Portal:Trains/Did you know/June 2005

Great Western Railway "Olton Hall" painted for the Hogwarts Express

...that the 4-6-0 steam locomotive used to power the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter series of films is used in regular operation on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway?

The only 4-14-4 ever built

...that only one example of a 4-14-4 steam locomotive was ever built, and that the Russian railways that tested it found it unsuitable for continued use?

Santa Fe Railroad locomotives

...that many examples of the EMD GP30, the first of General Motors Electro-Motive Division's "second generation" diesel locomotive models which were built between 1961 and 1963, are still in operation today?

Standard and narrow gauge tracks converge to become a dual gauge track

The station platform at Brisbane Central

...that Citytrain, a division of QR in Brisbane, Australia, carries an average of 142,000 passengers on each weekday, and averages 873,000 passengers per week?

The convergence of tracks at Clapham Junction

...that Clapham Junction in southwest London, England, is reputed to be the busiest train station in all of Europe?

Track diagram of a wye

...that a wye is a track configuration that allows entire trains to be turned around easily?

Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

Chicago and North Western

...that the Chicago and North Western Railway was one of only a few railroads in the United States that ran "left hand main" on double track mainlines (the normal direction of travel was to use the track on the left)?
...that in 1933 six engineers from the British railcar manufacturing firm Metropolitan-Vickers were arrested in Russia and found guilty on charges of espionage?

Henry Kirke Porter

...that Henry Kirke Porter, who founded the steam locomotive manufacturing firm H. K. Porter, Inc, was President of the Pittsburgh YMCA from 1868 to 1887 and President of the Western Pennsylvania Institute for the Blind in 1904?

A GE locomotive painted in the SPSF merger scheme.

...that the unified paint scheme developed for the failed Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railroad merger between the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Santa Fe Railroad has been dubbed Kodachrome by railfans because of the colors the railroads chose?
...that CountryLink's XPT is the fastest regular passenger train service in New South Wales, Australia?

Maersk containers

...that Maersk is currently the largest intermodal container operator in the world?

A FRED on an eastbound UP train at Rochelle Railroad Park

...that cabooses on most freight trains in North America have been supplanted by flashing rear end devices that automatically monitor air brake pressure?

Railfans in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin

...that enthusiasts of rail transport, railfans (US), are also sometimes called trainspotters (UK), ferroequinologists (US), foamers (US) or gunzels (Australia)?

Orient Express advertising poster

...that the Orient Express, which began carrying passengers between Paris, France, and Istanbul, Turkey, in 1883, made its last run on May 19, 1977?

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

...that Isambard Kingdom Brunel is credited as the person who set the Great Western Railway's gauge at 7 ft 0¼ in (2140 mm) rather than what has come to be known as standard gauge, 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm)?

Maglev train in Shanhai

...that the first regularly operating Magnetic levitation train in the world, which opened in 2002 and operates between Shanghai, China, and Pudong International Airport, has a top speed of 430 km/h (269 mph)?

Deutsche Reichsbahn logo

An ALCO automobile

...that the prominent steam locomotive manufacturer ALCO also built automobiles from 1906 until 1913 under the direction of plant manager Walter P. Chrysler?
...that a Pendolino is a type of tilting train used in Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Czech Republic and now the United Kingdom to increase passenger train speeds on some routes?

Nagoya Station and the adjoining JR Central Towers

...that, at 410,000 m² (4,413,200 ft²) Nagoya Station in Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, Japan, is the world's largest train station by floor size?
...that Swift Refrigerator Line, founded by Gustavus Franklin Swift, was formed in 1880 because American railroads didn't want to buy refrigerator cars and subsequently lose their investments in stock cars?
...that the Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway, a rack railway in Colorado, is the highest railroad in North America?

The blue unit monorail train passing the lagoon

...that the Disneyland Monorail System, which opened June 14, 1959, is the first monorail system to operate on a daily schedule in the western hemisphere?