Portal:Trains/Did you know/January 2009

January 2009

edit
 
The Valenciennes tram during its first city circulation
 
Preserved Milwaukee Road #760, the first Fairbanks-Morse locomotive, preserved at Illinois Railway Museum
 
Moscow Monorail train at a station
  • ...that the Moscow Monorail Transit System opened to passengers on November 30, 2004, in "tourist mode," then on January 10, 2008, normal operations started, meaning a reduction in ticket prices (from $2 to the standard Moscow rapid transport prices) and more frequent trains?
 
The north end of Olive Mount chord during reconstruction in July 2008
  • ...that the Olive Mount chord, a 300 m (980 ft) long line in Liverpool, England, was taken out of service following a fire in the signal box at Edge Lane Junction in 1988 and subsequently lifted but has been restored to service in 2008 because delays resulting from its removal became a limiting factor in access to the Port of Liverpool?
 
profile diagram of the Iwate-Ichinohe Tunnel
 
Inscription "Kaiser Ferdinand Nordbahn" on the Main Rail Station in Bielsko-Biała
  • ...that the Northern Railway (German: Nordbahn, KFNB; Czech: Severní dráha císaře Ferdinanda, SDCF) was the name of a former railway company during the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and the term is still used to describe certain railway lines which were formerly operated by that company?
 
Old Ghan locomotive in the "Old Ghan Museum" in Alice Springs
 
Rio Grande Southern caboose in 1940
  • ...that the Durango to Ridgway route of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad in Colorado was completed only a short time before the Silver Panic of 1893 which resulted in most of the mines the railroad served closing overnight and the railroad losing most of its traffic?
 
Interior of a Mugunghwa-ho train
  • ...that the Mugunghwa-ho class of trains operated by Korail, the national railroad of South Korea, are the least expensive class of trains to operate cross-country and prior to the introduction of the KTX in 2004, they were the most common passenger trains along most railroad lines in the country?
 
Petit train de la Rhune France
 
LNER 4472 Flying Scotsman at Seymour, Victoria, during its visit to Australia in 1988-89
 
Rovos Rail train about to depart from Capital Park Station
 
A freight train on the Benguela railway with a number of riders.
 
Preserved El 8.2060 in 2004
  • ...that although NSB's El 8 class of electric locomotives were capable of achieving a top speed of 110 km/h (68 mph), this class did not have bogies making them rather stiff in the turns, a problem which was remedied with the introduction of the EL 11 and El 13 classes in the 1950s?
 
A Santa Fe freight train crosses over itself at Tehachapi Loop in 1987
 
A train of the Renon railway in its first years of operation passing the only tunnel along the now closed rack section
  • ...that the Renon railway, which connects Bolzano with the Renon plateau in Italy, was designed to allow the downhill train to generate some of the electrical power for the uphill train?
 
A WAM-4 locomotive leading other locomotives in a train
 
A Picton-bound TranzCoastal service heading north from Christchurch station on the Main North Line
 
A Metro-North Port Jervis Line train crossing the Moodna Viaduct in 2007
 
A grain elevator and train north of Shu, Kazakhstan, in 2007 on the Turkestan–Siberia Railway
 
A preserved "short Oppeln" wagon
  • ...that the "short Oppeln" type of covered van built in Germany beginning in 1937 rapidly became the most numerous Austauschbau goods wagon with 28,000 units built?
 
A BNSF Railway locomotive in the United States on January 25, 2008
 
A modern refrigerator car
  • ...that although experiments with shipments of refrigerated products by rail took place as early as 1842, it wasn't until 1878 that refrigerator cars became practical based on a design created for Swift & Company to ship dressed meats?
 
Part of a modern Bangladesh Railway passenger train
  • ...that the first section of the present day Bangladesh Railway originally opened in 1862 as a 53-kilometre (33 mi) long broad gauge line and the second section opened in 1885 as a 15-kilometre (9.3 mi) long metre gauge line?
 
Pontiac & Pacific Junction Railway No. 4 pulling a train leaving Campbell's Bay, Quebec, in 1902
  • ...that in the early history of rail transport in Canada, the Guarantee Act of 1849 that guaranteed bond returns on all railways over 75 miles (121 km) long led to rapid expansion of railways in the Canadas, sometimes to excessive growth as uneconomic lines were built because the government guaranteed profits?
 
NZR EC class No. 7 at the Ferrymead Railway for the Easter 2008 railfan event
 
A Fertagus suburban train at Corroios station, near Lisbon, Portugal