Portal:Trains/Did you know/February 2007

February 2007

• ...that dual gauge track can be used as an interim measure during a gauge conversion to allow trains to continue operating until the conversion is completed?

• ...that Helsinki Central railway station in Finland includes a private 50 m² waiting lounge exclusively for the use of the President of Finland and official guests?

• ...that some RegionalExpress trains between Munich and Nuremberg are operated using InterCity coaches and locomotives because of their high speeds?

• ...that the only visible surface level remnant of City Road tube station on the London Underground system following the station's closure in 1922 is a brick ventilation shaft that incorporates parts of the original station building above the site of the lift shaft and emergency staircase?

• ...that although the majority of track in the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways system is standard gauge, the railway maintains 94 km (58.4 mi) of broad gauge track for connections with railways in neighboring former Soviet Union states?

• ...that the South Manchuria Railway was founded by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) in Japanese-occupied Manchuria to haul goods and passengers primarily for Japanese immigrants?

• ...that the last steam locomotives manufactured by Orenstein & Koppel were built in Babelsberg for the Deutsche Reichsbahn of the GDR in 1969?

• ...that only one of the British Rail Class 05 shunters received a TOPS number after the majority of the class were withdrawn from service?

• ...that the first U.S. patent for a mail hook on a railway post office car was awarded to L.F. Ward of Elyria, Ohio, in 1867?

Passengers waiting for the subway at Jernbanetorget

• ...that when the Fellestunnelen tunnel in Oslo, Norway, was expanded in the 1970s and 1980s, it accommodated both third rail and overhead wire electrification for the multiple lines of the Oslo T-bane network?

• ...that the 1947 strike action against the Dakar-Niger Railway in present day Senegal was celebrated as a turning point in the anti-colonial struggle by Senegalese writer Ousmane Sembène in his 1960 novel Les Bouts de bois de Dieu?

• ...that although the two lines of the Philippine National Railways network both connect to Manila, one northward and one southward, there is no direct rail connection between the two?
• ...that the Golden Rocket was a cancelled passenger train that would have been jointly operated by the Rock Island and the Southern Pacific railroads, and that the strikingly painted equipment instead went into service on the Golden State?

• ...that although Basel Badischer Bahnhof is situated on Swiss soil, the platforms and part of the entrance hall are extraterritorial, belonging to Germany, and the station is operated by the German railway company Deutsche Bahn?

• ...that according to legend, Victorian Railways engineers went as far as road testing the new dining car on the Spirit of Progress before its introduction in 1937 by placing a full bowl of soup on one of the tables and checking that none spilt as the train took curves along the route at 70 mph (112 km/h)?

• ...that Mexican railroad company Ferromex connects five major inland Mexican cities, five cities along the border with the United States, four seaports on the Pacific Ocean and one more on the Gulf of Mexico?

Hung Hom Station (Kowloon Station), Hong Kong

• ...that some sections of the Jingjiu Railway, which connects Beijing West Station in Beijing to Hung Hom Station (Kowloon Station) in Kowloon in the special administrative region of Hong Kong, were built before construction of the whole line officially began in February 1993?

• ...that the Stuttgart Rack Railway, the only urban rack railway in Germany, is integrated with the metropolitan railway network of the Stuttgart Stadtbahn (Stuttgart streetcars) as line 10?

Drayton Park station entrance

• ...that trains running on Network Rail's Northern City Line in England switch electricity collection methods between overhead lines and third rail at Drayton Park railway station?

• ...that the first High-speed rail line in Turkey connecting İstanbul to Ankara via Eskişehir is currently scheduled to open in 2007 and is expected to reduce travel times between the two terminals from almost 7 hours to just over 3 hours?

• ...that self-propelled railroad cars called doodlebugs were sometimes used to provide passenger and mail service on lightly-used branch lines in North America during the first half of the 20th century?

• ...that a popular myth claims that the Malleco Viaduct crossing the Malleco River valley in Chile was designed by Gustave Eiffel although Eiffel's proposal was rejected by the Chilean authorities?

The station sign at Oshikado station in Japan

• ...that a hikyō station (秘境駅, hikyō eki), or "secluded station," is a train station in Japan located off the beaten path and considered a place good for photographers and train fans seeking photos of historical trains and spectacular nature photos?

Berlin Friedrichstraße railway station

• ...that Berlin Friedrichstraße railway station in Germany was one of the few interchange points between West Berlin and East Berlin during the times of the Cold War?

• ...that Indian Railways's WAP-5 class of electric locomotives, which are used on some of the railway's premier passenger trains, are the first 3-phase locomotives to operate in India?

BMT cars on the approach to the Brooklyn Bridge in 1905

• ...that when it was opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, which carried the tracks of Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation in what are now the center traffic lanes, was the largest suspension bridge in the world and the first steel-wire suspension bridge?

• ...that At 602.69 metres (1977 ft 4 in) Gloucester railway station has the longest railway platform in Great Britain due to a break-of-gauge between the Great Western Railway's 7 ft 0¼ in (2140 mm) gauge and London Midland and Scottish Railway's 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) gauge tracks until 1892?