Events January events January 20 – The Elizabeth City and Norfolk Railroad, which later becomes the original Norfolk Southern Railroad, is chartered to build a railroad line between Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina. February events February 24 – Delaware and Hudson Canal Company leases the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad, which extended from Albany to Binghamton, New York. March events March 7 – Great Indian Peninsula Railway completes link between Itarsi and Jabalpur where it connects with the East Indian Railway, completing the rail connection from Bombay to Calcutta. March 24 – Pennsylvania Railroad signs a 999-year lease of the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad. March 28 – Construction on the Kansas Pacific Railway reaches Kit Carson, Colorado. June events June – The Denver Pacific Railway completes construction of its mainline between Denver, and Cheyenne, Wyoming. July events July 24 – The first railroad car to travel the entire distance from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast of the United States arrives in New York City. August events August Construction crews on the Kansas Pacific working eastward from Denver and westward from Kansas City meet at Strasburg, Colorado. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, building westward from Topeka, reaches Emporia, Kansas. August 2 The Texas legislature approves the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad (MKT) charter, which was originally granted by Kansas, allowing the MKT to build into the state. Official opening of the Tower Subway beneath the River Thames in London. Although this lasts as a railway operation only until November, it demonstrates the technologically successful first use of the cylindrical wrought iron tunnelling shield devised by Peter W. Barlow and James Henry Greathead and of a permanent tunnel lining of cast iron segments. August 15 - Construction on the Kansas Pacific Railroad, building westward from Kansas, reaches Denver, Colorado. September events – Russian emperor Alexander II inaugurates through services between Saint Petersburg and Helsinki (Finnish Railways). September 12 – Completion of the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad from Portland, Maine to Sebago Lake causes abandonment of the parallel Cumberland and Oxford Canal. September 24 Ginery Twichell succeeds Henry Keyes as president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The Colorado Central Railroad completes construction of its mainline between Golden, Colorado and Denver. October events October 12 – The Southern Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad operations are merged under the Southern Pacific name. October 24 – First railway in the Governorate