Who's Who list by name, surname beginning with B

  • Baer, George Frederick (1842-1914) - Reading Company 1901-.
  • Bailey, E. H. - Union Pacific Railroad 1965-1971.
  • Baird, Matthew (1817-1877) - Locomotive designer, apprenticed at New Castle Manufacturing Company 1834-1836, shop superintendent at Newcastle & Frenchtown Railroad, boiler and sheet metal shop foreman at Baldwin Locomotive Works 1838, designed the French & Baird spark arrestor 1842, known as using the firebrick arch in 1854 three years before Griggs' patent, parter at Baldwin Locomotive Works 1854-1873.
  • Baker, William C. (1828-1901) - Car heater patentee.
  • Baldwin, L. W. - CEO of Missouri Pacific Lines. (Palmer 1942)
  • Baldwin, Matthias W. (1795-1866) - Locomotive designer, assembled the first locomotive for Newcastle & Frenchtown Railroad in 1832, founder of Baldwin Locomotive Works.
  • Baldwin, William H., Jr. (1863-1905) - Long Island Rail Road 1896-1905.
  • Ball, Webb C. (1847-1922) - Chief Time Inspector for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway beginning in 1891; he was the first person in North America to create reliable inspection systems for railroad chronometers.
  • Bancroft, William Amos (born 1855) - Boston Elevated Railway 1899-.
  • Bandeen, Robert (born 1930) - Canadian National Railway 1974-1982.
  • Banerjee, Mamata (born 1955) - Minister of Railways for India 2009-present.
  • Banfield, Edward - Gran Ferrocarril Sur.
  • Barney, Eliam E. (1807-1880) - Car builder.
  • Barriger, John W., III (1899-1976) - President of Monon Railroad 1946-1953; president of Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad 1956-1964; president of Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad 1965-1970; president of Boston & Maine Railroad 1973-1974.
  • Bauer, Kenneth J. - Long Island Rail Road 2000-2003.
  • Bayer, Palmer - President of Intermodal Transportation Systems, Inc.
  • Beames, H. P. M. (1875-1948) - Chief Mechanical Engineer of London & North Western Railway 1920-1922.
  • Beatty, Edward Wentworth (1877-1943) - Canadian Pacific Railway 1918-1943.
  • Beckley, Thomas M. - Soo Line Railroad 1978-1983.
  • Beebe, Lucius M. (1902-1966) - Railroad journalist.
  • Beeching, Richard (1913-1985) - Chairman of the British Railways Board 1961-1965; known for his cost-cutting measures to close a large number of branch lines and low-use stations throughout the United Kingdom, a plan that has come to be known as "The Beeching Axe."
  • Belpaire, Alfred (1820-1893) - Inventor of the Belpaire firebox used on steam locomotives.
  • Bennett, James I. - Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad 1877-1881.
  • Berdell, Robert H. - Erie Railroad 1864–1867.
  • Bernet, John J. (1868-1935) - Nickel Plate Road 1916-1926, Erie Railroad 1927-1929, Chesapeake & Ohio Railway 1929-1932, NKP 1933-1935.
  • Bertrand, Charles E. - Delaware & Hudson Railway 1977-1978.
  • Besener, Willi - Deutsche Reichsbahn of the GDR 1946-1949.
  • Beven, John L. - Illinois Central Railroad 1938-1945.
  • Beyer, O. S. - Director of the US Division of Transport Personnel. (Palmer 1942)
  • Biaggini, Benjamin (1916-2005) - Southern Pacific Railroad 1964-1983.
  • Billings, Frederick H. (1823-1890) - President of Northern Pacific Railway 1879-1881.
  • Bixby, William P. (1857-1931) - American Car & Foundry.
  • Blackstone, Timothy B. (1829-1900) - Chief engineer for Joliet & Chicago Railroad; president of Joliet & Chicago Railroad 1861-1864; president of Chicago & Alton Railroad 1864-1899.
  • Blake, Ronald James - Kowloon-Canton Railway 2006-present.
  • Bledsoe, Samuel T. (1868-1939) - Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway 1933–1939.
  • Blood, Aretas (1816-1897) - Locomotive designer, employed by Locks & Canals machine shop 1832-1839, job hand at Essex Machine Shop 1849, invested in Manchester Locomotive Works 1853, superintendent at Manchester Locomotive Works 1857-1897.
  • Boardman, Joseph H. - Chairman of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials' Standing Committee on Rail Transportation; New York State Commissioner of Transportation 1997-2005; US Federal Railroad Administrator 2005-2008; President and CEO of Amtrak 2008-present.
  • Boatner, Victor V. (1881-1950) - Worked for Illinois Central Railroad; president of Peoria & Pekin Union Railway 1921-; president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1929-1931; continued work as a railway consultant in Chicago until 1950.
