1881 in rail transport

1880, 1881, 1882

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1881.

Events

February 3 – The Seney Syndicate met at Seney's New York bank and organized the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company (which would later become the Nickel Plate Road).
February 17 – The first train operates between Norwood, Ohio, and Lebanon, Ohio, on the Cincinnati Northern Railway.

April 13 – The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company (later known as the Nickel Plate Road) purchases the Buffalo, Cleveland & Chicago Railway

E.W. Clark and Company, a private banking firm in Philadelphia, purchases the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (a predecessor of the Norfolk & Western) 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 purchased controlling interest in the Panama Railway Company.
John Souther retires from the steam locomotive manufacturing company that he founded, Globe Locomotive Works.
Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway begins.

July 8 – Mantis James Van Sweringen, American financier who, with his brother Oris, controlled the Nickel Plate Road and other eastern railroads (d. 1935).

William S. Hudson, superintendent of American steam locomotive manufacturing firm Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor (b. 1810).

Newcomb, Kenneth W., The Makers of the Mold. Retrieved February 15 2005.
President and Fellows of Harvard College (2004), 20th century great American business leaders – Martin W. Clement. Retrieved February 23 2005.
White, John H., Jr. (Spring 1986), America's most noteworthy railroaders, Railroad History, Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, 154, p. 9–15.
White, John H., Jr. (1968). A history of the American locomotive; its development: 1830–1880. Dover Publications, New York, NY. ISBN 0–486–23818–0.