Portal:Trains/Did you know/Main page, 2005

The following facts related to rail transport have appeared in the Did you know section of Wikipedia's Main page in 2005.


 * ...that the Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia attempted unsuccessfully to build a railroad from Djibouti to Addis Ababa in the 1890s?
 * ...that the 1966 New York City transit strike at the start of the mayoralty of John V. Lindsay was led by the defiant Irish-born TWU founder Mike Quill, who was briefly jailed for leading the illegal strike, and died before the month was out?
 * ...that Khabarovsk Railway Bridge, the longest in Eurasia, was originally named Alekseyevsky after Tsesarevich Alexis?


 * ...that Sir Collingwood Schreiber played a key role in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and now has a township named after him?
 * ...that Samuel Spencer, first president of the Southern Railway was killed in a train wreck in Virginia in 1906?


 * ...that the Overseas Railroad, completed in 1912 for 128 miles (206 kilometers) beyond the end of the Florida peninsula to Key West, was heavily damaged in the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and not rebuilt?
 * ...that the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania was a failed plan by the Central Railroad of New Jersey to avoid certain taxes from 1946 to 1952?
 * ...that E. Sreedharan, the managing director of Delhi Metro, earned the sobriquet of Metro Man for ensuring that the first phase of the metro project was executed without any cost or time overruns?
 * ...that with a dynamometer car in tow, the Northern Pacific Railroad was able to drive Timken 1111 on a demonstration run as fast as a sustained 142 km/h while pulling the North Coast Limited passenger train?


 * ...that David Laird negotiated the Qu'Appelle Lakes Treaty with resident natives of Saskatchewan in 1874 to procure land for the Canadian Pacific Railway?
 * ...that the Tremont Street Subway in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest subway tunnel in North America?


 * ...that the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway opened in 1904 as a leg of George J. Gould's planned transcontinental railroad, but went bankrupt in four years and later became part of the Alphabet Route?
 * ...that when the eight-mile Texas and Northern Railway began operations in 1948, it was designated a Class I railroad, in the same class as giants like the Pennsylvania Railroad?
 * ...that despite its federal mandate to provide only intercity rail service, Amtrak operated the Calumet commuter train between Chicago, Illinois, and the Indiana suburb of Valparaiso from 1979 to 1991?
 * ...that the original Norfolk Southern Railway was a small regional railroad in Virginia and North Carolina for 98 years before it became the namesake of the current Norfolk Southern Railway in 1982?
 * ...that the Buckingham Branch Railroad in Central Virginia was formed in 1989 and has expanded from a 16-mile railroad to operate over 200 miles of track?
 * ...that the Narita Shinkansen from Tokyo to Narita Airport, which took nine years to build 9 km of track bed, is the only bullet train line ever officially cancelled?
 * ...that the Mauritania Railway transports iron ore on trains up to three kilometers long?


 * ...that businessman Ginery Twichell started in stage lines before transitioning to railroads and three terms in the U.S. Congress?
 * ...that the Dakar-Niger Railway was the site of a 1947 strike celebrated by author Ousmane Sembène as a turning point in West Africa's anti-colonial struggle?
 * ...that the Carte Orange is a pass for the public transportation system in Paris and the surrounding region?
 * ...that the Indian Railways Fan Club is the Internet's largest website devoted to the Indian Railways and rail transport in the Indian subcontinent?


 * ...that William Dudley Chipley first brought rail lines to Pensacola, Florida, connecting the Atlantic coast of Florida with other Gulf Coast states for the first time?
 * ...that the Olympic Javelin is a high-speed rail service announced as part of the public transport regeneration of London in readiness for the 2012 Summer Olympics?
 * ...that Cyrus K. Holliday was a founder of the city of Topeka, Kansas, as well as the first president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad?


 * ...that Barstow, California, and Strong City, Kansas, are both named in honor of William Barstow Strong, former president of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway?
 * ...that the Iowa Interstate Railroad is being considered for high speed passenger train service between Wyanet, Illinois, and Iowa City?
 * ...that Showmen's Rest in Forest Park, Illinois is a 750 plot section of Woodlawn Cemetery where members of a circus troupe were interred following the Hammond circus train wreck in 1918?
 * ...that Julia Tuttle was the citrus plantation owner that owned the land upon which Miami, Florida, was built, and that she gave half her land to Henry Flagler to entice him to build a station for the Florida East Coast Railroad there?


 * ...that the town of Baird, Texas, is named after the second owner of Baldwin Locomotive Works, Matthew Baird?
 * ...that Eli H. Janney whittled the prototypes for his railroad coupler design out of wood in 1873?
 * ...that on March 4, 1839, William F. Harnden became the first person to send an express freight shipment by rail?


 * ...that although Gridley Bryant invented many of the basic railroad technologies in the early 1820s, including tracks and wheels, he never patented them?
 * ...that the BMT Sea Beach Line has at times hosted the fastest express train service between Manhattan and Coney Island, but now carries only local trains of the New York City Subway, and doesn't even reach Coney Island due to reconstruction?


 * ...that King George V of the United Kingdom was a member of the Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters "George"?
 * ...that Alvin Adams founded Adams and Company, forerunner to Adams Express Company, to haul express freight shipments by rail in 1840?
 * ...that Alonzo C. Mather was awarded a medal in 1883 by the American Humane Society for the humane treatment of the livestock transported in railroad stock cars he designed?
 * ... that Mather Tower, the headquarters building for Mather Stock Car Company built in 1928 in Chicago, Illinois, has the smallest floor size of any of Chicago's skyscrapers?


 * ...that the High Bridge that still stands over the Harlem River in New York City was designed by John B. Jervis as part of the Croton Aqueduct project in the 1840s?


 * ...that while mine owner Franklin B. Gowen was the president of the Reading Railroad, he was also the special prosecutor in the trial to break up the clandestine Molly Maguires society?
 * ...that during the "dawn-to-dusk" publicity run for the CB&Q's Pioneer Zephyr on May 26, 1934, the train reached a top speed of 112.5 mph (181 kph)?
 * ...that when he was promoted to president of the Great Northern Railway in 1919, Ralph Budd was the youngest American railroad president up to that date?


 * ...that the Western Railway Corridor, built in the late 1800s, links Limerick to Sligo through the West of Ireland?
 * ...that the Fairy Queen is the longest-operating steam locomotive in the world?
 * ...that the NTSB recommended installing event recorders on grade crossing signals after the 1999 Bourbonnais train accident?
 * ...that before building his first railroad steam locomotive, in 1832, Matthias W. Baldwin was apprenticed as a jeweler and devised and patented a method for applying gold plating?
 * ...that the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad's plan to expand into Wyoming's Powder River Basin would be the largest new railroad construction in the United States since the American Civil War?