1879 in rail transport

1878 1879 1880

Years in rail transport

1878 in rail transport 1879 in rail transport 1880 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1879.

Contents 1 Events 1.1 January events 1.2 February events 1.3 May events 1.4 July events 1.5 November events 1.6 December events 1.7 Unknown date events 2 Births 2.1 March births 2.2 April births 2.3 October births 2.4 Unknown date births 3 Deaths 4 References

Events

January events

• January 28 – Construction of the Waimea Plains Railway, the first railway constructed under the District Railways Act of 1878, reaches Inverrcagill, New Zealand.^[1]

February events

• February 10 – The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railway begins freight operations.^[2]

May events

• May – James J. Hill forms the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway from the assets of the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific.
• May 17 – The Texas and St. Louis Railway, a predecessor of St. Louis Southwestern Railway, is organized as a way to ship cotton south to Texas.^[3]
• May 31 – The first electric railway opens at the Berlin Trades Exposition.

July events

• July 4 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, building southwestward from Kansas, reaches Las Vegas, New Mexico.^[4]

November events

• November 1 – The first British dining car service leaves Leeds for London King's Cross. This was provided by the Pullman car Princess of Wales which accommodated only 10 first-class passengers.
• November 20 – Narrow gauge Sandy River Railroad completed to Phillips, Maine.^[5]
• November 22 – The North Pennsylvania Railroad begins operating the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad, a subsidiary of Pennsylvania Railroad.
• November 25 – The Waldenburgerbahn was founded as a separate company and took over the concession for the railway from Liestal to Waldenburg, Switzerland.

December events

• December 28 – The North British Railway's Tay Bridge across the Firth of Tay in Scotland collapses in a violent storm while a passenger train is crossing it. 75 lives are lost.^[6] William Topaz McGonagall produces his epic poem The Tay Bridge Disaster to commemorate the event.

Unknown date events

• Southern Pacific Railroad engineers experiment with the first oil-fired steam locomotives.

Births

March births

• March 6 – Patrick H. Joyce, president Chicago Great Western Railway 1931-1946, is born (d. 1946).

April births

• April 24 – Oris Paxton Van Sweringen, American financier who, with his brother Mantis, controlled the Nickel Plate Road and other eastern railroads (d. 1936).

October births

• October 18 – Charles Eugene Denney, president of Erie Railroad 1929-1939, Northern Pacific Railway 1939-1950, is born.^[7]

Unknown date births

• Ralph Budd, president of the Great Northern Railway 1919-1932 and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad 1932-1949 (d. 1962).

Deaths

References

• (2000), American Experience / Streamliners / People & Events / Ralph Budd. Retrieved February 22, 2005.
• President and Fellows of Harvard College (2004), 20th century great American business leaders - Ralph Budd. Retrieved February 22, 2005.
• Today in Science History: May 31. Retrieved May 27, 2005.
• White, John H., Jr. (Spring 1986). "America's most noteworthy railroaders". Railroad History 154: pp. 9–15. ISSN 0090-7847. OCLC 1785797.