1886 in rail transport explained

Events

January events

• January 25 – The North Hudson County Railway in New Jersey opens the first elevated cable railway in the United States, the Hoboken Elevated.^[1]

February events

• February 1 – The Mersey Railway opened to public traffic between Birkenhead and Liverpool by tunnel beneath the River Mersey, England.^[2]
• February 18 - The Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingham Railroad is incorporated in Mississippi.^[3]

March events

• March–September – Great Southwest Railroad Strike, a labor union strike against the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads involving more than 200,000 workers.^[4]
• March 30 – Executives from several railroad companies operating in the southern United States meet and agree to all regauge their railroads to standard gauge,, by June 1.^[5]

May events

• May – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway takes control of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway.

July events

• July 8 – Russian emperor Alexander III establishes Railway Worker Day as a national holiday on the anniversary of the name day of Nikolai I, who first commissioned Russian railroad construction.^[6]

August events

• August 17 – The 7 mile (11.3 km) long Lakeside and Marblehead Railroad is incorporated in Ottawa County, Ohio.

September events

• September 1 – Regular traffic (initially freight only) begins to pass through the Great Western Railway’s Severn Tunnel linking southern Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire.^[7]
• September 9 – The rail connection to Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick, is completed by a predecessor of the New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Railway.

October events

• October 18 – Between 5:00 AM and 6:00 PM, the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railroad, a predecessor of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, converts 418 miles (673 km) of track from narrow gauge to standard gauge.

November events

• November 20 – The San Bernardino and Los Angeles Railway is incorporated as an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad subsidiary to build a rail connection between its namesake cities in California.^[8]

Unknown date events

• The first refrigerator cars on the Southern Pacific Railroad enter operation.
• The Southern Pacific Railroad wins the landmark Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad which establishes equal rights under the law to corporations.
• Grande Ceinture line around Paris completed.

Births

May births

• May 4 – Henry G. Ivatt, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (d. 1976).

Unknown date births

• W. Graham Claytor, president of Southern Railway (US) (d. 1971).

Deaths

July deaths

• July 24 – Nathaniel Worsdell, English carriage builder (b. 1809).^[9]

December deaths

• December 28 - William Kimmel, director for Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (b. 1812).

Unknown date deaths

• David Levy Yulee, Florida railroad executive (b. 1810).

References

• Clowes, J. A.; Railways of Canada Archives (1999), Eastern New Brunswick's Railway History. Retrieved September 8, 2005.
• Morris, J. C., compiler (December 31, 1902), Annual report of the Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs; Part II, history of the railroads of Ohio. Retrieved August 16, 2005.
• Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005), This Month in Railroad History: October. Retrieved October 18, 2005.
• Santa Fe Railroad (1945), Along Your Way, Rand McNally, Chicago, Illinois.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Today in New Jersey history – January 25. Marc. Mappen. Joe. Bilby. H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online. January 25, 2015. March 21, 2015.
2. Book: Gahan, John W.. The Line Beneath the Liners – a hundred years of Mersey Railway sights and sounds. 1983. Countyvise. Birkenhead. 0-907768-40-7.
3. Web site: Corporate History: Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad Company. Truman Area Community Network, Inc.. June 2, 2008. February 18, 2010. https://archive.today/20120718080039/http://tacnet.missouri.org/history/railroads/ch_kcfsm.html. 2012-07-18. dead.
4. Book: Allen, Rith A.. The Great Southwest Strike. Austin. University of Texas. 1942.
5. Web site: Rivanna Chapter National Railway Historical Society. This month in railroad history: March. March 29, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060417075629/http://avenue.org/nrhs/histmar.htm. 17 April 2006 . live.
6. News: Railway Worker Day marked in Russia. August 6, 2006. August 7, 2006. ITAR-TASS.
7. Web site: The Severn Tunnel . Severn Tales . August 1, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080110172320/http://www.severntales.co.uk/tunnel.htm . January 10, 2008 . dead .
8. Book: Serpico, Philip C.. Santa Fé Route to the Pacific. 1988. Omni Publications. Palmdale, California. 0-88418-000-X. 23–24 .
9. Book: Marshall, John. Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers. Railway & Canal Historical Society. Oxford. 2003. 0-901461-22-9.