Events January events January 28 – Construction of the Waimea Plains Railway, the first railway constructed under the District Railways Act of 1878, reaches Inverrcagill, New Zealand. February events February 10 – The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railway begins freight operations. May events May – James J. Hill forms the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway from the assets of the bankrupt St. Paul and Pacific. May 17 – The Texas and St. Louis Railway, a predecessor of St. Louis Southwestern Railway, is organized as a way to ship cotton south to Texas. May 31 – The first electric railway opens at the Berlin Trades Exposition. July events July 4 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, building southwestward from Kansas, reaches Las Vegas, New Mexico. July 17 – Freycinet Plan enacted in France to extend rail and other transportation systems. July 31 – The Caledonian Railway opens the original Glasgow Central station in Scotland. November events November 1 – The first British dining car service leaves Leeds for London King's Cross. This is provided by the Pullman car Princess of Wales which accommodates just 10 first-class passengers. November 20 – Narrow gauge Sandy River Railroad completed to Phillips, Maine. November 22 – The North Pennsylvania Railroad begins operating the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad, a subsidiary of Pennsylvania Railroad. November 25 – The Waldenburgerbahn is founded as a separate company and takes over the concession for the railway from Liestal to Waldenburg, Switzerland. December events December 1 – Solano, the largest rail ferryboat ever constructed, is put into service in California. December 28 – Tay Bridge disaster: The North British Railway's Tay Bridge across the Firth of Tay in Scotland collapses in a violent storm while a passenger train is crossing it. 75 lives are lost. William Topaz McGonagall produces his epic poem The Tay Bridge Disaster to commemorate the event. Unknown date events Southern Pacific Railroad engineers experiment with the first oil-fired steam locomotives. San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad constructs the Puerto Suello Hill Tunnel in Marin County, California. Births March births March 6 – Patrick H. Joyce, president Chicago Great Western Railway 1931–1946 (d. 1946). April births April 24 – Oris Paxton Van Sweringen, American financier who, with his brother Mantis, controls the Nickel Plate Road and other eastern railroads (d. 1936). August births August 20 – Ralph Budd, president of the Great Northern