Portal:Trains/Did you know/June 2012

June 2012

Settsu-shi Station in March 2010

• ...that Settsu-shi Station on the Hankyū Kyōto Main Line in Settsu, Osaka, was built and opened in 2010 for a redevelopment area and was designed as the first ever carbon neutral station in Japan?

• ...that when Seremban railway station in Malaysia was remodeled in 1994 in preparation for the launch of the Rawang-to-Seremban stretch of KTM Komuter train services, part of the construction included elevating all platforms in the station to support easier access to KTM trains?

• ...that among the modifications made to create the SEPTA PCC II cars, which were introduced on Route 15 in 2003, the rear doorway has been widened and features a wheelchair lift, thus making the PCC IIs the first (and currently, the only) streetcars operated by SEPTA to be ADA-accessible?

• ...that Seoul's portion (from Jichuk to Ogeum) and the Ilsan part (from Jichuk to Daehwa) of Seoul Metropolitan Subway's Line 3 in South Korea operate as one combined line, with trains running from one end to the other, but because the respective stations are operated by two different companies, they are sometimes listed separately?

• ...that the current Sekihoku Main Line connecting Shin-Asahikawa in Asahikawa and Abashiri Station in Abashiri in Japan is made up of segments from the Abashiri Main Line (網走本線, Abashiri Honsen), which opened in 1913, the Yūbetsu Line (湧別線, Yūbetsu-sen), which opened in 1921, and the original Sekihoku Line (石北線, Sekihoku-sen), which opened in 1932?

A RABDe 500 train at speed between Schwarzenbach SG and Algetshausen-Henau in 2004

• ...that all forty-four RABDe 500 trains, Swiss electric multiple unit passenger trains introduced in 2000, in time for Expo.02, are named after famous Swiss scholars, artists, writers, politicians, engineers, and architects?

• ...that although Santolan Station, the eastern terminus of the Manila LRT Purple Line in the Philippines, is named after the barangay that it is in, Barangay Santolan of Pasig, the station is actually located inside the territory of Marikina City?

Postcard showing the Sam Houston Zephyr circa 1940

• ...that the original trainsets from the Twin Cities Zephyr were transferred for the inauguration of the Sam Houston Zephyr, a service that was introduced on October 1, 1936, between Fort Worth and Houston, Texas, and operated by Burlington-Rock Island Railroad, a subsidiary of both the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad?

Route map of the Salvador Metro as of 2011

• ...that the Salvador Metro, which is under construction in Salvador, Brazil, and is expected to be completed before the 2014 FIFA World Cup, includes the first railway line in the city known as the Suburban Line (Calçada-Paripe)?

• ...that engineering problems on the Salekhard–Igarka Railway, an incomplete railway in northern Siberia, included construction across permafrost, a poor logistical system, and tight deadlines compounded by a severe lack of power machinery, all of which led to railway embankments that slowly settled into the marsh or were eroded by ponding?

Hozukyo station on the Sagano Scenic Railway in 2011

• ...that after a portion of JR West's Sagano Line (officially a portion of the San'in Main Line) in the Hozu River valley was rerouted, the original 7.3-kilometre long (4.5 mi) alignment was preserved and now serves as the Sagano Scenic Railway?

• ...that tram services now operated by Rīgas Satiksme have been in operation in Riga, Latvia, longer than any other mode of public transport, with the first horse-drawn trams entering service in 1882?

The proposed Zip Rail could use tains like thisTalgo XXI train photographed in 2007

• ...that if the Rochester Rail Link (branded in January 2011 as Zip Rail), the proposed intrastate passenger train service linking the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area with the city of Rochester, Minnesota, is approved, implementation would entail construction of a new line to replace the last railway link between the cities that was removed in the 1960s?

RENFE class 352 locomotive number 352-009 at Irún station in 2000

• ...that the design of RENFE's Class 352 diesel-hydraulic locomotives, built by Krauss-Maffei in 1964 and 1965, and based on similar mechanical specs as DB Class V 200 locomotives, was chosen because no other manufacturer at the time offered similar power in the reduced height, and low centre of gravity that matched the Talgo trainsets the class was intended to pull?

