title: 1954 in rail transport
text: # 1954 in rail transport
  
  This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1954.
  
  ## Events
  
  ### January
  
  * January 3 – The last steam locomotive powered passenger train departs Washington Union Station; Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad engine number 622 Carter Braxton pulls the train, leaving at approximately 1:40 PM bound for Richmond, Virginia.
  * January 8 – Southern Pacific Railroad's Sunset Limited becomes the first train to use the new New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal.
  * January 20 – The Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line, the second line in the system and the first built after World War II, is opened between Ikebukuro and Ochanomizu stations.
  * January 24 – Cleveland, Ohio, streetcars make their last revenue run.
  * January – General Motors Electro-Motive Division introduces the EMD F9 and GP9.
  
  ### February
  
  * February 21 – An SNCF electric train hits 151 mph (243 km/h) in tests, setting a world’s record.
  * February – General Motors Electro-Motive Division introduces the EMD FP9.
  
  ### March
  
  * March 30 – Yonge subway, the first segment of the Toronto subway and the first underground rapid transit line in Canada, begins operation.
  
  ### April
  
  * April 20 – The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("Milwaukee Road") opens a new station in Tacoma, Washington.
  * April 30 – Last day of steam locomotive operations and passenger train service on the Clinchfield Railroad.
  
  ### May
  
  * May – General Motors Electro-Motive Division introduces the EMD E9.
  
  ### June
  
  * June 6 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway introduces the San Francisco Chief passenger train between Chicago and San Francisco.
  * June 13 – Last day of steam locomotive operation on the Maine Central Railroad.
  * June 14 – New York Central management loses a proxy fight for control of the railroad to Robert Ralph Young and his Alleghany Corporation.
  * June – General Electric delivers the first diesel-electric locomotives built for the narrow gauge White Pass and Yukon Route.
  
  ### July
  
  * July 2 – SNCF electrifies first section of Valenciennes–Thionville line, the first non-experimental 25 kV AC railway electrification.
  * July 4 – Budd delivers the first Château series car, Château Bienville, to Canadian Pacific Railway in Montreal.
  * July – New Zealand Railways Department introduces DF class (built by English Electric) into service, the country's first mainline diesel-electric locomotives.
  
  ### August
  
  * August 7 – The last streetcars operate on the Altoona and Logan Valley Electric Railway in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
  
  ### October
  
  * October 16 – The Southern Pacific dieselizes its 3 foot (914 mm) gauge Keeler branch.
  * October 20 – To commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Horseshoe Curve, the Sylvania Electric Products Corporation sponsors a night photograph of the Curve using more than 6500 flashbulbs.
  
  ### November
  
  * November 29 – The first dome cars built by Budd Company enter revenue service on Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway's North Coast Limited.
  
  ### December
  
  * December – Louisville and Nashville Railroad and Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway open the new Radnor Yard in Nashville, Tennessee.
  * December – Pullman-Standard builds the first bilevel commuter coaches for the Southern Pacific Railroad to use in the south San Francisco Bay Area.
  * December – The last steam locomotive on the Southern Railway (U.S.) is retired from standby service.
  
  ### Unknown date
  
  * Circular Koltsevaya Line of the Moscow Metro completed.
  * American Car and Foundry officially changes its name to ACF Industries, Inc.
  * Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway divests itself of the Grand Canyon Hotel and other buildings at the north end of the Grand Canyon Railway.
  * Netherlands Railway Museum moves to the former Maliebaan station.
  
  ## Deaths
  
  ### January deaths
  
  * January 5 – Death Valley Scotty (born Walter Edward Scott; pictured), con man who chartered the Scott Special record-breaking run on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1905, dies (born 1872).
  
  ### December deaths
  
  * December 15 – Ernest Lemon, Chief Mechanical Engineer (1931–1932) and later Vice President of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (born 1884).
  