1877 in rail transport
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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).^[7][8]
• 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. ISSN 0090-7847. OCLC 1785797. 
• 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. 
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. 
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.