Portal:Trains/Did you know/August 2014

August 2014

 * ...that Robert Henderson Robertson, architect of the Vanderbilt-Webb estate on Shelburne Farms in Vermont, designed the Shelburne Railroad Station in 1890 using the Shingle Style to retain stylistic consistency between the station and the nearby Vanderbilt-Webb estate?


 * ...that three different gauge lines formerly connected to  the Sasshō Line, which is now operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido) in Japan, at Shin-Kotoni and Tōbetsu stations?


 * ...that after the Sakuragichō train fire in Yokohama, Japan, in 1951 which killed 106 people and injured 92, Hideo Shima, director of the railway's rolling stock department, resigned but was later rehired by Japanese National Railways in 1955 to design and build Japan's first "bullet train" (Shinkansen)?


 * ...that because the Rochester 400 served Rochester, Minnesota, and its famous Mayo Clinic, there was at least one car on each train with wider doors for allowing patients on stretchers and other accommodations?


 * ...that the inside diameter of a steam locomotive driving wheel tire is machined to be slightly less than the diameter of the wheel centre on which it is mounted, to give an interference fit, and then is fitted by heating it to a controlled temperature?


 * ...that the speed of building two railroads in Russia during the Russo-Turkish War earned Samuel Polyakov a medal at the Paris World Exhibition of 1878 and over 20 million roubles from the government, including a 4.5 million time bonus?


 * ...that after moving to San Francisco, California, in 1889, architect Daniel J. Patterson caught the attention of Southern Pacific Railroad and went on to design many of the railroad's stations including union stations in Seattle and Salt Lake City?


 * ...that in 1865 the Oil Creek Railroad in Pennsylvania added a third rail to its gauge track to allow the railroad to connect to standard gauge railroads such as the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad?


 * ...that the Nederlandse Spoorwegen Class 2100 and 2900 SGMm EMU trains built from 1975 to 1983 by Talbot were originally designed to be used on the Amsterdam Metro network, which would have necessitated third rail shoes as well as pantographs for current collection?


 * ...that for historical reasons, the Nankai Electric Railway's Kōya Line formally begins at Shiomibashi Station in Osaka and crosses the Nankai Main Line at Kishinosato-Tamade Station, although operationally it starts at Namba Station together with the Nankai Line, diverges at Kishinosato-Tamade Station and goes to Gokurakubashi Station, to connect to Koyasan through Nankai Cable Line?


 * ...that although Motomachi Station in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, serves both the JR West's JR Kōbe Line (Tōkaidō Main Line) and the Hanshin Electric Railway's Main Line and Kōbe Kōsoku Line, the JR and Hanshin platforms are separated and no interchange is possible without completely leaving one building and entering another?


 * ...that Great Western Railway's Middle Circle services in London, England, which operated from 1872 to 1905, followed a route through stations that are now served by London Underground's Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines?


 * ...that John Marshall, the railway historian best known for his three-volume history of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in England, greatly disliked his work being described as "definitive"?


 * ...that the Luzhniki Metro Bridge, carrying a road and a Moscow Metro line across the Moskva River in Moscow, Russia, houses Vorobyovy Gory, the only station of Moscow Metro located above water?


 * ...that the gauge Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in England was one of many railway companies worldwide that rostered armoured trains during times of war?


 * ...that the entire 5.1 mi route of the Lansing Manufacturers Railroad was entirely within the city limits of Lansing, Michigan, USA, which allowed the company to claim that it "makes a complete circuit of the city, connecting all the steam and electric lines"?