Portal:Trains/Selected article/2008 archive
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This is an archive of article summaries that have appeared in the Selected article section of Portal:Trains in 2008. For past archives, see the complete archive page.
The class E 10 is an electric locomotive class of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, introduced in 1952. It belongs to the so-called Einheits-Elektrolokomotiven (standardised electric locomotives) program and was built for express passenger service. The class was designed with largely standardised components and was one of the first German locomotive classes that included seats for the engineers (whereas formerly they had to stand in order to boost their attentiveness). In 1968 the series was redesignated as class 110 (E10) and class 112 (E10.12). In 1988 the last series of class 112 locomotives were designated as class 114, and in 1991 the remaining locomotives of class 112 were designated as class 113. In 2006, 38 locomotives were designated as class 115. The five prototypes of this class were taken out of service between 1975 and 1978; of these E 10 003 and E 10 005 were preserved as museum locomotives.
Recently selected: Otto Kuhler - 2005 New York City transit strike - LSWR M7 Class
- Week 2
- January 6-January 12
The sleeping car or sleeper is a railroad passenger car that can accommodate all its passengers in beds of one kind or another, primarily for the purpose of making nighttime travel more restful. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American railroads in the 1830s and could be configured for coach seating during the day. Some of the more luxurious types have private rooms, that is to say fully- and solidly-enclosed rooms that are not shared with strangers. In the United States today, all regularly-scheduled sleeping car services are operated by Amtrak. Amtrak offers sleeping cars on most of its overnight trains, using modern cars of the private-room type exclusively. In Canada, all regularly scheduled sleeping car services are operated by VIA Rail Canada, using a mixture of relatively-new cars and refurbished mid-20th century cars; the latter cars include both private rooms and "open section" accommodations. An example of a more basic type of sleeping car is the European couchette car, which is divided into compartments for four or six people, with bench-configuration seating during the day and "privacyless" double- or triple-level bunk-beds at night. Even more basic is the Chinese "hard" sleeping car in use today, consisting of fixed bunk beds, which cannot be converted into seats, in a public space. Chinese trains also offer "soft" or deluxe sleeping cars with four beds per room.
Recently selected: DB Class E 10 - Otto Kuhler - 2005 New York City transit strike
- Week 3
- January 13-January 19
The BR Standard Class 7, otherwise known as the Britannia Class, is a class of 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive designed by Robert Riddles for use in the United Kingdom by British Railways for mixed traffic duties. Fifty-five were constructed between 1951 and 1954. The design was a result of the 1948 locomotive exchanges undertaken in advance of further locomotive classes being constructed. Three batches were constructed at Crewe Works, before the publication of the 1955 Modernisation Plan. The Britannias Class was based on several previous locomotive designs, incorporating the best practices in locomotive technology as regards labour-saving and lowering maintenance costs; various weight-saving measures also increased the route availability of a Pacific-type locomotive on the British Railways network. The Britannias received a positive reception from their crews, with those regularly operating the locomotives giving them favourable reports as regards performance. However, trials in some areas of the British Railway network returned negative feedback, primarily due to indifferent operation of the locomotive, with its effects on adhering to timetables. The Britannias took their names from great Britons, former Star Class locomotives, and Scottish firths. The class remained in service until the last was withdrawn in 1968. Two survived into preservation, the doyen, number 70000 Britannia, and 70013 Oliver Cromwell. Only number 70000 has seen service on the railway network since 1968.
Recently selected: Sleeping car - DB Class E 10 - Otto Kuhler
- Week 4
- January 20-January 26
The Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York, with New Jersey, and providing service to Jersey City, Hoboken, Harrison, and Newark. It is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. PATH is one of the few rapid transit systems in the world that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While some PATH stations are adjacent to New York City Subway, Newark Light Rail and Hudson-Bergen Light Rail stations, there are no free transfers as the four systems operate independently. PATH spans 13.8 miles (22.2 km) of route mileage, not including any route overlap. PATH trains only use tunnels in Manhattan and parts of New Jersey (specifically, Hoboken and downtown Jersey City). The tracks cross the Hudson River through century-old cast iron tubes that rest on the river bottom under a thin layer of silt. PATH's routes from Grove Street in Jersey City west to Newark run in open cuts, at grade level, and on elevated track. As of 2006, PATH has an average weekday ridership of 239,200.
