1952 in rail transport

• January 13 – Union Pacific Railroad’s City of San Francisco is stalled in snow on Donner Pass. The train's passengers remain stranded in the train until January 16.

• March 25 – The Seibu Shinjuku Line extension from Takadanobaba to Seibu-Shinjuku Station opens.

• April 14 – Indian Railways divisional organisation completed by formation of the Eastern Railway, created by amalgamating three lower divisions of the East Indian Railway (Howrah, Asansol and Danapur), the entire Bengal Nagpur Railway and the Sealdah division of the erstwhile Bengal Assam Railway; the Northern Railway, created from remaining divisions of the EIR, the Eastern Punjab Railway and others; and the North Eastern Railway created by merger of the Oudh and Tirhut Railway and the Assam Railway.{{cite web|url=http://www.easternrailwaysealdah.gov.in/WebForm/FrameContent/Engineering.html |title=Sealdah division-Engineering details |publisher=The Eastern Railway, Sealdah division |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120215161611/http://www.easternrailwaysealdah.gov.in/WebForm/FrameContent/Engineering.html |archivedate=February 15, 2012 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/financecode/ADMIN_FINANCE/AdminFinanceCh1_Data.htm|title=Chapter 1 – Evolution of Indian Railways-Historical Background|publisher=Ministry of Railways, India|accessdate=December 23, 2009|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20090601024404/http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/financecode/ADMIN_FINANCE/AdminFinanceCh1_Data.htm |archivedate = June 1, 2009|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://irse.bravehost.com/IRHTML.htm|author=Saxena, R. P.|title=Indian Railway History Time Line|year=2008|accessdate=December 23, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229092028/http://irse.bravehost.com/IRHTML.htm|archive-date=February 29, 2012|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}

• May 3 – Wallace station on the Chicago "L" Stock Yards branch is closed.
• May 4 – Service is discontinued on the Chicago "L" Humboldt Park branch.{{cite web| url=http://www.chicago-l.org/operations/lines/humboldt.html| title=Humboldt Park branch| website=Chicago "L".org| accessdate=August 16, 2013}}

• July 6 – The last tram (streetcar) runs in London, England.
• July 21 – The 7.3 {{M|w}} Kern County earthquake strikes Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds. Southeast of Bealville {{convert|46|cm|abbr=on}} thick reinforced concrete railroad tunnel walls are cracked, tracks warped, and the gap between tunnel entrances is reduced by up to {{convert|2.5|m|sp=us}}.

• August 2 – The Buffalo-Exchange Street Station opens.

• September 6 – The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway car ferry Badger is launched. It is the last coal-fired, passenger-carrying steamship built in the United States, and it is still in use for automobile travel.

• October 4 – Brussels-Congress railway station is opened.
• October 8 – Three trains are involved in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash in England, a crash that kills 112 and injures 340.
• October 17 – British Railways initiates trial of a new Automatic Warning System (Automatic Train Control).{{cite book|author=Hall, Stanley|year=2000|title=The History and Development of Railway Signalling in the British Isles, vol. 1: Broad Survey|publisher=Friends of the National Railway Museum|location=York|isbn=978-1-872826-12-7}}

• November 1 – The Pacific Great Eastern Railway opens its branch from Quesnel, British Columbia, to a nearby junction with the Canadian National Railway.
• November 20 – Brush Bagnall (England) formally hand over first of batch of class M1 A1A-A1A diesel-electric locomotives for Ceylon Government Railway, its first mainline diesels.{{cite book|first=Allan C.|last=Baker|author2=Civil, T. D. Allen|title=Bagnalls of Stafford|location=High Halden|publisher=Phyllis Rampton Narrow Gauge Railway Trust|year=2008|isbn=978-0-9544546-2-3}}

• December 1 – Canadian Pacific Railway ushers in the modern intermodal freight transport era with the introduction of Trailer On Flat Car service.
• December 28 – Pacific Electric discontinues interurban service over the Cahuenga Pass between Los Angeles and Van Nuys, California.{{cite report |last1=Veysey |first1=Laurence R. |title=A History Of The Rail Passenger Service Operated By The Pacific Electric Railway Company Since 1911 And By Its Successors Since 1953 |date=June 1958 |url=http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/pacificelectric/1958-history-of-rail-passenger-service-operated-by-pacific-electric-since-1911.pdf |website=LACMTA |accessdate=19 September 2020}}{{cite web |title=San Fernando Valley Line |url=http://erha.org/pewsfv.htm |publisher=Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California |accessdate=8 September 2020}}

• The "Chinese Changchun Railway", that portion of the Chinese Eastern Railway on the Liaodong Peninsula, is returned by the Soviet Union to Chinese control.
• National Railway Company of Belgium opens new Brussels-North railway station.
• Last standard gauge compound locomotives built: Norfolk and Western Railway 2-8-8-2 Class Y6b Mallet #2200 from its Roanoke Shops, the last conventional steam freight locomotive for road service constructed in the United States; and SNCF Class 241P mixed-traffic 4-cylinder Chapelon 4-8-2 #241P-35 at Le Creusot in France.{{cite book|first=J. T.|last=van Riemsdijk|title=Compound Locomotives: an international survey|location=Penryn|publisher=Atlantic Transport|year=1994|isbn=978-0-906899-61-8}}
• Donald J. Russell takes over as president of the Southern Pacific Company, parent company of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

{{1952 railway accidents|state=uncollapsed}}

• September 19 – George Warrington, president of Amtrak 1998–2002, executive director of New Jersey Transit 2002–2007 (d. 2007).

• November 19 – Yury Lomonosov, Russian-born locomotive engineer (b. 1876).

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