1881 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1881.

Events

January events

• January 17 – Regular train service over the Prince of Wales Bridge on the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway begins.^[1]

February events

• February 3 – The Seney Syndicate met at Seney's New York bank and organized the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company (which would later become the Nickel Plate Road).
• February 17 – The first train operates between Norwood, Ohio, and Lebanon, Ohio, on the Cincinnati Northern Railway.

March events

• March 1 – The Mexican Southern Railroad is incorporated with Ulysses S. Grant, former President of the United States, as its president.
• March 8 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, building southwestward from Kansas, reaches Deming, New Mexico.

April events

• April 13 – The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company (later known as the Nickel Plate Road) purchases the Buffalo, Cleveland & Chicago Railway
• April 14 – The Oregon Short Line Railroad is established to build a rail connection between Granger, Wyoming, and Huntington, Oregon.

May events

• May 16 – The Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, the world's first electric tramway, is opened in Berlin by Siemens & Halske.^[2]
• May 19 – Tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad reach El Paso, Texas.
• May 28 – A.B. Rogers on his birthday discovers the pass through the Rocky Mountains that will bear his name, Rogers Pass.

A tight loop (Agony Point) on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

June events

• June 9 – The Canada Central Railway is merged into the Canadian Pacific Railway.
• June 11 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad connects to El Paso, Texas.

July events

• July 2 – Assassination of James A. Garfield: James A. Garfield, President of the United States, is shot by lawyer Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., dying on September 19 of a resultant infection.
• July 4 – Darjeeling Himalayan Railway opened throughout to Darjeeling, India.
• July 6 – Kate Shelley prevents a train with 200 passengers from going over the Honey Creek Bridge after it was washed out during a flash flood near Des Moines, Iowa.
• July 26 – Construction crews on the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad's Alpine Tunnel, in Colorado, break through to connect both ends of the tunnel.

August events

• August 22 – The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad (ET&WNC) commences operation over a 14.1-mile (2.25-kilometer) run through the Appalachian Mountains.
• August 26 – The first train operates over the Red River Bridge into Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

October events

• October 17 – First section of Royal Saxon State Railways narrow gauge railway (750 mm (2 ft 5 ¹&fras1;₂ in) gauge) opens, between Wilkau and Kirchberg in the German Empire.
• October 20 – First section of Barbados Railway opens on 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge between Bridgetown and Carrington.

Unknown date events

• E.W. Clark & Co., a private banking firm in Philadelphia, purchases the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (a predecessor of the Norfolk & Western) at a foreclosure auction.
• The Richmond and Danville Railroad leases the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railway.
• Henry Villard becomes president of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
• The French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique purchases a controlling interest in the Panama Railway Company.
• John Souther retires from the steam locomotive manufacturing company that he founded, Globe Locomotive Works.
• Ephraim Shay takes out the first patent on his Shay locomotive design.
• Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway begins.
• The first standard gauge railroad in China is opened from Tangshan to Xugezhuang (10 km (6.2 mi)) for coal traffic.

Births

March births

• March 22 – Arturo Caprotti, Italian inventor of Caprotti valve gear for steam locomotives (d. 1938).^[3]

July births

• July 8 - Mantis James Van Sweringen, American financier who, with his brother Oris, controlled the Nickel Plate Road and other eastern railroads (d. 1935).

October births

• October 30 – Charles E. Johnston, president of Kansas City Southern Railway 1928–1938 (d. 1951).

Unknown date births

• Martin W. Clement, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad 1935–1948 (d. 1966).

Deaths

May deaths

• May 21 – Thomas Alexander Scott, president of Union Pacific Railroad 1871–1872 (b. 1823).

October deaths

• October 30 – Matthias von Schönerer, Austrian railway engineer (b. 1807).

Unknown date deaths

• William S. Hudson, superintendent of American steam locomotive manufacturing firm Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor (b. 1810).

References

• Churcher, Colin (21 May 2005). "Significant dates in Ottawa railway history". Archived from the original on 27 April 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2005.
• Glenbow Museum (2005). "This week in Canadian history". Archived from the original on 2005-06-24. Retrieved 27 May 2005.
• Kansas City Southern Historical Society. "The Kansas City Southern Lines". Retrieved 15 August 2005.
• Newcomb, Kenneth W. "The Makers of the Mold". Archived from the original on 2005-03-13. Retrieved 13 May 2006.
• President and Fellows of Harvard College (2004). "20th century great American business leaders – Martin W. Clement". Archived from the original on 2005-02-05. Retrieved 23 February 2005.
• Santa Fe Railroad (1945). Along Your Way. Chicago, Ill.: Rand McNally.
• White, John H., Jr. (Spring 1986). "America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders". Railroad History. Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. 154: 9–15. JSTOR 43523785.
• White, John H. Jr. (1968). A history of the American locomotive; its development: 1830–1880. New York, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-23818-0.