Portal:Trains/Did you know/September 2005

September 2005

 * ...that although Garratt steam locomotives were used in Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, a few European countries, and the British Isles, Garratts were not used in North America, the latter favoring Mallet type articulated locomotives?


 * ...that the high speed Korea Train Express, which opened in March 2004, reduced travel time between Seoul and Busan from 260 minutes to 160 minutes, and a further improvement to 116 minutes is expected in 2010, when the route shifts to run fully on high-speed tracks?


 * ...that the Erie Railroad's L-1 class of steam locomotives, an 0-8-8-0 type, was the only type of articulated camelback locomotives ever built?


 * ...that in the 1960 and 1970, Ferrocarriles Argentinos, the national rail carrier of Argentina, operated on more than 45,000 km (28,000 miles) of track, making it the largest system in Latin America?
 * ...that Adelaide Railway Station, in Adelaide, South Australia, has nine platforms, all with broad gauge track?


 * ...that the Platform 9¾ sign at Kings Cross railway station occasionally causes congestion as tourists and Harry Potter fans stop to photograph it (and each other "pushing" the luggage trolley through the wall)?


 * ...that Eli H. Janney spent many of his lunches whittling his idea in a block of wood for a replacement to the railroads' link and pin couplers that were in wide use until the 1880?


 * ...that in a Fell mountain railway system, trains are propelled and braked by wheels pressed horizontally on to a raised centre rail by springs, as well as by the standard vertical running wheels?
 * ...that the EMD SD39 shares the same common frame design with the EMD SD38, EMD SD40 and EMD SD45?


 * ...that since the Mallard ' s record setting run in 1938, England's East Coast Main Line has become one of the fastest railway lines in the UK, with most of the line rated at 125 mph (200 km/h)?


 * ...that like the Transrapid and other magnetic levitation trains, Berlin's M-Bahn used a long stator linear motor for propulsion, but it did not, however, use magnetic levitation, it ran on wheels instead?


 * ...that the former New York and Erie Railroad's Dunkirk, New York, shops facilities served as the basis for Brooks Locomotive Works, which later became American Locomotive Company's ALCO-Brooks plant?


 * ...that on many rapid transit systems, station turnstiles are often designed to operate only after a payment has been made, usually by inserting a coin or token or by swiping an electronic card?


 * ...that the freight tunnels of the Chicago Tunnel Company under the streets of Chicago, Illinois, were originally built to carry telephone cables?


 * ...that a rail car mover is a vehicle capable of travelling on both roads and rail tracks, and is fitted with couplers for moving small numbers of railroad cars around in a rail siding or small yard?


 * ...that because head end power generated for electrical supply in passenger cars must be delivered at a relatively constant frequency, the prime mover in an EMD F40PH must turn at a constant high speed (as much as 900 rpm)?


 * ...that in the twelve minute long film The Great Train Robbery produced in 1903, scenes with the gun pointing at the audience and the train rushing towards the audience had audiences at the time screaming in fear, then laughing in relief.


 * ...that the Jervis wheel arrangement of steam locomotives is named in honor of John B. Jervis who first developed the type in the 1830 while working for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company?


 * ...that New Zealand's Kingston Flyer operates over a 14 km (8.7 miles) route that is a remnant of a route connecting to the Main South Railway at Gore, on which the original Kingston Flyer operated from 1878 until the mid 1950?


 * ...that Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit, the current name given to a metro system manufactured by Bombardier Transportation, was originally named ICTS (an acronym for Intermediate Capacity Transit System), and is sometimes referred to generically as advanced light rapid transit?


 * ...that to ensure that railroad cars are accurately weighed for billing, scale test cars are used to calibrate a railroad's track scales?
 * ...that Bombardier's JetTrain uses the same LRC-derived tilting carriages as Amtrak's Acela Express, but instead of being powered by overhead electric wires, it uses a small gas turbine?


 * ...that a buffer stop or bumper (US) is a device to prevent railway vehicles from going past the end of a section of track?


 * ...that recently available LEGO train models include versions of BNSF Railway diesel locomotives and Santa Fe Railroad's Super Chief?


 * ...that the Pullman Company didn't negotiate a labor contract with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, organized in 1925 by A. Philip Randolph, until 1937?


 * ...that with a track gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm), the Newfoundland Railway was at one time the longest narrow gauge railway in North America?


 * ...that the 2-4-4 wheel arrangement (Whyte notation) for steam locomotives was one of the more common configurations for Mason Bogie locomotives?


 * ...that Berner Oberland Bahn, in Switzerland, uses racks for steeper grades along its line and friction adhesion methods elsewhere?


 * ...that at the time the bridge was built in 1838, the two brick arches of the Maidenhead Railway Bridge across the River Thames in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, were the widest and flattest in the world?