Portal:Trains/Did you know/April 2020

April 2020

 * ...that with 41 deaths and 42 injuries, the 1918 Weesp train disaster was the largest train disaster in Dutch railway history until the 1962 Harmelen train disaster?


 * ...that the gauge Wee Georgie Wood Railway in Tasmania was named after its steam locomotive, which itself was named after the British actor and comedian Wee Georgie Wood?


 * ...that following a dispute with the village of Wayzata, Minnesota, James J. Hill ordered that Wayzata station be removed in 1891, and not rebuilt until the city passed a reconciliation ordinance in 1905?


 * ...that the Waukesha Beach Railway operated only two sets of rolling stock, but its 6 mi length allowed a schedule of a round trip every 40 minutes?


 * ...that the original station building for Watford Junction railway station built in 1836 and 1837 is now occupied by a second-hand car dealership?


 * ...that although Amtrak operated passenger trains through Waterloo, Indiana, as early as 1971, they did not stop at Waterloo station, the nearest Amtrak station to Fort Wayne, until 1990?


 * ...that Seattle's Waterfront Streetcar, which used five preserved W2 trams from Melbourne, Australia, was the first streetcar service to run in Seattle since the closure of the Seattle Municipal Street Railway?


 * ...that the gauge Waterford and Suir Valley Railway was built on the former right-of-way of the  gauge Waterford, Dungarvan and Lismore Railway?


 * ...that Watco Australia transports an average of 10-12 million tonnes (368-441 million bushels) of grain from 192 country reception sites to CBH Group's four export terminals?


 * ...that a number of historic railroad structures, some of which date to the pre-Civil War period, including five intact stations, have been preserved in the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park?


 * ...that the temporary Warwickslade Cutting Railway track used rails that were connected via tube and pin joints like those of a toy train?


 * ...that Warren Street tube station was originally decorated with tiles portraying a rabbit warren illustration?


 * ...that Warren station on the Erie Railroad in Ohio had a gauntlet track that served as the western terminus of the Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railroad?


 * ...that the success of the War Department Light Railways lines built by Canadian Companies during World War I helped the system to extend to 700 mi of track?


 * ...that the Wannsee Railway in Berlin, now part of Berlin S-Bahn line S1, opened in 1891 as the first suburban route in Germany?


 * ...that the freight yard which formed the basis of Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof was initially named Pluto?


 * ...that the gauge Wangerooge Island Railway is the only narrow-gauge railway operated by Deutsche Bahn?


 * ...that Walton-on-Thames railway station first operated in 1838, and was one of the first stations on the South Western Main Line, between Ditton Marsh (now Esher) and Weybridge?


 * ...that from its reopening in 2009 until fall 2016, the 6768 ft former New Haven Railroad Maybrook Line's Poughkeepsie Bridge was the world's longest pedestrian footbridge?


 * ...that English rugby union player and Conservative politician Sir Wavell Wakefield along with another investor purchased the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway in order to prevent its closure?


 * ...that wagonways preceded steam-powered railways as far back as 600 BC?


 * ...that Southern Way, a road in Wadebridge, England, now runs along the old trackbed where the main platform of Wadebridge railway station was?


 * ...that the W7 Series Shinkansen introduced in 2015 is the first JR West train type to use the "W" prefix, following the method used by JR East (with an "E" prefix)?


 * ...that locomotive builder W. G. Bagnall developed the inverted saddle tank and introduced several novel types of locomotive valve gear including the Baguley and the Bagnall-Price?


 * ...that the Newton-le-Willows site of locomotive builder Vulcan Foundry had its own railway station from 1916 to 1965 named Vulcan Halt?


 * ...that although Finnish railways ' Pr1 and Vr3 classes of steam locomotives share many parts such as the frame, boiler and space for coal, their wheel arrangements, domes and top speed are very different because of their completely different roles?


 * ...that the Dr16 class of diesel-electric locomotives built in the 1980s and early 1990s, which generate a power output of 1677 kW, are the most powerful diesel locomotives in VR's fleet?