Portal:Trains/Did you know/September 2015

September 2015

• ...that The Green Mover Max, introduced first in Hiroshima by the Hiroshima Electric Railway Company (Hiroden) in 2005, was the first 100% low-floor articulated Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) to be built entirely in Japan?

Preserved Class 625 locomotive 017 in 2007

• ...that Ferrovie dello Stato Class 625 2-6-0 steam locomotives are commonly known by the nickname Signorine (Italian for 'young ladies'), or Signorina in the singular, which is a reference to the graceful lines of the locomotive as popularly perceived?

• ...that Dublin Heuston railway station in Ireland was originally called Kingsbridge Station from the nearby Kings Bridge over the Liffey, but was renamed in 1966 after Sean Heuston, an Easter Rising leader who had worked in the station offices?

Trains of the Deli Railway in the mid-20th century

• ...that the Deli Railway Company near the east coast of Sumatra was the last remaining private Dutch railway when it was taken over by the state network PT Kereta Api in 1957?

Tracks and platforms at Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza in 2006

• ...that Central Union Terminal, now known as Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza, in Toledo, Ohio, opened in 1950 to become the last of the New York Central Railroad's great stations?

• ...that the Innovia Monorail manufactured by Bombardier Transportation now installed at several locations worldwide was developed based on the Mark IV monorail trains Bombardier delivered to Walt Disney World in 1989?

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• ...that the recently reopened Avellaneda Park Historic Train in Avellaneda Park, Buenos Aires, Argentina, was originally established in 1936 when the track and rolling stock was moved there from the Buenos Aires Zoo?

Work on the Algemba project in the 1920s

• ...that during construction of the failed Algemba railway and pipeline project from 1919 to 1921 led by the Bolsheviks in Russia, as many as 35,000 workers died, sometimes with hundreds of people dying every day, from poor food, inadequate shelter and disease?

• ...that in terms of construction cost per kilometre, the Zhujiang New Town APM Line is the most expensive automated people mover (APM) system in the world, yet it is the shortest and least used line in the Guangzhou Metro network?

• ...that during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938, much of the Xiaoshan–Ningbo Railway in China was dismantled to prevent its use by the invading Japanese, then converted to a highway after World War II, and finally rebuilt in the 1950s with the assistance of Soviet engineers?

• ...that despite some media reports calling the Diliman Automated Guideway Transit System under development by the University of the Philippines a monorail, the system uses two parallel concrete beams to form a track?

Part of the official opening ceremony for the Marunouchi Line on January 20, 1954

• ...that the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line is the second line to be built in Tokyo, Japan, and the first line constructed after the Second World War, opening the first section between Ikebukuro and Ochanomizu on January 20, 1954?

• ...that as part of the technical investigation of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada took samples of the oil that was being transported for analysis, then both Canadian and US investigators found the Bakken crude was not identified correctly in shipping documents, and the incorrect classification led to its volatility being underestimated?

• ...that in 1964 Indian Railways set a timeline to restore the Pamban Bridge following its partial destruction in a cyclone as a six-month project, but once civil engineer E. Sreedharan was put in charge of the project, one of the first in his celebrated career, he restored the bridge in just 46 days?

Class 14E number 14-002 in 2006

• ...that Spoornet's Class 14E were the first dual voltage 3 kV DC and 25 kV AC locomotives to see service on South African rails when they were placed in service in 1991?

• ...that Siemens-Schuckert Orenstein & Koppel rolling stock made up the entirety of the trains used on the Buenos Aires Underground's three lines built by the Hispanic-Argentine Company for Public Works and Finances (CHADOPyF) and has since served on every line of the Underground (with the exception of Line B which uses third rail electrification) from 1934 to the present?

Tazu Stationn on the Sanko Line in 2008

• ...that although the first 13.9-kilometre long (8.6 mi) segment of the Sankō Line between Gōtsu and Kawado in Japan opened in 1930, the line was not fully completed to Miyoshi until 1975?

Photograph of the railway of the Prince Imperial taken 1859 by Charles-Louis Michelez

• ...that The Railway of the Prince Imperial (French: Chemin de fer du Prince impérial), built in 1859 for Napoléon, Prince Imperial, was the first documented model railway of the world?

• ...that the Puerto Deseado Railway in Argentina was considered the southernmost passenger railway in the world, due to other lines of the region focusing on exploitation and transport of natural resources (such as the Comodoro Rivadavia Railway did with petroleum) rather than operating passenger services?

Phoenix Park station in 2013

• ...that Nottingham Express Transit's Phoenix Park tram stop, car park, and the surrounding business park, is on the site of the former Babbington Colliery, also known as Cinderhill Colliery, which opened in 1841 and was the first site for large-scale coal mining in the county of Nottinghamshire, England?

First NYC MU car in 1906

• ...that the New York Central Railroad's MU Cars built beginning in 1906 were the first electric multiple units ever bought by the New York Central Railroad and the majority of them continued in service until the mid-1960s?