Portal:Trains/Did you know/June 2010

June 2010

 * ...that Medstead and Four Marks railway station in Hampshire, England, originally opened in 1868 simply as Medstead, was reopened on 28 May 1983 by the preserved Watercress Line, which runs from Alton to New Alresford?


 * ...that Mawson Interchange, which opened in 2006 as the first new railway station to be built in Adelaide for more than 20 years (since the extension of the Noarlunga Centre line), is expected to soon become one of Adelaide's five busiest stations?


 * ...that after the main station building of Manseibashi Station in Tokyo was closed and razed in 1943, the lot was used as the location for the Tokyo Railway Museum and the Transportation Museum until 2006, when the museum was re-focused towards railways and moved to Saitama, Saitama as the Railway Museum?


 * ...that the German steam locomotive manufacturing company Maffei, which was founded in 1836 by Joseph Anton von Maffei, completed construction of their 500th locomotive in 1864?


 * ...that the 23 m long M-series cars built in the early 1960s by Montreal Locomotive Works for Toronto Transit Commission were the first Canadian-built subway cars and, at the time of their construction, were the longest subway cars in the world?


 * ...that Line C of the Lyon Metro in France consists of a formerly independent rack railway including the Croix Paquet station which claims to be the steepest metro station in the world, with an incline of 17%?


 * ...that Ukrainian locomotive manufacturing company Luhanskteplovoz, founded in 1896 and in continuous operation since then, produced thousands of the well known 'M62' and DR Class 130 ("ludmillas") diesel-electric locomotives for eastern European soviet bloc countries?


 * ...that of all the locomotives on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, former British Rail Class 05 shunting locomotive D2554 Nuclear Fred has only worked demonstration freights and service trains, as it has not been fitted with air brakes?


 * ...that the tunnels for Beijing Subway's Line 15, which is due to open in December 2010, will be up to 38 m underground, making them the deepest in Beijing's subway system?
 * ...that in poor financial condition, the Lehigh Valley Transit Company, an interurban transit company in Pennsylvania, abruptly abandoned operations in September 1951 with no prior notice, an action that puzzled riders who were waiting to be picked up the next day?


 * ...that Landeck-Zams railway station between Innsbruck and Bludenz in Tyrol, Austria, serves as important station for the operations flow on the Arlberg railway as banking engines are often coupled (or decoupled) to heavy freight- or passenger trains, since the ramp section of Europe's most difficult mountain railway (max. 26 ‰ on the east- and 31 ‰ on the west-ramp) starts in Landeck?


 * ...that when construction of the Eastern Harbour Crossing and the MTR's Kwun Tong Line extension was completed, as part of his official visit with Diana, Princess of Wales, to Hong Kong, Charles, Prince of Wales, officiated the opening of Lam Tin Station in October 1989?


 * ...that of the seven Belgravia class 2-4-0 steam locomotives built for secondary passenger service on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in the late 19th century, two of the class were rebuilt from 2-2-2 locomotives?


 * ...that the Soviet LM-33 tram built between 1933 and 1939 by the Leningradskiy vagonoremontny plant in Leningrad was originally based on the Peter Witt streetcar design that was then in use across North America?


 * ...that in 1989 the bridge over the River Ness on the Kyle of Lochalsh Line in Scotland was washed away, leaving both it and the Far North Line stranded, but new "Sprinter" trains were brought over by road, and a temporary yard was built to service them at Muir of Ord?


 * ...that in 2008 Japanese newspapers and news programs reported on two cats found sleeping on the ticket gate machine in Kumura Station and subsequently the cats came to be known as the "Station Cats"?


 * ...that on January 1, 2005, the Korean National Railroad, commonly known as Korail, was split into the Korea Railroad Corporation (which retained the Korail name) to become the company that operates the trains and the Korea Rail Network Authority to become the company responsible for infrastructure maintenance?


 * ...that when Koleje Mazowieckie in Poland was founded in 2004, the company was created as a joint venture between the Masovian Voivodeship, with 51% shares, and the government-owned Przewozy Regionalne, with 49% shares, but by the end of 2007 Koleje Mazowieckie was completely owned by the Masovian Voivodeship?


 * ...that after serving as mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota, Norman Kittson collaborated with James J. Hill, Donald Alexander Smith and George Stephen to purchase the financially troubled St. Paul and Pacific Railroad in 1879 which they then reorganized as the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, the first rail link between Saint Boniface, Manitoba, and St. Paul and later becoming the oldest predecessor of Great Northern Railway?


 * ...that the Kita-Osaka Kyūkō Railway, often abbreviated as Kitakyū Railway, in Osaka, Japan, not only operates the Namboku Line, an extension of the Osaka Municipal Subway's Midōsuji Line, but also owns various commercial and residential properties along the line?


 * ...that much of the Isle of Man Railway's marketing stated Kirk Michael railway station's name as either ’Michael or simply Michael, the apostrophe one assumes acknowledging the potential "Kirk" prefix, but in later times the station was given its full title?


 * ...that English-born Claude W. Kinder studied railway engineering in St. Petersburg then worked for the Imperial Japanese Railways in the 1870s before building a steam locomotive, The Rocket of China, for the Kaiping Tramway, a line that evolved into China's first major railway line and administration known as Imperial Railways of North China?


 * ...that because trains on the Kiel-Flensburg Railway in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, reach a speed of 120 km/h with travel times over the 80 km railway around 75 minutes, the line is nicknamed schnellste Nebenbahn Deutschlands (fastest local railway in Germany)?


 * ...that Kenepuru and Muri stations in New Zealand are both now under consideration for closure by the Wellington Regional Council as it is claimed that both have low usage and that they would require considerable expenditure for upgrading for the new MEM class electric multiple units and for safety considerations?


 * ...that Kegi Station located near Jinshin Bridge in Hiroshima, Japan, was originally to be named after the bridge, but when it came time to name the station, the residents in the area wanted it named Kegi, after the area in which it was located?


 * ...that the 163 ft long electrically-powered bascule (lifting span) of Keadby Bridge in Lincolnshire, England, was one of the first of its type in Britain and when built, was the largest in Europe, but the bridge has not been lifted since 1956 and following capacity improvements in 1960 the bascule was fixed in position?


 * ...that although the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer Orientaux received a concession to build a railway from the Ottoman Empire to Vienna, Austria, via Edirne, the railway company built Karaağaç Railway Station in 1871 in order to avoid building a bridge across the Maritsa River?


 * ...that the Kalka Mail passenger train, which began operation in 1866 between Delhi and Calcutta and then, starting in 1891, from Kalka to Calcutta, India, was the principal mechanism for British civil servants to move from the capital, Calcutta, to the summer capital in Simla?


 * ...that because the six-track trunk line from Umeda Station in Japan diverges into the three double tracks of the Kobe Line, the Kyoto Line and the Takarazuka Line at Jūsō Station, a large number of the users of the station just transfer between trains here and do not exit the station?


 * ...that several of the structures that make up the current Jokioinen railway station on the Jokioinen Museum Railway in Finland were built at other locations and moved to the station site separately, including a former switchman's shanty from Mellilä, an old building of Kumila railway station on the Turku-Toijala railway, and an information shelter built at Minkiö?