Recently selected: BR Standard Class 7 - Sleeping car - DB Class E 10
- Week 5
- January 27-February 2
Britomart Transport Centre (often simply Britomart), is the Auckland, New Zealand, central business district transport hub. It combines a bus interchange and railway station in an Edwardian former post office (extended with expansive post-modernist architectural elements), with the main ferry terminal being just across Quay Street. It is located at the foot of Queen Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of Auckland's central business district. At the time of its inception, the centre was Auckland's largest transport project ever and is also one of the few underground railways stations in the world where diesel motive power is used. It is the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk line. The centre was built to move rail access closer to the city's central business district and thereby help boost Auckland's low usage of public transport.
Recently selected: Port Authority Trans-Hudson - BR Standard Class 7 - Sleeping car
- Week 6
- February 3-February 9
The SR Class Q1 is a type of austerity steam locomotive constructed during the Second World War. The class was designed by Oliver Bulleid for use on the intensive freight turns experienced during wartime on the Southern Railway network. A total of 40 locomotives were built. Bulleid incorporated many innovations and weight-saving concepts to produce a highly functional design. The class lasted in service until July 1966, and the doyen of the class, C1, has been preserved by the National Railway Museum. The highly unusual and controversial design represents the ultimate development of the British 0-6-0 freight engine, capable of hauling trains that were usually allocated to much larger locomotives on other railways
Recently selected: Britomart Transport Centre - Port Authority Trans-Hudson - BR Standard Class 7
- Week 7
- February 10-February 16
The Indiana Railroad (IR) was the last of the typical Midwestern United States interurban lines. It was formed in 1930 by combining the operations of the five major interurban systems in central Indiana into one entity. The predecessor companies had all previously come under the control of Midland Utilities, owned by Samuel Insull. It was Insull's plan to consolidate the Indiana interurban network, modernizing the profitable routes and abandoning the unprofitable ones. With the onset of the Great Depression, the Insull empire collapsed and the Indiana Railroad was left with a decaying infrastructure and little hope for overcoming the competition of the automobile. During the 1930s the Indiana Railroad's lines were all abandoned one by one until a wreck in 1941 put an end to the last operation of typical interurban lines in Indiana.
Recently selected: SR Class Q1 - Britomart Transport Centre - Port Authority Trans-Hudson
- Week 8
- February 17-February 23
The Channel Tunnel (French: le tunnel sous la Manche), also known as Chunnel or Eurotunnel is a 50.450 km (31.35 mi) long rail tunnel beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover, connecting Folkestone, Kent in England () to Coquelles near Calais in northern France (). The "tunnel" consists of three separate tunnels; two 7.6 m (25 ft) diameter single track, single direction rail tunnels which are 30 m (98 ft) apart and one 4.8 m (16 ft) diameter service tunnel between them. It was a megaproject with several false starts, but it was finally completed in 1994. It is the second-longest rail tunnel in the world, with the Seikan Tunnel in Japan being longer, but the undersea section of the Channel Tunnel, at 37.9 km (23.55 mi), is the longest undersea tunnel in the world. The American Society of Civil Engineers has declared the tunnel to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
Recently selected: Indiana Railroad - SR Class Q1 - Britomart Transport Centre
- Week 9
- February 24-March 1
Thomas Brassey (7 November 1805 – 8 December 1870) was an English civil engineering contractor and manufacturer of building materials who was responsible for building much of the world's railways in the 19th century. By 1847, he had built about one-third of the railways in Britain, and by time of his death in 1870 he had built one mile in every 20 miles of railway in the world. This included three-quarters of the lines in France, major lines in many other European countries and in Canada, Australia, South America and India. He also built the structures associated with those railways, including docks, bridges, viaducts, stations, tunnels and drainage works. As well as railway engineering, Brassey was active in the development of steamships, mines, locomotive factories, marine telegraphy, and water supply and sewage systems. He built part of the London sewerage system and was a major shareholder in Brunel's The Great Eastern, the only ship large enough at the time to lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable across the North Atlantic, in 1864.
