Portal:Trains/Did you know/February 2015

February 2015

 * ...that the Bradshaw's Guide series of railway timetables and travel guide books begun by George Bradshaw in 1839 continued after his death in 1853 with new and updated editions published until 1961?


 * ...that jointly designed Baldwin-Westinghouse electric locomotives were marketed beginning in 1895 by Baldwin and Westinghouse in order to sell an AC electrification system to railroad companies in the United States?


 * ...that seven years after the first announcement was made for the Auckland railway electrification project, the first electric multiple units in New Zealand were run in revenue service on the Onehunga Branch in April 2014?


 * ...that AD6029, a 4-8-4+4-8-4 Garratt locomotive built in 1954, became the only locomotive of its class to visit Victoria, Australia, when it travelled to Albury in 1980 and completed a parallel run to Wangaratta with former Victorian Railways K.153?


 * ...that in addition to the four nearby stations, Exmouth Junction in Exeter, Devon, England, was for many years the location for one of the largest engine sheds in the former London and South Western Railway?


 * ...that the upper bus deck at Warwick railway station on the Transperth Joondalup Line constructed of precast concrete was the most expensive structural element of the station, and was the cause of significant attention and consideration as part of the design and construction process?


 * ...that at Volksdorf station, a terminal station on Hamburg U-Bahn U1 main line, and a junction with U1's Ohlstedt and Großhansdorf branches, the concrete beam station hall was built in 1920?


 * ...that at the time of their construction beginning in 1988, the dome areas of Ultra Dome cars built by Colorado Railcar featured the largest individual glass panes ever installed in a railcar?


 * ...that the Tōbu Kiryū Line in Tokyo was originally built in 1911 as a gauge human-powered line between Ota and Yabuzuka to haul stone blocks from the Yabuzuka Quarry?


 * ...that Tito's Blue Train, a luxury train once used by Josip Broz Tito while he was president of Yugoslavia, is now operated as a tourist attraction on the 476 km Belgrade–Bar railway, between Belgrade, Serbia, and Bar, Montenegro?


 * ...that the longest of New Orleans' streetcar lines, the St. Charles Avenue line, is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world?


 * ...that a few days prior to opening the Steyning Line in England, the Government Inspector of Railways, Colonel Tyler, carried out an inspection of the line, testing in particular the strength of several bridges across the River Adur by means such as placing multiple engines with their tenders on them?


 * ...that following damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012 when severe flooding turned the station into a "large fish tank," as former MTA chairman Joseph Lhota described it, the South Ferry station, then the newest on the entire New York City Subway system, was closed with repairs estimated to continue until 2016?


 * ...that South African Railways sole Class 3A 4-8-2 steam locomotive, built by ALCO in 1909, was commonly known as the America D Class on the NGR, which originally purchased and imported the locomotive, and it was nicknamed "Maud Allan" by the enginemen, after the Canadian-born dancer?


 * ...that shortly before it was purchased by Soo Line Railroad, EMD FP7A demonstrator 7001, which Soo Line then renumbered as 2500-A, hosted the United Kingdom's Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII, in its cab on a trip through North Dakota?


 * ...that Shiodome Freight Terminal, originally built in 1872 as Shimbashi Station, served as the first railway terminal of Tokyo until it was converted to a freight-only terminal in conjunction with the opening of Tokyo Station in 1914?


 * ...that for a period the broad gauge South Devon and Tavistock Railway carried the standard gauge (then referred to as narrow gauge) trains of the London and South Western Railway between Lydford and Plymouth via a third rail, creating dual gauge track?


 * ...that JR West includes the Katakana character "ノ" in the Japanese name of Sannomiya Station, written as 三ノ宮駅, unlike all of the other transportation facilities in Sannomiya, whose names are written in Japanese as 三宮?


 * ...that from the end of operations on the Katsuki Line in 1985 until the beginning of service on the Miyazaki Kūkō Line in 1996, the Sakurajima Line in Osaka, Japan, was the shortest passenger line among the Japan Railways Group companies?


 * ...that the R127 and R134 work cars built in the 1990s for the New York City Subway are not air conditioned and instead have axiflow fans, so in the summertime these cars are frequently replaced by other passenger cars on garbage trains?


 * ...that NZASM's Class B 0-6-4T steam locomotives were found to be rough riding due to their lack of leading wheels and it became the practice to run them bunker forward whenever possible?