1878 in rail transport

Events

January events

• January 18 – Construction on the Central Australia Railway route south of Port Augusta, Australia, begins.

February events

• February 5 – The first train is operated on the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad from Renton to Newcastle.

May events

• May 9 – The final segment of the Romanian railway between Vârciorova in the south and Roman in the north opens.
• May – Chemins de fer de l'État formed in France to take over ten small railway companies operating between the Loire and Garonne.

June events

• June 1 – The North British Railway's Tay Bridge across the Firth of Tay in Scotland, is opened to public traffic, making it the longest in the world at that date.

July events

• July 2 – The Brooklyn, Flatbush & Coney Island Railway, original predecessor of the BMT Brighton Line, in modern Brooklyn, New York, opens to Brighton Beach on Coney Island.

August events

• August 24 – The narrow gauge Ballymena and Larne Railway starts passenger operations in County Antrim, the first on the Irish 3 ft narrow gauge.

October events

• October 16 – Rimutaka Incline in New Zealand opens.

December events

• December 4 – The first Shay locomotive is completed for the 3-foot narrow gauge Alleyton and Big Lake Railroad of Everett Township, Michigan.

Unknown date events

• Fred Harvey enters a partnership with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway to build and operate the Harvey House chain of restaurants and hotels that will serve the railroad's passengers.
• The Richmond & Danville Railroad acquires the Charlotte, Columbia & Augusta Railroad.
• The Canadian Engine and Machinery Company is reorganized after a bankruptcy as the Canadian Locomotive and Engine Company.
• The Wilmington, Columbia and Augusta Railroad, lessee of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, declares bankruptcy.

Births

March births

• March 2 – William Kissam Vanderbilt II, heir to Cornelius Vanderbilt and president of the New York Central system.

April births

• April 14 – Angus Daniel McDonald, president of the Southern Pacific Company, parent company of the Southern Pacific, 1932–1941.

Deaths

March deaths

• March 29 – Mark Hopkins, a member of The Big Four group of financiers in California.

June deaths

• June 27 – Sidney Breese, U.S. senator from Illinois known as the "father of the Illinois Central Railroad," dies.

October deaths

• October 19 – Benjamin Henry Latrobe, II, designer of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Thomas Viaduct, still in use toda), dies.

December deaths

• December 27 – Daniel McCallum, General Superintendent of New York & Erie Railroad 1855–1858.