Recently selected: Channel Tunnel - Indiana Railroad - SR Class Q1
The BR Standard Class 8 was a class of 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive designed by Robert Riddles for use by British Railways. Only the prototype was constructed, which was named Duke of Gloucester. Constructed at Crewe Works in 1954, the Duke, as it is also referred to, was a replacement for the destroyed Princess Coronation Class locomotive number 46202 Princess Anne, which was involved in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail disaster of 1952. The Duke was based on the BR Standard Class 7 Britannia design. It incorporated three sets of modified Caprotti valve gear, relatively new to British locomotive engineering, and more efficient than two sets of Walschaerts or Stephenson valve gear. The Duke was regarded as a failure by locomotive crews due to its poor steaming characteristics and its heavy fuel consumption. Trials undertaken by British Railways also returned negative feedback, reporting problems with the poor draughting of the locomotive having an adverse effect on adhering to timetables. The result was an operational period of only eight years. This unique locomotive was saved from being scrapped at Woodhams' Scrapyard when it was purchased by a group of railway enthusiasts who restored it from scrapyard to as-built condition in 13 years. Since then, modifications have been made to the original design, resulting in one of the most efficient and powerful locomotives ever to run in Britain. As a result, the Duke of Gloucester can frequently be seen on the mainline around Britain.
Recently selected: Thomas Brassey - Channel Tunnel - Indiana Railroad
The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (AAR reporting marks DRG and DRGW), generally referred to as the Rio Grande, became the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1920, and is today a fallen flag (a railroad that has been absorbed into a larger system — Southern Pacific Railroad — as the result of a merger). The D&RGW served mainly as a transcontinental bridge line between Denver, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah, and as a major origin of coal and mineral traffic, with a motto of Through the Rockies, not around them. The Rio Grande was the epitome of mountain railroading, operating the highest mainline rail line in the United States, the over 10,240 ft (3,121 m) Tennessee Pass in Colorado, and the famed routes through the Moffat Tunnel and the Royal Gorge. At its height, around 1890, the D&RG had the largest operating narrow gauge railroad network in North America. Known for its independence, the D&RGW operated the last private longhaul passenger train in the United States, the Rio Grande Zephyr.
Recently selected: BR Standard Class 8 - Thomas Brassey - Channel Tunnel
Rail transport in Victoria, Australia, is provided by a number of railway operators who operate over the government owned railway lines. Victorian lines use 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) broad gauge, with the exception of a number of standard gauge 4 ft 8½ in (1,435 mm) freight and interstate lines, a few experimental 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge lines, and various private logging, mining and industrial railways. Railways were privately owned and operated, until the State Government established the vertically integrated Victorian Railways in 1883. This remained until corporatisation occurred in the 1980s, followed by privatisation in the 1990s. Passenger services today are operated by Connex Melbourne in suburban Melbourne with electric multiple units, and V/Line in regional Victoria with diesel trains. Freight is operated by Pacific National and other private operators such as El Zorro, Specialised Container Transport and QRNational. The rail network radiates from the state capital, Melbourne, with two main interstate links to Sydney and Adelaide, as well as major lines running to regional centres, upgraded as part of the Regional Fast Rail project. The rail network reached a peak in 1942 but steadily declined, as branch and cross country lines were closed up to the 1980s. Victoria does not have a dominant mining base as with other states, and has traditionally been more dependent on agriculture for rail freight traffic. By the 1990s road transport had captured most general freight traffic, with an average of only 6.1 million tonnes of intrastate freight carried each year between 1996 and 1998; containers being the major cargo, followed by cement, logs, quarry products, and steel.
