Portal:Trains/Did you know/Main page, 2005

The following facts related to rail transport have appeared in the Did you know section of Wikipedia's Main page in 2005.

...that the Cowboy Trail is the longest rails to trails conversion project in the United States?
...that the Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia attempted unsuccessfully to build a railroad from Djibouti to Addis Ababa in the 1890s?

...that Khabarovsk Railway Bridge, the longest in Eurasia, was originally named Alekseyevsky after Tsesarevich Alexis?

...that Sir Collingwood Schreiber played a key role in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and now has a township named after him?

...that David Laird negotiated the Qu'Appelle Lakes Treaty with resident natives of Saskatchewan in 1874 to procure land for the Canadian Pacific Railway?

...that the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway opened in 1904 as a leg of George J. Gould's planned transcontinental railroad, but went bankrupt in four years and later became part of the Alphabet Route?
...that when the eight-mile Texas and Northern Railway began operations in 1948, it was designated a Class I railroad, in the same class as giants like the Pennsylvania Railroad?
...that despite its federal mandate to provide only intercity rail service, Amtrak operated the Calumet commuter train between Chicago, Illinois and the Indiana suburb of Valparaiso from 1979 to 1991?
...that the Buckingham Branch Railroad in Central Virginia was formed in 1989 and has expanded from a 16-mile railroad to operate over 200 miles of track?
...that the Mauritania Railway transports iron ore on trains up to three kilometers long?
...that the Dakar-Niger Railway was the site of a 1947 strike celebrated by author Ousmane Sembène as a turning point in West Africa's anti-colonial struggle?

...that businessman Ginery Twichell started in stage lines before transitioning to railroads and three terms in the U.S. Congress?
...that the Indian Railways Fan Club is the Internet's largest website devoted to the Indian Railways and rail transport in the Indian subcontinent?

...that William Dudley Chipley first brought rail lines to Pensacola, Florida, connecting the Atlantic coast of Florida with other Gulf Coast states for the first time?
...that the Olympic Javelin is a high-speed rail service announced as part of the public transport regeneration of London in readiness for the 2012 Summer Olympics?
...that Cyrus K. Holliday was a founder of the city of Topeka, Kansas, as well as the first president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad?

...that Barstow, California, and Strong City, Kansas, are both named in honor of William Barstow Strong, former president of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway?
...that Julia Tuttle was the citrus plantation owner that owned the land upon which Miami, Florida, was built, and that she gave half her land to Henry Flagler to entice him to build a station for the Florida East Coast Railroad there?