1861 in rail transport

• February 22 – Passenger service began on Strasburg Rail Road with a visit from Abraham Lincoln.

• April 1 – Budapest Déli station opens as the Buda terminal of the line to Fiume.
• April – Nathaniel Marsh succeeds Samuel Marsh as president of the Erie Railroad.{{cite web|url=http://erierr.railfan.net/eriepres.html|title=Erie Railroad presidents|accessdate=2005-03-15|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050318171642/http://erierr.railfan.net/eriepres.html|archivedate=18 March 2005|url-status=dead}}

• May 13 – Line opened between Karachi and Kochi ({{convert|169|km|mi|abbr=on}}) on 5 ft 6in (1676 mm) gauge, the first railway in modern-day Pakistan.{{Marshall-GuinnessRail}}{{page needed|date=October 2016}}

Image:Dismantling in martinsburg3.jpg" in Harper's Weekly August 1861]]

• May 24 – The Great Train Raid of 1861 is conducted by Stonewall Jackson.

• June 16 – Battle of Vienna, Virginia, is the first time in history a railroad is used tactically in battle.
• June – Opening of first section of rail line in Paraguay, under the auspices of Presidente Carlos Antonio López, with mainly British engineering, {{convert|4|km|mi|abbr=on}} from Asunción to Trinidad on the Iberian gauge of {{Track gauge|1672mm}}.{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Glyn|url=http://www.sinfin.net/railways/world/paraguay.html|title=Railways in Paraguay|date=2006{{ndash}}2008|accessdate=2010-01-28}} Regular services to Paraguarí begin on September 21 and on December 25 the line is extended to the city of Luque.{{cite journal|journal=El Semanario|title=none}}

• July 21 – Railroad transport of Confederate States of America troops delivers decisive reinforcements providing victory in the First Battle of Bull Run.{{cite book| title=Railways at War |author=Westwood, John |publisher=Howell-North Books |year=1980 |isbn=0-8310-7138-9 |page=29}}

• August 6 – An Act is passed to authorize the construction of the Blane Valley Railway in Scotland.

• September 4 – The Staten Island Railway is placed into receivership with William Henry Vanderbilt as receiver.{{cite book |last=Pitanza |first=Marc |title=Staten Island Rapid Transit Images of Rail |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eOSsCQAAQBAJ&q=staten+island+rapid+transit&pg=PA7 |isbn=978-1-4671-2338-9}}{{cite book |last1=Roess |first1=Roger P. |last2=Sansome |first2=Gene |title=The Wheels That Drove New York: A History of the New York City Transit System |date=2013 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-642-30484-2 |pages=223–247 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qfZ0VxuLoc0C |accessdate=4 October 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Leigh |first1=Irvin |last2=Matus |first2=Paul |title=Staten Island Rapid Transit: The Essential History |url=http://thethirdrail.net/0201/sirt1.html |website=thethirdrail.net |publisher=The Third Rail Online |accessdate=27 June 2015 |date=January 2002 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150530063638/http://www.thethirdrail.net/0201/sirt1.html |archivedate=30 May 2015 }}

• December 25 – Opening of first rail line in Latvia, between Riga and Dinaburg (Daugavpils), {{convert|230|km|mi|abbr=on}} on the Imperial Russian gauge of {{Track gauge|1524mm|lk=on}}.{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Glyn|url=http://www.sinfin.net/railways/world/latvia.html|title=Railways in Latvia|date=2004{{ndash}}2014|accessdate=2015-02-12}}

{{update section|date=October 2020}}

• Jean-Jacques Meyer patents the Meyer locomotive.
• Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing Company in Berwick, Pennsylvania, later to become part of American Car and Foundry, begins manufacturing railroad infrastructure parts.

{{1861 railway accidents|state=uncollapsed}}

• January 28 – Daniel Willard, president of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 1910–1941 (d. 1942).

• April 26 – Zhan Tianyou, Chief Engineer responsible for construction of the Imperial Peking-Kalgan Railway, the first railway constructed in China without foreign assistance (d. 1919).

• June 8 – Karl Gölsdorf, Austrian steam locomotive designer (d. 1916).{{cite book|author=Marshall, John|title=Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers|edition=2nd|location=Oxford|publisher=Railway and Canal Historical Society|year=2003|isbn=0-901461-22-9|authorlink=John Marshall (railway historian)}}

• November 2 - Oliver Robert Hawke Bury, Chief mechanical engineer and manager of Great Western Railway of Brazil 1892–1894, general manager of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) in England 1902–1912, Director of the GNR 1912–22 and of the London and North Eastern Railway 1923–1945 (d. 1946).{{cite web |url=https://steamindex.com/people/managers.htm#bury |at=Bury, Oliver Robert Hawke |title=Biographies of chairmen, managers & other senior railway officers |website=steamindex.com |date=11 January 1923 |access-date=5 April 2024 }}

• October 13 – Sir William Cubitt, civil engineer on the South Eastern and Great Northern Railways of England (d. 1861).

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