Recently selected: Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad - BR Standard Class 8 - Thomas Brassey
The SR Class LN or Lord Nelson Class is a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotive designed for the Southern Railway by Richard Maunsell. Intended for express passenger work to the South-West of England. Sixteen of this type were constructed at Southern's Eastleigh Works between 1926 and 1929; they represented the ultimate in Southern 4-6-0 design. They followed Southern Railway practice of naming their express passenger types, in this case after famous admirals. The class continued to operate with British Railways until 1961, after modifications were made to the blastpipe by Oliver Bulleid. The class was withdrawn in 1961, and only one example of the class has been preserved. Lord Nelson can be seen running on mainline tours throughout Britain.
Recently selected: Rail transport in Victoria - Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad - BR Standard Class 8
Trench railways represented military adaptation of early 20th century railway technology to the problem of keeping soldiers supplied during the static trench warfare phase of World War I. The large concentrations of soldiers and artillery at the front lines required delivery of enormous quantities of food, ammunition and fortification construction materials where transportation facilities had been destroyed. Reconstruction of conventional roads and railways was too slow, and fixed facilities were attractive targets for enemy artillery. Trench railways linked the front with standard gauge railway facilities beyond the range of enemy artillery. Empty cars often carried litters returning wounded from the front. France had standardized 600 mm (1 ft 11⅝ in) gauge military Decauville equipment and Germany adopted similar feldbahn of the same gauge. British War Department Light Railways and the United States Army Transportation Corps used the French 600 mm gauge system. Russia used Decauville 600 mm and 750 mm (2 ft 5½ in) systems. Unskilled laborers and soldiers could quickly assemble prefabricated 5-metre (16 ft) sections of track weighing about 100 kilograms (220 lb) along roads or over smooth terrain. The track distributed heavy loads to minimize development of muddy ruts through unpaved surfaces. Small locomotives pulled short trains of ten-tonne capacity cars through areas of minimum clearance and small-radius curves. Derailments were common, but the light rolling stock was relatively easy to rerail. Steam locomotives typically carried a short length of flexible pipe (called a water-lifter) to refill water tanks from flooded shell holes. Steam locomotives produced enough smoke to reveal their location to enemy artillery, so they required fog or darkness to operate within visual range of the front. Daylight transport usually required animal power until internal combustion locomotives were developed. Large quantities of hay and grain were carried to the front while horses remained an essential part of military logistics.
Recently selected: SR Lord Nelson Class - Rail transport in Victoria - Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
Union Station is the major inter-city rail station and a major commuter rail hub in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The station is located on Front Street West and occupies the south side of the block bounded by Bay Street and York Street in the central business district. The station building is owned by the City of Toronto, while the trainshed and trackage east and west of the station is owned by the commuter rail operator GO Transit. Serving 200,000 passengers a day, it is the busiest passenger transportation facility in Canada. Union Station is at the centre of the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, the busiest inter-city rail service area in the nation (marketed as the Corridor), which extends from Windsor and Sarnia in the west to Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City in the east. Inter-city trains at Union Station are operated by VIA Rail, Amtrak and Ontario Northland, while commuter rail services are operated by GO Transit. The station is also connected to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway system. The station saw 2.34 million VIA Rail boardings in 2004, more than half of all VIA passengers carried that year. Additionally, Union Station is the central terminal for GO Transit, handling approximately 41 million GO Transit commuter rail passengers and 20 million TTC subway passengers in 2004.
Recently selected: Trench railways - SR Lord Nelson Class - Rail transport in Victoria
The Mussel Slough Tragedy was a dispute over land titles between settlers and the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) that took place on May 11, 1880 on a farm located 5.6 miles (9 km) northwest of Hanford, California in the central San Joaquin Valley, leaving seven people dead. Frank Norris' 1901 novel, The Octopus: A California Story, was inspired by this incident, as was W. C. Morrow's 1882 novel Blood-Money. The exact history of the tragedy has been the source of some disagreement, due to a popular anti-railroad sentiment in the 1880s which saw the tragedy as a clear example of corrupt and cold-blooded corporate greed. Muckraking journalists and anti-railroad activists glorified the settlers and used the tragedy as evidence and justification for their anti-corporate crusades. The site of the episode is now registered as California Historical Landmark #245. The historical marker is at Coordinates: on the east side of 14th Avenue, 350 yards (320 m) north of Elder Avenue.
