1843 in rail transport

Events

January events

• January 3 – The Great Western Railway of England officially opens its Swindon Works.
• January 28 – Boston and Maine Railroad and Eastern Railroad reach an agreement to both lease the Portland, Saco and Portsmouth Railroad as a joint line to Portland, Maine.

February events

• February 23 – Boston and Maine Railroad extends its line to Agamenticus.
• February 25 – The Grand Duke of Hesse and Grand Duke of Baden in present-day Germany agree to construct the Main-Neckar-Eisenbahn from Heidelberg to a connection with the state railway in Baden.

July events

• July – The Leeds and Bradford Railway, in West Yorkshire, England, obtains its Act of Parliament.

October events

• October – Horatio Allen succeeds William Maxwell as president of the Erie Railroad.
• October 15 – Official opening of first continuous international railway line between Antwerp, Belgium and Köln, Prussia, making Herbesthal railway station the first international border station in the world.

November events

• November 1 – The earliest ancestor of the Rutland Railroad, the Rutland & Burlington Railroad, is chartered by the state of Vermont.

Unknown date events

• John Cooke, future founder of Cooke Locomotive Works, is promoted to superintendent at American steam locomotive manufacturing company Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works.

Births

February births

• February 3 – William Cornelius Van Horne, oversaw the major construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, youngest superintendent of Illinois Central Railroad.
• February 27 – Thomas Lowry, president of Minneapolis Street Railway 1877–1892, president of Twin City Rapid Transit, president of Soo Line Railroad 1889–1890 and 1892–1909.

July births

• July 15 – Thomas Fletcher Oakes, president of Northern Pacific Railway 1888–1893.

August births

• August 25 – Inoue Masaru, Japanese bureaucrat, first Director of Railways.

November births

• November 27 – Cornelius Vanderbilt II, president of New York Central railroad.