1986 in rail transport

Events

January 1 – The Soo Line Railroad fully absorbs the Milwaukee Road after attempting to operate it as a subsidiary railroad.
January 3 – Vancouver's SkyTrain begins operations between the waterfront and New Westminster.

February 8 – 23 people are killed in the Hinton train collision when a Via Rail passenger train collides with a Canadian National freight train near Hinton, Alberta.
February 17 – Class 59 Co-Co diesel locomotives built by EMD for Foster Yeoman introduced into heavy freight service on British Rail, the first US-built (and privately owned) diesel locomotives to operate regularly on the English network.

March 3 – Shin-Narashino Station, on what is now JR East's Keiyō Line in Narashino, Chiba, Japan, is opened.
March 24 – Edinburgh–Bathgate line in Scotland reopened to rail passengers.
March 25 – Conrail makes its initial public offering of stock starting at US$28 per share.

April 1 – The Prince and Princess of Wales (Charles and Diana) open Heathrow Terminal 4 tube station on London Underground's Piccadilly line. Trains do not start serving the station until April 12, when the corresponding terminal starts handling flights.

July 24 – The Interstate Commerce Commission denies the merger of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific, citing an excessive amount of parallel track as one reason for the denial.
July 26 – The Lockington rail crash at Lockington, Humberside, England occurs when a van is struck on a level crossing. Eight passengers on the train, and a boy of 11 in the van, lose their lives.

September 5 – The Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad begins operations in Minnesota and South Dakota.
September 5 – Portland, Oregon's light rail system, MAX, opens for service.
September 8 – The Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad becomes the last common carrier freight railroad in America to cease using steam locomotives as primary power when the dry-pipe in its Canadian Locomotive Company 2-8-0 No. 17 steamer collapses.
September 14 – The Toei Shinjuku Line is extended from Funabori to Shinozaki in Tokyo, Japan; the third extension of the line since opening in 1978.
September 19 – Two high speed trains collide near Rugeley, Staffordshire, England, in the Colwich rail crash; the driver of one of the two trains was the only fatality of this accident.

October 1 – Opening of the first phase of the Kintetsu Keihanna Line in Osaka, Japan, between Nagata Station and Ikoma Station.
October 31 – Closure of the "Corkickle Brake" serving a chemical works at Whitehaven, Cumbria, the last commercially operated standard gauge cable railway in the United Kingdom.

November 11 – Preserved steam locomotive British Railways Standard class 8 71000 Duke of Gloucester is recommissioned on the Great Central Railway following a 13-year restoration from part-dismantled condition.
November 15 – Australia's well known steam locomotive 3801 is recommissioned at the Hunter Valley Training Company in New South Wales.
November 21 – The Florida Central Railroad begins operations in Florida, United States.
November 27 – Oslo Central Station in Oslo, Norway is taken into use.

July 14 – Raymond Loewy, industrial designer who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad designing the shape of equipment such as the GG1 (born 1893).

Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005), This Month in Railroad History: July. Retrieved July 22, 2005.