1875 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1875.

Events

January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the year (Third Class is renamed Second Class in 1956).
January 7 – The North Pacific Coast Railroad begins narrow gauge railway service north from San Francisco Bay.^[1]

March 24 – The Mayor of Los Angeles, California, approves a measure to allow the Spring and Sixth Street Railroad, a predecessor of the Pacific Electric Railway, to extend its line to connect to the Southern Pacific Railroad train station.^[2]

April 26 – Prince Edward Island Railway operates its first regularly scheduled train between Charlottetown and Georgetown.^[3]

June 1 – Bristol and Exeter Railway in England completes installation of a third rail on its line between Bristol and Taunton, allowing it to operate 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) gauge trains over the line.
June – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad purchases the line between Topeka and Kansas City, Kansas.^[4]

September 13 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, building westward from Kansas, reaches Las Animas, Colorado.^[4]
September 27 – Railway Jubilee at Darlington in England (in honour of the Stockton and Darlington Railway).^[7]

November 18 – Bristol and Exeter Railway in England completes the gauge conversion from 7 ft (2,134 mm) to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) of its Cheddar Valley line from Yatton to Wells.

December 1 – The American labor organization Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen is founded.
December – The initial parts of construction begin on the Bergen Line in Norway.

Engineer and inventor Fyodor Pirotsky experimentally introduces electric trams near Miller's pier station on Miller's line of railway at Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire, using the running rails to provide current, the world's first railway electrification.^[8]
Cize–Bolozon viaduct opens across the Ain in France.
First Caspar Lumber Company steam locomotive begins operation on what will become the Caspar, South Fork and Eastern Railroad.^[9]

September 26 – Eric Geddes, first Minister of Transport (U.K.) 1919–1921 (d. 1937).

January 18 – William H. Aspinwall, American financier who helped build the Panama Railway (b. 1807).^[10]

^ Dickinson, A. Bray (1974). Narrow Gauge to the Redwoods. Trans-Anglo Books. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-87046-010-4.
^ Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California, The Street Railway History of Los Angeles. Retrieved March 24, 2006.
^ "Significant dates in Canadian railway history". Colin Churcher's Railway Pages. 2006-03-17. Archived from the original on 27 April 2006. Retrieved 2006-04-26.
^ ^a ^b Santa Fe Railroad (1945), Along Your Way, Rand McNally, Chicago, Illinois.
^ Johnson, Ron. Maine Central R.R. Mountain Division. 470 Railroad Club. p. 24.
^ Colin Churcher's Railway Pages (August 23, 2005), Significant dates in Ottawa railway history Archived 2006-04-27 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 30, 2005.
^ The Railway Year Book 1912, Railway Publishing Company, London.
^ Chepurin, Sergey; Arkady Nikolayenko (May 2007). "Sestroretsk and Primorskaya railways(Сестрорецкая и Приморская железные дороги)" (in Russian). Terijoki.spb.ru. Archived from the original on 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2009-02-21.
^ Borden, Stanley T. (1966). Caspar Lumber Company. San Mateo, California: The Western Railroader.
^ William Henry Aspinwall. Retrieved February 9, 2005.