ft (60 cm)). October 26 – The first rails are laid for construction of the Central Pacific Railroad in California. November events November 9 – Gov. Stanford, Central Pacific Railroad's first locomotive, enters service in California. December events December 1 – Opening of first steam-operated passenger railway in New Zealand, at Christchurch in South Island gauge). December 2 – Union Pacific Railroad holds groundbreaking ceremonies in the construction of the First transcontinental railroad at Omaha, Nebraska, but the first rails aren't laid for another year. December 4 – Construction begins on the Randsfjorden Line in Norway. December 15 – First mountain railway opens in Romania, from Anina to Oraviţa. Unknown date events John W. Murphy builds a Whipple-type truss bridge across the Lehigh River at Mauch Chunk for the Lehigh Valley Railroad in the United States, the first known to have both tension and compression members in wrought iron. Classification yard opens at Saint-Étienne in France. Henry Farnam retires from the presidency of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. Jackson and Sharp Company, later to become part of American Car and Foundry, is founded in Wilmington, Delaware. Births October births October 31 – William Gibbs McAdoo, American lawyer, statesman and Director General of Railroads (d. 1941). Deaths November deaths November 2 – Theodore Judah, American engineer who argued the case for construction of the First transcontinental railroad (b. 1826). References