March 28:  The State of Michigan charters seven railroads in a single day.  [MT]

August 18:  The Erie & Kalamazoo begins operation between Toledo and Palmyra as cars commenced running using a team of horses for power.  The Toledo end of the track terminates at Monroe Street and the head of Water Street, crossing the block diagonally from the west.  [EMR4]

November 2:  Erie & Kalamazoo begins horse-powered service between Toledo and Adrian.  First train west of Schenectady, NY.   The railroad is 4' 10" gauge.  [MDOT/DWS/MHM/MRRC/MT/AAD]

The "central" railroad line begins construction in Detroit -  [MDOT]

The E&K's original line enters the City of Toledo from the northwest and wound its way among city streets to an outdoor loading area in the downtown.  By the 1850's, their successor line, the Michigan Southern, developed a new entrance to the city following an east-west tangent, passing over Swan Creek and under the Miami and Erie Canal.  [AATHS-Spr/2002]

First sleeping car used on U.S. railroad in Pennsylvania.  [DWS]