Stars, Castles & Kings. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-4743-8. 
7. ^ "BP Amoco Timeline", Casper Star-Tribune, June 22, 2005, http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/06/22/news/casper/a2e0ab59d0ef19c0872570270020fd84.txt, retrieved on 22 June 2005 
8. ^ "A Short History of the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad". Retrieved on 2005-05-09.
9. ^ Trains News Wire (April 27, 2005). "‘Miss Southern Belle’ dies". Retrieved on 2005-05-04.
10. ^ Loy, Wesley (April 30, 2005), "Frank Turpin, railroad, oil leader, dies", Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/6437142p-6316333c.html, retrieved on 4 May 2005