1879 in rail transport
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This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1879.
| Contents |
Events
May events
- May - James J. Hill forms the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway from the assets of the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific.
- May 31 - The first electric railway opens at the Berlin Trades Exposition.
June events
- June 1 - Great Britain's Queen Victoria opens the Tay Rail Bridge, at the time the longest bridge in the world, across the Firth of Tay in Scotland.
December events
- December 28 - Scotland: The Tay Rail Bridge collapses in a violent storm while a passenger train is crossing it. 75 lives are lost. William Topaz McGonagall produces his epic poem The Tay Bridge Disaster to commemorate the event.
Unknown date events
- Southern Pacific Railroad engineers experiment with the first oil-fired steam locomotives.
- Ensign Manufacturing Company, later to become part of American Car and Foundry, is founded in Huntington, West Virginia.
Births
April births
- April 24 - Oris Paxton Van Sweringen, American financier who, with his brother Mantis, controlled the Nickel Plate Road and other eastern railroads (d. 1936).
Unknown date births
- Ralph Budd, president of the Great Northern Railway 1919–1932 and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad 1932–1949 (d. 1962).
Deaths
References
- (2000), American Experience / Streamliners / People & Events / Ralph Budd. Retrieved February 22 2005.
- President and Fellows of Harvard College (2004), 20th century great American business leaders - Ralph Budd. Retrieved February 22 2005.
- Today in Science History: May 31. Retrieved May 27, 2005.
- White, John H., Jr., (Spring 1986), America's most noteworthy railroaders, Railroad History, The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, 154, p. 9-15.