Portal:Trains/Did you know/June 2018

June 2018

 * ...that the Metro Green Line connecting the downtown districts of both Minneapolis and Saint Paul is one of only six mass-transit rail lines in the United States that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week?


 * ...that designer Henry Dreyfuss cut the total cost by 75% for his design of the Mercury passenger train after seeing unused passenger cars in one of New York Central Railroad's yards?


 * ...that the gauge Melba Line on the West Coast of Tasmania was originally constructed as the Emu Bay Railway and was one of the longest-lasting private railway companies in Australia?


 * ...that Dampflokwerk Meiningen in Germany is the only facility in Europe capable of constructing new steam locomotive boilers up to modern standards of construction, performance, and safety?


 * ...that the first regularly scheduled subway service in the United States was a precursor to the MBTA Subway with a run through the Tremont Street Subway in Boston in September 1897?


 * ...that in 2017 as part of a Go Green initiative, one of the coaches of the Mayiladuthurai–Coimbatore Jan Shatabdi Express was fitted with solar photovoltaic panels?


 * ...that pioneering steam locomotive builder Matthias W. Baldwin patented a method of maintaining and swapping out interchangeable fire grates with active fires on them?


 * ...that the steam locomotives built by Mason Machine Works in the 19th century were known by railroad engineers and operators to be the easiest engines to repair?


 * ...that the first regularly scheduled train on the Marrawah Tramway in Tasmania, which was founded as a timber hauling line, carried nine tons of cheese and two tons of wool, skins and hides?


 * ...that the train that runs on the Marlow branch line in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, England, is known as The Marlow Donkey although the exact derivation of the term is unclear?


 * ...that Mansfield, Massachusetts, and Kingston, Rhode Island, are the only two stations on the Northeast Corridor where the Acela reaches its top speed of 150 mph on platform tracks?


 * ...that Long Island Rail Road's now freight-only Bay Ridge Branch contains a portion of the former Manhattan Beach Branch that provided passenger service to Coney Island?


 * ...that at its formation in 1901, Manchester Corporation Tramways was faced with electrifying more than 140 mi of track?


 * ...that in 2008 the Maitree Express reestablished a connection that had been closed for 43 years between the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka with Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal?


 * ...that as chief engineer of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad in 1853, William Mahone built log-foundations under the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia that are still intact today?


 * ...that the Parliamentary proposal in 1900 that led to the construction of Mære Station in Trøndelag, Norway, originally suggested two separate nearby stations?


 * ...that the 300 km/h services on the Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line have reduced travel times between Madrid and Barcelona from over six hours to just two hours and 30 minutes?


 * ...that the M1 and M3 EMU cars built by Budd for use on commuter lines radiating out from New York City were the catalyst of change for their respective systems as the high-level boarding required all stations in the electrified zone to be rebuilt from 1966-1968?


 * ...that the modified Southern Pacific Daylight livery applied to the four M-K TE70-4S led to their nickname as "Popsicles"?


 * ...that on the slopes of the Fichtelgebirge (Hills) between Neuenmarkt and Wirsberg, the original route of the Ludwig South-North Railway incorporates a stretch with an average gradient of 23‰?


 * ...that Lübeck Hauptbahnhof, which opened in 1908 replacing an earlier station built in 1851, is the busiest of all the railway stations in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany?