Events January events January 28 – Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad acquires a section of the McKeesport and Belle Vernon Railroad around Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania. February events February 22 – Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis Railway (the "Big Four Railroad") gains control of the Peoria & Eastern Railway in southern Illinois. March events March – Émile Zola's psychological novel with a railway setting, La Bête Humaine, is published in book form. March 4 – The Forth Bridge across the Firth of Forth in Scotland is officially opened and its contractor, William Arrol, is knighted. May events May 9 – Boston & Maine Railroad ends its lease of the Eastern Railroad of Massachusetts by purchasing it. May 20 – Wutach Valley Railway opened to provide a strategic route inside Germany without crossing the Swiss border. July events July 23 – Narrow gauge Kennebec Central Railroad opens to Togus, Maine. August events August 18 – The Kansas City Suburban Belt Railroad, a predecessor of Kansas City Southern Railway, begins operations between Kansas City and Argentine. August 19 – Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary Ohio Valley Railway reorganized as the Pittsburg, Ohio Valley and Cincinnati Railroad. August 19 – In Quincy, Massachusetts, a jack used to level rails was left on the tracks. A passenger train then collided with it causing a derailment. Twenty-four people were killed due to the impact of the collision and through scalding. November events November 4 – Official opening of the City & South London Railway, earliest constituent of the Northern line of the London Underground and the first real deep-level electrified "tube" railway in the world. November 9 – First section of metre gauge Chemin de fer du Vivarais in southern France opens, using Mallet locomotives. November 10 – Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits begins to operate the Rome Express train from Calais Maritime station via Paris and the Fréjus Rail Tunnel. November 26 – The Mito Line in Japan operates its first freight trains. Unknown date events First Class О 0-8-0 steam locomotive built for service in Russia. 9129 locomotives of this type will be built up to 1928, making it the country's most numerous. Klien-Lindner axle patented. Hugh J. Chisholm forms the Portland and Rumford Falls Railway to link Androscoggin River papermills to the Maine Central Railroad. Leland Stanford begins his term as Chairman of the Executive Committee for Southern Pacific. Charles Francis Adams, Jr. steps down