1878 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1878.

Events

January 18 – Construction on The Ghan route south of Port Augusta, Australia, begins.

February 5 – The first train is operated on the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad from Renton to Newcastle.[1]

May 9 – The final segment of the Romanian railway between Vârciorova in the south and Roman in the north opens.

June 1 – The North British Railway's Tay Bridge across the Firth of Tay in Scotland, is opened to public traffic, making it the longest in the world at that date.[2]

July 2 – The Brooklyn, Flatbush & Coney Island Railway, original predecessor of the BMT Brighton Line, in modern Brooklyn, New York, opens to Brighton Beach on Coney Island.

August 24 – The narrow gauge Ballymena and Larne Railway starts passenger operations in County Antrim, the first on the Irish 3 ft narrow gauge.[3][4]

December 4 – The first Shay locomotive is completed for the 3-foot narrow gauge Alleyton and Big Lake Railroad of Everett Township, Michigan.[5]

Fred Harvey enters a partnership with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to build and operate the Harvey House chain of restaurants and hotels that will serve the railroad's passengers.
The Richmond and Danville Railroad acquires the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad.
The Canadian Engine and Machinery Company is reorganized after a bankruptcy as the Canadian Locomotive and Engine Company.
The Wilmington, Columbia and Augusta Railroad, lessee of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, declares bankruptcy.

March 2 – William Kissam Vanderbilt II, heir to Cornelius Vanderbilt and president of the New York Central system (d. 1944).

April 14 – Angus Daniel McDonald, president of the Southern Pacific Company, parent company of the Southern Pacific Railroad, 1932–1941 (d. 1941).[6]

March 29 – Mark Hopkins, a member of The Big Four group of financiers in California (b. 1813).

June 27 – Sidney Breese, U.S. senator from Illinois known as the "father of the Illinois Central Railroad," dies (b. 1800).

October 19 – Benjamin Henry Latrobe, II, designer of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Thomas Viaduct (still in use today), dies (b. 1806).

December 27 – Daniel McCallum, General Superintendent of New York and Erie Railroad 1855–1858 (b. 1815).

gollark: You should make it from zirconium instead.

gollark: Or sodium.

gollark: Or solid iodine.

gollark: Why use aluminium when you could use... *indium*?

gollark: It's all *brown*, and *splintery*, and *rottable*.

HistoryLink (2018), Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad reaches Newcastle on February 5, 1878.. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
Thomas, John (1969). The North British Railway, vol. 1. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-4697-0.
Baker, Michael H. C. (1999). Irish Narrow Gauge Railways: a View from the Past. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0-7110-2680-7.
Patterson, Edward M. (1968). The Ballymena Lines. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 64. ISBN 0-7153-4183-9.
Koch, Michael (1971). The Shay Locomotive: Titan of the Timber. The World Press. p. 385.
Yenne, Bill (1985). The history of the Southern Pacific. New York: Bonanza.

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