Portal:Trains/Did you know/July 2013

July 2013

Curve with superelevation of tracks on the Keystone Corridor near Rosemont, PA, in 2011

• ...that one element of railway track geometry is superelevation in curved track, in which the track is usually designed with a raised outer rail, providing a banked turn, thus allowing trains to maneuver through the curve at higher speeds than would otherwise be possible if the surface was flat or level?

A 10-car train of Tobu 8000 series cars on the Tōjō Line in 2008

• ...that a total of 712 cars in Tobu Railway's 8000 series fleet were built between 1963 and 1983, making this the most numerous EMU type operated by a private railway operator in Japan?

The platforms and tracks of the relocated Tel Aviv South station in 2008

• ...that construction of the original Tel Aviv Custom House Station in 1920, later known as Tel Aviv South Railway Station, and its adjacent custom house was one of the first civil engineering works the British carried out in present-day Israel, once their governing mandate was established by the League of Nations?
• ...that the new AVRIL passenger train under development by Talgo, of which a prototype was premiered at InnoTrans 2010, will have front and rear power cars containing under-floor traction equipment, and 12 trailer cars in between the power cars, giving a total seating capacity comparable to those of an electric multiple unit rather than a locomotive-hauled train?

A coal train of Rinkō Line in 2007

• ...that the Rinkō Line, which opened in 1925 and is operated by Taiheiyō Coal Services and Transportation in Japan, is the only private railway in Hokkaidō, as well as the only surviving colliery railway in Japan?

The IRT Sixth Avenue line looking north from 14th Street in 1905

• ...that when the IRT Sixth Avenue Line in New York City was demolished in 1938, concern was expressed that scrap metal from the demolition would reach the Japanese, and allegations of such continued as late as the 1960s despite repeated denials?

System map of the Gulf Coast Lines system from before 1924

• ...that the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway, nicknamed the Brownie and originally envisioned as part of a larger system to connect Chicago to Mexico City, connected the citizens of Brownsville to nearby Corpus Christi for the first time on land rather than by using water transportation?

Class 1ES no. E145 at Salt River, Cape Town, in 1975

• ...that between 1925 and 1945, spread over seven orders, South African Railways placed altogether one hundred and seventy-two Class 1E electric locomotives in service, the first main-line electric locomotives to be introduced in South Africa?

A split-flap departure board at Gare du Nord, Paris, in 2007

• ...that Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has specifically designed the new LED replacements for its aging Solari boards at North Station and South Station to emit an electronically generated flapping noise to cue passengers to train boarding updates?

An example of single-line working in the Czech Republic in 2011

• ...that when a section of track which is not normally signaled for bi-directional operations has to be used in both directions for single-line working, very special safety measures, such as tokens or pilotman operations, are needed to ensure safe operation?

The west exit of Shinsen Station in 2008

• ...that although Shinsen Station on the Keio Inokashira Line in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, is considered to be an above-ground station, most of the station is actually within a tunnel so it is somewhat like an underground station?

Shin-Kobe station in 2004

• ...that although Shin-Kobe Station is closer to the city center of Kobe, Japan, and is connected to it by the Kobe Municipal Subway, many Sanyō Shinkansen passengers from central Kobe use Shin-Ōsaka Station instead because the latter is easily accessible by JR Kobe Line and more trains leave for Tokyo at Shin-Ōsaka than at Shin-Kobe?

The former Tomoegawaguchi Station in 2008

• ...that on the former Shimizukō Line, a branch line off the Tōkaidō Main Line from Shimizu Station that terminated in the residential area of Miho, in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Japan, the best preserved of its stations is Tomoegawaguchi, with a full platform and section of track complete with station signage still standing and now surrounded by a car park?

Part of the Seneseki Line platforms and tracks at Sendai Station in 2007

• ...that the above-ground portion of Sendai Station in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, lies in Aoba-ku and is situated so that tracks run roughly north-south, while in the station's easternmost section, the platform for the east-west Senseki Line lies underground and across the ward border in Miyagino-ku?

An S-Bahn Zürich RABe 514 "DTZ" train on the S8 service near Felben-Wellhausen in 2009

• ...that because delivery of the first Swiss Federal Railways RABe 514 trains was delayed from the manufacturer by several months, Siemens agreed to build an additional train instead of paying a penalty, completing delivery of all 61 trains in July 2009?

A Hokusei Line 270 series train in 2006

• ...that in addition to the 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge Sangi Line, the Sangi Railway, which was originally established in 1928 in Japan, also operates the former Kintetsu Hokusei Line, the longest of only four lines remaining in the country that are still 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) gauge?

The remnant of the gravel line west of Sakado station in 2011

• ...that the track maintenance storage track stub to the west of Sakado Station, between the Tōjō Line and Ogose Line tracks in Sakado, Saitama, Japan, is the truncated remainder of a line built in the 1920s and used until the 1960s to transport gravel from the Komagawa River?

Haslem's Creek Cemetery station on the Rookwood Cemetery line circa 1865

• ...that as part of the services offered on the Rookwood Cemetery railway line some stations of the Sydney, Australia, suburban network now known as CityRail, such as Newtown had special platform areas and buildings reserved for mourners and coffins?

RENFE number 353-001-1 at Irun station in 2000

• ...that the standard gauge bogies designed for RENFE's Class 353 diesel-hydraulic locomotives, which were introduced in the late 1960s to pull dual gauge trains between Madrid and Paris, found a use unexpected at the time of the locomotives' inception in 1991 when one of the class was used to tow a Talgo Pendular train on the high speed Madrid to Seville AVE line?

JR's first experimental magnetic levitation train, ML100, on display outside RTRI in 2005

• ...that the Railway Technical Research Institute, which was established in 1986 just before Japanese National Railways was privatised and split into separate Japan Railways Group companies, works both on developing new railway technology, such as magnetic levitation, and improving the safety and economy of current technology including earthquake detection and alarm systems, systems for detecting obstacles on level crossings and improving adhesion between train wheels and tracks?

A rail push trolley in India in 1978

• ...that although many railways in the world have switched to other methods of inspection, including inspection locomotives and road-rail vehicles, push-trolleys are still widely used over Indian Railways in addition to other techniques, especially for inspecting railway track and assets like bridges which are situated between stations?

PRR #460, preserved at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in 2010

• ...that when Charles Lindbergh was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1927, there was intense competition between several newsreel companies to be the first to get footage of the ceremony from Washington, D.C., to New York City to show in the Broadway theaters, such that International News Reel Corporation chartered a Pennsylvania Railroad train pulled by E6 class locomotive #460 because the train could carry a darkroom to develop the film en route?

The main exhibition hall of Pietrarsa railway museum in 2008

• ...that the Pietrarsa railway museum is located on the premises of the former metal foundry of the Kingdom of Naples, a plant that produced most of the boilers for steam locomotives and steam-driven ships in the kingdom in the first half of the 19th century?

The tracks and platforms of Gare de Poitiers on the Paris–Bordeaux railway in 2010

• ...that the opening of the LGV Atlantique high speed line from Paris to Tours in 1989 has decreased the importance of this section of the Paris–Bordeaux railway for passenger traffic, a line that originally opened in stages beginning in 1840, and an additional LGV, from Tours to Bordeaux, is planned that would further decrease TGV services on the original line?

Little Eaton Gangway in July 1908 with the last train of loaded coal wagons arriving

• ...that a common misconception is that the word "tramway" derives from the surname of Benjamin Outram, who developed the Little Eaton Gangway as a feeder line for the Derby Canal in England, but the word actually derives from the Low German word "traam" meaning "a beam" (of a wheelbarrow)?