1938 in rail transport
Events
January
- January 1 – Creation of the following European railway networks under government control:
- SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français), bringing the principal railway companies of France together.
- NS (Nederlandsche Spoorwegen), merging the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij (HSM) and the Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen (SS) in the Netherlands.[1]
- January 22 – The Pacific Electric Whittier Line is truncated to Walker.[2]
February
- February 22 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway introduces the El Capitan passenger train between Chicago and Los Angeles.
- February 26 – A second all-lightweight trainset enters service on the Super Chief.
Streamlined 20th Century Limited departs Chicago, 1938
March
- March 6 – The Pacific Electric Walker Line is discontinued.[3]
- March 18 – Bundesbahn Österreich (BBÖ, Federal Railway of Austria) integrated into Deutsche Reichsbahn.
- March 27 – Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway inaugurates the San Diegan passenger train between Los Angeles and San Diego.[4]
May
- May 15
- The Lake Shore Electric Railway in Ohio ceases operations.
- Inauguration of a major Nederlandse Spoorwegen electrification scheme in the central Netherlands, centred on Utrecht.
June
- June 1 – Pacific Electric's Owensmouth Line and San Fernando Line are truncated to Sherman Way.[2][5]
- June 15 – New York Central Railroad introduces an all-streamlined consist on the 20th Century Limited and also introduces the New England States passenger train between Chicago and Boston.
- June 16 – The Pike's Peak Cog Railway in Colorado operates gasoline-powered railcar number 7, the first rack railcar in the world, for the first time.[6]
- June 19 – Custer Creek train wreck kills at least 47 near Saugus, Montana. A bridge, weakened by a flash flood, collapses under the Milwaukee Road's Olympian plunging the locomotive and seven lead cars into the rain-swollen creek. It remains the worse rail disaster in Montana history.
- June 30 – London Underground 1938 Stock enters public service, on Northern line.[7]
July
- July 3 – The London and North Eastern Railway 4-6-2 Mallard reaches a speed of 126 mph (203 km/h), the highest certified speed for a steam locomotive.
LNER No. 4468 Mallard as running in 1938
- July 31 – The Pennsylvania Railroad, in its public timetable issued today, boasts that “19% of all passengers are carried on the Pennsylvania Railroad.”
October
- October – Electro-Motive Corporation introduces the EMC E4.
November
- November 1 – Passenger service ends on the Maine narrow gauge Monson Railroad.[8]
December
- December 13 – The Reading Railroad's Crusader passenger train is introduced.
- December 15
- The first diesel locomotives in the southeast United States, EMC E4s, appear on the Orange Blossom Special.
- The second section of the Itō Line, connecting Ajiro to Itō in Japan, opens.
- December 23 – Jean Renoir's film of La Bête Humaine released in France.
Unknown date
- Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited is completely re-equipped based on an industrial design by Raymond Loewy.
- Overhead wire on the Pennsylvania Railroad's mainline from New York City reaches Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
- Overhead wire on the newly formed SNCF system between Tours and Bordeaux in France completes electrification from Paris to the Spanish frontier.
- The first passenger car equipped with fluorescent lights is operated on the New York Central Railroad.
Births
January births
- January 11 – Alastair Morton, chief executive of Eurotunnel 1987-1996, chairman of British Strategic Rail Authority 1999-2001 (d. 2004).
Unknown date births
- John H. Kuehl, editor of Private Varnish magazine, passenger car historian and photographer (died 2005).[9]
Deaths
February deaths
- February 2 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, director of the New York Central system (born 1856).
- February 9 – Arturo Caprotti, Italian inventor of Caprotti valve gear for steam locomotives (born 1881).[10]
October deaths
- October 16 – Sir Henry Fowler, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Midland Railway 1909–1923 and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1925–1931 (born 1870).
December deaths
- December 1 – David Blyth Hanna, first president of Canadian National Railway (born 1858).
References
- "Nederlandse Spoorwegen". 2011-06-12. Retrieved 2011-12-27.
- Veysey, Laurence R. (June 1958). A History Of The Rail Passenger Service Operated By The Pacific Electric Railway Company Since 1911 And By Its Successors Since 1953 (PDF). LACMTA (Report). Retrieved 19 September 2020.
- "Whittier Line". Electric Rail Heritage Association. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
- Rivanna Chapter National Railway Historical Society. "This Month in Railroad History: March". Archived from the original on 17 April 2006. Retrieved 27 March 2006.
- "San Fernando Valley Line". Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
- Manitou & Pike's Peak Cog Railway (2005). "Cog Railway History". Archived from the original on 1 July 2005. Retrieved 2005-06-13.
- Croome, Desmond F.; Jackson, Alan A. (1993). Rails through the Clay: a history of London's Tube railways (2nd ed.). Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. pp. 258–62. ISBN 1-85414-151-1.
- Jones, Robert C. (1998). Two Feet to the Quarries. Evergreen Press. p. 93. ISBN 0-9667264-0-5.
- "Obituaries". Trains Magazine: 21. May 2005.
- Marshall, John (2003). Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers (2nd ed.). Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 0-901461-22-9.
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