Events

thumb|right|220px|[[Isambard Kingdom Brunel|Brunel's 1854 train shed survives at London Paddington station]]

January events

  • January 16 – The permanent London Paddington station, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway of England, is opened.
  • January 20 – The North Carolina General Assembly in the United States charters the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad to run from Goldsboro through New Bern to the newly created seaport of Morehead City near Beaufort.

February events

  • February 15 – Pennsylvania Railroad's Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, Pennsylvania, opens for railroad traffic.
  • February 22 – Chicago & Rock Island Railroad opens throughout to Rock Island, Illinois, making it the first railroad to connect Chicago with the Mississippi River.

April events

  • April 30 – Opening of first railway in Brazil, running inland from Mauá on gauge.

May events

  • May 15 – Opening of railway over the Semmering Pass in Austria.
  • August 15 – First section of East Indian Railway opens, from Howrah to Hooghly (37 km).
  • August 20 – The first trains operate in what is now Romania between Oraviţa, Transylvania, and Baziaş, on the Danube.
  • August 21 – The Great Western Railway of Canada opens its Galt Branch.
  • August 28 – The Somerset Central Railway opens and is leased to the Bristol and Exeter Railway for a seven-year term.

thumb|[[Hovedbanen|Hovedjernbanen, first line in Norway]]

September events

  • September 1 – Opening of first railway in Norway, the Hovedjernbanen, from Christiania (Oslo) to Eidsvoll (67.6 km). between Alexandria and Kafr el-Zayyat in Egypt.
  • Aretas Blood purchases the steam locomotive manufacturing business of Amoskeag Locomotive Works and folds it into Manchester Locomotive Works.
  • Henry Farnam becomes president of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.

Births

January births

  • January 6 – William N. Page, American civil engineer, builder of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the Virginian Railway (d. 1932).

February births

  • February 14 – Job A. Edson, president of Kansas City Southern Railway 1905–1918 and 1920–1927 (d. 1928).

December births

  • December 26 – Charles Frederick Crocker, son of Charles Crocker of California's Big Four railroaders, president of San Joaquin and Sierra Nevada Railroad, vice president of Southern Pacific Railroad (d. 1897).

Deaths

February deaths

  • February 19 – Whitmell P. Tunstall, first president of the Richmond and Danville Railroad (b. 1810).

References

  • Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (August 16, 2005), Significant dates in Canadian railway history. Retrieved October 25, 2005.
  • (April 3, 2005), Significant dates in Canadian railway history. Retrieved August 16, 2005.