This article lists anniversary events related to rail transport that occurred on May 23.

Events

19th century

• 1832 – The Festiniog Railway Company is incorporated by Act of Parliament to build a railway from Festiniog to Portmadoc in the United Kingdom for the carriage of slate and other minerals.

20th century

• 1997 – GO Transit in Toronto begins operation as a three-year experiment running single-deck diesel multiple units on a single rail line along Lake Ontario's shoreline. ^[1]

21st century

• 2000 – General Motors Electro-Motive Division delivers to the Union Pacific Railroad the first five EMD SD70M diesel locomotives in the largest single order (1,000 locomotives) for diesel locomotives ever by a single railroad.
• 2005 – Twelve Chinese railroad workers are rescued after being trapped in a collapsed tunnel for six days. Rescuers were able to transfer milk and oxygen to the trapped workers through a ventilation tube until the collapse was penetrated.
• 2005 – Chicago's Metra unveils the first new bilevel electric coaches in a $76.5 million order to completely re-equip the railroad's former Illinois Central electric lines. The new cars are the first on the electric division to include toilets.

Births

• 1837 – Anatole Mallet, inventor of the mallet locomotive type, is born (d. 1919).

Deaths

• 1927 – Henry Huntington, nephew of Collis P. Huntington and executive in charge of Pacific Electric in the early part of the 20th century, dies (b. 1850).

References