This article lists events relating to rail transport that occurred during the 1780s.

1780 Births January births January 26 – John Urpeth Rastrick, English steam locomotive builder and partner in Foster, Rastrick and Company (died 1856).

October births October 25 – Philip Hone, first president of Delaware and Hudson Railway 1825–1826 (died 1851).

1781 Births June births June 9 – George Stephenson, English steam locomotive builder.

1782 Births Unknown date births Joseph Treffry (born Joseph Austen), railway promoter in Cornwall, England (died 1850).

1783 Events Halbeath Railway opens from the colliery at Halbeath to the harbour at Inverkeithing, Scotland.

1784 Births December 30 – Stephen H. Long, American steam locomotive mechanical engineer who helped build the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (died 1864).

1785 Births Unknown date births Sir William Cubitt, civil engineer on the South Eastern and Great Northern Railways of England (died 1861).

1786 Births December births December 22 – Timothy Hackworth, English steam locomotive builder (died 1850).

Unknown date births William T. James, American inventor of the link motion and spark arrester (died 1865).

1787 Events Unknown date events First production of all-iron edge rail (for underground colliery use), at Plymouth Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. First introduction of plateway (for underground use), at Sheffield Park Colliery, Yorkshire, England, by John Curr. Births October births October 18 – Robert Livingston Stevens, president of the Camden and Amboy Railroad, the first railroad built in New Jersey (died 1856).Today in Science History: October 18. Retrieved October 18, 2005.

1788 Events Unknown date events First introduction of plateway for surface use, at Wingerworth Iron Foundry, Derbyshire, England, by Joseph Butler.

1789 Events Unknown date events Oliver Evans is awarded a U.S. patent for his "steam carriage," a design that is believed by some historians to have influenced Richard Trevithick's work on early steam locomotives. Births October births October 8 – John Ruggles, awarded for improved driving wheels (died 1874). Unknown date births Gridley Bryant, inventor of many basic railroad technologies including track and wheels (died 1867)

See also Years in rail transport

References