1790s in rail transport

• The world's first railway viaduct, which became known as the "Covered Bridge", is built at Blaenavon in South Wales for a horse-worked tramway carrying coal to the ironworks coke ovens. It is {{convert|40|m|ft|abbr=on}} long with 10 arches and {{convert|10|m|ft|abbr=on}} tall.{{cite web |title=Blaenafon.info |url=http://www.norbiton.com/blaenavon/archaeology.htm |accessdate=7 September 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928045423/http://www.norbiton.com/blaenavon/archaeology.htm |archivedate=2007-09-28 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|title=Time Team – The Lost Viaduct |url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/archive/2001ba.html |accessdate=7 September 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070810060747/http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/archive/2001ba.html |archivedate=10 August 2007 |url-status=live }}

• John Brandt, American steam locomotive builder (died c. 1860).{{cite book|author=White, John H. Jr.|authorlink=John H. White, Jr.|year=1968|title=A History of the American Locomotive; its development: 1830–1880|publisher=Dover Publications|location=New York|isbn=0-486-23818-0}}

• Thomas Rogers, founder of Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor (died 1856).

• The world's oldest surviving railway tunnel is constructed at Fritchley on the "Butterley Gangroad", the Butterley Company's plateway to carry limestone from Hilt's Quarry at Crich to kilns on the Cromford Canal at Bullbridge in Derbyshire, England, by Benjamin Outram.

• Holmes Hinkley, American steam locomotive manufacturer (died 1866).

• May 27 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American financier who created the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad from the merger of several smaller railroads in New York (d. 1877).

• October 22 – Edward Bury, English steam locomotive builder (d. 1858).{{cite web|date=2004-10-30 |url=https://steamindex.com/people/bury.htm |title=Edward Bury|work=Steamindex|accessdate=2005-02-09}}

• December 14 – Erastus Corning, established railroads in New York and was instrumental in the formation of New York Central (d. 1872).

• Jasper Grosvenor, American financier who partnered with Thomas Rogers and Morris Ketchum to form Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor (d. 1857).

• A wooden railway on Beacon Hill in Boston carried excavations down the hill to clear the land for the State House

• December 10 – Matthias W. Baldwin, American steam locomotive manufacturer (d. 1866).

• John B. Jervis, Chief mechanical engineer of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad who pioneered the use of the leading truck on steam locomotives (d. 1885).

• February – Morris Ketchum, partner in Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor, director of Illinois Central Railroad (d. 1880){{cite web|authorlink=William Addams Reitwiesner|last=Reitwiesner|first=William Addams| url=http://www.wargs.com/political/thorne.html| title=The Ancestors of Julia Stimson Thorne| accessdate=2005-10-11}}

• April 19 – Franz Anton von Gerstner, Bohemian-born railway civil engineer (d. 1840)

• July 29 – Daniel Drew, board member and financier of the Erie Railroad (d. 1879).

• Asa Whitney, one of the first backers of an American Transcontinental Railway.

• The Lake Lock Rail Road near Wakefield opens.
• First known use of cast-iron chaired 'fish-belly' edge-rails, at Walker Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne in the north-east of England.{{cite journal|authorlink=Alec Skempton|first1=A. W.|last1=Skempton|first2=A.|last2=Andrews|title=Cast Iron Edge-Rails at Walker Colliery 1798|journal=Newcomen Society Transactions|volume=45|year=1972–73|pages=110–122}}

• April 15 – The Earl of Carlisle's waggonway opens from coal pits owned by George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle around Lambley to Brampton, Cumbria, England.{{cite book|author=Webb, Brian|author2=Gordon, David A.|title=Lord Carlisle's Railways|publisher=Railway Correspondence & Travel Society|year=1978|isbn=0-901115-43-6}}

• January 23 – Alois Negrelli, builder of the first railway in Switzerland, connecting Zurich and Baden (d. 1858).

• February 28 – William Dargan, Irish railway contractor (d. 1867).{{cite book|title=Irish Railway Collection|location=Holywood|publisher=Ulster Folk and Transport Museum|year=1993|isbn=0-902588-50-8}}

• May – George Hennet, English railway contractor (d. 1857).{{cite book|last=Kay|first=Peter|title=Exeter–Newton Abbot: a railway history|publisher=Platform 5|year=1991|location=Sheffield|isbn=1-872524-42-7}}

• June 22 – Joseph Pease, English railway promoter (d. 1872).{{cite web |url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REpease.htm |title=Joseph Pease |accessdate=6 September 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817235409/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REpease.htm |archivedate=2007-08-17 |url-status=dead }}

• Years in rail transport

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{{succession box

| title = Rail transport timeline

| years = 1790s

| before = 1780s in rail transport

| after = 1800s in rail transport

}}

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