1866 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1866.

Events

April 29 – Ancona–Orte railway (Società per le strade ferrate romane) completed across the Apennine Mountains of the Kingdom of Italy.

June 3 – First section of Ionian Railway in Italy opens from Reggio Calabria to Lazzaro.
June 20 – The Great Southern and Western Railway of Ireland introduces the first of its Class 101 0-6-0 goods locomotive from its Inchicore Works, Dublin. This will become by far the most numerous of any class of locomotive to run in Ireland, with 111 built up to 1903, and almost half the class will still be in road service as Class J15 when Córas Iompair Éireann abandons steam at the end of 1962.^[1]

July 2 – Cholsey and Wallingford Railway in England opens.
July 27 – The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in the United States is chartered by a special act of Congress.
July 30 – The Great North of Scotland Railway gained full ownership of the Morayshire Railway.^[2]

August 11 – The Kansas Pacific Railway tracks reach Manhattan, Kansas, where westward progress stalls while a bridge is built across the Big Blue River.
August 28 – The Danville, Urbana, Bloomington and Pekin Railroad, in Illinois, is incorporated.^[3]
August 29 – The first demonstration runs are held on the Mount Washington Cog Railway, in New Hampshire, as Peppersass, the road's first steam locomotive, hauls a platform of passengers up a 0.1-mile (161 m) section of track.^[4]

September 1
- Construction of the Randsfjorden Line in Norway is completed to Vikersund.^[5]
- The South Eastern Railway of England opens its Cannon Street station (in the City of London), Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Dartford Loop Line.
September 7 – On the death of Matthias W. Baldwin, Matthew Baird becomes the sole proprietor of Baldwin Locomotive Works.
September 11 – Bristol and Exeter Railway opens the Chard and Taunton Railway to passenger service as a branch line of the B&ER.

November 7 – The Ruse-Varna line, the first railway in Bulgaria, officially opens.

December
- Florence–Rome railway (Società delle Ferrovie Livornesi) completes its route via Perugia in Italy.
- The Talyllyn Railway at Tywyn in Wales begins to carry passengers officially (probable date).
December 15 – Brescia–Cremona railway opens in Italy.

The first 2-8-0 with a leading truck is built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad (United States).^[6]^[7]
The John Bull, eventually to become the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, is retired from active service on the Camden and Amboy Railroad.
The Richmond and Danville Railroad acquires the Piedmont Railroad.
Construction on the Kansas Pacific Railway reaches Junction City, Kansas, from Kansas City.

January 31 – William Wallace Atterbury, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad 1925–1935 (d. 1935)^[8]^[9]

Franklin Gowen. Retrieved March 2, 2005.
Good, Mike (December 17, 2001), Corporate History: St. Louis – San Francisco Railway Company. Retrieved July 22, 2005.
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.
The New York Times, August 22, 1866.

^ Pryce, Irwin; McAllister, Leslie (2006). Steaming in Three Centuries: the story of the 101 Class locomotives of the Great Southern and Western Railway. Camberley: Irish Railway Record Society, London Area. ISBN 0-902564-08-0.
^ Vallance, H. A. (1989). The Great North of Scotland Railway. The History of the railways of the Scottish Highlands. Great North of Scotland Railway Association (Rev ed.). Newton Abbot: David St. John Thomas : David & Charles. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-946537-42-6.
^ "History of railroad passenger service in Champaign-Urbana". 2000-01-13. Retrieved 2005-08-28.
^ "Mount Washington Cog Railway". MountWashington.com. Archived from the original on 1999-02-21. Retrieved 2005-08-29.
^ Berntsen, Ulf; Lund, Thure; Lunner, Dagfinn (1997). På sporet med Krøderkippen (in Norwegian). Norwegian Railway Club / Krøderen Line Foundation. p. 27. ISBN 82-90286-20-1.
^ Balkwill, Richard; Marshall, John (1993). The Guinness Book of Railway Facts and Feats (6th ed.). Enfield: Guinness Publishing. ISBN 0-85112-707-X.
^ Swengel, F.M. (1967). The American Steam Locomotive: Vol.1 , the Evolution of the Steam Locomotive. Davenport: Midwest Rail Publishing.
^ "General Atterbury". Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum. 2000. Archived from the original on 2005-03-09. Retrieved 2005-02-21.
^ The Political Graveyard (March 10, 2005), Politicians in Railroading in Indiana. Retrieved December 30, 2005.