1780s in rail transport
# 1780s in rail transport

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).

## 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 U.S. Patent 1 for improved driving wheels (died 1874).

**Unknown date births**

* Gridley Bryant, inventor of many basic railroad technologies including track and wheels (died 1867)
