1881 in rail transport

Events

January events

• January 17 – Regular train service over the Prince of Wales Bridge on the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway begins.

  February events

• February 3 – The Seney Syndicate met at Seney's New York bank and organized the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company.
• February 17 – The first train operates between Norwood, Ohio, and Lebanon, Ohio, on the Cincinnati Northern Railway.

  March events

• March 1 – The Mexican Southern Railroad is incorporated with Ulysses S. Grant, former President of the United States, as its president.
• March 8 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, building southwestward from Kansas, reaches Deming, New Mexico.

  April events

• April 13 – The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company purchases the Buffalo, Cleveland & Chicago Railway
• April 14 – The Oregon Short Line Railroad is established to build a rail connection between Granger, Wyoming, and Huntington, Oregon.

  May events

• May 16 – The Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, the world's first electric tramway, is opened in Berlin by Siemens & Halske.
• May 19 – Tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad reach El Paso, Texas.
• May 28 – A.B. Rogers on his birthday discovers the pass through the Rocky Mountains that will bear his name, Rogers Pass.

June events

• June 9 – The Canada Central Railway is merged into the Canadian Pacific Railway.
• June 11 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad connects to El Paso, Texas.

  July events

• July 2 – Assassination of James A. Garfield: James A. Garfield, President of the United States, is shot by lawyer Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., dying on September 19 of a resultant infection.
• July 4 – Darjeeling Himalayan Railway opened throughout to Darjeeling, India.
• July 6 – Kate Shelley prevents a train with 200 passengers from going over the Honey Creek Bridge after it was washed out during a flash flood near Des Moines, Iowa.
• July 26 – Construction crews on the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad's Alpine Tunnel, in Colorado, break through to connect both ends of the tunnel.

  August events

• August 22 – The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad commences operation over a 14.1-mile run through the Appalachian Mountains.
• August 26 – The first train operates over the Red River Bridge into Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

  October events

• October 17 – First section of Royal Saxon State Railways narrow gauge railway opens, between Wilkau and Kirchberg in the German Empire.
• October 20 – First section of Barbados Railway opens on gauge between Bridgetown and Carrington.

  Unknown date events

• E.W. Clark & Co., a private banking firm in Philadelphia, purchases the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad at a foreclosure auction.
• The Richmond and Danville Railroad leases the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railway.
• Henry Villard becomes president of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
• The French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique purchases a controlling interest in the Panama Railway Company.
• John Souther retires from the steam locomotive manufacturing company that he founded, Globe Locomotive Works.
• Ephraim Shay takes out the first patent on his Shay locomotive design.
• Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway begins.
• The first standard gauge railroad in China is opened from Tangshan to Xugezhuang for coal traffic.

  Births

March births

• March 22 – Arturo Caprotti, Italian inventor of Caprotti valve gear for steam locomotives.

  July births

• July 8 - Mantis James Van Sweringen, American financier who, with his brother Oris, controlled the Nickel Plate Road and other eastern railroads.

  October births

• October 30 – Charles E. Johnston, president of Kansas City Southern Railway 1928–1938.

  Unknown date births

• Martin W. Clement, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad 1935–1948.

  Deaths

May deaths

• May 21 – Thomas Alexander Scott, president of Union Pacific Railroad 1871–1872, dies.

  Unknown date deaths

• William S. Hudson, superintendent of American steam locomotive manufacturing firm Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor.