1877 in rail transport
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1877.
Events
May events
July events
- July 14 â 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.[2]
- 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.[3]
- The Nickey line, connecting Boxmoor to Harpenden in England, is officially opened.[4]
- July 19 â The New York and Manhattan Beach Railway (later absorbed by the Long Island Rail Road) opens.[5]
- July 20 â 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 â 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 â Joel Tiffany is awarded U.S. patent 193,357 for his design of the first successful refrigerator car.
August events
- August 31 â The first 2 ft (610 mm) gauge narrow gauge railroad in America, the Billerica and Bedford Railroad, begins operations.[6]
October events
- October 28 â Replacement Budapest-Nyugati Railway Terminal, constructed by Eiffel, opened in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
November events
- November 4 â Opening of Gustave Eiffel's Maria Pia Bridge carrying the railway across the Douro into Porto, Portugal.
December events
- December 27 â The Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway opens, traversing a route from Montreal through Lachute to Hull.[7]
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 TallinnâSaint Petersburg line) with Tartu, the biggest city in Southern Estonia (at this time in the Governorate of Livonia) is opened.[8]
- Opening of first public railway in Venezuela, the Bolivar Railway (Ferrocarril BolÃvar, 2 ft (610 mm) gauge).[9]
- Approximate date â Ephraim Shay develops the first Shay locomotive.
Births
February births
- February 7 â Edgar Alcock, general manager and chairman of Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds, England (d. 1951).[10]
March births
- March 7 â Walter Kidde, president of New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway 1937â1943 (d. 1943).[11]
Deaths
January deaths
- January 4 â 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).[12]
March deaths
- March 9 â Oliver Ames Jr., president of Union Pacific Railroad 1866â1871, brother of Oakes Ames (b. 1807).[13][14]
April deaths
- April 22 â James P. Kirkwood, designer of Starrucca Viaduct (b. 1807).
May deaths
- May 19 â Matthew Baird, second owner of Baldwin Locomotive Works (b. 1817).[15]
August deaths
- August 3 â William Butler Ogden, president of the Chicago and North Western Railway (b. 1805).
September deaths
- September 2 â Alvin Adams, founder of Adams Express, one of the first LCL freight companies in the United States, dies (b. 1804).
December events
- December 26 â Jean-Jacques Meyer, French-born steam locomotive designer (b. 1804)