<!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see WP:SDNONE -->

Events

January

  • January 1 &ndash; 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.
  • January 22 &ndash; The Pacific Electric Whittier Line is truncated to Walker.
  • March 18 &ndash; Bundesbahn Österreich (BBÖ, Federal Railway of Austria) integrated into Deutsche Reichsbahn.
  • March 27 &ndash; Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway inaugurates the San Diegan passenger train between Los Angeles and San Diego.

May

  • May 8 — President Manuel L. Quezon inaugurates regular services on the Main Line South of the Manila Railroad in Del Gallego, Camarines Sur. Trial runs already began five months prior.
  • 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.

thumb|200px|right|[[London Underground 1938 Stock]]

June

  • June 1 &ndash; Pacific Electric's Owensmouth Line and San Fernando Line are truncated to Sherman Way.
  • June 15 &ndash; 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 &ndash; 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.
  • June 19 &ndash; 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 &ndash; London Underground 1938 Stock enters public service, on Northern line.

July

  • July 3 &ndash; The London and North Eastern Railway 4-6-2 Mallard reaches a speed of 126&nbsp;mph (203&nbsp;km/h), the highest certified speed for a steam locomotive.

thumb|right|200px|[[LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard|LNER No. 4468 Mallard as running in 1938]]

  • July 31 &ndash; The Pennsylvania Railroad, in its public timetable issued today, boasts that “19% of all passengers are carried on the Pennsylvania Railroad.”

October

  • October &ndash; Electro-Motive Corporation introduces the EMC E4.

November

  • November 1 &ndash; Passenger service ends on the Maine narrow gauge Monson Railroad.

December

  • December 13 &ndash; 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 &ndash; 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 &ndash; 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).

Deaths

February deaths

  • February 2 &ndash; Frederick William Vanderbilt, director of the New York Central system (born 1856).
  • February 9 &ndash; Arturo Caprotti, Italian inventor of Caprotti valve gear for steam locomotives (born 1881).

October deaths

  • October 16 &ndash; Sir Henry Fowler, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Midland Railway 1909&ndash;1923 and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1925&ndash;1931 (born 1870).

December deaths

  • December 1 &ndash; David Blyth Hanna, first president of Canadian National Railway (born 1858).

Accidents

References