Portal:Trains/Did you know/May 2015

May 2015

 * ...that Seibu Railway's Yamaguchi Line people mover, also known as the Leo Liner, was originally opened in 1950 as a gauge attraction ride called Fantasy Train (おとぎ列車)?


 * ...that after a collision between The Ghan, several cars and a bus in October 2002, locking pedestrian gates were installed at Salisbury railway station in Adelaide, South Australia, which became the first installation of this type of level crossing protection in the state?


 * ...that the R-Motor boxcab electric locomotives developed by ALCO and GE for New York Central Railroad in the 1920s and 1930s were some of the first North American locomotives to make use of the C-C wheel arrangement?


 * ...that when construction of the N Line in Denver, Colorado, is completed in 2018, the 18.5 mi line will include the Skyway Bridge, which at 9533 ft will be the longest bridge in Colorado?


 * ...that when it was built in 1886, the 140 ft clock tower of Everett Street Depot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the tallest such tower in the United States?


 * ...that the first Fairlie locomotive, named Little Wonder, was such a success that Robert Francis Fairlie, the locomotive's inventor, gave the Ffestiniog Railway Company in Wales a perpetual license to use the Fairlie patent without restriction in return for using the line and the success of its Fairlie locomotives in his publicity?


 * ...that in 2007 as the Mascouche line in Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada, was being built, the AMT and New Jersey Transit put out a joint call for tenders to purchase dual-powered locomotives, which led to the ALP-45DP being chosen to power the line, making the order the first international joint purchase of this kind in North America?


 * ...that the former Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners 0-6-0T locomotive No. 3 R.H. Smyth was hired in 2000 by Henry Boot Ltd to help engineering work on the relaying of the Bleach Green Junction - Antrim railway line, then again in 2005 for the relaying of the Carrickfergus - Whitehead railway line?


 * ...that the Leipzig tramway network operated by Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe is the second-largest such network in Germany (after Berlin), and as the result of overlay of lines, central segments are served as frequently as every 2–3 minutes?


 * ...that Kowloon Tong Station, on MTR's Kwun Tong Line and East Rail Line in New Kowloon, Hong Kong, was originally the only interchange station between these two lines and as an entry point to mainland China, it remains one of the busiest stations in the system?


 * ...that the Keihan Electric Railway's Keishin Line was built in 1912 to connect the city centers of Kyoto and Ōtsu, Japan, by electric streetcars, as the steam-powered Tōkaidō Main Line was an indirect route between the two cities until its realignment in 1921?


 * ...that the Japanese National Railways Class EF62 electric locomotives introduced in 1963 were the first adhesion locomotives used on the Shin'etsu Main Line following the abandonment of the under-powered ED42 rack-and-pinion locomotives dating from the 1930s?


 * ...that Highett railway station on the Frankston line in Victoria, Australia, was built in 1881 under the endorsement of Thomas Bent, who ordered the railway line be redirected through Highett, but also demanded a higher standard of departmental residences than elsewhere?


 * ...that starting in the 1960s, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, the predecessor of BC Rail, operated an intermodal service that transported truck trailers between North Vancouver and Prince George, British Columbia, and to places further north, and unlike most of the railway's other traffic, most of the intermodal traffic was northbound?


 * ...that in order to claim a bonus for construction reaching to Gooderham, Ontario, in 1886, the Irondale, Bancroft and Ottawa Railway leapfrogged to the destination by building off the existing endpoint and moving the construction train forward onto the new rails, then lifting the rails behind the train and placing them in front, allowing the train to move forward again?


 * ...that ÖBB, the national railway of Austria, was formed in 1923 as Bundesbahn Österreich, was incorporated into the Deutsche Reichsbahn during the 1938-1945 Anschluss, then reformed in 1947 using the slightly different Österreichische Bundesbahnen name?


 * ...that when the first high-speed rail line in France opened connecting Paris and Lyon in 1981, a network that has since grown to more than 2000 km of track, it was at that time the only high-speed rail line in Europe?


 * ...that Class 319 EMUs ran excursions trips into the Channel Tunnel from Sandling railway station on 7 May 1994 becoming the first public passenger trains to operate in the tunnel?


 * ...that Tokyu Corporation's Hatanodai Station in southeast Tokyo, Japan, is the only station on the Ōimachi Line with two tracks in each direction facilitating transfers between local and express trains?


 * ...that Schnabel cars are designed to distribute the weight of their heavy and oversized loads over a large number of bogies, with the largest car of this type in use in North America, CEBX 800, using 18 bogies?


 * ...that in June 2006, the Waverley Railway (Scotland) Act authorizing the reconstruction of the Waverley Line was passed by the Scottish Parliament by 114 votes to 1?


 * ...that although the Strathspey Railway in Scotland actually met the Highland Railway line at Tullochgorum, the two lines ran parallel for about three miles with the physical junction being to the south of Boat of Garten station?