  • Boeckmann, Alan L. - BNSF Railway.
  • Bollman, Wendel (1814-1884) - Designer of the Bollman truss bridge.
  • Bolton, John - Delaware & Hudson Railway 1826-1831.
  • Bond, Frank S. - Philadelphia & Reading Railroad 1883-.
  • Bouvier, Robert - President of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.
  • Bowen, James - Erie Railroad 1841–1842.
  • Bowen-Cooke, Charles (1859-1920) - Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London & North Western Railway 1909-1920.
  • Bowman, Hollis - Maine Central Railroad 1863-1864.
  • Boyd, Alan Stephenson (born 1922) - First US Secretary of Transportation 1967-1969.  President of Illinois Central Railroad 1969-1972.  President of Amtrak 1978-1982. (Phillips, June 1991, p 28)
  • Bradshaw, George (1801-1853) - English cartographer, printer and publisher and the originator of the railway timetable.
  • Brady, James "Diamond Jim" (1856-1917) - Railway supply salesman.
  • Brandt, John (1791-1860) - Locomotive builder; Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad shop foreman 1833-1838, Georgia Railroad motive power superintendent 1838-1840, Cumberland Valley Railroad motive power superintendent 1841, New York & Erie Railroad motive power superintendent 1842-1851, New Jersey Locomotive and Machine Company superintendent 1852-, Lancaster Locomotive Works superintendent -1857.
  • Brogidan, Thomas - Irish businessman who spearheaded the efforts for the extension of the Dublin-Drogheda railway line to connect to Navan in 1845 (the extension opened in 1850).
  • Bromley, M. - Chief Mechanical Engineer for Great Eastern Railway 1878-1881.
  • Brooke, George D. - Chesapeake & Ohio Railway 1933-, Pere Marquette Railroad 1933-, Nickel Plate Road 1935-, Virginian Railway.
  • Brooks, Horatio G. (1828-1887) - Locomotive builder, founder of Brooks Locomotive Works.
  • Brosnan, D. William - Southern Railway (US) 1962-1967.
  • Brown, Revelle W. - Reading Company.
  • Brown, Richard - CEO of Eurostar -present.
  • Brown, Virginia Mae (1924-1991) - First woman to lead the Interstate Commerce Commission.  Chairman of the ICC 1969-1979. (Trains, June 1991, p 18)
  • Brunel, Isambard Kingdom (1806-1859) - Founder of Great Western Railway.
  • Bryant, Gridley (1789-1867) - Construction engineer who designed and built the first commercial railroad in the United States, the Granite Railroad near Boston, inventing many of the basic technologies needed for it.
  • Bryant, Robert E. - Buckingham Branch Railroad -present.
  • Budd, Edward G. - Founder of Budd Car Company.
  • Budd, John M. - Great Northern Railway (US).
  • Budd, Ralph (1879–1962) - Great Northern Railway (US) 1919-1932, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad 1932-1949.
  • Buenrostro, Hugo Jiménez - Kansas City Southern de Mexico 2006-present.
  • Buford, Algernon S. (1826-1911) - President of Richmond & Danville Railroad 1865-1892.
  • Buford, Curtis D. - Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad 1965-1969.
  • Bulleid, Oliver V. S. (1882-1970) - Chief Mechanical Engineer at Southern Railway (UK) 1937-1948, Chief Mechanical Engineer at Córas Iompair Éireann (Ireland) 1950-1958.
  • Burbidge, Fred - Canadian Pacific Railway 1972-1981.
  • Burdakin, John H. - Grand Trunk Western Railroad.
  • Burkhardt, Ed - Wisconsin Central 1987-1999, Railworld 2000-present.
  • Burns, John J. - Alleghany Corporation.
  • Burns, Ron (born 1953) - Union Pacific Railroad 1996.
  • Burt, Horace G. (1849-1913) - Union Pacific Railroad 1898-1904.
  • Burtness, Harold W. (1897-1978) - Began railroad career as a secretary for Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad; worked as an executive for Pennsylvania Railroad; moved to Chicago Great Western Railway in 1922; vice president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1941-1946; president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1946-1948.
  • Bury, Oliver Robert Hawke (1861-1946) - Chief mechanical engineer and manager of Great Western Railway of Brazil 1892-1894, general manager of the Great Northern Railway in England 1902-1912, Director of the London and North Eastern Railway 1912-1945.
  • Busiel, Charles Albert (1842-1901) - Lake Shore Railroad, Concord & Montreal Railroad.
  • Butzelaar, Frank - Southern Railway of British Columbia 2008-present.
  • Byers, Stephen (born 1953) - British Secretary of State for Transport 2001-2002.  He introduced an order to put the railway infrastructure company Railtrack into administration, effectively renationalizing the company that would become Network Rail; this led to the largest class action suit yet in British courts as Railtrack shareholders tried to recover their investments.