This article will list events related to rail transport that occurred in 1826.

Events

Unknown date events

• The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, designed by George Stephenson and Joseph Locke, and which in 1830 became the world's first purpose built passenger railway operated by steam locomotives to be opened, was authorised by the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Births

January births

• January 2 - Algernon S. Buford, president of the Richmond and Danville Railroad (d. 1911).

March births

• March 4 - Theodore Judah, American engineer who argued the case for construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad (d. 1863).

December births

• December 1 - William Mahone, American civil engineer and Confederate Army Major General who built the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, a predecessor of the Norfolk and Western (d. 1895).

Deaths