Portal:Trains/Did you know/Main page, 2009

The following facts related to rail transport have appeared in the Did you know section of Wikipedia's Main Page in 2009.


 * ... that in 1979 two Montana legislators sued the United States Department of Transportation in an unsuccessful attempt to save the North Coast Hiawatha Amtrak train?


 * ... that Coboconk, Ontario (station pictured), was renamed Shedden after the president of the Toronto and Nipissing Railway in 1873, but was changed back to Coboconk seven years later?
 * ... that in Cambodia a person can catch the norry, an improvised bamboo train?
 * ... that due to receding glaciers, in 1951, the Alaska Railroad was able to move its route and abandon a curved tunnel built in 1906?
 * ... that the Lake Shore Limited, which began in 1897, was the New York Central Railroad's first regular luxury passenger train?
 * ... that a Glasgow-born railway engineer, John Harley, was responsible for revolutionizing the way Uruguay played football?
 * ... that a new Chard Junction signal box was built in 1982 despite the station and junction being closed in the 1960s?
 * ... that in 1909, the Thamshavn Line became the first electrified railway in Norway?
 * ... that a new railway station was built in six days in Workington to enable residents north of the river to access the town centre following floods which split the town in two?
 * ... that "the wrong kind of snow" delayed British Rail services during the winter of 1990–1991?
 * ... that Tore Lindholt became involved in politics and worked in the Norwegian State Railways after leaving an academic career he declared himself too "restless" to pursue?
 * ... that Jetrail was the world's first fully automated monorail transit system?
 * ... that railcars transiting the Eurasian Land Bridge from China to western Europe must change bogies twice?
 * ... that the Gothic style railroad station originally built 1868 at the Newlin Mill Complex served as a railway station, post office, polling station, and finally a park office?
 * ... that the first railway in Estonia, connecting the cities Paldiski, Tallinn and Narva with Gatchina, Russia, opened in 1870?
 * ... that the Røa Line has been extended eight times, more than any other line of the Oslo Metro?


 * ... that a T1000 Oslo Metro train (example pictured) ran more than 2.9 million km (1.8 M mi) before becoming a heritage train?
 * ... that the London Underground's Baker Street and Waterloo Railway was built so Londoners could get to cricket matches?
 * ... that Harold Gourley was injured by the 1951 Weedon rail crash and received £47,720 in damages?
 * ... that ViaFast was an abandoned passenger rail plan that would have cut Via Rail's trip times throughout the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor?
 * ... that the New Haven, which operated most of the steam railroad mileage in the U.S. state of Connecticut, also controlled a vast system of trolley lines through the Connecticut Company?
 * ... that a Polish railway worker, Wojciech Najsarek, was one of the first victims of World War II?
 * ... that the Meadowlands Rail Line can transport 10,000 fans per hour to and from events at Giants Stadium and other venues in the Meadowlands Sports Complex?
 * ... that two steam trains were involved in a head-on collision on the Lößnitzgrundbahn heritage railway in Saxony, Germany, on 12 September 2009?
 * ... that before becoming an ICC commissioner, James D. Yeomans helped manage two railroads and ran a stock farm?
 * ... that the Great Western Railway built three different stations to serve the town of Wootton Bassett in just 63 years?
 * ... that the Wilsonville railroad bridge in Oregon does not need to be painted?


 * ... that Hereford Road Skew Bridge (pictured) has been described as one of the most "skew" railway bridges in England?
 * ... that Trondheim Airport Station opened as the Nordic Countries's first airport rail link in 1994?
 * ... that the Suceava North railway station in Suceava was selected as a location for the film Gruber's Journey because the filmmakers believed the architecture was reminiscent of World War II?


