Portal:Trains/Did you know/December 2017

December 2017

 * ...that Karen Harrison, the first woman in Britain to be appointed as a train driver, described the harassment she received in her ten years on the job as a "gigantic tidal wave of hate"?


 * ...that a Harrington Hump can be installed on a station platform in a matter of days without major power tools to ease accessibility for passengers?


 * ...that London Overground's Harringay Green Lanes railway station has no direct interchange to a London Underground station, despite the fact that the Piccadilly line runs directly beneath it?


 * ...that sections of the Hanover–Hamburg railway near Unterlüß and Bienenbüttel were relaid in the 1970s to test regular train operations at speeds above 200 km/h?


 * ...that with about 1300 km of track, the Hamersley & Robe River railway network is the largest Australian heavy freight rail network in private ownership?


 * ...that the Hamburg S-Bahn is the only railway in Germany that uses both direct current (1,200 Volts) supplied by a third rail and alternating current (15 kV / 16.7 Hz) supplied by overhead lines?


 * ...that with an average of 480,000 passengers a day, Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is the busiest railway station in Germany and after the Gare du Nord and Gare de Châtelet – Les Halles in Paris, the third-busiest in Europe?


 * ...that Nederlandse Spoorwegen's Halte Amsterdam ArenA was specially built for supporter trains for football matches which are considered high risk to the public?


 * ...that London Underground trains maintained at Hainault depot normally had to re-enter service in the same direction as they had left service, and reforming of trains within the depot was complicated by trains facing in both directions?


 * ...that American railroad engineer Benjamin Hafner wrecked several locomotives, and was himself buried under the locomotive five times, which earned him the nickname "The Flying Dutchman"?


 * ...that the 1870 station building at Hackney Central railway station designed by Edwin Henry Horne is no longer in use by the railway, but is one of only two examples of North London Railway architecture still in situ?


 * ...that after building its last locomotive in 1950, H.K. Porter, Inc. subsidiaries continued operation building items as diverse as saws and rocket engine bodies?


 * ...that preservationist groups have opposed the current design of the H Street/Benning Road Line and the greater DC Streetcar system, citing an 1889 federal law banning systems that rely on overhead electrical wires in Georgetown?


 * ...that from its opening in 1881 until 1891 when the extension to Brisbane was opened, Gympie railway station in Queensland, Australia, was a terminal station with its head house positioned at the end of the tracks?


 * ...that Great Western Railways' 3031 Class of 4-2-2 steam locomotives was developed after the front axle of 3001 Class 2-2-2 number 3021 broke due to the weight of its boiler?


 * ...that there was talk of Great Western Railways' 1000 Class at one point having outside Walschaerts valve gear which would have been a major break from traditional GWR designs that favoured inside Stephenson link motion?


 * ...that as president of Amtrak from 2002 to 2005, David L. Gunn argued that no form of passenger transportation in the United States is self-sufficient as the economy is currently structured?