Recently selected: Union Station (Toronto) - Trench railways - SR Lord Nelson Class
The Talyllyn Railway (Welsh: Rheilffordd Talyllyn) is a narrow-gauge preserved railway running for 7¼ miles (11.8 km) from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1866 to carry slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn, and was the first narrow gauge railway in Britain authorised by Act of Parliament to carry passengers using steam haulage. Despite severe under-investment, the line remained open, and in 1951 it became the first railway in the world to be preserved as a heritage railway by volunteers. Since preservation, the railway has operated as a tourist attraction. It has significantly expanded its rolling stock through acquisition and an engineering programme to build new locomotives and carriages. In 1976 an extension was opened along the former mineral line from Abergynolwyn to the new station at Nant Gwernol. In 2001 the preservation society celebrated its 50th anniversary. In 2005 a major rebuilding and extension of Tywyn Wharf station was opened, including a much expanded facility for the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum. The origin of the railway's name is uncertain: it is thought to refer to the parish of Talyllyn, which contains its eastern terminus, or it may come from Tal-y-llyn, a large glacial ribbon lake at the foot of Cadair Idris 3 miles (5 km) further east. The gauge of the track is 2 ft 3 in (686 mm). This is an unusual gauge, and was shared by only three other public railways in the United Kingdom: the nearby Corris Railway (which predated the Talyllyn), and the subsequent Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway and Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway.
Recently selected: Mussel Slough Tragedy - Union Station (Toronto) - Trench railways
The ALCO FA was a family of B-B diesel locomotives designed to haul freight trains. The locomotives were built by a partnership of ALCO and GE in Schenectady, New York, between January 1946 and May 1959. They were of a cab unit design, and both cab-equipped lead (A unit) FA and cabless booster (B unit) FB models were built. A dual passenger-freight version, the FPA/FPB, was also offered. It was equipped with a steam generator for heating passenger cars. Externally, the FA and FB models looked very similar to the ALCO PA models produced in the same period. Both the FA and PA models were styled by GE's Ray Patten. They shared many of the same characteristics both aesthetically and mechanically. It was the locomotive's mechanical qualities (the ALCO 244V12 prime mover) and newer locomotive models from both General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and General Electric (the partnership with ALCO was dissolved in 1953) that ultimately led to the retirement of the locomotive model from revenue service. Several examples of FAs and FBs have been preserved in railroad museums, a few of them in operational states on such lines as the Grand Canyon Railway in Arizona and the Napa Valley Wine Train in California.
Recently selected: Talyllyn Railway - Mussel Slough Tragedy - Union Station (Toronto)
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Class A1/A3 represent two stages in the history of the British 4-6-2 "Pacific" steam locomotives designed by Nigel Gresley. They were designed for main line passenger services, initially on the Great Northern Railway (GNR), a constituent company of the London and North Eastern Railway after the amalgamation of 1923, for which they became a standard design. The change in class designation to A3 reflected the fitting to the same chassis of a higher pressure boiler with a greater superheating surface and a small reduction in cylinder diameter, leading to an increase in locomotive weight. Eventually all of the A1 locomotives were rebuilt to A3 specifications. The names for the locomotives came from a variety of sources. The first, Great Northern, was named after its parent company. Others were given the names of high-ranking railway officials, but most were given the names of famous racehorses. One was named after the company's most famous long-distance passenger train, the Flying Scotsman (also the name of a racehorse). Flying Scotsman is the sole survivor of the class to be preserved. As of 2008, it is under mechanical overhaul at the National Railway Museum.
