1869 in rail transport

Events

January 9 – Government of India resolves not to create new guaranteed railway companies, thus determining future relationships between private enterprise and state in railway development.
January 23 – George Westinghouse files for a patent on his air brake; this year also he founds the Westinghouse Air Brake Company ("WABCO").

February 17 – Henry Keyes succeeds Henry C. Lord as president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
February 27 – The first line of what is now Athens Metro, in Greece, opens as Athens Piraeus Railway SA, the first railroad in the country (8.8 km).

March – By an act of Congress, the Kansas Pacific Railway's name is shortened to Kansas Pacific.

April 6 – The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway is formed through merger of the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad and the Lake Shore Railway.
April 23 – Crews building the Central Pacific Railroad lay 10 miles (16 km) of track in one day.
April 26 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad opens its first segment of track (6 miles / 10 km long) between Topeka and Pauline, Kansas.
April 28 – Franklin B. Gowen becomes president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.

May 10 – The golden spike is driven at Promontory Summit, Utah, on the First transcontinental railroad in North America.
May 15 – The first trains operate the entire length of the First transcontinental railroad in North America traveling between Omaha, Nebraska, and Sacramento, California.

June 1 – The Merchants Despatch is reformed as a joint stock trading company, with ownership divided among the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway (CCC&I), the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, and the New York Central Railroad (NYC), all part of the Cornelius Vanderbilt rail empire.
June 17 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, building westward from Topeka, reaches Carbondale, Kansas.

July 3
Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad subsidiary Kansas City and Cameron Railroad opens the Hannibal Bridge, the first railroad bridge across the Missouri River, connecting its namesake cities.
Completion of the Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire, U.S., the world's first mountain rack railway.
Riihimäki – Saint Petersburg Railway line in the Grand Duchy of Finland completed from the Finland Station in Saint Petersburg to Zelenogorsk. Stations opened at Lanskaya, Udelnaya, Ozerki, Pargolovo, Pesochny, Levashovo, Beloostrov, Solnechnoye, Repino, Komarovo and Zelenogorsk.

August 18 – The Windsor and Annapolis Railway in Nova Scotia officially opens between Annapolis and Grand Pre.

September 13 – The Solway Junction Railway is opened for iron ore traffic, including a 1-mile 8 chain (1.8 km) iron girder viaduct across the Solway Firth in Scotland.
September 21 – The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway leases the Kalamazoo, Allegan and Grand Rapids Railway in Michigan.

10 October – A branch of the West Coast Main Line to Liverpool Lime Street, is opened by the London and North Western Railway, from Weaver Junction north of Crewe to Ditton Junction via the Runcorn Railway Bridge over the River Mersey, bypassing the earlier Liverpool and Manchester line.

November 8 – The Central Pacific Railroad completes the final leg of the First transcontinental railroad in North America, connecting Sacramento, California, to San Francisco, California.
November 11 – After the New York and Erie Railroad moves its primary shop facilities from Dunkirk, New York, to Buffalo, Horatio G. Brooks leases the facilities in Dunkirk and opens Brooks Locomotive Works.
November 22 – The Ft. Wayne, Jackson and Saginaw Railroad opens between Jackson and Reading, Michigan.

November 9 - Charles Donnelly, president of Northern Pacific Railway 1920–1939, is born (d. 1939).