 * ... that Palms Depot (pictured) was known as the "Grasshopper Stop" because "grasshoppers were present in veritable clouds" when it opened? (NOTE: this is disputed, see the article's talk page for more information)
 * ... that the passenger capacity of a public transit system is affected by headway?
 * ... that the one off Winton Train commemorates Sir Nicholas Winton, the "English Oskar Schindler"?
 * ... that the Simpson Railroad is one of the last operational logging railroads in the continental United States?
 * ... that the Oslo Metro station serving the district of Grini in Bærum was closed in 1995 because many passengers chose to walk to another station from whence the fare was cheaper?
 * ... that the offices at Stogumber railway station are on the east side of the line, but the platform is on the west?
 * ... that the LRC tilting train provided core service with VIA Rail in Canada for several decades, and that Bombardier Transportation used its coach design on the Acela Express and British Rail Class 221?
 * ... that Ball Park station was used as a backdrop by Jon Huntsman Jr. to support a proposition that included 33 unidentified transit projects?
 * ... that less than two months after the Puget Sound Shore Railroad opened, service was suspended for over a year?
 * ... that The Chapters entertained two hundred people on a train as part of the twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations of the DART?
 * ... that construction of the Natron Cutoff was delayed for 11 years while the U.S. Department of Justice decided whether to allow the Southern Pacific Company to remain in control of its owner, the Central Pacific Railway?


 * ... that the first (pictured) of four bridges on the current Taipei Bridge location was designed for rail traffic, but the railway was removed after only ten years?
 * ... that the Urban Transportation Development Corporation was formed to build a version of the Transrapid maglev train, but instead designed a completely new system known today as the Bombardier ART?
 * ... that the original plans for the Laurence Harbor New Jersey Transit station included a large commercial and residential development?
 * ... that the station for the town of Chasseneuil-du-Poitou is served by up to 40 TGV trains every day?


 * ... that special Great Western Railway wagons were designed to carry goods as diverse as fish, kaolin, sheets of glass and gunpowder (wagon pictured)?


 * ... that Bridge L-158 (pictured) in Goldens Bridge, New York, the only extant double-intersection Whipple truss railroad bridge in the state, was moved there from Kingston 20 years after it was built?
 * ... that the Gurgaon Metro will be India's first privately owned and operated metro?
 * ... that Judy and Alfred were two 90 in tall steam locomotives specially designed to fit under a bridge at Par that was only 96 in high?
 * ... that the Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railway was the last railroad in America to use steam locomotives exclusively in common carrier freight service?
 * ... that passengers mourned the closure of the Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Line so much that they poured a bucket of water over a double dressed as Richard Beeching, associated with closure of British railway lines in the 1960s?
 * ... that the 1982 Washington Metro train derailment resulting in three fatalities was the deadliest accident involving the Washington Metro until the 2009 collision resulting in nine?
 * ... that the Homicide: Life on the Street episode "Subway" was inspired by an episode of the HBO documentary series Taxicab Confessions where a detective talked about a man who became pinned between a subway train and the platform?
 * ... that Isambard Kingdom Brunel used light rails and heavy timber baulks for the Great Western Railway's baulk road track because existing technology could not produce strong rails?
 * ... that Shakespeare Cliff Halt, a private railway station on a cliff ledge near Dover, England, has been used by miners, the British Army, and railway employees, but never by the public?
 * ... that the railroad station in Dilley, Oregon, was built 23 years after the railroad reached the community?
 * ... that the last train to run on the Port Whitby and Port Perry Railway was a special passenger service to Toronto to visit the Royal Tour of 1939?


 * ... that the locomotive used in the 2006 film Outlaw Trail: The Treasure of Butch Cassidy (pictured) was once owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, whose trains Butch Cassidy had robbed in the 1890s?
 * ... that in 1901, after the death of John Flint Kidder, president of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad, his widow took over, becoming the first female railroad president?
 * ... that the Dollis Brook Viaduct is the highest point on both the Northern Line and the London Underground above ground level, reaching 60 ft in height?
 * ... that the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad lost its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court over a $25 penalty it had been ordered to pay to a farmer?


