Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
In southeastern Norway, a new railway line connecting the village of Eidsfoss with the municipality of Tønsberg was dedicated. Jørgen Løvland, who was the minister of labor at the time and would briefly serve as prime minister of Norway later in the decade, officially opened the Tønsberg-Eidsfoss Line (Tønsberg-Eidsfossbanen, or TEB). At the time of... Continue Reading →
In present-day Poland, a new railway station was opened in the city of Kraków. (At the time, the city had recently become part of a section of the Austrian Empire known as the Grand Duchy of Kraków.) On the same day of the station’s formal debut, the first train to operate at the facility departed... Continue Reading →
Image: Turning the first turf for the Sydney Railway, 1850. Lithograph by W. Harris. State Library of NSW collection. In Australia, a company to build one of the first public railway lines in the colony (now state) of New South Wales (NSW) was incorporated. The Sydney Railway Company was put into place to develop a... Continue Reading →
Entrepreneur and politician Miguel Antonio Otero (1829-1882), who had been born in present-day New Mexico when it was still a Mexican province, was a strong supporter of railroads in that part of the world. While serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for the New Mexico Territory’s at-large district from 1856 to 1861, he steadfastly... Continue Reading →
After being extensively restored, the Royapuram railway station in South India was formally reopened to the public. Rangasamy Velu, India’s union minister of state for railways, presided at this ceremony. The Royapuram railway station is located in the northern part of the city of Chennai on the Chennai Beach-Arakkonam segment of the Chennai Suburban Railway.... Continue Reading →
The first section of France’s first high-speed rail line officially began operations. The LGV Sud-Est was being built as a transit link between Paris and Lyon, and the inaugural festivities for the new line included a special train running on the completed segment between Lyon and the commune of Montchanin. As the train sped north... Continue Reading →
A new main line railway in the eastern region of present-day Germany began operations. The railway line was constructed within the Kingdom of Prussia to connect the cities of Berlin and Görlitz. (Just over four years after the railway made its debut, Prussia and several other independent states came together to form the German Empire.)... Continue Reading →
The Neiwan Line, a railway branch line in northwestern Taiwan, was completed. The line, which is run by the Taiwan Railways Administration, covers approximately 17 miles between Hsinchu City and the village of Neiwan in Hengshan Township. Notwithstanding its status as a branch line, the Neiwan Line was built to standards similar to those of... Continue Reading →
On New Zealand’s South Island, a railway between Christchurch and Dunedin made its official debut. “The opening of the Dunedin and Christchurch line, the great event of connecting the two commercial cities of the South Island by means of the iron horse, was consummated today,” announced the Wellington –based Evening post in its coverage of... Continue Reading →
The Buenos Aires Western Railway was inaugurated in what was then the State of Buenos Aires. This railway was the first one to be built anywhere in present-day Argentina and helped set the stage over the next several decades for an extensive public transit network in that part of the world. (The republic known as... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 