Portal:Trains/Did you know/October 2007

October 2007

 * ...that until the Grafton Bridge across the Clarence River opened in 1932, services on the North Coast railway line in New South Wales, Australia, were connected by a rail ferry that carried the carriages across the river?
 * ...that contrary to the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Germany after World War II, Deutsche Bundesbahn in West Germany was not subject to reparations and benefited from the influx of capital through the Marshall Plan, which led to the development of the Trans-Europ Express and the InterCity services?


 * ...that when the current San Bernardino station in California was built by Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1918, it was the largest station in the United States west of the Mississippi River at the time?
 * ...that since British Rail Research developed it as part of a test track for the Advanced Passenger Train, Melton Mowbray railway station in Leicestershire, England, is electrified with overhead lines and has its own control centre?


 * ...that the Nigerian government is making efforts to convert the entire Nigerian Railway Corporation system from gauge to  standard gauge?


 * ...that the New South Wales Public Transport Commission, which was created in 1972 by the merger of the New South Wales Government Railways and the New South Wales Department of Government Transport, instituted the blue and white livery on government buses, and a short-lived blue and white livery on suburban trains serving Sydney, Australia?


 * ...that Pennsylvania Railroad president Alexander Cassatt, who initiated the railroad's program of electrification which led to the road being the United States' most electrified system, was the brother of impressionist painter Mary Cassatt?


 * ...that although referred to by National Rail as Llanfairpwll or Llanfair P. G., the full name of Llanfairpwll railway station in Wales is Llanfairpwllgwyngyll-gogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysilio-gogogoch, the longest station name in the United Kingdom?


 * ...that the leading pair of driving wheels of the South African Railways NG15 class 2-8-0 steam locomotives have a limited amount of side play and are linked to the leading pony truck to help the locomotives negotiate tighter curves?


 * ...that the Fort Macquarie Tram Depot, which was built in the design of a fortress with castellated ramparts on the former site of Fort Macquarie in Sydney, Australia, was demolished in 1955 to make room for the Sydney Opera House?


 * ...that until the opening of the Köln–Frankfurt high-speed rail line, the Linke Rheinstrecke, running 185 km from Cologne via Bonn, Koblenz and Bingen to Mainz, was one of the busiest in Germany?
 * ...that Leyland railway station in Lancashire, England, is the approximate halfway point on the West Coast Main Line between Glasgow and London, some 198 mi in either direction?


 * ...that the Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC) in India offers a service called RORO, an acronym for roll-on/roll-off, where loaded trucks are carried aboard KRC trains allowing the truck drivers to avoid hazardous driving conditions and to reduce road congestion?


 * ...that in 1967 a subway station was built at Shalom Meir Tower in Tel Aviv, Israel, as part of the planned Tel Aviv Subway but financial difficulties forced the abandonment of the project, and Shalom Meir remains the only subway station in Tel Aviv, disconnected from other transport links?


 * ...that New Zealand's North Island Main Trunk Railway includes a 411 km section electrified at 25 kV 50 Hz AC and a shorter section from Wellington to Paraparaumu electrified at 1,500 V DC while the rest of the line is still diesel-hauled?


 * ...that although the Mallet locomotive's articulated design was intended to allow a medium-size locomotive to better negotiate the tight curves of a narrow gauge railway, it was also used in the United States to permit enormous locomotives such as the 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" to be built to sizes impossible with a single, rigid frame?


 * ...that the term Railbanking refers to preserving railway rights-of-way for possible future use, such as conversion to multi-use trails or rail trails?


 * ...that French-born engineer Claudius Crozet oversaw the construction of the Blue Ridge Tunnel, the longest of four tunnels near Afton Mountain in Central Virginia, in 1856 with a tunnel bore accurate to within six inches (152 mm) of perfect alignment along its 4273 ft length?


 * ...that the term Ghost station (the English translation for the German word Geisterbahnhöfe) was used to describe certain stations on Berlin's U-Bahn and S-Bahn metro networks that were closed during the period of Berlin's division during the Cold War?


 * ...that Qingzang railway's Tanggula railway station located at 5068 m above sea level in the People's Republic of China, is the highest railway station in the world?


 * ...that the Taunton sleeping car fire, which killed 12 passengers on a Penzance to London Paddington service in 1978, occurred just as British Rail Mark 3 rolling stock was at the design stage; consequently these new carriages were equipped with state-of-the-art fire prevention measures including sophisticated warning systems, fire retardant materials, multilingual warning placards and revised emergency procedures?


 * ...that the newly introduced Super Kamui service operated by JR Hokkaidō on the Hakodate Main Line in Japan, connecting the two main cities in Hokkaidō of Sapporo and Asahikawa, replaced two limited express trains, the Lilac and the Super White Arrow?


 * ...that the Northeast Operating Rules Advisory Committee developed a unified rulebook for railway operations in the northeast United States that is now used by 12 full member railroads and 44 associate member railroads throughout the region?


 * ...that the Last Spike ceremony on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in Canada began with a race between the track-layers and crews from the eastern and western ends of construction where the last mile of track had been left unfinished and each crew was timed to see who could complete their last half mile the fastest?


 * ...that preserved British Rail Class 84 locomotive No. 84001 is the sole-surviving post-steam, main line example of a North British Locomotives product?


 * ...that Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) in Varanasi, India, manufactures locomotives which are variants based on the original ALCO designs dating to the 1960s and GM EMD designs of the 1990s, such as the EMD GT46MAC?


 * ...that the South Improvement Company, a short-lived venture between competing US railroads involving preferential treatment for companies controlled by John D. Rockefeller through the payment of secret rebates, was widely seen as part of Rockefeller's early efforts to organize and control the oil and natural gas industries in the United States which eventually became the Standard Oil monopoly?


 * ...that Bo-Bo-Bo locomotives (which feature three independent two-axle bogies with all axles powered) are favoured for their increased traction and reduced axle load, but require either an articulated frame or significant side play on the centre bogie?