 * ... that Tsar Alexander III is said to have held the collapsed roof of the royal car on his shoulders while his family escaped the Borki train crash site (pictured) uninjured?
 * ... that the only surviving structure from the Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad is a train station that is now the town hall of Coudersport, Pennsylvania?
 * ... that a possible extension of the Røa Line metro to Øverland was considered in the interwar period, but did not materialize?
 * ... that Nathaniel Henry Hutton was a civil engineer on routes for the Pacific Railroad Surveys and a wagon road used by the Butterfield Overland Mail in the years before the American Civil War?
 * ... that before becoming director general of the Norwegian State Railways in 1924, Eivind Heiberg was the director of the manufacturing company Skabo Jernbanevognfabrikk?
 * ... that architect Georg Andreas Bull designed about sixty railway stations, including the Krøderen Station from 1872?
 * ... that Donald Richberg helped co-author the Railway Labor Act, Norris-LaGuardia Act, National Industrial Recovery Act, and Taft–Hartley Act?
 * ... that Mexican writer Juan José Arreola's short story The Switchman can be interpreted as a satire of the Mexican train system?
 * ... that the Otłoczyn railway accident on August 19, 1980, was the biggest railway crash in the post-World War Two history of Poland?
 * ... that walkers were encouraged to use the Buntingford Branch Line on Sundays by being offered cheap tickets?
 * ... that the Milan–Venice railway line crosses the Venetian Lagoon on a 222-arch bridge built on 80,000 piles of larch wood?
 * ... that following the upgrade of two Oslo T-bane lines, all aging T1000 trains of the system can be replaced by MX3000s?
 * ... that at the 2008 centennial of the Empresa de Ferrocarriles Ecuatorianos, only 10% of the original railway system was open?
 * ... that the stations Mortensrud on the Østensjø Line, Forskningsparken on the Sognsvann Line, Nydalen, Storo and Sinsen on the Ring Line and Husebybakken have opened after the Oslo T-bane was declared completed with the reopening of Stortinget in 1987?
 * ... that of the 55 mi of railways on the Isle of Wight inherited by British Railways in 1948, only 14 mi are in use today?
 * ... that London's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway was built at the start of the 20th century, from parts of three other railways' routes?
 * ... that the history of the Oslo Tramway started with the construction of a horsecar line to Homansbyen in 1875?
 * ... that in 1892, future I.C.C. commissioner Henry C. Hall was journeying to California for his health, but stopped off in Colorado and liked it so much he settled there?
 * ... that the U.S. Senate confirmed Winthrop M. Daniels as an I.C.C. commissioner by 36–27 after some opposing Democrats voted in favor so as not to offend President Woodrow Wilson by rejecting his friend?


 * ... that the 14"/50 caliber railway guns (pictured), used in France during World War I, were created when the U.S. Navy mounted five spare battleship guns on specially-made railway cars?


 * ... that after London Road viaduct (pictured) in Brighton, England, was bombed in 1943, trains were using it again within 24 hours even though the road below was visible through gaps in the damaged brickwork?
 * ... that it was said of Interstate Commerce Commissioner Judson C. Clements that no opinion ever written by him had been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court?
 * ... that until U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt named him to the Interstate Commerce Commission, Edgar E. Clark had served for 16 years as Grand Chief Conductor of the Order of Railway Conductors?
 * ... that during World War II, the Tunnel Railway in Ramsgate, England, became part of an air-raid shelter capable of housing more than 60,000 people?
 * ... that despite being an object of ridicule in popular culture, over 8 million British Rail sandwiches were sold in 1993?
 * ... that in the 1898 case Smyth v. Ames, the United States Supreme Court unanimously declared a Nebraska railroad tariff law unconstitutional?
 * ... that the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway linking Plymouth and Princetown was almost twice as long as the distance between the two cities?
 * ... that after ceasing operations in New Jersey, the West Jersey Railroad operated in Michigan for several months before being renamed West Michigan Railroad?
 * ... that Timetoget bought diesel trains to operate on the Bratsberg Line, despite it being electrified?


