Portal:Trains/Did you know/July 2012

July 2012

...that railway abandonments in the United States are controlled under Title 49, Chapter 10, Part 1152, of the Code of Federal Regulations, and are administered by the Surface Transportation Board, which prescribes various timeframes to be allotted in order for other interested parties to proffer their requests regarding the abandonment, including conversion to rail trails, sale to private parties, or subsequent operation by other railroad entities?

A postcard of the Listowel and Ballybunion Railway circa 1900

...that some early monorail systems, such as the Listowel and Ballybunion Railway, used steam locomotives with an 0-3-0 wheel arrangement (in Whyte notation), meaning the locomotives had zero leading wheels, three driving wheels, and zero trailing wheels?

...that although it is regarded as a station of the Seibu Tamako Line, most trains serving Yasaka Station in Higashimurayama, Tokyo, Japan, operate as Seibu Shinku Line services, running as a shuttle service between Seibu-Yūenchi and Kodaira stations?

...that before serving as president of several railroad companies including the Indianapolis and La Fayette Railroad and the Wabash and Western Railroad in the mid-19th century, Albert Smith White also served as chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs in the United States Senate?

...that the main platform at Waterford railway station in Ireland is quite long and due to a crossover it can be operated as two platforms if necessary with the eastern end being platform 3 and the western end being platform 4?

...that some early wagonways, commonly cited as the predecessors to the steam locomotive-hauled railways of the early- to mid-19th century, were built with "L" shaped iron rails or plates where the flanges were on the track rather than the wheels?

...that VR Group's Class Sr2 electric locomotives, which are closely based on the class Re 460 (or Lok 2000) locomotives of Swiss Federal Railways, have been nicknamed Alppiruusu (Edelweiss), Käkikello (cuckoo clock), both referring to the Swiss origin of the locomotive, as well as Marsu (guinea pig), due to their exterior design?

Franz von Papen, mastermind of the Vanceboro bridge bombing, at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in 1946

...that in 1915, while the United States was still a neutral country in World War I, the Vanceboro international bridge bombing was carried out by German spies on a railway bridge between St. Croix, New Brunswick, and Vanceboro, Maine, as a means to prevent Japanese troops from traveling through Canada to join the war in Europe?

...that when the Upper Darling Range Railway, connecting Midland Junction and Karragullen, Western Australia, via the Kalamunda Zig Zag, was completed in 1891, it was the only section of railway in Western Australia to have had a zig zag formation?

...that in 1927, Ueno Station (上野駅, Ueno-eki), a major railway station in Tokyo's Taitō ward in Japan, became the terminus of the Tokyo Underground Railway (now Tokyo Metro) when Japan's first subway line opened from here to Asakusa Station?

...that the Tyers Electric Train Tablet system, a form of railway signalling for single line railways, which uses a hard disk called a tablet as a form of token, first devised in Great Britain by engineer Edward Tyer after the Thorpe rail accident of 1874, was used in New Zealand until 1994?

...that Turku Central railway station, in the VII District of Turku, Finland, was opened in 1876, together with the newly built railway between Turku and Tampere, in a celebration attended by the future Tsar Alexander III of Russia?

...that trolley parks, picnic and recreation areas along or at the ends of streetcar lines in most of the larger cities in the United States, were often created by the streetcar companies in the 19th century to give people a reason to use their services on weekends?

A Frankfurter Straßenbahn tram circa 1900

...that trams in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, are the oldest light rail systems in the city, and a major part of the public transport network in Frankfurt, the first routes having started operations in 1872?

...that in contrast to push-pull operations, in top and tail operations trains have a locomotive at each end to simplify direction reversals, but only the locomotive pulling at the front in whichever direction the train is operating is used to propel the train?

The Upper Maumee Bridge shortly after the track was removed in 2006

...that in 1982 after a train derailed on the Upper Maumee Bridge and damaged it, a bridge which was originally built in 1902, the Toledo Terminal Railroad which operated the line in Ohio elected not to fix the bridge but instead abandon it stirring up much controversy?

...that the Garabit Viaduct in southern France was used as a location to represent the titular condemned bridge in the 1976 film The Cassandra Crossing and the studio artwork for the film shows a typical U.S. diesel locomotive along with a pantograph for overhead electric wires even though the railway scenes of the film are set in Europe?

...that travelers on the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route in Japan must make six transfers between Tateyama and Ōgisawa, including travel on two different funicular railways, on the 37-kilometre-long (23 mi) route?

...that the Taipei Metro Tamsui Line opened in 1997 reusing the right-of-way that was originally occupied by the conventional rail Tamsui TRA Line of the Taiwan Railway Administration, which closed in 1988?

...that Takapu Road Railway Station and Redwood Station, the next station immediately to the north of Takapu Road Station on the Kapiti Line, which is part of the North Island Main Trunk in New Zealand, are the only two stations on the line not on track built by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company?

...that unlike most of the other underground stations on Hong Kong MTR's Island Line, Tai Koo Station does not have separate tubes for each track and platform as the station was built by the cut and cover method, giving it an open design and platforms that are not separated?

...that although the current Suzuran limited express service operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido) between Muroran and Sapporo in Hokkaido, Japan, was introduced in July 1992, the name was first used from 1956 for an express service operated by JNR between Hakodate and Sapporo?

A DMU train on the Stony Point line at Baxter junction in 2010

...that unlike the rest of the rail network in Melbourne, Australia, the Stony Point line, which extends off the Frankston line, is not electrified and was the last suburban service in Australia to be operated by a locomotive-hauled train?

The blocked-off future exit of Spasskaya station in 2009

...that Spasskaya, the current western terminus station of Pravoberejnaya line of Saint Petersburg Metro, does not have a ground-level vestibule or a connecting escalator so passengers have to transfer to one of the connected stations in order to exit to the city?

...that since the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor, which would extend high speed passenger rail services in the United States south from Washington, D.C., was originally proposed in 1992, the corridor has been expanded to include Atlanta and Macon, Georgia; Greenville and Columbia, South Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; and Birmingham, Alabama?

...that the South African Class 15CA 4-8-2 steam locomotives were introduced in 1926 with a design almost identical to the Class 15C but with the frames widened under the firebox by means of a bridle casting to overcome a problem with the 15C's design that caused cracks in the frame?

...that on July 6, 2011, the new SNCB/NMBS Class 18 units 1801 and 1803 built by Siemens, the first regularly used of the class which replaced the older Class 18 built by Alsthom, hauled their first passenger trains on the Ostend - Brussels - Eupen Intercity-A service, also running through the HSL 2 at 200 km/h (120 mph)?

...that the 41 Ma class electric locomotives originally built by ASEA between 1953 and 1960 for Statens Järnvägar on both freight and passenger trains are the longest serving locomotives in Sweden?

Three Baldwin RF-16 locomotives owned by New York Central Railroad in 1958

...that although several railroad companies purchased sharknose-styled locomotives from Baldwin for freight service, it was only the Pennsylvania Railroad that purchased DR-6 locomotives for passenger train service?

...that after it was withdrawn from service in 1945, Great Western Railway 0-4-0T locomotive number 5 Shannon, which was originally built in 1855 for the Sandy and Potton Railway, was preserved on static display at Wantage Road railway station until 1964 then stored on premises of the Atomic Energy Authority until 1969 when it was moved to Didcot Railway Centre where it is now preserved?