Events
January
- January 1 – Creation of the following European railway networks under government control:
- SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français), bringing the principal railway companies of France together.
- NS (Nederlandsche Spoorwegen), merging the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij (HSM) and the Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen (SS) in the Netherlands.[1]
- January 22 – The Pacific Electric Whittier Line is truncated to Walker.[2]
February
- February 22 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway introduces the El Capitan passenger train between Chicago and Los Angeles.
- February 26 – A second all-lightweight trainset enters service on the Super Chief.
March
- March 6 – The Pacific Electric Walker Line is discontinued.[3]
- March 18 – Bundesbahn Österreich (BBÖ, Federal Railway of Austria) integrated into Deutsche Reichsbahn.
- March 27 – Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway inaugurates the San Diegan passenger train between Los Angeles and San Diego.[4]
May
- May 8 — President Manuel L. Quezon inaugurates regular services on the Main Line South of the Manila Railroad in Del Gallego, Camarines Sur. Trial runs already began five months prior.[5]
- May 15
- The Lake Shore Electric Railway in Ohio ceases operations.
- Inauguration of a major Nederlandse Spoorwegen electrification scheme in the central Netherlands, centred on Utrecht.
June
- June 1 – Pacific Electric's Owensmouth Line and San Fernando Line are truncated to Sherman Way.[2][6]
- June 15 – New York Central Railroad introduces an all-streamlined consist on the 20th Century Limited and also introduces the New England States passenger train between Chicago and Boston.
- June 16 – The Pike's Peak Cog Railway in Colorado operates gasoline-powered railcar number 7, the first rack railcar in the world, for the first time.[7]
- June 19 – Custer Creek train wreck kills at least 47 near Saugus, Montana. A bridge, weakened by a flash flood, collapses under the Milwaukee Road's Olympian plunging the locomotive and seven lead cars into the rain-swollen creek. It remains the worse rail disaster in Montana history.
- June 30 – London Underground 1938 Stock enters public service, on Northern line.[8]
July
- July 3 – The London and North Eastern Railway 4-6-2 Mallard reaches a speed of 126 mph (203 km/h), the highest certified speed for a steam locomotive.
- July 31 – The Pennsylvania Railroad, in its public timetable issued today, boasts that “19% of all passengers are carried on the Pennsylvania Railroad.”
October
- October – Electro-Motive Corporation introduces the EMC E4.
November
- November 1 – Passenger service ends on the Maine narrow gauge Monson Railroad.[9]
December
- December 13 – The Reading Railroad's Crusader passenger train is introduced.
- December 15
- The first diesel locomotives in the southeast United States, EMC E4s, appear on the Orange Blossom Special.
- The second section of the Itō Line, connecting Ajiro to Itō in Japan, opens.
- December 23 – Jean Renoir's film of La Bête Humaine released in France.
Unknown date
- Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited is completely re-equipped based on an industrial design by Raymond Loewy.
- Overhead wire on the Pennsylvania Railroad's mainline from New York City reaches Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
- Overhead wire on the newly formed SNCF system between Tours and Bordeaux in France completes electrification from Paris to the Spanish frontier.
- The first passenger car equipped with fluorescent lights is operated on the New York Central Railroad.