Recently selected: ALCO FA - Talyllyn Railway - Mussel Slough Tragedy
The A2 class was an express passenger steam locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways (VR) in Australia from 1907 to 1963. A highly successful design entirely the work of Victorian Railways' own design office, its long service life was repeatedly extended as economic depression and war delayed the introduction of more modern and powerful replacement locomotives. The introduction of the A2 class marked a turning point in Victorian Railways locomotive design, as it was entirely designed by VR engineers of the newly established Locomotive Design Section and the entire class built in-house at Victorian Railways workshops. For over forty years, the A2 was the main express passenger locomotive on the VR, hauling intrastate and interstate services. With a maximum permitted speed of 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) the A2 was instrumental in the acceleration of timetables on many lines in the years following its introduction. They famously ran the Geelong Flier service (the first "named" train in Victoria) slashing journey times between Melbourne and Geelong from 90 minutes to 63 and finally 55 minutes, a time not significantly improved upon until the introduction of 100 mph (160 km/h) Regional Fast Rail services in 2006. In 1951 the A2 was finally superseded. In 1953, no fewer than 53 A2s went to scrap, followed by 36 more in 1954. However, many of the class continued on in secondary roles such as branch line passenger and goods services and a number lasted into the 1960s. Their last regular mainline duty was hauling services between Flinders Street Station and Leongatha, on the South Gippsland line. The last in service, A2 986, was withdrawn on 2 December 1963, exactly 56 years after the original A2 572 entered service.
Recently selected: LNER Class A1/A3 - ALCO FA - Talyllyn Railway
The Chemin de fer des Côtes-du-Nord (abbr. CdN, lit. Railway of the Côtes-du-Nord), the Côtes-d'Armor today, was a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3⅜ in) gauge railway in Côtes-du-Nord, France, although there were a few kilometres of line in Finistère and Ille-et-Vilaine. The first lines opened in 1905 and final closure was in 1956. The lines were a voies ferrées d'intérêt local system with a total extent of 457 kilometres (284 mi). The system was constructed in two stages, the initial lines built between 1905 and 1907, and the extensions during and after the First World War which were opened between 1916 and 1926. These lines would make the CdN slightly bigger than the Réseau Breton. The first closures were in 1937, but the Second World War gave the CdN a stay of execution, and parts of the system remained open until 1956.
Recently selected: Victorian Railways A2 class - LNER Class A1/A3 - ALCO FA
Pennsylvania Station (commonly known as "Penn Station") is the major intercity rail station and a major commuter rail hub in New York City. The station is located in the underground levels of Pennsylvania Plaza, an urban complex at 8th Avenue and 31st Street in Midtown Manhattan, and is owned by Amtrak. Pennsylvania Station is named for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), its builder and original tenant, and shares its name with several stations in other cities. The current facility is the substantially remodeled underground remnant of a much grander structure designed by McKim, Mead, and White and completed in 1910. The original Pennsylvania Station was an outstanding masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and one of the architectural jewels of New York City. The above-ground portion of the original structure was demolished in 1964 and replaced by the present Pennsylvania Plaza complex, including the fourth and current Madison Square Garden. Serving 600,000 passengers a day (compared to 140,000 across town at Grand Central Terminal) at a rate of up to a thousand every 90 seconds, Penn Station is the busiest passenger transportation facility in the United States and by far the busiest train station in North America. Penn Station is at the center of the Northeast Corridor, an electrified passenger rail line extending south to Washington, D.C., and north to Boston. Intercity trains are operated by Amtrak, while commuter rail services are operated by the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit. The station is also connected to six New York City Subway lines. Penn Station is the busiest Amtrak station in the United States. The station saw 4.3 million Amtrak boardings in 2004, more than double the traffic at the next busiest station, Union Station in Washington, D.C. Penn Station's assigned IATA airport code is ZYP, and its Amtrak and NJ Transit station code is NYP.
