1913 in rail transport

January events

 * January 13 - Julius Kruttschnitt leaves Union Pacific Railway and succeeds Robert S. Lovett as Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

February events

 * February 1 - New York City's Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest train station to date.

May events

 * May 7 - Tracklaying begins on the Graysonia, Nashville and Ashdown Railroad (a predecessor of Kansas City Southern Railway) between Murfreesboro and Shawmut, Arkansas.

June events

 * June 28/29 - Bever–Scuol-Tarasp railway opens in Switzerland.

July events

 * July 2 - General Electric produces a gas-electric locomotive which is sold to the Electric Line of Minnesota as its #100 Dan Patch.
 * July 15 - Opening of the Bern–Lötschberg–Simplon railway's Lötschberg railway line in Switzerland, including the 14.6 km Lötschberg Tunnel.

August events

 * August 1 - The Alton and Southern Railroad is formed through the merger of the Alton and Southern Railroad Company, the Denverside Connecting Railroad and the Alton and Southern Railway.
 * August 13 - Stainless steel (which will soon be used to construct passenger car bodies) is invented by Harry Brearley in Sheffield.
 * August 21 - Construction begins on the Morrisburg and Ottawa Electric Railway just south of Billings Bridge, Ottawa.

September events

 * September 1 – Howard Elliott succeeds Charles Sanger Mellen as president of New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
 * September 2 – Traveling at 40 mph in heavy fog north of New Haven, Connecticut, the White Mountain Express crashes through two cars of the Bar Harbor Express and overturns a third coach, killing 21 and injuring 50.

October events

 * October 20 - The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's tracks reach Casper, Wyoming, making Casper the busiest rail junction in Wyoming.

December events

 * December 1 - First section of Buenos Aires Metro opened, the earliest metro system in the Southern Hemisphere or the Hispanophone world, and the southernmost.
 * December 18 - Korekimi Nakamura steps down as president of South Manchuria Railway.
 * December 19 - Ryutaro Nomura succeeds Korekimi Nakamura as president of South Manchuria Railway.
 * December 26 - A major fire at its predecessor forces the new Michigan Central Station in Detroit to open early.

Unknown date events

 * The Nickel Plate Road completes its grade separation project in Cleveland, Ohio.
 * The Supreme Court of the United States orders the Union Pacific Railroad to sell all of its stock in the Southern Pacific Railroad.
 * ALCO ceases new steam locomotive production at the former Rogers Locomotive Works plant in Paterson, New Jersey; ALCO continues producing new locomotives at its other plants.
 * First examples of Class 140 C steam locomotives delivered to Chemins de Fer de l'État in France; 340 will eventually be built.
 * The world’s first rail vehicle with diesel-electric transmission, and the first diesel of any type in regular revenue main line service, a 75 bhp railcar built by Atlas-Deva/Asea, enters service on the Södermanland Mellersta Railway in Sweden. It will remain in use until 1939.
 * The Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway, a copper ore-hauling short line in Montana, electrifies using a 2,400 Volts DC system engineered by General Electric, the first primarily freight railroad in North America to electrify.
 * Hejaz Railway Station opened in Damascus.
 * First on-train cinema set up, on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
 * William Finley is succeeded by Fairfax Harrison as president of the Southern Railway.
 * Mary Averell Harriman, wife of the late Edward H. Harriman, creates the E. H. Harriman Award to recognize outstanding achievements in railway safety.

April births

 * April 21 - Richard Beeching, chairman of the British Railways Board 1961–1965 (died 1985).

December births

 * December 27 - Ian David Sinclair, president of Canadian Pacific Railway 1969-1981, is born (died 2006).

March deaths

 * March 31 - J. P. Morgan, American financier who helped to finance United States Steel Corporation (born 1837).

April deaths

 * April 22 - John Saxby, English railway signalling engineer (born 1821).

May deaths

 * May 20 - Henry Morrison Flagler, visionary and builder of the Florida East Coast Railway (born 1830).

September deaths

 * September 25 - Herbert William Garratt, English steam locomotive builder and inventor of the Garratt locomotive (born 1864).