This article lists anniversary events related to rail transport that occurred on October 4.

• 1883 – The first ever Orient Express passenger train service operates between Paris, France, and Constantinople (now Istanbul) in the Ottoman Empire (Turkey).

• 1911 – Regular operations over the entire Usambara Railway between Tanga and Moshi in German East Africa begins.
• 1952 – Brussels-Congress railway station is opened.
• 1968 – Frankfurt U-Bahn opens in West Germany with the underground route from Hauptwache to Nordweststadt.^[1]
• 1976 – The Sinfin Branch Line from Derby to Sinfin, England, opens to carry workers to and from the Rolls-Royce plant.

• 1883 – Henry Farnam, president of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad 1854–1863, dies (b. 1803).
• 1904 – Henry C. Payne, president of Milwaukee and Northern Railroad, Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company and the Milwaukee and Cream City Traction Company, and receiver for Northern Pacific Railway in 1893, dies (b. 1843).
• 1976 – Henry G. Ivatt, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, dies (b. 1886).
• 2012 – Bernard Holden, president of Bluebell Railway, dies (b. 1908).