October – Experimental electric trains, built by AEG and Siemens & Halske, reach 210.2 km/h (130.6 mph) between Marienfelde and Zossen in Germany. October 1 The first railway in Norway rebuilt to double track, from Bryn to Lillestrøm on the Hovedbanen, is opened. The Gold Coast Government Railway is extended from Obuasi to Kumasi. October 21 – Howard Elliott succeeds Charles Sanger Mellen as president of Northern Pacific Railway. October 31 – The Purdue Wreck, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA: A Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad football special carrying the Purdue University football team and fans to the annual game with Indiana University collides with a coal train. Fourteen of the team and three other passengers are killed. November events November 9 – The gauge Kalka-Shimla Railway opens in India. December events December 14 – The New York, New Haven and Hartford introduces the all-parlor car Merchants Limited between Boston and New York City. Unknown date events The British Engineering Standards Committee draws up specifications for eight standard steam locomotive designs for the broad gauge Indian Railways. Southern Pacific Railroad gains 50% control of the Pacific Electric system in Los Angeles, California. The Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton Railway opens as the first railroad to have a guarded third rail. The provisions of the US Railroad Safety Appliance Act, enacted in 1893, are extended to include all railroad cars whether or not the cars themselves are used in interchange service. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway introduces the first 2-10-2 compound locomotives (built by Baldwin Locomotive Works) into service. E. H. Harriman becomes president of the Union Pacific Railroad. George Whale succeeds Francis William Webb as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Western Railway. Accidents Births April births April 10 – Edward T. Reidy, last president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1957–1968. Deaths March deaths March 29 – Gustavus Franklin Swift, founder of Swift and Company which pioneered the use of refrigerator cars in late 19th century America (born 1839) July deaths July 27 – Frederick J. Kimball, American civil engineer who was instrumental in the formation of Norfolk and Western (born 1844). Unknown date deaths J. Elfreth Watkins, railroad civil engineer and first curator for the Smithsonian Institution's railroad artifacts including John Bull. References