Portal:Trains/Did you know/May 2005

May 2005

 * ...that in early Fairlie steam locomotive designs, both boilers shared a common firebox?


 * ...that Rochelle Railroad Park is a public park operated by the city of Rochelle, Illinois, where railfans can safely observe passing UP and BNSF trains on the two railroad's double-track mainlines?


 * ...that construction on Japan's first Shinkansen route, the Tokaido Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka, began in 1959?


 * ...that the Forth Bridge across Scotland's Firth of Forth is 2.5 km (1.5 miles) long and the rail tracks it carries are 46 m (approx. 150 ft) above the Firth's high tide?


 * ...that Alonzo C. Mather was awarded a medal by the American Humane Society in 1883 for the humane treatment of livestock carried in stock cars he designed?
 * ...that ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) operated steam locomotives until retiring the last one in 1978?
 * ...that all Tranz Metro passenger trains operated by Toll NZ (in New Zealand) connect to the capital, Wellington
 * ...that the Iowa Interstate Railroad is dispatched not by centralized traffic control, but by track warrants?
 * ...that most of the railroad lines operated by the Taiwan Railway Administration are fully electrified?
 * ...that the Channel Tunnel (sometimes called the "Chunnel") under the English Channel is the second longest railway tunnel in the world?
 * ...that the British Columbia Railway used Budd Rail Diesel Cars for passenger train service until October 31, 2002?


 * ...that plans begun in the mid-19th century for a Cape-Cairo railway across Africa are still under consideration?


 * ...that a fish car is a specialized type of stock car designed to carry live fish?


 * ...that LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard set the speed record for steam locomotives on July 3, 1938, at 126 mph (203 km/h)?


 * ...that a covered hopper, although very similar to a hopper car, is normally used to carry loads that are susceptible to the weather (like cement or kaolin clay) or that are less dense (like corn, wheat or barley)?
 * ...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 the load carried in a Schnabel car makes up part of the car structure itself?
 * ...that to advertise the Southern Belle passenger train service inauguration, the Kansas City Southern Railway held a beauty contest to find Miss Southern Belle?