1879 in rail transport explained

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

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 4 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, building southwestward from Kansas, reaches Las Vegas, New Mexico.^[4]
July 17 – Freycinet Plan enacted in France to extend rail and other transportation systems.
July 31 – The Caledonian Railway opens the original Glasgow Central station in Scotland.

November 1 – The first British dining car service leaves Leeds for London King's Cross. This is provided by the Pullman car Princess of Wales which accommodates just 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 is founded as a separate company and takes over the concession for the railway from Liestal to Waldenburg, Switzerland.

December 1 – Solano, the largest rail ferryboat ever constructed, is put into service in California.
December 28 – Tay Bridge disaster: 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.

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

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

August 20 – Ralph Budd, president of the Great Northern Railway 1919–1932 and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad 1932–1949 (d. 1962).

October 18 – Charles Eugene Denney, president of Erie Railroad 1929–1939 and Northern Pacific Railway 1939–1950 (d. 1965).^[8]

News: Hawke's Bay Herald. XXI. 5293. January 29, 1879. 2. Telegraphic News. January 28, 2010.
Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Railroad History Timeline . Retrieved February 10, 2006.
Web site: The History of St. Louis Southwestern Railway . Beck, Wayne . 1957 . 2006-05-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20091018232359/http://us.geocities.com/TheTropics/8199/c_belt.html . 2009-10-18 . dead .
Santa Fe Railroad (1945), Along Your Way, Rand McNally, Chicago, Illinois.
Book: The Maine Scenic Route . Crittenden, H. Temple . McClain Printing Company . 1966 . 23.
Book: Thomas, John. John Thomas (author). The North British Railway. 1. 1969. David & Charles. Newton Abbot. 0-7153-4697-0.
News: Prado. Mark. Puerto Suello Hill Tunnel for commute rail delayed. June 6, 2017. Marin Independent Journal. March 18, 2015.
Book: Who's Who In Railroading in North America. 1940. New York. Simmons-Boardman. 1940. 161.