Portal:Trains/Did you know/December 2007

...that the Victorian Railways F class of diesel-electric locomotives were the first diesel locomotives used by Victorian Railways in Australia beginning in 1951?

Alphabet Route map

...that he Alphabet Route, a coalition of railroads connecting the Midwest United States with the Northeast, as a freight alternate to the four major systems, consisted of services by no less than eight different railroad companies connecting St. Louis, Missouri and Boston, Massachusetts?

...that since the station's closure in 1952, the facade of Southport Lord Street railway station in Southport, Merseyside, England, still exists in front of a Morrisons supermarket?

...that the Roslagsbanan in Stockholm County, Sweden, is one of the oldest electrified railway lines for public transportation in northern Europe, the oldest part having been inaugurated in 1876 as the Uppsala-Lenna railroad?

...that Sir Edward Wentworth Beatty was the first Canadian-born president of Canadian Pacific Railway, a position he held from 1918 (succeeding Thomas Shaughnessy) until his death in 1943?

...that in 1999 Indian Railway Minister Nitish Kumar announced that the Nilgiri Mountain Railway would soon be electrified, but in July 2005, UNESCO added the railway as an extension to the World Heritage Site of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, forcing abandonment of the modernization plans?

...that test runs of the 750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in) gauge TU2 diesel locomotive in the Soviet Union showed the locomotive could attain a top speed of 76 km/h (47 mph), but the class was restricted to 50 km/h (31 mph) in service due to the condition of the tracks over which they were used?

A Litra ET-FT-ET trainset on the Kystbanen

...that in the planning for the Kystbanen railway line in Denmark in the late 19th century, the Ministry of War wanted the line built as long as it wasn't built so close to the coast that it could be bombarded by a foreign naval fleet in Øresund, and as long as the railway could be removed quickly, while the Forestry Department didn't have any objections against the railway as long as not even a single tree was cut down?

...that the 184-foot (56 m) high, 2,682-foot (817 m) long Soo Line High Bridge built in 1909 over the St. Croix River replaced an earlier bridge from 1884 that necessitated steep grades on either side of the river?

...that the Jokioinen Railway, the last narrow gauge railway in Finland, became the basis of the Jokioinen Museum Railway when the museum company purchased the line between Minkiö and Jokioinen in 1978?

...That the proposed Buenos Aires-Rosario-Córdoba high-speed railway, announced by President Néstor Kirchner during a press conference at the Casa Rosada on 26 April 2006, will be the first high-speed rail line in Argentina and the Americas operating at up to 320 km/h (199 mph)?

...that ONCF in Morocco is working on a project with Systra and Alstom to build a new high-speed rail line connecting Tangier to Marrakech that will use equipment similar to the TGV Duplex that is currently used in France?

...that the Sri Lanka Government Railway was first established in 1864 by British engineers to carry tea and coffee from the island's hill country to Colombo?

...that Mumbai Suburban Railway's Western Line in India carries about 2.6 million passengers per day, almost 43 percent of the total Mumbai suburban rail traffic, resulting in what is known as super-dense crush load of 14 to 16 standing passengers per square metre of floor space?

The northern facade of Rostock Hauptbahnhof

...that Rostock Hauptbahnhof in Germany was first opened in 1886 by Deutsch-Nordischer Lloyd, operating a combined railway/ferry line to Nykøbing, Denmark, but had services to Hamburg and Copenhagen severely reduced after World War II and the division of Germany with services focusing on cities within the German Democratic Republic instead?

...that in 1916 the Pennsylvania Railroad began using the advertising slogan Standard Railroad of the World, which was meant to indicate that it was perceived as the standard to which all other railroads aspired?

...that a 7100 class locomotive built by H. K. Porter, Inc, pulled a nine-car train carrying Emperor Meiji on a demonstration run over the recently opened Kaitakushi-gō on 30 August 1881, in Japan?

...that in the United Kingdom, a Merry-go-round train, often abbreviated as MGR, is a unit train of hopper wagons which both loads and unloads its cargo while moving?

...that the first steam locomotive built in Germany, an 0-4-2 assembled in 1838 and named Saxonia for the Leipzig-Dresden Eisenbahn, was based on the design of the English-built locomotive Comet, the first locomotive to operate on that line?
...that the RailDriver desktop cab controller for train simulation software includes the basic throttle, direction, and brakes as separate control handles that mimic generic operation of real locomotive controls?
...that New Zealand Railways's E class of 1906 earned the nickname "Pearson's Dream" because the class consisted of a single 2-6-6-0T steam locomotive designed by Chief Draughtsman G. A. Pearson for use on the Rimutaka Incline?

...that London Underground's Preston Road station, on the Metropolitan Line between Northwick Park and Wembley Park, was first opened in 1908 to serve the local clay pigeon shooting site for that year's Olympic Games?

...that only with the opening of the 9.5-kilometre (6 mi) long westlichen Einführung der Riedbahn (WER), the western approach of the Riedbahn in Germany, to Mannheim Hauptbahnhof did it become worthwhile for express trains using the Riedbahn from Frankfurt to stop at Mannheim?

...that RER's Line C in Paris, France, was created in 1979 by connecting the Gare d'Orsay railway terminus (now Musée d'Orsay) with the Invalides terminus of the Rive Gauche line to Versailles, along the banks of the Seine?

Kew station in 1906

...that the site of Kew station on the former Kew railway line in Melbourne, Australia, is now occupied by the headquarters building of VicRoads, and sections of the former right-of-way are now used as a carpark and private road by VicRoads, as a linear parkland and bike path and as a carpark for Glenferrie Oval?

...that after the last regular passenger service in 1948 to Quainton Road railway station in Buckinghamshire, England, passenger service may again be restored to the station?
...that the Super C, a fast intermodal freight train operated by the Santa Fe from 1968 to 1976, sometimes made its trip from Chicago to Los Angeles hauling as few as two cars?

...that since the Rollbahn connecting Wanne-Eickel to Hamburg via Münster and Bremen is the shortest railway connection between the Ruhr valley and Hamburg, it is one of the most important railway lines in Germany?