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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1917.

Events

February events

• February 27 - The Milwaukee Road completes the electrification of its 440 miles (708 km) line from Harlowton, Montana, to Avery, Idaho.

March events

• March 9 - Official opening of the Hell Gate Bridge in New York City.
• March 12 - The Pere Marquette Railroad is reincorporated as the Pere Marquette Railway.
• March 19 - The United States Supreme Court upholds the eight-hour workday for railroads.

April events

Locomotive of Lenin’s train, on which he arrived at Finland Station, Petrograd in April, 1917.

• April 3-16 - V.I. Lenin journeys from Switzerland across Germany by so-called “sealed train”, eventually arriving to a tumultuous reception at Finland Station in Petrograd to play a leading role in the Russian Revolution.^[1]
• April 21 - Colorado Midland declares bankruptcy for the second and final time.

May events

• May 9 - Completion of the 784 km-long railway line linking the port of Djibouti in French Somaliland to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

July events

• July 31 - Simbei Kunisawa succeeds Yujiro Nakamura as president of South Manchuria Railway.

October events

• October 22 – Opening of Trans-Australian Railway, 1051.7 miles (1692.6 km) of standard gauge between Port Augusta in South Australia and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia (heads of steel meet on 17 October).^[2][3][4] During the crossing of the Nullarbor Plain the line runs for 309 miles (497 km) without a curve, the world’s longest railway straight.
• October 23 - The Canadian Railway War Board (predecessor of the Railway Association of Canada) meets for the first time at Windsor Station, Montreal.^[5][6]

December events

• December 12 - At Modane (Saint Michel de Maurienne or Mouane), in the French Alps, a grossly overloaded troop train jumps the tracks at the entrance of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel after running away down a steep gradient due to inadequate brake power. At least 543 are killed, hundreds more are injured by the official count; the actual count is assumed to be considerably higher. Until 1981 this was the worst train wreck in history.^[7]
• December 26 - United States President Woodrow Wilson uses the Federal Possession and Control Act to nationalize American railroads under the United States Railroad Administration during World War I.
• December 28 - The United States Railroad Administration officially takes control of American railroads.

Unknown date events

• The Tanana Valley Railroad in Fairbanks, Alaska (a predecessor of the Alaska Railroad) enters receivership.
• The Arcade and Attica Railroad is incorporated.
• The longest cantilever bridge in the world, Canadian National Railway's bridge across the St. Lawrence River at Quebec City, opens for rail traffic.^[8]
• Estación Constitución in Buenos Aires, Argentina, opens.
• Russia's Railway Worker Day national holiday, established in 1886, is abolished under Bolshevik rule.^[9]

Births

Deaths

References