The prototype Tracked Hovercraft, RTV 31, preserved at Railworld.
...that the prototype Tracked Hovercrafthigh-speed train was expected to reach 300 miles per hour (480 km/h) on its test track north of London, but had only broken 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) on a short portion before the program was cancelled in 1973?
A Vert-A-Pac car being loaded with new automobiles
...that the Chevrolet Vega had cast steel mounting points in its frame and redesigned underhood components to allow it to be shipped in purpose-built "Vert-A-Pac" railcars, which could hold 30 automobiles in a nose-down vertical position, compared to 18 in a normal three-level autorack?
Statue of Lal Bahadur Shastri
...that Lal Bahadur Shastri, later the Prime Minister of India, tendered his resignation as Minister of Railways in 1956 after a railway accident at Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu that resulted in 144 deaths, accepting moral and constitutional responsibility in an unprecedented gesture that was cited as setting an example in constitutional propriety and which was greatly appreciated by Indian citizens?
...that Sadanori Shimoyama, appointed first President of Japanese National Railways on 1 June 1949, disappeared and was later found dead the day after releasing a list of 30,000 employees to be fired as part of cutbacks in keeping with the Dodge Line policy of financial and monetary contraction?
Preserved Peacekeeper transportation and launch vehicle
...that the Spanish state-run railway company Renfe's AVE Class 103 high speed trains are supplied by Siemens who, after winning a tender to supply trains for the Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line by offering a modified version of the ICE 3 train used by Deutsche Bahn, had to spend €21 million to re-develop ICE 3 components that German manufacturers refused to supply or license to Siemens for the AVE?
Locomotive 231 G 558 in Bayeux, Calvados in October 1993
...that SNCF (French National Railways) 231 G class4-6-2 locomotive 231 G 558, the only remaining member of a class that once numbered 283, was saved from scrap by the Sotteville depot manager who succeeded in getting the locomotive transferred to his depot, and the depot staff who convinced SNCF to sell the locomotive to them for preservation?
Concept drawing of the Mobile Minuteman train car in operation
ex-LMS Coronation Class in British Railways operation, 1955
...that although the 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials conducted by the newly formed British Railways were intended to identify the best qualities of the different locomotive designs of the former "Big Four" constituent companies (GWR, LMS, LNER, SR), the testing had little scientific rigour, and political influence led to the adoption of LMS practices over the other companies' practices?
Sr1 electric locomotive (no. 3107) at Helsinki central railway station, Finland
...that among the nicknames for the Soviet-built Class Sr1electric locomotives of VR (Finnish railways) are "Kaalihäkki" (Cabbage Cage) and "Sähköryssä" (Electric Russkie), and also "Siperian susi" (Wolf of Siberia, although in Finnish slang "susi" can also mean a poorly manufactured object)?
SNCF passenger trains at Gare de Lyon in Paris in 1987
...that the attempt in 1995 by incoming Prime Minister of France Alain Juppé to restructure national rail company SNCF and also remove the right of its workers to retire at age 55 led to a series of general strikes through November and December that year, with strike action spreading across the public sector around the country?
Glasgow tram, Argyle Street, June 1962, three months before the end of trams in Glasgow.
...that the now-closed Glasgow Corporation Tramways, formerly one of the largest urban tramway systems in Europe, had a highly unusual track gauge of 4 ft 7+3⁄4 in (1,416 mm), to permit 56.5 standard-gauge railway wagons to be operated over parts of the tram system using their wheel flanges running in the slots of the tram tracks?
Former NSWGR 73 class locomotive, now operated by private operator CRT Group
