Portal:Trains/Did you know/August 2008

August 2008

 * ...that Gare de l'Est railway station in Paris features artwork including a statue by the sculptor Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire representing the city of Strasbourg on its west façade, a statue personifying Verdun, by Varenne at the east end of the station, an in the main-line train hall, a monumental painting by Alfred Herter illustrating the departure of soldiers for the Western Front?


 * ... that Mitropa, a catering company best known for having managed sleeping and dining cars of different German railroads for most of the 20th century, was founded during World War I by railway companies in Germany and Austria-Hungary who discontinued the service provided by the enemy-owned Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits?
 * ... that Daniel Page, the second mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, helped finance the construction of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad?


 * ... that the Victorian Railways E type carriages were based on Canadian carriage design, but retained an English-style compartment internal layout rather than a typical Canadian open saloon layout?
 * ...that the British Rail Class D16/1 locomotives, built in 1947 by the London Midland and Scottish Railway shortly before it was absorbed into British Railways, were the first mainline diesel locomotives in Great Britain?
 * ...that Leslie Skinner, an owner of the DeForest Skinner House, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Valparaiso, Indiana, was once the youngest railroad director in the United States?
 * ...that the Ferrovie dello Stato (Italian State Railways) Class D443 locomotives, built in the 1960s to replace aging steam locomotives which were used for heavy freight trains on light, non-electrified lines, are still in service today?


 * ...that the 4234 km long Baikal Amur Mainline traversing Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East was built as a strategic alternative route to the Trans-Siberian Railway, especially along the vulnerable sections close to the border with China?


 * ...that the San Francisco Bay Area in California will have a new direct rail to ferry connection when the Hercules intermodal rail station and WETA ferry terminal is constructed?
 * ...that various members of the London Midland and Scottish Railway 'Black 5' locomotive class had many design variations and modifications, including domed and domeless boilers, different valve gear (including Caprotti, Walschaerts, and Stephenson), roller bearings on the driving coupled axles (both Timken and Skefco types) and an experimental steel firebox?


 * ...that some Japanese railway companies as well as Deutsche Bahn in Germany and RATP in France issue delay certificates as documentary proof that a railway's scheduled passenger train arrived at a station later than what is stipulated in the company's scheduled timetable and that because they are issued only by the railway companies, these certificates are often accepted as valid reasons for tardiness?


 * ...that the Victorian Railways B class steam locomotives used a 2-4-0 rather than a 2-2-2 wheel arrangement for better traction on the steeply graded new mainlines of the early 1860s in Victoria, Australia, and are regarded as the Victorian Railways' first mainline locomotives?


 * ...that Embarcadero Station in San Francisco, California, originally was the terminus for all of the Muni Metro lines, but in 1998 a new extension was opened from Embarcadero Station, along The Embarcadero to Caltrain's 4th and King Street Station?


 * ...that the Great Western Railway Castle Class of 4-6-0 steam locomotives allowed the acceleration of the Cheltenham Flyer service such that on 6 June 1932 the train covered 77 miles (124 km) from Swindon to London's Paddington station at a record average speed of 81.68 miles per hour (131.45 km/h)?


 * ...that the Nuremberg Transport Museum originally opened as a royal Bavarian railway museum in 1899 and is now the oldest railway museum in Germany?


 * ...that Gare Montparnasse, a railway station in Paris, is famous for a derailment that occurred in 1895 when an out-of-control train overran the buffer stop, careened across almost 30 m of the station concourse, crashed through a 60 cm thick wall, shot across a terrace and sailed out of the station, plummeting onto the Place de Rennes 10 m below?


 * ...that the Pennsylvania Railroad class I1s locomotive's large, wide boiler limited the size of the driving wheels, which made it impossible to mount counterweights large enough to balance the piston thrusts?


 * ... that the Krauss-Helmholtz bogie on a steam locomotive, where a carrying axle is connected to a coupled axle via a lever, allows radial forces during curve running to be more or less evened out on both axles, so that riding qualities similar to those of a normal bogie are achieved and wear and tear reduced on wheel flanges and rails?


 * ...that the rail term pantograph, used to describe the device that collects electric current from overhead lines for electric locomotives, multiple units or trams, stems from the resemblance to pantograph devices for copying writing and drawings?


 * ...that Canada's Lethbridge Viaduct, a 1624 m long, 95.7 m high steel trestle bridge, replaced a wooden trestle measuring 894 m long and 20 m high?


 * ... that Poland's Luxtorpeda railcar featured a MAN AG diesel engine at each end of the car, and required a second driver to control the second engine from the other cab, with the drivers communicating with each other by means of a signalling system of coloured lights and an electric bell?


 * ... that the Mansfield Branch of the Great Northern Railway in Washington was one of the last branch lines in the United States to still use boxcars to move wheat?


 * ... that when the Gevingåsen Tunnel opens in 2012 it will cut rail travel time north of Trondheim, Norway, by five minutes?


 * ...that the Mount Royal Tunnel was conceived in 1910 by the Canadian Northern Railway as a means to give the company access to downtown Montreal, as the only easy routes along the south side of Mount Royal had long been taken by rivals Canadian Pacific Railway and Grand Trunk Railway?


 * ...that the Victorian Railways AA class was the largest, heaviest, and most powerful 4-4-0 steam locomotive to run in Australia, and the first Victorian Railways locomotive class to be built with piston valves?
 * ...that the Erie Gauge War in 1853 was nicknamed the "Peanut War" because its outcome affected the street vendors who sold peanuts to travelers in Erie, Pennsylvania, the most?


 * ...that the 19 mi Colne Valley and Halstead Railway in England remained as an independent railway from its opening in 1860 until the 1923 regrouping of Britain's railways?


 * ...that although India's Chennai Mass Rapid Transit System was planned as far back as 1985, the first phase was much delayed and did not open until 1997?


 * ...that the fishplate, a metal bar that is bolted to the ends of two rails to join them together in a track, was patented by William Bridges Adams in May 1842, however the patent shortly afterwards passed to James Samuel, the engineer of the Eastern Counties Railway, the first British railway to use fishplates?


 * ...that construction of the Narita Shinkansen high speed rail line in Japan, intended to connect connect Narita International Airport with Tokyo Station, was hampered due to resistance from local residents protesting against the expropriation of their land and was abandoned with construction rights withdrawn after only 9 km had been built, the only Shinkansen line to suffer such a fate?


 * ...that New Zealand's Otira Tunnel, an 8.5 km long railway tunnel with a 1 in 33 gradient on the Otira to Arthur's Pass section of the Midland Line, was electrified from its opening in 1923 until 1997 due to concerns over the buildup of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide gases from the use of steam and diesel locomotives?


 * ...that because Woodhams' Scrapyard in Barry, Wales found it easier and quicker to scrap freight wagons than locomotives and scrapped these first, most of the nearly 300 steam locomotives British Rail sent there for scrapping in the 1960s were left untouched and were eventually purchased from the scrapyard by preservation groups, with over 100 being restored to operating condition?


 * ...that Japan's 400 Series Shinkansen trainsets, designed for use on 'mini Shinkansen' lines are considerably narrower than other Shinkansen rolling stock and feature retractable steps to close the gap between a carriage door and the platforms at Shinkansen stations?