Portal:Trains/Did you know/June 2020

June 2020

 * ...that the combination of an operational 11.5-mile (18.5 km) segment and a disused 6-mile (10 km) segment of the former Wymondham to Wells Branch makes the Mid-Norfolk Railway one of the longest heritage railways in the United Kingdom?


 * ...that the Württemberg state assembly granted 3.8 million guilders in the early 1840s for construction of the Württemberg Central Railway, while the state's total annual budget for the financial years 1836–39 had amounted to 9.3 million guilders?


 * ...that the 107 m Müngsten Bridge, on the Wuppertal-Oberbarmen–Solingen railway, is the highest steel railway bridge in Germany?


 * ...that James Hood Wright, a board member for the The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, Southern Railway and the Long Island Rail Road, helped financially in developing the light bulb?


 * ...that until the early 1980s what is now platform 4 of Wrexham General was a separate station called Wrexham Exchange?


 * ...that the Wrawby Junction featured the largest manual signal box in the world to be worked by a lone signaller?


 * ...that when it opened in 1888, the 1 mile Woy Woy Tunnel was the longest railway tunnel in Australia?


 * ...that the two older Woodhead Tunnels, opened in 1845 and 1853, were proposed as key components of the main east–west route of the HighSpeed UK route?


 * ...that Woodhaven Junction is one of two stations on the abandoned Rockaway Beach Branch still standing?


 * ...that track was laid through the Woodgrange Park railway station site in 1854 as part of the first section of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway?


 * ...that Granville Woods, inventor of the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph, was the first American of African ancestry to be a mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War?


 * ...that Wonderland wasn't accessible until 1988?


 * ...that although the platforms at Wollaston station are elevated, the station lobby and faregates were actually situated several feet below street level?


 * ...that the Wolfenbüttel–Oschersleben railway, one of the oldest long-distance railways in Germany, carried all traffic from Berlin and Central Germany to Hanover and the Ruhr area until the Berlin–Lehrte railway opened in 1871?


 * ...that since the Ford petrol engines and transmissions used to power the Wismar railbuses had five forward gears and one reverse gear, two were installed on each railbus?


 * ...that after Penn Central closed Windsor Locks station in 1971, Penn Central and later Amtrak passengers continued to use the platform?


 * ...that the Winden–Karlsruhe railway's temporary bridge over the river Rhine installed in 1947 remained in service until it was damaged by a shipwreck in 1987?


 * ...that since the rebuilt Wilsonville railroad bridge, which opened in 1975, uses through trusses, it sits lower than the previous bridge that used girders located below the track level?


 * ...that Pennsylvania Railroad built the Wilmington Rail Viaduct, an approximately 4 mi series of fills and bridges through Wilmington, Delaware, to eliminate grade crossings in the city?


 * ...that awards bestowed upon Willoughby railway station in the 1960s prompted the local press to recite "we, who are about to die, salute you" shortly before the station was closed in 1970?


 * ...that Wigan North Western railway station is so named not because it is situated in the North West of Wigan, but because it was at one point operated by the London and North Western Railway?


 * ...that Wien Nordwestbahnhof, which last served passenger trains in 1959 and is now undergoing redevelopment into a new residential district, was the second-largest railway station of the formerly six Viennese terminus stations?


 * ...that after failing to secure capital or financing in Virginia, or from Europeans, Chesapeake and Ohio Railway president Williams Carter Wickham turned to New York City where he was successful in attracting an investment group headed by Collis P. Huntington?


 * ...that the improved signal box installed in the 1960s at Wickham railway station included equipment creating Australia's first television-equipped level crossing?


 * ...that in the 1930s in Australia's main wheatbelt region, any of the Wheatbelt railway lines of Western Australia was within 30 mi of the harvest location?


 * ...that in the early 20th century, the Westinghouse Interworks Railway which was used to transfer materials and workmen between the Westinghouse Electric Corporation facilities east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was also occasionally used as a demonstration railroad for Westinghouse products?


 * ...that at its peak in 1937 with 6600 km of track, Western Australian Government Railways had only one tunnel, the Swan View Tunnel?