Portal:Trains/Did you know/June 2009

June 2009

 * ...that in the original design for SNCF's BB 60000 class, the locomotives were to be powered with an MTU engine, as those engines were used in BB69400 and BB75000 locomotives and had a good performance, but the MTU engine was replaced with one from Caterpillar due to financial reasons?


 * ...that Sandsfoot Castle Halt, opened in July 1909 as part of a scheme that saw several halts opened on the GWR and other railways to counter road competition, and closed with the branch in 1952, remains as a timber platform on the Rodwell Trail?


 * ...that in the 1888 Borki train disaster, believed to have been caused by dangerous vibrations set up by double-heading steam locomotives and a train length beyond the railroad's safety limitations, Tsar Alexander III is reported to have held the remains of the collapsed dining car roof on his shoulders as his children evacuated?


 * ...that to compete with the Mexican Railway, the narrow gauge Interoceanic Railway of Mexico completed its main line from Mexico City to Veracruz in 1891 and built several branch lines including one to Puente de Ixtla that was intended to be extended to Acapulco?
 * ...that Glen Mills station, originally a stop on Pennsylvania Railroad's West Chester Line and later part of SEPTA's R3 West Chester line, now serves the West Chester Railroad, a privately owned and operated heritage railway that operates between Glen Mills and West Chester, Pennsylvania, on weekends?


 * ...that Electro-Motive Division's GT22HW diesel locomotive model, built for the European market in 1981, were used in SFR Yugoslavia for passenger service only and are now used by Hrvatske željeznice in Croatia and Železnice Srbije in Serbia?


 * ...that the Chao Chow and Swatow Railway in China ceased operations in 1937 when spreading Japanese hostilities prompted the Ministry of Railways to order that this railway and several other lines should be dismantled as part of the Nationalist Government's "strategic retreat" to the interior of China?


 * ...that in anticipation for the second phase of construction on the Millennium Line in Vancouver, an extension from Lougheed Mall to Coquitlam, switches were installed to the east of Lougheed Town Centre Station and a third platform was roughed-in but the extension was canceled following a change in provincial government?


 * ...that of Deutsche Bundesbahn's 942 original Class V 60 diesel locomotives built between 1956 and 1964, around 400 were still working for the Deutsche Bahn in 2004, several of which have since ended up in private or industrial railways in Germany and elsewhere, as well as the state railways in Turkey, the former Yugoslavia (e.g. the Croatian Railways HŽ series 2133) and Norway (17 engines as NSB Di 5)?


 * ...that like some other stations on the Stockholm metro, Sweden's Rådhuset metro station uses organic architecture, which leaves the bedrock exposed and unsculptured, appearing to be based on natural cave systems?


 * ...that the Southern Railway's U1 class three cylinder 2-6-0 mogul steam locomotives in the United Kingdom featured an improved variation of the Gresley conjugated valve gear designed and patented by Harold Holcroft, driven from the combination lever rather than the valve spindle of the outside valve gear, thus immune to variations in valve events brought about by heat expansion of the valve spindles and flexing of the conjugation levers when in heavy use?


 * ...that the distinctive cab design of Czechoslovak State Railways Class T 478.4 diesel locomotives, built in the late 1970s, has led to the nickname "goggles"?


 * ...that Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's CharlieCard, a MIFARE-based, contactless, stored value smart card used for electronic ticketing, is named after a fictional character in a folk music song called "M.T.A." which concerns a man trapped forever on the Boston subway system because he can't pay the fare required to exit?


 * ...that a series of smokebox and related improvements made to the Victorian Railways A2 class 4-6-0 steam locomotives of Australia in the 1930s, costing just £140 ($280) per locomotive, enabled a 40% drawbar horsepower increase from 860 HP to 1230 HP and allowed Victorian Railways to defer ordering new locomotives for a number of years?


 * ...that the original London and South Western Railway line did not have a station at Harman's Cross, but following the Swanage Railway's extension of the line to Corfe Castle and Norden in 1995, a new signal box and passing loop was constructed in 1997, and this has made Harman's Cross railway station the main crossing point for trains between Swanage and Norden?


 * ...that the initial České dráhy order for Class 680 tilting trains was placed with Fiat Ferroviaria during 2000, but as part of the Alstom take over of Fiat Ferroviaria the order was changed to Pendolino trains?


 * ...that as the only rail link between Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad became the most fought over railroad in Virginia during the American Civil War?


 * ...that V/Line's G class diesel electric locomotives built by Clyde Engineering beginning in 1984 were the last locomotives ordered by a government rail operator in Victoria, Australia, and were the newest and most powerful locomotives in the Victorian broad gauge freight fleet until the XR class entered service in 2004?


 * ...that the Mexican Railway, incorporated in London in 1864 as the Imperial Mexican Railway and completed in 1873, remained independent of the government-owned Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (National Railways of Mexico) until the government gained control in 1946 and merged the property in 1959?


 * ...that James Pearson designed 4-2-4T steam locomotives for the gauge Bristol and Exeter Railway in England featured flangeless driving wheels as large as 9 ft in diameter?


 * ...that the EMD GA8 diesel locomotive is an EMD GL8 designed for extremely sharp curves and low weight per axle achieved through the use of freight car trucks?


 * ...that the BTS Skytrain system, the elevated metro system owned by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in Thailand, was initially referred to as the Lavalin Skytrain because it was to be designed using the Vancouver SkyTrain as a model adopting the technology developed by SNC-Lavalin?


 * ...that the first six Canadian Light Rail Vehicles were manufactured by SIG of Zürich, Switzerland, and used as templates for Urban Transportation Development Corporation (UTDC; now Bombardier) to manufacture the rest at the Thunder Bay works?


 * ...that although the first prototypes were electric locomotives, subsequent production of the Prima locomotives by Alstom have been primarily diesel variants?


 * ...that Frederick H. Billings, president of Northern Pacific Railway from 1879 to 1881, was the first land claims lawyer in San Francisco, California, and as a trustee of the College of California (later, the University of California at Berkeley) he suggested that the college be named for George Berkeley?


 * ...that the South Australian TransAdelaide 3000 class diesel multiple unit trains are of a similar design to the Comeng electric multiple units used in Victoria, Australia, and with the announcement of the electrification of the Adelaide suburban network, 58 of the fleet of 70 3000 class railcars will be converted from diesel to electric traction?


 * ...that the English film and television actress Joan Sims was the daughter of the station master of Laindon railway station in Laindon, Essex, and her early interest in being an actress came from living at the railway station where she would often put on performances for waiting passengers?


 * ...that the Hellfire Pass cutting on the infamous Burma Railway was built as a cutting rather than a tunnel as construction could take place at all points along its length simultaneously, despite the excess effort required by the Allied POWs and Malayan labourers forced to build it?


 * ...that although the Sri Lanka Railway was initially built to transport goods such as coffee and tea for export, with time and population growth passenger traffic increased and since the 1960s has overtaken freight as the main source of revenue?


 * ...that although Swiss mechanical engineer Anatole Mallet is recognised as the inventor of the first successful compound locomotive system and later developed an articulated compound locomotive with a rigid chassis at the rear and an articulated front driving truck, the term "Mallet locomotive" is also used to describe simple expansion articulated locomotives, even if not strictly correct?