Portal:Trains/Did you know/September 2016

September 2016

 * ...that unlike a pony truck, leading or trailing wheels using a Cartazzi axle do not pivot, but instead have sideways play built in to accommodate tight curves?


 * ...that CNR president Henry Thornton planned to use the subsidiary Canadian National Electric Railways to link the unfinished Toronto Eastern Railway to the Toronto Suburban Railway's Guelph line via the Toronto Belt Line Railway through northern Toronto?


 * ...that a third track at Berne station on Hamburg U-Bahn's U1 line now used for brake tests and other U-Bahn test driving starting from nearby Farmsen railway workshop was originally built for goods service by Altrahlstedt-Wohldorfer Kleinbahn?


 * ...that at the suggestion of engineer Mukhamedzhan Tynyshpaev, construction of Almaty-2 railway station in Almaty, Kazakhstan, was moved to Starokladbischenskuyu where it displaced a cemetery?


 * ...that the stoppage of freight in Baltimore due to the railroad strike of 1877 threatened the city's inbound food supply and caused losses to local farmers who could not transport their goods out of the city?


 * ...that the Angren–Pap railway line in Uzbekistan traverses the Qamchiq Tunnel, the longest tunnel in Central Asia, allowing Uzbekistan to abandon the Soviet-era line across Tajikistan's Sughd Region, saving Uzbekistan a reported $25 million in transit fees?


 * ...that the Sistema Supporto Condotta used by Italian railway operator Ferrovie dello Stato can show a complete replication of any kind of light signal, block maximum speed rating and special conditions straight into the driver's desk?


 * ...that plans for reuse of Santa Fe railway station in Santa Fe Province, Argentina, after the cessation of passenger train service in 2008 included remodeling the building interior as a shopping mall?


 * ...that with a descent of over 1,000 ft in about 20 mi, Sand Patch Grade is one of the steepest railroad grades on the United States' East Coast?
 * ...that San José vieja station, one of the original stations of Buenos Aires Underground's Line E, was converted to be a rolling stock maintenance area named San José Workshop in 1999?


 * ...that Vienna S-Bahn's S45 service is the only S-Bahn route to operate entirely within the city limits and is also the most frequently operated S-Bahn service with intervals of 10 minutes during weekdays?


 * ...that a set of former Reading Company Blueliner electric multiple unit cars formed the final train to leave Philadelphia's Reading Terminal in 1984?


 * ...that MÁV's Class 601 2-6-6-0 Mallet locomotives were the largest and most powerful steam locomotives which have ever built before (and during) the First World War in Europe?


 * ...that the Reading Company's Ninth Street Branch terminating at Reading Terminal in Philadelphia remained at street level and its grade crossings saw numerous accidents earning the line the derisive sobriquet "Death Alley" from its opening in 1893 until it was elevated in 1911?


 * ...that there is disagreement over whether Toronto Transit Commission's Russell Carhouse was named after T.A. Russell, founder of Russell Motor Car Company, or Joseph Russell, a member of Ontario's Provincial Parliament whose brick manufacturing yard was near the carhouse, and supplied brick for the carhouse?


 * ...that the heritage-listed Angellala Rail Bridge on the Roma-Cunnamulla railway line in Queensland, Australia, features the longest timber trestle approach on a rail bridge in Queensland?