Portal:Trains/Did you know/Main page items

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[edit] Main page Did you know items

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The following items were used in the Did you know section of Wikipedia's Main page.

• ...that during engineering work in 1979, the collapse of the Penmanshiel Tunnel severed the main railway line between London and Edinburgh for five months?

• ...that the Brunel-designed Wharncliffe Viaduct of 1836 (pictured), on the GWR main line in London, is home to a protected colony of bats?
• ...that the Bonn–Oberkassel train ferry was one of six train ferries that commenced operations across the Rhine in Germany in the late 19th century?
• ...that John J. Bernet was known for bringing railroad companies back from bankruptcy to solvency, earning him the nickname "Doctor of Sick Railroads"?
• ...that some of the disused railway stations between Plymouth in Devon and Penzance in Cornwall, England, were closed during the "Beeching Axe" in the 1960s?
• ...that George Hennet built and operated depots on behalf of the South Devon Railway after it was short of money?
• that there are eleven disused railway stations between Exeter St Davids and Plymouth Millbay, Devon, England, at eight of which there are visible remains?
• ...that until 1861 Newton Abbot railway station had three separate train sheds for trains running on lines to and from Exeter, Plymouth, and Torquay?
• ...that the names of broad gauge railway locomotives were drawn from areas such as Greek, Roman and other mythologies, famous people, literature, flora, fauna, towns, geographical features, speed and power?

• ...that the Great Western Railway's Cornish Riviera Express (pictured) was named following a public competition in The Railway Magazine?
• ...that only one of the 266 1076 Class steam locomotives built for the Great Western Railway was named, and the rest had only numbers?
• ...that the six Charles Tayleur locomotives ordered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway were unsuccessful?
• ...that due to legal restrictions, the first scheduled electric tram service in Saint Petersburg ran not on city streets, but rather on ice covering the Neva River during winter season?
• ...that, as a result of track switchbacks on either side of a mountain pass, all trains of the Gilmore and Pittsburgh Railroad crossed over the U.S. continental divide running backwards?

• ...that the Vitebsk Rail Terminal in Saint Petersburg (pictured) contains a replica of the first train used in the Russian Empire?
• ...that some historians claim that Russian engineer Fyodor Pirotsky built the world's first electric tramway?
• ...that in 1883, Southern Pacific Railroad tried to block the California Southern Railroad from installing a level junction across their tracks in Colton, California, by moving a locomotive slowly back and forth at the intersection point?
• ...that the Kiev tram was the first electric tramway in the Russian Empire, and the second one in Europe, after the Berlin Straßenbahn?
• ...that Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond, Virginia contains a steam locomotive and ten flat cars trapped in a collapse in October 1925 which were never recovered?

• ...that the second line of the Valenciennes tram (pictured) will open in 2007, but will reuse the platform of a railway line that opened in 1838?
• ...that Artrain USA (pictured) is a 5-car art gallery that tours the U.S. 11 months of the year, visiting small towns whose residents may not otherwise have a chance to see art up close?
• ...that the Lviv tram, opened on May 5, 1880 in Galicia (then part of Austria-Hungary), is one of the last urban transit systems in the former Soviet Union to still use grooved rail?
• ...that Aleksandra Piłsudska, a Polish revolutionary and second wife of dictator Józef Piłsudski, helped plan the Bezdany train raid?

• ...that the 1040-foot-long Starrucca Viaduct in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania was the largest and most expensive stone railway viaduct when built in 1848, and is still in use by the Norfolk Southern Railway?
• ...that Szeged's public transport company is one of only four city transport companies that operate tram service in Hungary?
  

• ...that the 44 hour and 54 minute transit time of the 1905 Scott Special between Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois, wasn't beaten in regular railway operations until the 1937 launch of the Super Chief?
• ...that following the Mississauga train derailment of 1979, nearly 250,000 people had to be evacuated for up to five days while toxic chemicals that had spilled onto the railway tracks were cleaned up?
• ...that the Funicular dos Guindais was originally built to carry cargo - including port wine - from the Ribeira quayside to the centre of Porto, and is now a tourist attraction and one of the world's steepest counter-balanced cable railways?
• ...that rail transportation in Okinawa dates back to 1902, when the island's first line started operations to haul sugarcane, but the Okinawa Monorail is the only line still in operation?

• ...that Linimo in Aichi, Japan claims to be the world's first commercial automated "Urban Maglev" train, but it has to be shut down when it is too windy?
  

• ...that Carrollton Viaduct in Baltimore, Maryland is the world's oldest railway bridge still in use, and that its cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1828?
• ...that the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad was a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway that operated in Arizona, New Mexico and California from July 1, 1897 till July 1, 1902?
• ...that the British Rail flying saucer was an unbuilt nuclear fusion powered space craft, proposed and patented in the 1970s by British Rail?

• ...that a steam-powered locomotive built specifically by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad in 1893 for its Empire State Express passenger train was the first manmade object on wheels to exceed 100 miles-per-hour?
• ...that in 1998, a study proposed to relocate Jordanhill railway station, a station currently located near the Jordanhill Campus of the University of Strathclyde and the Jordanhill School that opened in 1887?
• ...that the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways add about 500 km of new track each year to their network with planned links to Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan?
• ...that El Gobernador, Central Pacific Railroad's 4-10-0 steam locomotive, had to be shipped from the shops in Sacramento, California in five large subassemblies due to its enormous size?