The August Kranti Rajdhani Express at a station in 2009

• ...that since the Western Railways in India converted their entire 1500v DC traction to 25000v AC traction on the remaining Churchgate-Vile Parle section on February 5, 2012, the August Kranti Rajdhani Express is now an end to end run from Mumbai Central to Hazrat Nizamuddin with a single pure AC locomotive?

A station of Ferrocarril Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, formerly the British-owned Buenos Aires Western, in 1968

• ...that in the 1948 railway nationalization in Argentina, ownership of seven British- and three French-owned railways was transferred to the Argentine government and the lines were then grouped together, according to their track gauge and locality, into the six state-owned companies Sarmiento, Mitre, Urquiza, San Martin, Belgrano and Roca?

• ...that in addition to building many locomotives for several British railways, R. B. Longridge and Company, also built a number of 2-2-2 locomotives for several European railways, including Arend the first locomotive to work on a public railway in the Netherlands?

• ...that private railroad cars were used by railroad officials and dignitaries as business cars, and by wealthy individuals for travel and entertainment, especially in the United States where they were sometimes used by politicians in "whistle stop campaigns."

Pieksämäki railway station in 2009

• ...that in 1885, citing a cost preference, the Finnish government decided to build the line to Savonia on a different alignment than originally planned, which put Pieksämäki railway station a couple of kilometres east of the village, in the middle of what was then an uninhabited swamp?

Midland Railway number 990 in photographic grey livery in 1909

• ...that photographic grey, also known as works grey, a paint scheme commonly applied to steam locomotives during the period before color photography became commonplace, was applied to allow sharper, more detailed images of the locomotives to be recorded?

• ...that the Pak Business Express passenger train service inaugurated in February 2012 to connect Lahore Railway Station, Punjab, to Karachi Cantonment Railway Station, Sindh, is the first train service to operate in Pakistan under private sector management?

• ...that in the mid-1990s the East Portland Traction Company, now known as Oregon Pacific Railroad, ran an excursion train known as Samtrak named after the railroad's owner, Dick Samuels, as well as a play on Amtrak, the national passenger railroad company?

Ochanomizu Station and the Kanda River in 2007

• ...that although the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line passes under Ochanomizu Station, which serves JR East's Chūō Rapid and Chūō-Sōbu lines, the Tokyo Metro station is located in Bunkyō Ward, separate from the JR East station?

• ...that although official records cannot confirm it, one theory on how the New Zealand Railways ED class of electric locomotives was named is that the "D" in the class name could have originated from the "Do" of its unique 1-Do-2 wheel arrangement, when written under the UIC classification system?

A passenger train on the North-South Railway in 2009

• ...that recent improvement plans for the metre gauge North–South Railway in Vietnam include the construction of a parallel double track standard gauge line that would allow the operation of Shinkansen-like passenger trains and freight car interchange with China that avoids a break of gauge at the border?

North Adelaide station in 2003

• ...that the station building at North Adelaide railway station, which opened in 1857, is the third oldest surviving railway station in South Australia and distinct from the earlier 1856 Bowden and Alberton stations, in having an attached residence, and after Bowden, Alberton and St Kilda railway station, Melbourne, it is the fourth oldest railway station in all of Australia?

A bridge of the former Newtown Square line in Haverford, Pennsylvania, in 2011

• ...that passenger train services on the Newtown Square Branch, which was built as the Philadelphia & Delaware County Railroad in 1888 then became a Pennsylvania Railroad branch line in 1894, ran on the line until the service was terminated in 1908 due to competition from the West Chester Traction Company trolley lines that are now part of SEPTA Route 104?

• ...that the inauguration of the present Narayanganj-Bahadurabad Ghat Line in Bangladesh can be traced back to the Dacca State Railway's 144-kilometre (89 mi) long metre gauge line from Narayanganj to Mymensingh via Dhaka, which opened in 1884-85?