This article lists anniversary events related to rail transport that occurred on October 8.

• 1952 – Five minutes after beginning its journey at Perth, Scotland, the 8:15 AM express passenger train to Euston station, London, rear-ends the 7:31 train from Tring which was stopped at the Harrow and Wealdstone station; a short while later, the 8:00 express from Euston to Liverpool and Manchester runs into the wreckage on the parallel track. 112 passengers died in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash, and 340 more were injured.
• 1998 - Norway's first high-speed railway, Gardermobanen between Oslo S via Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, to Eidsvoll, opens.

• 2005 – Amtrak restores the City of New Orleans passenger service to New Orleans, Louisiana, following damages caused by Hurricane Katrina.^[1]

• 1789 – John Ruggles, who was awarded U.S. patent 1 in 1836 for improved driving wheels, is born (d. 1874).

• 1895 – William Mahone, American civil engineer and Confederate Army Major General who built the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, a predecessor of the Norfolk and Western, dies (b. 1826).