1856 in rail transport
Events
January events
- January – Opening throughout of first railroad in Africa and the Middle East, from Alexandria to Cairo, Egypt.
- January 29 – The 223-mile North Carolina Railroad is completed from Goldsboro through Raleigh and Salisbury to Charlotte.
March events
- March 23 or 26 – Cambridge Railroad street railway opens in Boston, giving the city the world's oldest continuously working streetcar system.
April events
- April 19 – Death of American locomotive builder Thomas Rogers, following which his son, Jacob S. Rogers, reorganizes Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor as Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works.
- April 21 – The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River opens between Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.
May events
- May 1 – First section of Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway opens, between Ankleshwar and Utran.
- May 6 – The newly constructed sidewheeler Effie Afton runs into one of the supports for the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River, causing a fire that destroys the bridge just two weeks after it had opened.
June events
- June 21 – The Illinois Central Railroad opens its Great Central Station in Chicago.
July events
- July 14 – The Rome and Frascati Rail Road opens for service.
- July 17 – The Great Train Wreck occurs near Philadelphia in the United States.
September events
- September 16 – Tarragona–Reus line in Spain opens.
- September 21 – The Illinois Central Railroad connects Chicago to Cairo, Illinois, completing 700 miles of track to become the longest railway in the United States.
- September 22 – The Oriental Railway Company is granted the concession to build the first railway in Turkey, from İzmir to Aydın.
October events
- October 23 – The line that is now Belgian railway line 161 is completed and opened connecting Brussels-North and Namur stations.
- October 28 – Opening of first railway in Portugal, from Lisbon to Carregado.
December events
- December 1 – Opening of first steam-operated passenger railways in Sweden, from Gothenburg to Jonsered and Malmö to Lund.
Births
February births
- February 2 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, director of the New York Central system.
December births
- December 30 – Sam Fay, General manager of the Great Central Railway of England, 1902–1922.
Deaths
January deaths
- January 8 – Charles "Joe" Baldwin, conductor on the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad
March deaths
- March 11 – James Beatty, Irish engineer who was involved in building the European and North American Railway and the Grand Crimean Central Railway.
April deaths
- April 19 – Thomas Rogers, American steam locomotive builder, dies in New York.
- April 20 – Robert L. Stevens, president of Camden and Amboy Railroad.
November deaths
- November 1 - John Urpeth Rastrick, English steam locomotive builder and partner in Foster, Rastrick and Company.