1953 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1953.

Events

January events

• January 15 – The brakes fail on Pennsylvania Railroad's westbound Federal Express passenger train; the train barrels through the end of track barriers and stationmaster's office at Union Station in Washington, DC, but nobody is killed in the accident.

March events

• March – Union Pacific Railroad removes the streamliner trainset M-10003 from revenue service.

December events

• December 24 – In the Tangiwai disaster, the Tangiwai Railway Bridge collapses as the overnight express train between Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand, passes over it; the bridge supports had been weakened by a lahar (a volcanic ash and debris filled flash flood) a few minutes before the train passed.

Unknown date events

• The first Trailer-On-Flat-Car (TOFC, or "piggyback") equipment enters service on the Southern Pacific Railroad.
• John W. Barriger III steps down from the presidency of the Monon railroad.

Births

Deaths

References

• John W. Barriger; Rail historian and railfan. Retrieved February 22 2005.
• White, John H., Jr. (Spring 1986), America's most noteworthy railroaders, Railroad History, Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, 154, p. 9–15.