1876, 1877, 1878

Years in rail transport

1876 in rail transport 1877 in rail transport 1878 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1877.

Events

May events

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

July events

• July 14 - 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; United States President Rutherford B. Hayes calls in Federal troops to break the strike.
• July 19 - The New York and Manhattan Beach Railway (later absorbed by the Long Island Rail Road) opens.³
• 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 U.S. Patent 193,357  for his design of the first successful refrigerator car.

August events

• August 31 - The first 2 ft (610 mm) gauge narrow gauge railroad in America, the Billerica and Bedford Railroad, begins operations.⁴

December events

• December 27 - The Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway opens, traversing a route from Montreal through Lachute to Hull.⁵

Unknown date events

• Tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad from Los Angeles, California, cross the Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona.
• William Henry Vanderbilt, son of Cornelius Vanderbilt, is promoted to President of the New York Central system.

Births

March births

• March 7 - Walter Kidde, president of New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway 1937–1943 (d. 1943).⁶

Unknown date births

• Edgar Alcock, general manager and chairman of Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds, England (d. 1951).

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).

April deaths

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

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).

Unknown date deaths

• Oliver Ames, Jr., president of Union Pacific Railroad 1866-1871, brother of Oakes Ames (b. 1807).⁷⁸
• Matthew Baird, second owner of Baldwin Locomotive Works (b. 1817).

References

• Brief biographies of major mechanical engineers. Retrieved February 9, 2005.
• Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005), This Month in Railroad History: July. Retrieved July 12 and July 22, 2005.
• White, John H., Jr. (Spring 1986). "America's most noteworthy railroaders". Railroad History 154: pp. 9-15. OCLC 1785797. ISSN 0090-7847. 
• White, John H., Jr. (1968). A history of the American locomotive; its development: 1830-1880. New York, NY: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-23818-0. 

1. ^ Marshall, John (1989). The Guinness Railway Book. Enfield: Guinness. ISBN 0-85112-359-7. OCLC 24175552. 
2. ^ Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005). "This Month in Railroad History - July". Retrieved on 2006-07-14.
3. ^ "The New York and Manhattan Beach Railway". Retrieved on 2005-07-18.
4. ^ "A Chronology of Bedford's Railroad History" (March 18, 2000)). Retrieved on 2005-08-31.
5. ^ Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (December 12, 2005), Significant dates in Ottawa railway history. Retrieved December 27, 2005.
6. ^ Robert E. Mohowski (2003). The New York Susuquehanna & Western Railroad. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-7222-7. OCLC 50731001. 
7. ^ Spencer Marks (2005), The Ames Family of North Easton, MA. Retrieved December 29, 2005.
8. ^ Union Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific: Significant Individuals. Retrieved December 29, 2005.