1887 in rail transport

Events

February events

* February 4 - The Interstate Commerce Act in the United States is signed into law, creating the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate the prices for hauling freight on American railroads.

March events

* March 27 - The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and Union Pacific Railroad reach an agreement to end hostilities over track construction in Colorado; in the Treaty of Boston; the D&RG agreed that it would not build tracks south of Española, New Mexico, the Santa Fe agreed that it would not build tracks into either Denver or Leadville for ten years, and the Union Pacific agreed not to build any track in the Colorado Rockies. [cite web| author=Rivanna Chapter National Railway Historical Society| title=This Month in Railroad History: March| url=http://avenue.org/nrhs/histmar.htm| accessmonthday=27 March | accessyear=2006 ]

April events

* April 20 - The North British Railway's Tay Bridge across the Firth of Tay in Scotland, reconstructed after its collapse in 1879, is reopened. [cite book|last=Thomas|first=John|title=The North British Railway, vol. 2|date=1975|publisher=David & Charles|location=Newton Abbot|isbn=0-7153-6699-8]
* April 26 - At 11:00 a.m. a silver spike is driven in a ceremony in Indian Territory connecting the Kansas and Texas branches of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. The town of Purcell, Oklahoma, rises at the location, named in honor of ATSF railroad director Edward Benton (E.B.) Purcell, of Manhattan, Kansas.

May events

* May 20 - Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway consolidates eight of its subsidiary railroads in California into the California Central Railway.cite book|author=Serpico, Philip C.|title=Santa Fé Route to the Pacific|year=1988|publisher=Omni Publications|location=Palmdale, California|isbn=0-88418-000-X| pages=p 23-24]
* May 31 - The first Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway train over the newly constructed San Bernardino and Los Angeles Railroad line arrives in Los Angeles.

July events

* July 13 - The Chateaugay Railway, a predecessor of the Delaware and Hudson Railway, is incorporated. [cite web|author=Bridge Line Historical Society|date=February 1 2004|url=http://www.bridge-line.org/blhs/history.html|title=D&H History|accessdate=2004-07-12]
* July 20 - The Youngstown, Lawrence and Pittsburg Railroad and the Ashtabula, Niles and Youngstown Railroad, both in Ohio, are merged to form the Pittsburg, Youngstown and Ashtabula Railroad (a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary).

October events

* October 11
** Cotton Belt Railroad predecessor Paragould and Buffalo Island Railway, in Arkansas, is incorporated. [cite web|author=Beck, Wayne|date=August 21 1998|url=http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/8199/c_belt.html|title=The history of the Cotton Belt Railroad|accessdate=2005-10-11]
** The New York and Northern Railway (a predecessor name for the New York and Putnam Railroad) emerges from reorganization after foreclosure the previous July.

November events

* November 10 - Canada Atlantic Railway becomes the first Canadian railway to use steam from a train's locomotive to heat the passenger cars instead of coal or wood stoves in each car.

December events

* December 31 - Spokane International Railroad begins operations.

Unknown date events

* Reuben Wells is appointed as shop superintendent of American steam locomotive manufacturing company Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works.
* Stuyvesant Fish becomes president of the Illinois Central.
* Colorado Midland completes construction of the Hagerman Tunnel.

Births

March births

* March 9 - Nathaniel Lamson Howard, president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1925-1929 (d. 1949).

eptember births

* September 5 - Charles Fairburn, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1944–1945 (d. 1945).

Deaths

April deaths

* April 19 - Alexander Mitchell, president of Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad 1864-1887 (b. 1817). [Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress, " [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M000802 MITCHELL, Alexander, (1817 - 1887)] ". Retrieved January 4 2006.]
* April 20 - Horatio G. Brooks, founder of Brooks Locomotive Works (b. 1828). [cite web|author=Southern Tier West Regional Planning and Development Board|url=http://www.southerntierwest.org/L5/hist_hbrooks.htm|title=STW historical figures / Horatio Brooks|accessdate=2005-02-09]

July deaths

* July 4 - Anson P. Morrill, president of Maine Central Railroad 1864-1866 and 1873-1875 (b. 1803).

August deaths

* August 14 - Aaron Augustus Sargent, American journalist, lawyer and politician; authored the first Pacific Railroad Act (b. 1827)

References

* Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (August 16 2005), " [http://www.railways.incanada.net/candate/candate.htm Significant dates in Canadian railway history] ". Retrieved November 8 2005.
* (1902), " [http://www.railsandtrails.com/ohiorailwayreport/1902/1860.html Ohio Railway Report] ". Retrieved July 18 2005.