1881 in rail transport - Definition and Overview

This article will list events related to rail transport that occurred in 1881.

Events

February events

• February 3 - The Seney Syndicate met at Seney's New York bank and organized the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company (which would later become the Nickel Plate Road).
• February 17 - The first train operates between Norwood, Ohio, and Lebanon, Ohio, on the Cincinnati Northern Railway.

April events

• April 13 - The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company (later known as the Nickel Plate Road) purchases the Buffalo, Cleveland & Chicago Railway

May events

• May 19 - Tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad reach El Paso, Texas.

Unknown date events

• E.W. Clark and Company, a private banking firm in Philadelphia, purchases the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (a predecessor of the Norfolk & Western) at a foreclosure auction.
• The Richmond and Danville Railroad leases the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railway.
• Henry Villard becomes president of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Births

July births

• July 8 - Mantis James Van Sweringen, American financier who, with his brother Orris, controlled the Nickel Plate Road and other easetner railroads (d. 1935).

Deaths

Unknown date deaths

• William S. Hudson, superintendent of American steam locomotive manufacturing firm Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor (b. 1810).

References

• White, John H., Jr. (1968). A history of the American locomotive; its development: 1830-1880. Dover Publications, New York, NY. ISBN 0-486-23818-0.