Events
February events
- February 18 – The West Chester Railroad is chartered in Pennsylvania.
April events
- April 23 – the Pontchartrain Rail-Road begins operation.
- April 25
- Matthias W. Baldwin displays a model steam locomotive at the Philadelphia City Museum a year before building his first full-size locomotive for a working railroad. [1]
- The New York and Harlem Railroad is incorporated as a passenger carrier. [2]
May events
- May – Members of a Manchester (England) Sunday School are conveyed by a special train on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to Liverpool, the first recorded private railway excursion. [3]
June events
- June 17 - The first boiler explosion in the United States occurs when the engineer on the Best Friend of Charleston ties the steam safety pressure release valve shut. [4]
- June 18 – The John Bull is constructed by Robert Stephenson and Company in England.
- June 21 – The Boston and Providence Rail Road is incorporated and chartered to build a railroad connection between Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island.
- June 23 – The Boston and Worcester Railroad is chartered to build a railroad between its namesake cities in Massachusetts.
July events
- July 1 – The first railroad built in Virginia, the Chesterfield Railroad, begins operations.
- July 4 – Opening of first section of Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway in Scotland [5] including St Leonards Tunnel, Scotland's earliest tunnel on a public railway.
(Image from the collection of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, America On The Move exhibit, used with permission)
- July 14 – The John Bull departs Liverpool aboard the steamship Allegheny bound for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
August events
- August 9 – The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, the first railroad built in New York state, opens.
September events
- September 4 – The John Bull arrives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from Liverpool.
- September 15 – The John Bull is operated for the first time on the Camden and Amboy Railroad.
- September 24 – The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad opens between Albany and Schenectady, New York.
November events
- November 12 – Robert L. Stevens, president of the Camden and Amboy Railroad hosts a demonstration run of the John Bull for New Jersey politicians and dignitaries.
Unknown date events
- First rail carriage of United States mail, by South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company, according to some sources. [6]
- John B. Jervis becomes the chief engineer for the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, a predecessor of the New York Central.