Portal:Trains/Did you know/May 2011

May 2011

 * ...that Ichibata Electric Railway Co., Ltd. is the official English language name of two different Japanese railway companies - Ichibata Denki Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha (一畑電気鉄道株式会社) which is now a holding company and Ichibata Densha Kabushiki-gaisha  (一畑電車株式会社) which was formerly the railway operating division of the present holding company?


 * ...that the HŽ series 1061 electric locomotives used in Croatia, locomotives donated by the Italian government and built by Ansaldo and Breda in the 1960s based on FS Class E636 designs, are the only Croatian locomotives that operate on the 3 kV DC electrification system of the Šapjane-Rijeka-Moravice line?


 * ...that the main station building of Horsmonden railway station which opened in 1892 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, and closed in 1961, now serves as the "Old Station Garage" and the station master's house is now a private residence?


 * ...that Hollandsche Rading railway station straddles the border of two provinces of the Netherlands such that platform 1 for southbound trains lies in the province of Utrecht, while platform 2 for northbound trains is located in North Holland?


 * ...that the former West Shore Railroad's Highland Falls Railroad Depot north of New York City, a building that is now used as a private residence and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is one of only two remaining passenger stations along the west side of the Hudson River?


 * ...that with only one platform at Hesaka Station in Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, trains bound for Shiwaguchi and Miyoshi are handled on the upper end of the platform, and trains bound for Hiroshima are handled on the lower end?


 * ...that the main Hassop railway station building in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England, which closed to passengers in 1942 has been preserved and renovated and now houses a family-friendly cafe named Hassop Station?


 * ...that the 1848 Prussian Minister of Finance David Hansemann was an outspoken promoter of railways in the Rhine Province, as a shareholder for the Rhenish Railway Company where he served as vice president and as a founder of the Cologne-Minden Railway Company and the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company?


 * ...that Hang Tuah station in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, one of the first 13 STAR rapid transit (now known as the Ampang Line) stations to open in the city, now includes a station for the Kuala Lumpur Monorail, making Hang Tuah an interchange station between the two systems?


 * ...that the Hachikō Line connecting Hachiōji Station in Hachiōji, Tokyo and Kuragano Station in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, Japan, is divided at Komagawa Station with the southern section electrified at 1,500 V DC and the northern section non-electrified, and with this split there are no through services connecting the southern and northern halves of the line?


 * ...that after serving as Secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin Pierce, James Guthrie served as vice president of Louisville and Nashville Railroad, ensuring that the railroad connected its namesake cities in 1859, then succeeded John L. Helm as president of the railroad in 1860?


 * ...that at every stop of the Great White Train in Australia, an effort in the 1920s by Sydney-based industrialists to convince Australians to 'Buy Australian Made', the radio station 2XT was set up and broadcast to the local community but was heard as far away as New Zealand with a clear signal?


 * ...that the ground-level vestibule of Gorkovskaya, a station on the Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro that opened in 1963, was designed to withstand a direct impact during carpet bombing?


 * ...that two Ulster White Limestone piers and the embankment approaching one of the piers survive from a bridge built for the Glenariff Iron Ore and Harbour Company in 1873, the first gauge railway in Ireland?


 * ...that the site of the present RER Gare du Champ de Mars in Paris has accommodated a total of five stations, being built in 1867, 1878, two in 1900 (one passenger and one goods) and the present station in 1988?


 * ...that as president of the South Carolina Railroad in the 1840s, James Gadsden promoted the idea of a transcontinental railroad across North America from Georgia to San Diego, California, but the plan was deemed infeasible partly because much of the boundary between the United States and Mexico had been left unreasonably vague by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?


 * ...that all lines of the Fukuoka City Subway, which began operations in 1981 in Japan, are automatically operated by an ATO system, although drivers are used as a precaution?


 * ...that Berlin tram operator Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) ordered four different prototypes of the Flexity Berlin trams from Bombardier Transportation for testing as part of the process to replace 452 high-floor ČKD Tatra KT4 trams?


 * ...that over its four divisions, the Far Eastern Railway, a branch of the Russian Railways, connects 365 stations including the two international border crossings of Grodekovo (China) and Khasan (North Korea)?


 * ...that after service was suspended on the Expo Express in 1972, the first fully-automated rapid transit system in North America, the trains were stored on Île Notre-Dame in Montreal in the hope that they could be eventually reused, but they were then scrapped in the mid-1990s?


 * ...that engineers' line references, three or four-character codes used in the British rail network to refer to a section of a track or route, are unique across the whole rail network, allowing identification of any part of the network?


 * ...that EDSA railway station in Makati City on the South Main Line ("Southrail") of the Philippine National Railways includes platforms at two levels to accommodate both older long-distance trains and newer diesel multiple unit trains?


 * ...that the E233 series electric multiple unit trains developed by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) are the first trains introduced on JR East that use full-colour LEDs for the destination indicators on the sides of the carriages, a feature that was necessary to show colour-coding on Chūō Main Line services?


 * ...that when East Perth railway station in Western Australia opened in 1969, a station that now serves as the western terminus of the Indian Pacific service from Sydney, the station took the name of the previous East Perth station, which was renamed Claisebrook?


 * ...that Drumcondra railway station in Dublin, Ireland, originally opened in 1901 then closed in 1910 with the termination of Kingsbridge (now Heuston Station) to Amiens Street (now Connolly Station) services and was eventually reopened in 1998 as a station on the Maynooth/Longford commuter line?


 * ...that the preservation group known as Deltic 9000 Fund, originally founded to ensure that at least one example of the Class 55 diesel locomotives was preserved following their withdrawal from service in 1981 then later known as Deltic 9000 Locomotives Ltd, was instrumental in the preservation and restoration of both D9000/55022 Royal Scots Grey and D9016/55016 Gordon Highlander?


 * ...that because Daimon Station on the Toei Subway in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, was initially planned to be called "Hamamatsucho", the station is called "Daimon Hamamatsucho" in certain automated announcements?


 * ...that CRT Group, an intermodal transport company in Australia that was founded as Colin Rees Transport (CRT), a taxi truck company in suburban Sydney in the 1950s, introduced the first CargoSprinter to Australia in February 2002?


 * ...that Grupo COMSA, a Spanish railway construction and infrastructure company that was originally founded in 1891 with subsidiaries in Poland, Portugal, Argentina, Australia and Chile, also includes COMSA Rail Transport, the first private company in Spain to acquire a license for the country's de-monopolised rail system?


 * ...that the City Line in Liverpool, England, can trace its origins back to the dawn of the railway era as it incorporates most of the route of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which opened in 1830, including Broad Green Station, the oldest operating station in the world?


 * ...that the Chiba Urban Monorail in Japan, a system which first began operations in 1988, holds the world record for the longest suspended monorail system at 15.2 km in total track length?