Portal:Trains/Did you know/December 2011

December 2011

 * ...that the trustees of the Pallot Heritage Steam Museum, a mechanical heritage museum in the Parish of Trinity in Jersey, are the eight surviving sons and daughters of the museum's founder, Don Pallot?


 * ...that the Otis Hovair transit system, a type of hovertrain originally developed at General Motors as an automated guideway transit system that replaces conventional steel wheels with hovercraft lift pads, is the only hovertain concept seeing commercial service?


 * ...that the chime played to announce train arrivals and departures at Omoromachi Station on the Okinawa Monorail in Japan is the traditional Okinawan folk song Danjukariyushi?


 * ...that Oakamoor tunnel, a 497 yd long tunnel which was closed in 1964 north of Oakamoor railway station on the former Uttoxeter to North Rode section of the North Staffordshire Railway in England, may yet be reopened with the Moorland and City Railway purchase of various former railway line with in the area?


 * ...that the ADL class diesel multiple unit (DMU) cars, originally built by Goninan for the Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) in the early 1980s then purchased by New Zealand Rail Limited in 1993 to replace suburban carriage trains, were credited with an increase in patronage in the Auckland system, but have a number of reliability problems due to their age?


 * ...that the main museum building of the Northern Ontario Railroad Museum in Capreol, Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, was originally built in 1916 and served as the home for the superintendent of Canadian National Railway until the town of Capreol purchased the building in 1997?


 * ...that Norwegian locomotive manufacturer Norsk Elektrisk & Brown Boveri (NEBB), which was merged into Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) in 1988, traced its origins to the 1874 founding of Frognerkilens Fabrikk which produced agricultural machinery?


 * ...that although Nishi-Urawa Station in Saitama, Saitama, Japan, has four tracks, the station has only one island platform between the two inner tracks, and the two outer tracks are used for freight trains and Musashino services to and from the Tōhoku Main Line?


 * ...that when Translink in Northern Ireland issued the invitation to tender for the new Class 4000 units in June 2008 to replace existing Class 80, Class 450 and "Gatwick" stock, proposals were received from Bombardier Transportation, Hyundai Rotem and CAF, with CAF's proposal offering a variant of the existing C3K units being selected as the winning bid?


 * ...that Montclair, New Jersey, originally known as West Bloomfield, was named by Julius Pratt, founder of the New York and Greenwood Lake Railway, which was created in 1878 through the merger of the Montclair Railway and the Montclair and Greenwood Lake Railroad?


 * ...that Neumarkt station on the Cologne Stadtbahn in Innenstadt, Cologne, Germany, is divided with an overground part for three lines of Stadtbahn's low-floor trains and an underground part for four lines of Stadtbahn's high-floor trains?


 * ...that Napoli Centrale railway station, the main station in Naples, Italy, which serves trains on the Rome–Naples high-speed, Rome–Cassino–Naples, Rome–Formia–Naples Direttissima, Naples–Salerno and Naples–Salerno high-speed lines, has 25 tracks and is the sixth largest station in Italy in terms of passenger flow?


 * ...that the James Bond film "You Only Live Twice" used Nakano-shimbashi Station in Nakano, Tokyo, Japan, as the location of Tiger Tanaka's private transportation hub and as of 2011, many of the fixtures in the station are unchanged from the time of filming?


 * ...that the Nador railway stations and the line to Tawrirt, Morocco, including two stations in Bin Anşār after the line passes through Nador, were opened on 10 July 2009 by King Mohammed VI?


 * ...that in 1997, following the privatisation of British Rail, MTL Trust Holdings Ltd. was awarded two railway franchises, Northern Spirit operating services across the whole of Yorkshire and Merseyrail Electrics running the Merseyrail network in Merseyside, both of which have been taken over by Arriva in 2000?


 * ...that construction of the Mt. Lebanon Tunnel, which opened in the 1980s connecting Pittsburgh Light Rail's Dormont Junction and Mt. Lebanon Stations, marked the first time that the New Austrian tunnelling method was used for transit construction in the United States?


 * ...that the development of the first railways in England in the late 1820s inspired John Molson to pursue railroad development in Canada, leading to his company building the first railway line in the country, connecting the Saint Lawrence River and the Hudson River, where his company's steamships continued passengers' travels between Montreal and New York City?


 * ...that the Tsukuba Express platforms at Minami-Nagareyama Station in Nagareyama, Chiba, Japan, which were built in 2005 approximately 125 m long to accommodate 6-car trains, are scheduled to be lengthened by 40 m in either direction by autumn 2012 to allow the train stopping positions to be offset, reducing platform crowding during peak periods?


 * ...that the original location of the former Milcote railway station, an intermediate calling-point on the Great Western Railway company's branch line from Stratford-upon-Avon to Honeybourne, was selected because it was the first point on the GWR's line south of the River Avon at which the line crossed a public road?


 * ...that plans for the merger of Paris Métro lines 3bis and 7bis, which could be completed as early as 2013, would connect the lines through an existing rail tunnel, la voie navette, between the Porte des Lilas station and the Pré-Saint-Gervais station and could finally opento the public the ghost station Haxo to the public?


 * ...that MEMU (Mainline Electric Multiple Unit) a commuter rail system introduced in 2008 in India operated by the Indian Railways, is designed for semi-urban and rural areas, unlike EMU (electric multiple unit) trains that are designed for urban and semi-urban areas?


 * ...that although Matsuo Station on the Hankyu Arashiyama Line in Kyoto, Japan, is accessible by wheelchairs, passengers of Katsura-bound trains have to use a special gate for wheelchairs?


 * ...that Mandurah railway station, one terminus of the interurban Mandurah line to Perth, Western Australia, was opened in 2007 to replace Mandurah Bus Station, which previously existed on the same site?


 * ...that in 1895, William Gibbs McAdoo returned to Knoxville, Tennessee, after a few years in New York City and regained control of part of his bankrupt streetcar company (which had been auctioned off), then in subsequent months, he engaged in a continuous struggle with Ohio businessman C.C. Howell over control of the city's streetcar system, culminating in a bizarre incident known as the Battle of Depot Street?


 * ...that London Underground has stabled a number of diesel locomotives for maintenance of way work beginning with a prototype built in 1939 from two Underground cars and leading to five brand new Class 66 locomotives leased from GB Railfreight by Metronet?


 * ...that in live steam rail transport modelling, often the track gauge has little to do with the scale of a locomotive since larger equipment can be built in a narrow-gauge configuration which leads to scales of 1.5, 1.6, 2.5 and 3 inches per foot (corresponding to scales of 1:8 to 1:4) being used on a track gauge?


 * ...that in the list of railways in Ontario, Canada, several defunct railways including the Canada Southern Railway, Detroit River Tunnel Company, Kingston and Pembroke Railway, Niagara River Bridge Company and the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway still exist as nonoperating subsidiaries of Canadian Pacific Railway?


 * ...that Line A of the Buenos Aires Underground in Argentina opened to the public on 1 December 1913, becoming the first rapid transit line in South America, the Southern Hemisphere and the entire Spanish-speaking world and making Buenos Aires became the thirteenth city in the world to have an underground transport service?


 * ...that the approach to Lehrte station from the west on the Lehrte–Celle railway, which opened in 1845 and is now a part of the Hanover–Hamburg railway in Germany, made it necessary for all trains from Hanover to Celle to reverse in Lehrte until the Hanover freight bypass line was opened in 1906 which made a direct link to the Hanover–Brunswick railway?