Portal:Trains/Did you know/December 2016

December 2016

Illustration of "Old Ironsides", Baldwin's first commissioned locomotive built in 1832

• ...that the first commissioned steam locomotive built by Matthias W. Baldwin in 1832, nicknamed Old Ironsides, traveled at the rate of only 1 mile per hour (1.6 km/h) in initial trials, but was later refined and improved to reach speeds of 28 mph (45 km/h)?

The original platforms at Baker Street station in 2011

• ...that with ten platforms overall, Baker Street tube station, one of the original stations of the Metropolitan Railway (MR), the world's first underground railway, has the most London Underground platforms of any station on the network?

Two trains load passengers at Bad Nieuweschans station in 2006

• ...that Bad Nieuweschans railway station is the easternmost station in the Netherlands, connecting the Dutch railway network in the west with the German railway network in the east?

An Acela train at Back Bay station in 2012

• ...that although South Station is Boston's primary southside rail hub, Back Bay station maintains high traffic levels due to its location and access to important Northeast Corridor services making it the third-busiest MBTA Commuter Rail station and the fifth-busiest MBTA Subway station?

Trains at Aylesbury station in 1991

• ...that until the nationalisation of British railways in 1948, Aylesbury railway station was operated by a joint committee whose constituents were also joint committees: the GWR & GCR Joint and the Metropolitan and GCR Joint?

The Avenue H station headhouse in 2013

• ...that the headhouse through which the BMT Brighton Line Avenue H station is entered, is a landmarked wood frame structure built in 1905 as a real estate office of the T.B. Ackerson Company to sell homes in the then new community of Fiske Terrace?

An AVE Class 102 train showing the duckbill shaped power car

• ...that AVE Class 102 train built by Talgo for RENFE is nicknamed Pato, Spanish for duck, due to the aerodynamic design of the power cars resembling a beak?

A former Great Western Railway 'Aberdare' class 2-6-0 built in 1901 leads a goods train through Swindon Station in 1946

• ...that the earliest railway safety system labeled automatic train control was put into service in 1906 by Great Western Railway, but by modern standards it would have been classified as an automatic warning system?

Specifications flyer for the G 5/5 class locomotive

• ...that the Bavarian G 5/5 class 0-10-0 steam locomotives built by Maffei in 1911 were the first Bavarian goods train locomotives to be built with superheaters and four-cylinder compound engines?

A train on the Eritrean Railway, a former Italian colonial railway, between Arbaroba and Asmara in 2008

• ...that the colonial railways of the Kingdom of Italy in the African Italian colonies (Eritrea, Libya and Somalia) reached 1,561 kilometres (970 mi) before World War II?

An AEI tag affixed to a freight car in 2007

• ...that the AAR reported that over 95% of the North American rail car fleet was tagged for automatic equipment identification, and over 3,000 readers have been installed by North American railways as of the end of 2000?

Preserved rolling stock at Augsburg Railway Park in 2008

• ...that the railway shop buildings that would become Augsburg Railway Park were largely spared from bomb damage during World War II, even on the devastating night of bombing in February 1944 when Augsburg Hauptbahnhof and yard were badly damaged or destroyed?

First Great Western 43138 stands at Newquay railway station in Cornwall, United Kingdom with a summer Saturday service to London in 2009

• ...that the route of the Atlantic Coast Line in Cornwall, England, follows that of the former Cornwall Minerals Railway, which was built in the 1840s as a standard-gauge industrial tramway?

A train at Assembly on opening day in 2014

• ...that Assembly station, which opened in 2014 on MBTA's Orange Line, was the first new station on the MBTA subway system since 1987?

An Ashover Light Railway locomotive at Ashover circa 1948

• ...that the 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in (597 mm) gauge Ashover Light Railway in England was originally approved as a standard gauge railway between the Midland Railway station at Stretton and Ashover?

A WAG-5 locomotive like those at Asansol shed

• ...that Asansol on Indian Railways' East Central Railway zone Asansol–Gaya section is home to the oldest electric locomotive shed of Indian Railways?

A Picadilly Line train at Arsenal station in 2015

• ...that Arsenal tube station in Highbury, London, named in honor of Arsenal Football Club, is the only tube station named directly after a football club in the United Kingdom?

An ETR 401 train at Luino in 1988

• ...that Ansaldo and Fiat Ferroviaria collaborated in the mid-1970s to build the FS Class 401 EMU train which became the first train in the world featuring active body tilting to enter commercial service and was capable of speeds of up to 250 km/h (160 mph)?

A YHT train at Ankara Central Station in 2012

• ...that before 2009 when a high-speed train service was introduced, Ankara railway station was the busiest station in Turkey, seeing 181 trains daily?

AATC car number S68 in 1915

• ...that Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company operated the vast majority of the largest network of trams in Buenos Aires, one of the largest in the world at the time with its 875 km (544 mi) length, including Buenos Aires' first underground tram line?

Angels Flight in 2008

• ...that the Angels Flight funicular in Los Angeles has operated on two different sites, using the same cars and station elements?

1888 map of streetcar lines in Washington, D.C.; A&P is in yellow

• ...that although the Anacostia and Potomac River Railroad was the fourth streetcar company to operate in Washington, D.C., it was the first to cross the Anacostia River?

Locomotive 'Polar Bear' and train at Lhen Coan station in 1993

• ...that when the Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre Railway in West Sussex opened in the late 1970s, a small industrial railway was envisaged, operating typical narrow gauge industrial trains?

A pair of Citadis trams in Mulhouse in 2009

• ...that more than 1140 examples of Alstom's Citadis family of low-floor trams (streetcars) and light rail vehicles are in use in over 28 cities worldwide?

The tracks and platforms at Alperton station in 2009

• ...that Perivale Alperton station was opened in 1903 by the District Railway on its new extension to South Harrow which was part of the first section of the Underground's surface lines to be electrified and operate electric instead of steam trains?