Portal:Trains/Did you know/February 2016

February 2016

Wemyss Private Railway saddle tank locomotive No 16 at Methil, Fife, Scotland, in 1970

• ...that the Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway, part of the Wemyss Private Railway network in Scotland and later sold to North British Railway, was built at the expense of the Wemyss Estate and carried passengers?

The former Atlantic Avenue Elevated line at Rowes Wharf station in 1942

• ...that from 1901 to 1987, what now serves as Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Orange Line provided the first elevated rapid transit services in Boston?

A Vélez-Málaga tram in 2007

• ...that the Vélez-Málaga Tram service in Spain became the first modern low-floor tramway system to be discontinued when services ended in 2012?

The Viaduct of Moresnet circa 1918

• ...that the Viaduct of Moresnet carrying SNCB line 24 across the Geul valley in Belgium, was built during World War I to allow rapid troop and military equipment transportation between Aachen and Antwerp?

Aerial view of Dealey Plaza showing the triple underpass beneath the tracks of the Union Terminal Company

• ...that employees of the Union Terminal Company, the operator of Dallas Union Station, witnessed the assassination of John F. Kennedy as they viewed the event from atop the triple underpass of the company's tracks?

Aerial view of the Ufa rail bridge in 1915

• ...that in the 1880s, Prof. Nikolai Beleloubski's design for the Ufa Rail Bridge, the transverse floor-beams to connected to the bottom chords by hinges which reduced secondary stresses in trusses, a feature which later became known as the "Russian support method"?

Map of the Tuvan Railway line

• ...that the new Tuvan Railway under construction in Tuva, Russia, includes a section of right-of-way through Park Ergaki, so construction crews are following the experience of engineers who built railways through protected areas in Canada?

Tucumán station in the 1890s

• ...that Tucumán station, built by Córdoba Central Railway in the early 1890s and now used as a freight terminal by TACL, was the first railway station built in Tucumán Province, Argentina?

View out of the Tua line's Túnel das Presas in 2008

• ...that part of the former 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge Tua line, the first and longest narrow-gauge railway north of the River Douro in Portugal, will be submerged under water when the Foz Tua Dam project on the Tua River is completed?

A Trenes Argentinos Cargas y Logística train pulled by a EMD G22 locomotive in August 2015

• ...that Trenes Argentinos Cargas y Logística is often erroneously called Belgrano Cargas by the Argentine government and press, despite the freight network encompassing numerous other Argentine railways, of which the General Belgrano Railway is only one?

A TFS-2 tramcar at Grenoble in 2012

• ...that Alstom's Tramway Français Standard trams built in the 1980s and 90s for various tramway systems in France are not designed to work as multiple units, and that when two are coupled together for emergency purposes, one tram's power and braking systems will not be available?

A Tatra tram in Minsk in 2006

• ...that the Minsk tram network in modern-day Belarus used horse trams for longer than many other cities, continuing their use until an electrification project was finally implemented in the 1920s?