Portal:Trains/Did you know/January 2017

January 2017

 * ...that the now disused Birkenhead Dock Branch between Rock Ferry and the former Bidston Dock in England is one of the oldest stretches of track in the world, having opened in 1838?


 * ...that Bidston railway station on the Wirral Peninsula in England, has for most of its existence been primarily an interchange point between trains and was closed twice due in part to its low passenger usage and relative isolation from vehicle traffic and nearby Bidston Village?


 * ...that the Bex–Villars–Bretaye railway in Switzerland is actually two railways, one mixed adhesion and rack worked between Bex and Villars-sur-Ollon, the other, linking Villars to the Col de Bretaye being worked on the Abt rack system?


 * ...that the rolling stock used in the Canadian Better Farming Train was provided at no cost by Canadian Pacific Railway and operating expenses were borne by a grant through the Agricultural Instruction Act of 1913?


 * ...that Montreal Metro's Berri-UQAM station is the second deepest station in the network, and the only one to have 3 lines, the Green, Orange and Yellow lines, stacked on each other?


 * ...that the initial cost of construction and rolling stock purchase for the 21.7 mi Bermuda Railway was about B$40 million (adjusted for inflation to dollars as of 2008), which made it one of the most expensive rail lines built, at a cost-per-mile of B$2 million?


 * ...that during the Cold War, despite being wholly located in East Berlin, all of Berlin Friedrichstraße station's underground facilities were only accessible for passengers from the western sectors as a transfer station, or to access the border crossing at the ground level?


 * ...that Bergenline Avenue station, at the border of Union City, West New York and North Bergen, New Jersey, is the only stop on in the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail system with an underground platform?


 * ...that the 1916 Summer Street Bridge Disaster, in which 46 passengers died when the streetcar they were riding ran off an open drawbridge into Fort Point Channel, was the deadliest disaster in Boston until surpassed by the Cocoanut Grove fire in 1942?


 * ...that many of the restored carriages used by Belmond British Pullman were part of the former Brighton Belle service and were used to convey royalty?


 * ...that part of the current gauge Belgrave railway line serving Melbourne, Australia, opened as a  gauge line in 1900, the second of four experimental narrow-gauge lines built by the Victorian Railways?


 * ...that Beijing Railway Station was the largest train station in China when it opened in 1959 and it remains the only station located inside Beijing's old walled city?


 * ...that the Grade II listed station building at Beeston railway station on the Midland Main Line in Nottinghamshire, England, was built in 1847 to replace the original cottage at that location that was built in 1839?


 * ...that until 2006, Bedford Park Boulevard–Lehman College station on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line was the only station in the entire New York City Subway system to have a barbed wire fence to prevent graffiti to be added to the Manhattan bound platform?


 * ...that Beach 67th Street station on New York City Subway's IND Rockaway Line was originally built for the Long Island Rail Road in 1888 and named Arverne by the wife of developer Remington Vernam for the way he signed his checks?


 * ...that the Bayreuth Altstadt–Kulmbach railway in the Bavarian province of Upper Franconia was known colloquially as the Thurnauer Bockela (which roughly translates as "Little Thurnau Goat") due to the rough ride of trains on the line?


 * ...that although the Lower Bay platform at Toronto Transit Commission's Bay station was closed in 1966, the tracks leading to it are now used to train new operators, to move trains between lines, for platform-surface experiments, and to allow filming in the subway without disrupting public service?


 * ...that Bavarian branch lines built between 1872 and 1930 comprised nearly half the total railway network in Bavaria, in present-day southeastern Germany?


 * ...that baulk road track was popularised by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for his broad gauge railways in the United Kingdom, but track like this can still be found in modified form in special locations on present day railways?


 * ...that the Barnetby railway station area in North Lincolnshire, England, was controlled by semaphore signals until new colour light signalling was installed during a 17-day blockade on Christmas and New Year 2015-2016?


 * ...that Bank and Monument stations, a station complex serving five London Underground lines and the Docklands Light Railway, is one of the busiest stations on the London Underground network


 * ...that Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Martinsburg Shops in West Virginia was the location where the first nationwide strike action in the United States, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, began?