1886 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1886.

Events[]

February 1 – The Mersey Railway opened to public traffic between Birkenhead and Liverpool by tunnel beneath the River Mersey, England.^[2]
February 18 - The Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingham Railroad is incorporated in Mississippi.^[3]

March–September – Great Southwest Railroad Strike, a labor union strike against the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads involving more than 200,000 workers.^[4]
March 30 – Executives from several railroad companies operating in the southern United States meet and agree to all regauge their railroads to standard gauge, 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in), by June 1.^[5]

July 8 – Russian emperor Alexander III establishes as a national holiday on the anniversary of the name day of Nikolai I, who first commissioned Russian railroad construction.^[6]

August 17 – The 7 mile (11.3 km) long Lakeside and Marblehead Railroad is incorporated in Ottawa County, Ohio.

September 1 – Regular traffic (initially freight only) begins to pass through the Great Western Railway’s Severn Tunnel linking southern Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire.^[7]
September 9 – The rail connection to Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick, is completed by a predecessor of the New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Railway.

October 18 – Between 5:00 AM and 6:00 PM, the , a predecessor of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, converts 418 miles (673 km) of track from narrow gauge to standard gauge.

November 20 – The San Bernardino and Los Angeles Railway is incorporated as an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad subsidiary to build a rail connection between its namesake cities in California.^[8]

The first refrigerator cars on the Southern Pacific Railroad enter operation.
The Southern Pacific Railroad wins the landmark Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad which establishes equal rights under the law to corporations.
Grande Ceinture line around Paris completed.

May 4 – Henry G. Ivatt, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (d. 1976).

Clowes, J. A.; Railways of Canada Archives (1999), Eastern New Brunswick's Railway History. Retrieved September 8, 2005.
Morris, J. C., compiler (December 31, 1902), Annual report of the Commissioner of Railroads and Telegraphs; Part II, history of the railroads of Ohio. Retrieved August 16, 2005.
Rivanna Chapter, National Railway Historical Society (2005), This Month in Railroad History: October. Retrieved October 18, 2005.
Santa Fe Railroad (1945), Along Your Way, Rand McNally, Chicago, Illinois.

^ Mappen, Marc; Bilby, Joe (January 25, 2015). "Today in New Jersey history – January 25". H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
^ Gahan, John W. (1983). The Line Beneath the Liners – a hundred years of Mersey Railway sights and sounds. Birkenhead: Countyvise. ISBN 0-907768-40-7.
^ "Corporate History: Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad Company". Truman Area Community Network, Inc. June 2, 2008. Archived from the original on 2012-07-18. Retrieved February 18, 2010.
^ Allen, Rith A. (1942). The Great Southwest Strike. Austin: University of Texas.
^ Rivanna Chapter National Railway Historical Society. "This month in railroad history: March". Archived from the original on 17 April 2006. Retrieved March 29, 2006.
^ "Railway Worker Day marked in Russia". ITAR-TASS. August 6, 2006. Retrieved August 7, 2006.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "The Severn Tunnel". Severn Tales. Archived from the original on January 10, 2008. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
^ Serpico, Philip C. (1988). Santa Fé Route to the Pacific. Palmdale, California: Omni Publications. pp. 23–24. ISBN 0-88418-000-X.
^ Marshall, John (2003). Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers. Oxford: Railway & Canal Historical Society. ISBN 0-901461-22-9.