Portal:Trains/Did you know/February 2012

February 2012

 * ...that the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad, a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary company which was consolidated into the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines in 1933, was itself the result of an 1896 consolidation of more than ten smaller railroads in southern New Jersey, United States?


 * ...that Wapping Tunnel in Liverpool, England, which was constructed in 1830 to enable goods services to operate between Liverpool docks and Manchester, and all points between, as part of the planned Liverpool and Manchester Railway, was the first tunnel in the world to be bored under a metropolis?


 * ...that the impetus for the formation of the Wairarapa Railway Restoration Society was a proposal in the 1980s to demolish the historic station building at Carterton Railway Station in New Zealand and replace it with a more modern structure?


 * ...that Vito Cruz station on the South Main Line ("Southrail") of Philippine National Railways, the eighth station from Tutuban, is the last Southrail station physically located in the city of Manila?


 * ...that the Valmet RM 2 trams built in 1956, three of which have been preserved, were the last trams acquired for the Turku tram network in Finland prior to its closure in 1972 and have come to be known as "ghost cars"?


 * ...that Urgell station on the Barcelona Metro in Spain is one of the oldest metro stations in the city, as it is part of the first section of L1 (then Ferrocarril Metropolità Transversal) to be built when it opened in 1926?


 * ...that Union Station in Gary, Indiana, which is located between the elevated lines of the former Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was built in 1910 utilizing the new cast-in-place concrete methods in which, after pouring, the concrete was scored to resemble stone?


 * ...that Kyoto Municipal Subway's 17.5 km long Tōzai Line connecting Uji and Uzumasa Tenjingawa Station in Ukyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan, handles an average of 120,000 passengers daily?


 * ...that Twerton-on-Avon railway station, west of Bath on the south bank of the Avon in England, was built by Great Western Railway in 1840 in Gothic style in contrast to the Georgian buildings in the centre of Bath north of the river, but is reflected in the domestic Victorian architecture on the southern suburbs?


 * ...that the 7-platform Tuen Mun Ferry Pier Stop, an MTR Light Rail terminus in Hong Kong was opened to the public one day after the Light Rail Transit system was declared open in 1988 by Anne, Princess Royal, at this stop?


 * ...that initially Transperth services were coordinated by the Metropolitan Transport Trust (MTT), with MTT operating bus and ferry services itself and coordinating rail services operated by Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) under the Westrail brand?


 * ...that although the common track gauge in Slovakia is the international standard gauge of, there are also lines that are laid at other gauges including Russian gauge , metre gauge and Bosnian gauge ?


 * ...that at its peak, the Tokyo Toden tram system in Japan boasted 41 routes covering 213 km of track, but as the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation changed its emphasis to buses and subways, the Toden was reduced by 181 km to just the Toden Arakawa Line by the mid-1970s?


 * ...that the Tianjin Grand Bridge, a 113.7 km long railway viaduct bridge that runs between Langfang and Qingxian in China as part of the Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway, was listed by Guinness World Records in 2011 upon the bridge's opening as the second longest bridge in the world?


 * ...that the destruction of the bridge as depicted in the 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai is entirely fictional, and in fact, two bridges were built near Kanchanaburi in modern Thailand&mdash;a temporary wooden bridge and a permanent steel/concrete bridge&mdash;and although both were targets of Allied aerial bombing, the steel bridge was repaired and is still in use by Burma Railway?


 * ...that the Tees railway viaduct, built in 1860 to carry the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway over the River Tees west of Barnard Castle in England, and finally demolished in 1971, was designed by the railway's engineer Thomas Bouch, who also designed the ill-fated Tay Bridge, which famously collapsed in 1879, ending his career?


 * ...that although the section of Monterrey Metro Line 1 from San Bernabé to Talleres, which is named after the Metrorrey maintenance shops (talleres) that are located right after the station, was operational from the start in 1991, the original terminal of Line 1 was San Bernabé and it was not until 2003 that this portion of the line was opened for passenger service and Talleres became a station?


 * ...that in addition to serving trains of JR East's Chūō Line, and the Ōme and Nambu lines, Tachikawa Station in Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan, is also flanked by Tachikawa-Minami Station and Tachikawa Kita Station on the Tama Toshi Monorail Line?


 * ...that the Crystal Palace and South London Junction Railway route in England went through Sydenham Hill Wood, the Dulwich College estate and two tunnels, to terminate at the west of the Crystal Palace, opening on 1 August 1865 with one station, Charles Barry's Gothic Crystal Palace (High Level) terminus?


 * ...that Sungang Railway Station, a freight station with 52 tracks covering a total area of 190,000 m2 in the Luohu District of Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, was renamed to Shenzhen North Railway Station in 1977 but was then renamed back to Sungang again in 2008 to avoid a name conflict with the newly built Shenzhen North Railway Station which would serve the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link?


 * ...that feasibility studies for a Strait of Gibraltar crossing via railway tunnel which would connect Europe and Africa have shown a number of potential difficulties including an active major geologic fault and two very deep Quaternary clay channels in the middle of the Strait, but if built, such a tunnel could carry 9 million passengers in its first year of operation as early as 2025?


 * ...that SteamRanger, an historic train society that operates trains on the Victor Harbor railway line, is the only group regularly running broad gauge steam locomotives in South Australia?


 * ...that the former Southern Railway passenger station in Westminster, South Carolina, which was originally built circa 1885 by the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad and listed on the National Register of Historic Places as of 1976, is one of the oldest buildings still standing in Westminster?


 * ...that on 1 February 1876, when the South Devon Railway was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway, the South Devon Railway 0-4-0 locomotives were given numbers by their new owners but continued to carry their names too?


 * ...that the design of South African Railways Class 14 4-8-2 steam locomotives, built by Robert Stephenson and Company in the mid 1910s, was based on the Class 12 and was similar enough to it that many components were interchangeable?