1913 in rail transport

Events

January events

• January 13 - Julius Kruttschnitt leaves Union Pacific Railway and succeeds Robert S. Lovett as Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

  February events

• February 1 - New York City's Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest train station to date.

  May events

• May 7 - Tracklaying begins on the Graysonia, Nashville and Ashdown Railroad between Murfreesboro and Shawmut, Arkansas.

June events

• June 28/29 - Bever–Scuol-Tarasp railway opens in Switzerland.

  July events

• July 2 - General Electric produces a gas-electric locomotive which is sold to the Electric Line of Minnesota as its #100 Dan Patch.
• July 15 - Opening of the Bern–Lötschberg–Simplon railway's Lötschberg railway line in Switzerland, including the Lötschberg Tunnel.

  August events

• August 1 - The Alton and Southern Railroad is formed through the merger of the Alton and Southern Railroad Company, the Denverside Connecting Railroad and the Alton and Southern Railway.
• August 13 - Stainless steel is invented by Harry Brearley in Sheffield.
• August 21 - Construction begins on the Morrisburg and Ottawa Electric Railway just south of Billings Bridge, Ottawa.

  September events

• September 1 - Howard Elliott succeeds Charles Sanger Mellen as president of New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
• September 2 - Traveling at in heavy fog north of New Haven, Connecticut, the White Mountain Express crashes through two cars of the Bar Harbor Express and overturns a third coach, killing 21 and injuring 50.

  October events

• October 20 - The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's tracks reach Casper, Wyoming, making Casper the busiest rail junction in Wyoming.

  December events

• December 1 - First section of Buenos Aires Metro opened, the earliest metro system in the Southern Hemisphere or the Hispanophone world, and the southernmost.
• December 18 - Korekimi Nakamura steps down as president of South Manchuria Railway.
• December 19 - Ryutaro Nomura succeeds Korekimi Nakamura as president of South Manchuria Railway.
• December 26 - A major fire at its predecessor forces the new Michigan Central Station in Detroit to open early.

  Unknown date events

• The Nickel Plate Road completes its grade separation project in Cleveland, Ohio.
• The Supreme Court of the United States orders the Union Pacific Railroad to sell all of its stock in the Southern Pacific Railroad.
• ALCO ceases new steam locomotive production at the former Rogers Locomotive Works plant in Paterson, New Jersey; ALCO continues producing new locomotives at its other plants.
• First examples of Class 140 C steam locomotives delivered to Chemins de Fer de l'État in France; 340 will eventually be built.
• The world’s first rail vehicle with diesel-electric transmission, and the first diesel of any type in regular revenue main line service, a railcar built by Atlas-Deva/Asea, enters service on the Södermanland Mellersta Railway in Sweden. It will remain in use until 1939.
• The Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway, a copper ore-hauling short line in Montana, electrifies using a 2,400 Volts DC system engineered by General Electric, the first primarily freight railroad in North America to electrify.
• First on-train cinema set up, on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
• William Finley is succeeded by Fairfax Harrison as president of the Southern Railway.
• Mary Averell Harriman, wife of the late Edward H. Harriman, creates the E. H. Harriman Award to recognize outstanding achievements in railway safety.

  Births

April births

• April 21 - Richard Beeching, chairman of the British Railways Board 1961-1965.

  December births

• December 27 - Ian David Sinclair, president of Canadian Pacific Railway 1969-1981, is born.

  Deaths

March deaths

• March 31 - J. P. Morgan, American financier who helped to finance United States Steel Corporation.

  April deaths

• April 22 - John Saxby, English railway signalling engineer.

  May deaths

• May 20 - Henry Morrison Flagler, visionary and builder of the Florida East Coast Railway.

  September deaths

• September 25 - Herbert William Garratt, English steam locomotive builder and inventor of the Garratt locomotive type.