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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1986.

Events

January events

• January 1 – The Soo Line Railroad fully absorbs the Milwaukee Road after attempting to operate it as a subsidiary railroad.
• January 3 – Vancouver's SkyTrain begins operations between the waterfront and New Westminster.

February events

• February 8 – 23 people are killed in the Hinton train collision when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a Canadian National Railway freight train near Hinton, Alberta.
• February 17 – Class 59 Co-Co diesel locomotives built by EMD for Foster Yeoman introduced into heavy freight service on British Rail, the first US-built (and privately-owned) diesel locomotives to operate regularly on the English network.^[1]

March events

• March 25 – Conrail makes its initial public offering of stock starting at $28 per share.^[2]

July events

• July 24 – The United States Interstate Commerce Commission denies the merger of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroad citing an excessive amount of parallel track as one reason for the denial.

September events

• September 5 – The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad begins operations in Minnesota and South Dakota.
• September 8 – The Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad becomes the last common carrier freight railroad in America to use steam locomotives as primary power when the dry-pipe in their CLC 2-8-0 #17 steamer collapses.
• September 19 – Two high speed trains collide near Rugeley, Staffordshire, England, in the Colwich rail crash; the driver of one of the two trains was the only fatality of this accident.

October events

• October 31 – Closure of the "Corkickle Brake" serving a chemical works at Whitehaven, Cumbria, the last commercially operated standard gauge cable railway in the United Kingdom.^[3]

November events

• November 11 – Preserved steam locomotive British Railways Standard class 8 71000 Duke of Gloucester is officially recommissioned to service on the Great Central Railway following a 13-year restoration from part-dismantled condition.^[4]
• November 15 – Australia's well known steam locomotive 3801 is recommissioned at the Hunter Valley Training Company in NSW.
• November 21 – The Florida Central Railroad begins operations in Florida, United States.
• November 27 – Oslo Central Station in Oslo, Norway is taken into use.

December events

• December 30 – The Trans-Gabon Railway is completed.

Deaths

July deaths

• July 14 – Raymond Loewy, industrial designer who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad designing the shape of equipment such as the GG1 (b. 1893).

References

• "Significant dates in Canadian railway history". April 3, 2005. http://www.railways.incanada.net/candate/candate.htm. Retrieved 2005-08-06.  
• Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005), This Month in Railroad History: July. Retrieved July 22, 2005.