Portal:Trains/Did you know/August 2016

August 2016

Two 32-000 class locomotives lead a passenger train in 2007

• ...that the South African Class 32-000, with its 1Co+Co1 wheel arrangement, is credited with being a major factor in the demise of the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and the rise of General Electric (GE) in the locomotive building business?

LNWR engine No.2053 'Greater Britain'

• ...that the 2-2-2-2 locomotives introduced by Francis Webb on the London and North Western Railway in the 1890s were so unreliable that all were withdrawn from service by 1906?

Diagram of a 4-4-4-4 arrangement

• ...that the Whyte notation does not distinguish between duplex and Mallet-type articulated locomotives, denoting both with a dash between sets of driving wheels?

TTC streetcars undergoing maintenance at Roncesvalles Carhouse in 2011

• ...that Roncesvalles Carhouse is the oldest of the Toronto Transit Commission's carhouses, having been originally opened by the Toronto Railway Company (TRC) which first built a streetcar maintenance and storage facility on the site in 1895?

A Red Flag 1 locomotive at Sinanju Station in 2012

• ...that Korean State Railway's Red Flag 1-class locomotives were developed to be a larger, indigenous design based on the Škoda Type 30E?

A South West Trains class 158 "Express Sprinter" departing Eastleigh station in January 2015

• ...that a train can be 'on time' according to the Public Performance Measure, but still late enough for passengers to miss their connections?

A portion of the original Portage Bridge in 1864

• ...that when Erie Railroad's original Portage Bridge over the Genesee River within present-day Letchworth State Park in Livingston County, New York, opened in 1852, it was the longest and tallest wooden bridge in the world?

Helsinki Tram at Senaatintori station in November 2008

• ...that the planned extension of the Helsinki tram network projected for construction in the 2021-2035 time frame includes converting the 25-kilometre long (16 mi) trunk bus line 550 ("Jokeri") to light rail?

SNCB 12.004 at Namur station in 1986

• ...that the SNCB/NMBS Type 12 class of 4-4-2 steam locomotives was designed by engineer Raoul Notesse, based on the successful Canadian Pacific Railway 4-4-4 "Jubilee" semi-streamlined locomotives of 1936/7, but also incorporated the ideas on streamlining of André Huet?

A conductor and brakeman in a freight train caboose in 1943

• ...that the Order of Railway Conductors was originally formed as a fraternal benefit and temperance society rather than a labor union?

Preserved Brigadelok 99.4.084, now outside the railway Museum, Belgrade

• ...that the Ohrid line in present-day Macedonia was built as part of a military railway during Bulgarian occupation and so was built to the Bulgarian 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) Feldbahn standards, rather than the 760 mm (2 ft 5+15⁄16 in) Bosnian gauge of the Austro-Hungarian railways that would later become so well known as part of narrow gauge railways in Yugoslavia?

Oakleigh Park cutting in June 2016

• ...that Oakleigh Park Rail Cutting in the London Borough of Barnet is not only an active part of the East Coast Main Line, but is also an 8 hectare Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation providing habitat for birds such as goldfinch, wrens and dunnocks?

NGR Havelock as Hairy Mary

• ...that during the Second Boer War, the Natal Government Railways 4-6-2TT locomotive Havelock was prepared to for use on armoured trains, but rather than being equipped with armour plating, it was draped in strands of thick hemp rope which covered it from front to back earning it nickname Hairy Mary?

Facade of Newtown Tram Depot in 2013

• ...that Newtown Tram Depot, opened on 1 April 1900 adjacent to Newtown station in Sydney, is the oldest remaining tram depot in Sydney that has survived in its original form?

A Nazaré Funicular car in 2010

• ...that the Nazaré Funicular in Portugal eased travel along a steep incline of loose sand where nobility traveled seated on "carpets, that were pulled at the corners, along with their servants, safe and composed"?

A preserved EMD E5 like the one involved in the Naperville accident

• ...that the 1946 Naperville train disaster in which the Burlington's Exposition Flyer collided with the Advance Flyer in Naperville, Illinois, is a major reason why most passenger trains in the United States have a speed limit of 79 mph (127 km/h)?

An MS 61 train at Rueil-Malmaison in 2007

• ...that the MS 61 series of electric multiple unit trains introduced in 1967 was the first type of fleet to be produced directly for the RER in Paris, and is the second-oldest in the network, after the Class Z 5300 introduced in 1965?

Mintlaw Viaduct soon after its construction in 1912

• ...that Canadian Pacific Railway's Mintlaw Viaduct, which was built in 1912 by Alberta Central Railway and last saw train traffic in 1981, is the longest and the highest bridge in Central Alberta?