 * ... that the Kentucky Railway Museum (pictured), next door to an historic hotel, features the official state locomotive of Kentucky, a "Jim Crow" car, a four-star hotel on rails, and the only gas-powered motor rail car in the southeastern United States?
 * ... that during the Frankfort and Cincinnati Railroad's last week of passenger service, the superintendent transported the train's passengers in his own private vehicle?
 * ... that coaches of the Great Western Railway were built up to 13 ft longer than most other British railway carriages of the time?
 * ... that hikers can take a commuter train from Grand Central Terminal in New York City to two request stops near trailheads in Hudson Highlands State Park?


 * ... that American football player "Aqua" Allmendinger (pictured), once described as "a young giant in perfect physical condition," acquired his nickname after working as a waterboy for railroad building crews?
 * ... that more than 900 different Great Western Railway telegraphic codes were in use to make the GWR's telegraph messages more efficient?
 * ... that the decking for the pier at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in Cambodia was so heavy that a railway had to be constructed to move it?
 * ... that after the New York Central Railroad ended service to it, the Milton Railroad Station in Milton, New York, was used by a local winery for tastings?
 * ... that in 2008, Unionsexpressen started a luxury intercity train service between Oslo and Stockholm, in competition with the state-owned SJ?
 * ... that NSB Gjøvikbanen won the first, and so far only, rail transport public service obligation tender in Norway in 2005?
 * ... that Norwegian railway company Ofotbanen went bankrupt due to the minority owner Autolink starting the competitor Cargolink?
 * ... that the Old L & N Station in Bardstown, Kentucky, was the state's only dry stone railroad station?
 * ... that the Kay Moor coal mine near Fayetteville, West Virginia, was first worked with mule-drawn railcars?
 * ... that the Hawthorn Farm rail station in Hillsboro, Oregon, has a piece of art that indicates the wind's direction by using lights and sounds?


 * ... that the color scheme for Israel Railways' new Siemens Viaggio Light trains (pictured) was chosen by the general public in a poll?
 * ... that development of the Namsos Line was halted both in 1908, when final plans for the Nordland Line used another route via Snåsa, and in 1927, when the Norwegian Minister of Labour stopped construction?
 * ... that the private railroad car Georgia 300 has been used by United States Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, as well as presidential candidate John Kerry?
 * ... that the Meråker Line railway of Norway branches off from the Nordland Line at Hell?


 * ... that when an upgraded part of the Østfold Line (pictured) opened in 1996, it was the first railway in Norway built for speeds of 200 km/h (120 mph)?
 * ... that the NSB Class 66 was the first Norwegian train capable of 120 km/h (75 mph)?


 * ... that one year after delivery, six of eleven NSB Class 93 trains (example pictured) were out of service due to technical problems?
 * ... that the T2000 stock of the Oslo T-bane, Norway, is equipped with both a pantograph and a third rail shoe so they can operate both east and west of the city center?


 * ... that from 1904 to 1927, passengers travelling by rail from Stavanger to Oslo, Norway, needed to change to steam ship at Flekkefjord Station (pictured)?
 * ... that two perpetrators of the 1977 Moscow bombings were caught after attempting to bomb the city's Kursky Rail Terminal later that year?
 * ... that in 1914, railway official Lucius Seymour Storrs became president of the Connecticut Company?
 * ... that Karim el-Mejjati was implicated in the bombing of targets in Casablanca, the American barracks in Riyadh, the 2004 Madrid train bombings and the 2005 London bombings?
 * ... that the former Youngstown and Southern Railway, Ohio's last interurban, was out of service for five years after being illegally sold to a scrap dealer?


 * ... that the pillars of the cancelled Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System project (pictured) have been described as "a Bangkok version of Stonehenge"?
 * ... that when Brackley railway station was visited by the Royal Train in 1950, the King and Queen had to step on a box when leaving the train because its door was far above the platform?