Portal:Trains/Did you know/October 2016

October 2016

A Spoornet Class 91-000 on the Avontuur Railway near Humansdorp in 2009

• ...that the 2 ft gauge railways in South Africa featured the largest and most powerful locomotives ever in existence on two foot gauge railways worldwide?

Preserved Em 730 31 at Varshavsky Rail Terminal St. Petersburg

• ...that although the 0-10-0 wheel arrangement for steam locomotives was used infrequently in North America, it was successful and widely used for several classes of locomotives in Germany and Russia?

Map of lines around Lancaster and Morecambe in 1914

• ...that part of the "Little" North Western Railway's line, between Lancaster and Morecambe, in the north-west of England, was used in the early twentieth century for pioneering overhead electrification?

A Toronto and York Radial Railway car, circa 1921

• ...that the formation of Hydro-Electric Railways, a subsidiary of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario ("Ontario Hydro") which operated several radial electric railways in Ontario, followed the Hydro Electric Railway Act of 1914 which repealed the requirement that municipalities bear all costs of radial construction?

Huesca station sign and track stub ends in 2013

• ...that until 2006, Huesca railway station was the only station in Spain in which trains heading towards Canfranc and the Pyrenees had to enter the station before then reversing out again to take the junction to Canfranc?
• ...that London, Brighton and South Coast Railway's B1 class 0-4-2 steam locomotive No. 189 Edward Blount was exhibited at the 1889 Paris Exhibition and received a gold medal?

Builder's photo of B2 Class number 213 "Bessemer" in 1897

• ...that although London, Brighton and South Coast Railway's B2 class of 4-4-0 steam locomotives proved to be reliable in express passenger train service, they were barely adequate for the heaviest trains and were subsequently rebuilt into the B3 and B2X classes with larger boilers?

A 1914 Railway Clearing House Junction Diagram showing the complex network which existed in the Workington area

• ...that at Distington, in present-day Cumbria, England, the LNWR's and FR's Gilgarran Branch both met and crossed the rival CWJR's main line resulting in Distington station having five platform faces?

A train of the Wilmington & Long Beach Rapid Transit Railroad in 1887

• ...that the Wilmington & Long Beach Rapid Transit Railroad in southern California was popularly known as the G.O.P. ("Get Out and Push") Railroad because it requested its patrons to assist trains over the steeper parts of the route?

The platforms and tracks at Forch station in 2010

• ...that the Forch railway station complex in the Swiss canton of Zürich was relocated 100 metres (330 ft) to the south of its original location to its current alignment in 1970, including the provision of a new tunnel under the A52 motorway?

An 0-6-0 locomotive of Magyar Középponti Vasút

• ...that since its introduction in the 19th century, the 0-6-0 configuration was the most widely used wheel arrangement for both tender and tank steam locomotives?

A Denver Tramway car in 1903

• ...that the six-day long Denver streetcar strike of 1920, in which seven people were killed and 50 were seriously injured, has been called the "largest and most violent labor dispute involving transportation workers and federal troops" in United States history?

China Railways SL-629 in 1984

• ...that China Railways' SL6 class of 4-6-2 steam locomotives was the most numerous class in the country with more than 400 built between 1933 and 1958 and the last being withdrawn from service at Jilin in 1991?

Preserved DF 1206 in May 2016

• ...that like the TE3s after which they were designed, the China Railways DF diesel-electric locomotives were intended to be used in pairs, back to back, but appear to have spent most of their lives working singly?

Casa Amarilla station circa 1900

• ...that Casa Amarilla (English: Yellow House) station in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was named in honor of Admiral William Brown's house, which was built in the same district and painted in yellow?

Class T26 number 490 preserved at Bressingham as part of the National Collection

• ...that the last of Great Eastern Railway's Class T26 2-4-0 steam tender locomotives was withdrawn from British Railways service in 1959, making this class the last 2-4-0 type to work in Britain?

No. 5274 at Northwich Locomotive Depot 21 September 1947

• ...that Great Central Railway's Class 1B 2-6-4T (tank) steam locomotives were the first locomotives of the 2-6-4T (or Adriatic) wheel arrangement to be used by a British standard-gauge railway?

N7/1 on a suburban train for Brentwood, c.1927

• ...that London and North Eastern Railway's Class N7 0-6-2T steam locomotives, based on Great Eastern Railway's Class L77 locomotive design, were unusual (for inside-cylinder locomotives) in having Walschaerts valve gear?