Recently selected: Chemin de fer des Côtes-du-Nord - Victorian Railways A2 class - LNER Class A1/A3
The SR U Class were 2-6-0 mogul steam locomotives designed by Richard Maunsell for passenger duties on the Southern Railway in Great Britain. They were to be used on cross-country and semi-fast expresses. A highly standardised class of locomotive, the U Class project was given greater emphasis after the Sevenoaks railway accident which involved another class of locomotive, Harry Wainwright's SECR K Class 2-6-4T. Several members of the U Class were rebuilds of the K Class at the Ashford railway works, and were soon granted the nickname 'U-Boats.' The U Class was a reliable and economical design, and proved to be more than capable of attaining speeds in excess of 70 mph (110 km/h). Able to operate over most of the Southern Railway network after grouping in 1923, the U Class survived until 1966, when all had been withdrawn from service. Four examples have been preserved, two at the Bluebell Railway, and two others at the Mid-Hants Railway.
Recently selected: Pennsylvania Station (New York City) - Chemin de fer des Côtes-du-Nord - Victorian Railways A2 class
Colonel Cyrus Kurtz Holliday (April 3, 1826 – March 29, 1900) was one of the founders of Topeka, Kansas. He was also the first president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, as well as one of the railroad's directors for nearly 40 years. He was born to David and Mary (Kennedy) Holliday, in Kidderminster, Pennsylvania (near Carlisle) and received a public school education, graduating from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he studied law, in 1852. While he was still in Meadville, he was asked to prepare legal documentation for a new railroad that would connect to the city. Holliday saw the potential of the line and instead of asking for a standard fee to create the documents, he asked for and was granted a partnership in the new railroad. When this railroad was purchased by the larger system, Holliday earned $20,000 from the sale. In 1854 he moved to Kansas, leaving his wife behind in Pennsylvania to follow later. He first settled in Lawrence in October 1854, and helped to find a location for the new townsite of Topeka by December 1854. Once Topeka was founded, it needed transportation to connect it to the rest of the country. Holliday's legal skills were called on again to create the paperwork for a new railroad. In 1859 he wrote the charter for the Atchison and Topeka Railroad Company, which would connect the two cities by rail following the route of the Santa Fe Trail. Holliday was named a director and president of the new railroad on September 17, 1860, which was renamed in 1863 to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. During his tenure as president, Holliday secured land grants from the federal government that would soon be used by the railroad to populate the western portion of Kansas in order to build a customer base for the railroad. He stepped down from the presidency at the end of 1863, but remained on the board of directors until July 27, 1865. He rejoined the board on September 24, 1868, this time serving until his death on March 29, 1900.
Recently selected: SR U Class - Pennsylvania Station (New York City) - Chemin de fer des Côtes-du-Nord
- Week 25
- June 15-June 21
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Recently selected: Cyrus K. Holliday - SR U Class - Pennsylvania Station (New York City)
- Week 26
- June 22-June 28
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Recently selected: - Cyrus K. Holliday - SR U Class
- Week 27
- June 29-July 5
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- Week 28
- July 6-July 12
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- Week 29
- July 13-July 19
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- Week 30
- July 20-July 26
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- Week 31
- July 27-August 2
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- Week 32
- August 3-August 9
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- Week 33
- August 10-August 16
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- Week 34
- August 17-August 23
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- Week 35
- August 24-August 30
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- Week 36
- August 31-September 6
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- Week 37
- September 7-September 13
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- Week 38
- September 14-September 20
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- Week 39
- September 21-September 27
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- Week 40
- September 28-October 4
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- Week 41
- October 5-October 11
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- Week 42
- October 12-October 18
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- Week 43
- October 19-October 25
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- Week 44
- October 26-November 1
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- Week 45
- November 2-November 8
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- Week 46
- November 9-November 15
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- Week 47
- November 16-November 22
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- Week 48
- November 23-November 29
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- Week 49
- November 30-December 6
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- Week 50
- December 7-December 13
- The Portal:Trains Selected article has not been chosen yet for this week.
Recently selected: - -
- Week 51
- December 14-December 20
- The Portal:Trains Selected article has not been chosen yet for this week.
Recently selected: - -
- Week 52
- December 21-December 27
- The Portal:Trains Selected article has not been chosen yet for this week.
Recently selected: - -
- Week 53
- December 28-January 3, 2009
- The Portal:Trains Selected article has not been chosen yet for this week.
Recently selected: - -
