Portal:Trains/Did you know/December 2005

This page is an archive of facts that have appeared in the "Did you know..." section of Portal:Trains during the month of December 2005. To suggest a fact for inclusion, please follow the guidelines on the suggestion page.

Archives from previous months are available on the archive page.

December 2005

 * ...that the 0-4-4 type of steam locomotive is often called a Forney, characterized by the truck under the coal bunker/water tank?


 * ...that Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin, has the largest collection of wooden passenger cars in the United States as well as six of only seven surviving wooden boxcars built by Mather Stock Car Company?
 * ...that the contract to operate Merseyrail, the metro network centred on Liverpool and Birkenhead, England, is currently held by a consortium of Serco and NedRailways, a division of Nederlandse Spoorwegen?


 * ...that the 1909 opening of Canadian Pacific Railway's Spiral Tunnels on the line through Kicking Horse Pass reduced the maximum gradient of the track from 4.5% to 2.2%?


 * ...that because of the likelihood of train wrecks and other accidents if all railroad workers did not accurately know the current time, pocket watches became required equipment for all railroad workers?


 * ...that although Copenhagen's S-Train system is operated by DSB, the Danish national train company, and the bus network is run by the Greater Copenhagen Authority, both modes of transport use a single ticket system?


 * ...that although several rail operators, including Pacific National, Australian Railroad Group, Transwa and South Spur Rail Services, share common sections of Kewdale Freight Terminal, in a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, all trains enter and depart the yard via a single standard gauge track?
 * ...that SJ in Sweden is in the process of adding wireless internet connectivity for passengers on all X2000 trains?


 * ...that booster engines were sometimes used on steam locomotives to help get trains moving from a stop?


 * ...that Barstow, California, and Strong City, Kansas, are both named in honor of William Barstow Strong, former president of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway?


 * ...that British Rail built an experimental Advanced Passenger Train prototype powered by a gas turbine engine in 1972 with an advanced active tilting technology?


 * ...that in Australia, railway signalling is known as safeworking, perhaps due to the fact that not all safeworking systems involve signals?


 * ...that Singapore's Light Rapid Transit system is sometimes considered to be a people mover system, rather than a light rail system?


 * ...that the last order filled by Hunslet Engine Company's Leeds shops was for narrow gauge construction locomotives for use on the London Underground's Jubilee Line Extension in 1995?
 * ...that on the Raurimu Spiral on New Zealand's North Island Main Trunk Railway, there is no place one can stand and view the complete path of the track?


 * ...that since the privatisation of British Rail, the Electrostar model of electric multiple unit (EMU) has become the most common new EMU in Britain, especially on the high-volume commuter routes around London and the South East?


 * ...that the Ffestiniog Railway, chartered on May 23, 1832, is the oldest surviving railway company in the world?


 * ...that a boxcab, a term used mostly in North America, is a locomotive in which the machinery and crew areas are enclosed in a box-like superstructure?


 * ...that in Queensland, diamond crossings between narrow gauge cane tramways and standard gauge main lines are being replaced by drawbridges, so that the rails of the main line are completely unbroken by gaps or weak spots?


 * ...that Japan's Nozomi is the fastest passenger train service running on the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen?
 * ...that rather than spend almost $150,000 each on new switcher locomotives, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway rebuilt its remaining fleet of EMD F-units as CF7s in the 1970s?


 * ...that the streamlined Nebraska Zephyr trainset and the only surviving EMD E5 are still used in heritage railway operations at the Illinois Railway Museum?


 * ...that Matheran Hill Railway, operated by Central Railway in India, is being promoted as a future World Heritage Site?


 * ...that before building Tom Thumb in 1830 for Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Peter Cooper ran a successful glue and isinglass factory?


 * ...that because of its low side walls, a gondola can be used to carry either very dense material, such as steel plates or coils, or bulky items such as prefabricated pieces of rail track?


 * ...that one of the delays in the restoration of Soo Line 1003 was due to an order for boiler flues that were three quarters of an inch (19 mm) too short?


 * ...that handcar enthusiasts organize races between handcars driven by five person teams (one to push the car from a halt, four to pump the lever)?


 * ...that Boston Lodge, near Porthmadog, Gwynedd, in north-west Wales, is the location of Ffestiniog Railway's main locomotive depot and carriage works?