1877 in rail transport explained

Events

May events

• May 1 – Opening of first railway in Burma (Myanmar), from Rangoon (Yangon) to Prome (Pyay) (257km (160miles) of metre gauge).

July events

• July 14 – Baltimore railroad strike of 1877: Workers on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad walk off their jobs in an act that is seen as the start of the great railroad strike of 1877.^[1]
• July 16
  • Railroad workers on strike in Martinsburg, West Virginia, derail and loot a train; West Virginia Governor Henry M. Mathews calls on United States President Rutherford B. Hayes for Federal troops to break the strike.^[2]
  • The Nickey line, connecting Boxmoor to Harpenden in England, is officially opened.^[3]
• July 19 – The New York and Manhattan Beach Railway (later absorbed by the Long Island Rail Road) opens.^[4]
• July 20 – Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers riot in Baltimore, Maryland. Nine railroad employees are killed as the Maryland militia attempts to quell the riot.
• July 21 – Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, stage a sympathy strike for the workers killed in Baltimore, Maryland the day before. Rioting erupts throughout Pittsburgh as a result.
• July 24 – Joel Tiffany is awarded for his design of the first successful refrigerator car.

August events

• August 31 – The first gauge narrow gauge railroad in America, the Billerica and Bedford Railroad, begins operations.^[5]

October events

• October 28 – Replacement Budapest-Nyugati Railway Terminal, constructed by Eiffel, opened in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

November events

• November 4 – Opening of Gustave Eiffel's Maria Pia Bridge carrying the railway across the Douro into Porto, Portugal.

December events

• December 27 – The Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway opens, traversing a route from Montreal through Lachute to Hull.^[6]

Unknown date events

• Tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad from Los Angeles, cross the Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona.
• William Henry Vanderbilt, son of Cornelius Vanderbilt, is promoted to President of the New York Central system.
• Second railway in Estonia connecting Tapa (on the Tallinn–Saint Petersburg line) with Tartu, the biggest city in Southern Estonia (at this time in the Governorate of Livonia) is opened.^[7]
• Opening of first public railway in Venezuela, the Bolivar Railway (Ferrocarril Bolívar, gauge).^[8]
• Approximate date – Ephraim Shay develops the first Shay locomotive.

Births

February births

• February 7 – Edgar Alcock, general manager and chairman of Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds, England (d. 1951).^[9]

March births

• March 7 – Walter Kidde, president of New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway 1937–1943 (d. 1943).^[10]

Deaths

January deaths

• January 4 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American financier who created the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad from the merger of several smaller New York railroads (b. 1794).^[11]

March deaths

• March 9 – Oliver Ames Jr., president of Union Pacific Railroad 1866–1871, brother of Oakes Ames (b. 1807).^{[12] [13]}

April deaths

• April 22 – James P. Kirkwood, designer of Starrucca Viaduct (b. 1807).

May deaths

• May 19 – Matthew Baird, second owner of Baldwin Locomotive Works (b. 1817).^[14]

August deaths

• August 3 – William Butler Ogden, president of the Chicago and North Western Railway (b. 1805).

September deaths

• September 2 – Alvin Adams, founder of Adams Express, one of the first LCL freight companies in the United States, dies (b. 1804).

December events

• December 26 – Jean-Jacques Meyer, French-born steam locomotive designer (b. 1804)

References

• Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005), This Month in Railroad History: July. Retrieved July 12 and July 22, 2005.

Notes and References

1. Web site: This Month in Railroad History – July. Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. 2005. July 14, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060614173800/http://avenue.org/nrhs/histjul.htm. June 14, 2006 . live.
2. Book: Philip Foner

   . Foner, Philip S. . The Great Labor Uprising of 1877. registration . 1977. Pathfinder Press . 0-87348-828-8. Philip Foner.

3. Book: The Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead Railway – The Nickey Line. 1996. Sue. Woodward. Geoff. Woodward. Oakwood Press. 0-85361-502-0. 31.
4. Web site: The New York and Manhattan Beach Railway. July 18, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20050717093133/http://www.lirrhistory.com/nymbry.html. July 17, 2005 . dead.
5. Web site: March 18, 2000. A Chronology of Bedford's Railroad History. August 31, 2005.
6. Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (December 12, 2005), Significant dates in Ottawa railway history . Retrieved December 27, 2005.
7. Web site: Ajalugu. Eesti Raudtee. 2012-04-23. Estonian. https://web.archive.org/web/20170923095735/http://www.evr.ee/?id=31736&PHPSESSID=236c033efe38d1ee57cf233f127330cc. September 23, 2017. dead. mdy-all.
8. Book: Baker, Allan C.. The Bolivar Railway and the Aroa Copper Mines. Industrial Railway Society. 2022.
9. Web site: Hunslet group of locomotive companies . steamindex.com . 26 March 2021 . Alcock, Edgar . 4 April 2024 .
10. Book: The New York Susuquehanna & Western Railroad. Robert E. Mohowski. 2003. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 0-8018-7222-7. 50731001.
11. Web site: American engineers . steamindex.com . 5 May 2020 . Vanderbilt, Comelius . 4 April 2024 .
12. Spencer Marks (2005), The Ames Family of North Easton, MA . Retrieved December 29, 2005.
13. Union Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific: Significant Individuals . Retrieved December 29, 2005.
14. Web site: American engineers . steamindex.com . 5 May 2020 . Baird, Matthew . 4 April 2024 .