Portal:Trains/Did you know/April 2007

April 2007

An inspection locomotive of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad

• ...that inspection locomotives, a special type of steam locomotive fitted with passenger car-like bodywork and seating, were designed to carry railroad officials on inspection tours of the railroad property?
• ...that the PKP classification system used in Poland allows information such as the type, wheel arrangement, power and other information to be coded into the locomotive's class designation?

Map of Botswana

• ...that the Botswana Railways has suffered a major drop in traffic since the opening of the Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway, which offers a more direct route for freight traffic between Zimbabwe and South Africa?
• ...that Pennsylvania Railroad locomotive number 5698, one of only two K5 class 4-6-2 locomotives built, was built by the railroad's Altoona shops in 1929 and featured a one-piece steel casting for the locomotive frame, cylinders and smokebox saddle?

• ...that the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, a forced merger of seven major railway companies and 24 associated subsidiaries under the Great Britain's Railways Act of 1921, claimed to be the world's largest joint stock organisation, the largest transport organisation, and even the largest commercial undertaking in Europe?

KCR East Rail at Kowloon Tong station

• ...that until a policy change on Hong Kong's KCR East Rail in 1994 setting train lengths at 12 cars, trains were made up of sets of two, three or four EMUs, which gave them a total length of either six, nine or 12 cars?

• ...that the original body design for NSB's El 15 class of electric locomotive in Norway called for operator cabs at only one end because the locomotives were intended to be operated in pairs?

3801 operating in 2006

• ...that since its release in 1974, the award-winning Australian short film A Steam Train Passes, featuring steam locomotive 3801, has become almost a source of stock footage for Australian films requiring footage of a steam-hauled train, with excerpts featuring in a number of other dramatic and documentary films?

Baker Street Station on the Metropolitan Line

• ...that the Metropolitan Line, today part of the London Underground, was the first underground railway (or subway) in the world, opening on January 10, 1863?

• ...that for more than half a century the 19,803 metre (12.3 mile) long Simplon Tunnel, which connects the railways of Switzerland with those of Italy, was considered to be the longest tunnel in the world?

Laigh Milton Viaduct

• ...that the Laigh Milton Viaduct is the oldest surviving railway viaduct in Scotland and one of the oldest in the world?

• ...that French President Jacques Chirac pledged in his 2006 New Year Address that by 2026 no SNCF or RATP train would be powered by fossil fuels?

• ...that in comparing the former Pennsylvania Station in New York City (a large Beaux Arts granite structure inspired by the Roman Baths of Caracalla and Berlin's Brandenburg Gate) with the current station facility that replaced it in 1964, architectural historian Vincent Scully wrote, "One entered the city like a god, one scuttles in now like a rat"?

Disused railway viaduct on the former Tralee and Dingle Light Railway

• ...that the 31.65 mile (51 km) long Tralee and Dingle Light Railway in County Kerry, Ireland, was the most westerly railway line in Europe?

Verensk Bridge on the Trans-Iranian Railway

• ...that the Trans-Iranian Railway faced numerous geological challenges during its construction, including collapsing tunnels, excavation through unblastable pumice, and a void within a mountain being tunnelled which required a bridge to be built within the tunnel?

• ...that French light railway pioneer Paul Decauville developed a system of ready-made portable sections of light, narrow gauge track fastened to steel sleepers which was used by both the French and British military to carry artillery and ammunition during military campaigns?

• ...that due to Finland's past history as a Grand Principality under Imperial Russia, the VR Group railway network is built to the Russian 5 ft (1,500 mm) gauge rather than the standard gauge of neighboring Norway or Sweden?
• ...that the Southern Railway's Class Q1 0-6-0 freight locomotives, designed in Great Britain during World War II, owe their stripped-back appearance to wartime austerity as well as a requirement for low weight to allow maximum route availability?

View of Huayna Picchu towering above the ruins of Machu Picchu

• ...that PeruRail is one of the highest railways of the world, and is the primary mode of transportation for tourists visiting Machu Picchu?

Hitachi train at Melbourne's Flinders St Station

• ...that greater-than-expected growth in suburban rail patronage and problems with the fleet of new Siemens trains in Melbourne, Australia, has led the Victorian Government to lease decommissioned Hitachi electric multiple unit carriages from a rail preservation group in order to cope with demand?

• ...that Amtrak, the United States' intercity passenger train system which employs 19,000 people to service a network of 22,000 miles (35,000 km), served a record 25 million passengers in 2006?
• ...that British Railways standard class 9F heavy freight locomotive No. 92220 was the last steam locomotive built for British Railways and was named Evening Star at a special ceremony in 1960?

Hell station, Norway

• ...that Hell Station in Norway (the town name being derived from the Old Norse word "hellir", meaning "cave") features a sign for "Gods Expedition" (meaning goods/cargo transport) that based on its entirely different English meaning has become a popular photographic subject for English-speaking visitors?

• ...that DUEWAG AG built virtually all vehicles for West Germany's tram and light rail network since the 1960s and remained a major manufacturer of railway vehicles until being bought and subsequently dissolved by Siemens in 1999?

Tsar Nicholas I of Russia

• ...that "The Tsar's finger", a deviation on the Moscow–Saint Petersburg Railway along an otherwise straight route, takes its name from an urban legend that claims it is the result of Russian railway engineers faithfully copying the route Tsar Nicholas I of Russia selected by ruling a straight line on a map and accidentally drawing around his finger?

• ...that portions of the Portland and Western Railroad system in the Portland, Oregon, metro area are currently being planned for conversion to commuter rail operations by area transit operator, TriMet?

Plaque on the site of the former Rosstown Railway

• ...that the Rosstown Railway in Australia, a private railway built to service a sugar beet mill that never went into production, reportedly only ever carried one train (other than construction and ballast trains) between its construction in 1888 and dismantling in 1916?

• ...that although Iraq shares borders with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey and Iran, the Iraqi Republic Railways' only international interchange is with Chemins de fer Syriens (Syrian Railways)?

Victoria Falls Bridge

• ...that the Victoria Falls Bridge, which carries the only rail link between Zambia and Zimbabwe and passes the famous Victoria Falls, is today used not only to carry rail traffic but also for bungee jumping?

An NTrak layout setup for operations at Trainfest (in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) in 2004

• ...that the first NTrak modules were displayed at the 1973 Model Railroad Industry Association show in Costa Mesa, California and were then displayed at the National Model Railroad Association's 1974 national convention in San Diego?
• ...that HO scale model trains were first introduced in the United Kingdom in the 1930s, originally as an alternative to 00 gauge?
• ...that the German company Trix began producing electrically powered model trains under the brand name "Trix Express" in 1935?
• ...that the goal of train shunting puzzles can be to shunt the cars making the minimum number of couplings and uncouplings, or making the minimum number of junction direction changes, or completing the puzzle within a specified time limit?