1881 in rail transport

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

• January 17 – Regular train service over the Prince of Wales Bridge on the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway begins.^[1]

• February 3 – The Seney Syndicate meets 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 16 – Canadian Pacific Railway incorporated.
• February 17 – The first train operates between Norwood, Ohio, and Lebanon, Ohio, on the Cincinnati Northern Railway.

• March 1 – The Mexican Southern Railroad is incorporated with Ulysses S. Grant, former President of the United States, as its president.
• March 8 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, building southwestward from Kansas, reaches Deming, New Mexico.

• April 13 – The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company (later known as the Nickel Plate Road) purchases the Buffalo, Cleveland & Chicago Railway
• April 14 – The Oregon Short Line Railroad is established to build a rail connection between Granger, Wyoming, and Huntington, Oregon.

• May 16 – The Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, the world's first electric tramway, is opened in Berlin by Siemens & Halske.^[2]
• May 19 – Tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad reach El Paso, Texas.
• May 28 – A. B. Rogers on his birthday discovers the pass through the Rocky Mountains that will bear his name, Rogers Pass.

• June 9 – The Canada Central Railway is merged into the Canadian Pacific Railway.
• June 11 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad connects to El Paso, Texas.
• June 14 – Ephraim Shay takes out the first patent on his Shay locomotive design.

• July 2 – Assassination of James A. Garfield: James A. Garfield, President of the United States, is shot by lawyer Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., dying on September 19 of a resultant infection.
• July 4 – Darjeeling Himalayan Railway opened throughout to Darjeeling, India.
• July 6 – Kate Shelley prevents a train with 200 passengers from going over the Honey Creek Bridge after it was washed out during a flash flood near Des Moines, Iowa.
• July 26 – Construction crews on the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad's Alpine Tunnel, in Colorado, break through to connect both ends of the tunnel.

• August 15 – The International Exposition of Electricity opens in Paris, featuring the first tramway designed by Werner von Siemens. The installation was temporary, and removed after the Exposition closed on November 15.
• August 22 – The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad (ET&WNC) commences operation over a 14.1-mile (2.25-kilometer) run through the Appalachian Mountains.
• August 26 – The first train operates over the Red River Bridge into Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

• October 17 – First section of Royal Saxon State Railways narrow gauge railway (750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in) gauge) opens, between Wilkau and Kirchberg in the German Empire.
• October 20 – First section of Barbados Railway opens on 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge between Bridgetown and Carrington.

• E.W. Clark & Co., 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.
• The French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique purchases a controlling interest in the Panama Railway Company.
• John Souther retires from the steam locomotive manufacturing company that he founded, Globe Locomotive Works.
• The first standard gauge railroad in China is opened from Tangshan to Xugezhuang (10 km (6.2 mi)) for coal traffic.

• March 22 – Arturo Caprotti, Italian inventor of Caprotti valve gear for steam locomotives (d. 1938).^[3]

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

• October 30 – Charles E. Johnston, president of Kansas City Southern Railway 1928–1938 (d. 1951).

• December 5 – Martin W. Clement, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad 1935–1948 (d. 1966).

• May 21 – Thomas Alexander Scott, president of Union Pacific Railroad 1871–1872 (b. 1823).

• October 30 – Matthias von Schönerer, Austrian railway engineer (b. 1807).

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

• Churcher, Colin (21 May 2005). "Significant dates in Ottawa railway history". Archived from the original on 27 April 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2005.
• Glenbow Museum (2005). "This week in Canadian history". Archived from the original on 2005-06-24. Retrieved 27 May 2005.
• Kansas City Southern Historical Society. "The Kansas City Southern Lines". Retrieved 15 August 2005.
• Newcomb, Kenneth W. "The Makers of the Mold". Archived from the original on 2005-03-13. Retrieved 13 May 2006.
• President and Fellows of Harvard College (2004). "20th century great American business leaders – Martin W. Clement". Archived from the original on 2005-02-05. Retrieved 23 February 2005.
• Santa Fe Railroad (1945). Along Your Way. Chicago, Ill.: Rand McNally.
• White, John H. Jr. (Spring 1986). "America's Most Noteworthy Railroaders". Railroad History. 154 (154). Railway and Locomotive Historical Society: 9–15. JSTOR 43523785.
• 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.