Portal:Trains/Did you know/September 2008

September 2008

 * ...that during World War II, many Japanese National Railways lines were dismantled to provide steel for the war effort?


 * ... that one of Poland's PKP class ET40 locomotives, designed for heavy freight haulage and built with a maximum design speed of 90 km/h, was modified for 160 km/h high speed passenger service?


 * ...that the streamlined bulldog nose was a distinctive feature of a number of GM EMD locomotive models built over a 31 year period, from the original EMD F-unit of 1939 until the EMD AT26C of 1970?


 * ...that the Railway Clearing House was an organisation set up to manage the allocation of revenue collected by numerous pre-grouping railway companies in the United Kingdom from fares charged for passengers and goods travelling over the lines of more than one company?


 * ...that Kristiania Sporveisselskab established the first tramway in Oslo, Norway, in 1875 using horsecars with the last horsecar remaining in service until 1939, long after the first electrified line opened in 1894?


 * ...that until India's Konkan Railway started its operations in 1998, the two important port cities Mangalore and Mumbai were not directly connected by the railway network?


 * ...that an A unit is a locomotive (generally a diesel or electric locomotive) equipped with a driving cab or crew compartment and the control system to control other locomotives in a multiple unit, making it able to be the lead unit in a consist of several locomotives controlled from a single position?


 * ...that over 48 years after Standard class 9F No. 92220 Evening Star entered service as the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust completed construction in 2008 of a brand new mainline steam locomotive, the LNER Peppercorn Class A1 No. 60613 Tornado?


 * ...that the DB Schienenbus fleet of railbuses, of which 1,492 were built between 1950 and 1971, have been decommissioned by operator Deutsche Bahn but many of the vehicles were sold to new owners as far afield as Luxembourg, Turkey and Cuba?


 * ...that the Granville rail disaster, which took the lives of 83 people in 1977 when a packed commuter train derailed and collided with a bridge at Granville, New South Wales, remains the most severe rail disaster in Australian history?


 * ...that articulated cars, rail vehicles composed of a number of smaller, lighter cars which are semi-permanently attached to each other and which share common trucks, save on the total number of wheels and trucks, reducing initial cost, weight, noise, vibration and maintenance expenses?


 * ...that Oahu Railway and Land Company coach #1, combination car #36 and caboose #1, all built circa 1900 at the OR&L shops, were donated to Travel Town Museum in Griffith Park, California, by the OR&L in 1953 soon after the museum was founded?


 * ...that during the 19th and early 20th century in the United Kingdom, the absolute block signalling system was used to facilitate the safe operation of a railway by preventing more than one train from occupying a defined section of route at the same time on double or multiple lines where use of each line is assigned a direction of travel?


 * ...that the Central Railway in India, covering a large part of the state of Maharashtra and parts of North-Eastern Karnataka and Southern Madhya Pradesh, includes the first passenger railway line in India, which opened from Bombay to Thane on April 16, 1853?


 * ...that Ghana Railway Corporation, parts of which began operation in 1898 under the Gold Coast Civil Service, was formed in 1976 when the railway operations were separated from the Ghana Railway & Ports Authority?


 * ... that because the disused B&OCT Bascule Bridge (built to service the now-demolished Chicago Grand Central Station) shares a common counterweight with the adjacent St. Charles Air Line Railroad bascule bridge, B&O successor CSX Transportation has been left owning a bridge it cannot abandon that is needed to continue operating a second bridge it does not own?


 * ...that the Donghae Bukbu Line, built in 1929 and not in service since the division of Korea, is one of two routes in North Korea that were proposed for cross-border rail traffic to South Korea?


 * ...that RFFSA, (Rede Ferroviária Federal S.A.) the former state-owned national railway company of Brazil, was created in 1957 through the merger of 18 separate railway companies and work to separate and privatize it again began in 1999?


 * ...that the FS Trenitalia Class E464 electric locomotives, introduced in the 1990s for commuter service, were the first Italian locomotives provided with an automatic Scharfenberg coupling system?


 * ...that Pennsylvania Railroad's Altoona Works in Altoona, Pennsylvania, manufactured a total of 6,783 steam, diesel and electric locomotives which included the railroad's famous GG1 locomotives as well as the majority of the K4s locomotives?


 * ...that the first two Victorian Railways E class electric locomotives of 1923 had a steeplecab-style appearance with some electrical equipment located in the cab with the crew, leading to their nickname "electric chairs"?


 * ...that the Ligne de Sceaux, a railway line in Paris, was originally built with very sharp curves and used as a testbed for a complex early vehicle articulation system that was rendered obsolete by the invention of the bogie?


 * ...that the Great Western Railway's 4200 Class 2-8-0T tank locomotives were nicknamed “Water Carts” due to their heavy water consumption and limited tank capacity?


 * ...that the Lansing, St. Johns and St. Louis Railway, an electric interurban railway which briefly operated independently in central Michigan during the early 20th century, was the site of a failed attempt to introduce alternating current to interurban operations?


 * ...that the Kintetsu Utsube Line ' s status as one of only four gauge lines in Japan makes it a popular attraction to Japanese railfans?


 * ...that Gare Saint-Lazare railway station in Paris has featured in works of art by some of France's most influential artists, including paintings by Édouard Manet, Claude Monet and Gustave Caillebotte, a famous photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson, and a play by Emile Zola?


 * ...that the 10841 km long gauge freight rail network of Belgrano Cargas in Argentina was built by the state-owned Ferrocarril Central Norte and the French-owned Ferrocarril Provincial de Santa Fe?


 * ...that the Quatama Station light rail stop in Hillsboro, Oregon, includes a piece of art based on an arrangement created by a Japanese Macaque at the Oregon National Primate Research Center?


 * ...that Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado, the national railway of Chile, spent US$1 billion in 2003-05 to increase capacity on commuter networks and improved long-distance services?