Portal:Trains/Did you know/October 2019

October 2019

Preserved TGR locomotive and passenger train on the Don River Railway in 2014

• ...that the special Royal Hobart Show trains which ended in 1978 were the last Tasmanian Government Railways passenger trains to be run in Tasmania?

Local (left) and express (right) trains on the Taoyuan Airport MRT line in March 2017

• ...that since express trains on the Taoyuan Airport MRT line are optimized for airline passengers, flight information display systems are installed at express stops along the line?

The former Tampa Southern Railroad station at Bradenton, Florida, in 2010, now used as a medical clinic

• ...that the former Tampa Southern Railroad line to Fort Ogden, Florida, part of which is now the right-of-way for Desoto County Road 761 frequently served as a shortcut for passenger trains traveling from Tampa to Fort Myers and Naples?

A train at a platform at Tambaram station in August 2008

• ...that the railway lines at Tambaram railway station were among the first in Chennai to be electrified?

A train control sign at St Budeaux Victoria Road station advising drivers to collect the staff before proceeding

• ...that trains on the Tamar Valley Line in Cornwall heading towards Gunnislake must collect the branch train staff at St Budeaux Victoria Road as the line is operated on the one train working system?

Tallarook station in 2012

• ...that when the parallel standard gauge line was built though Tallarook railway station in 1961, it cut right though the middle of the station, with three gauge crossings provided between the broad gauge main line and the sidings on the other side?

A train of Tait cars at Springvale Cemetery railway station in 1938

• ...that the Tait wooden-bodied Electric Multiple Unit trains that operated on the suburban railway network of Melbourne were built before electrification and designed to be retrofitted for electric operation?

Construction work to double-track the Taff Vale Railway line at Quakers Yard

• ...that when the Taff Vale Railway opened in 1840, the line included a 0.5-mile long (0.80 km) section at Quakers Yard with gradients of 1 in 19 and 1 in 22 that was operated with 50 hp stationary winding engines?

T. F. Green Airport station in 2017

• ...that the T. F. Green Airport station on the Northeast Corridor in Warwick, Rhode Island, makes it possible to move between T. F. Green and Logan International airports in about two hours via rail?

An Alstom Metropolis train of the Sydney Metro arrives at Chatswood Station in June 2019

• ...that with the opening of the first phase of Sydney Metro in May 2019, Sydney became the first Australian city to realise a fully automated metro system?

Class FC no. 2310, later renumbered 670, c. 1925

• ...that South African Railways' experimental Class FC 2-6-2+2-6-2 locomotive was designed to compare the performance and maintenance requirements of the modified Fairlie to that of a Garratt, in particular to the Class GC 2-6-2+2-6-2?

The track and platform side of Sydenham station in July 2008

• ...that the right-of-way for the current railway line at Sydenham railway station in London was originally opened in 1809 as the Grand Surrey Canal?

A Kings class locomotive under construction at Swindon Works in the 1920s

• ...that Swindon Works may have been sited based on the location where Isambard Kingdom Brunel dropped a sandwich?

Watercolor depiction of the Surrey Iron Railway passing over a road

• ...that by providing a track for independent goods hauliers to use their own horses and wagons, the Surrey Iron Railway was operated as a public toll railway?

An ES class locomotive in operation in the late 1930s

• ...that South African Railways' Class ES electric locomotives were nicknamed Studebakers since the two long hoods either side of the cab were likened to a 1947 Studebaker Commander Business Coupe?

ONCF class DH 370 (number 374, an EMD GT26CW-2) pulls a passenger train between Guercif and Safsafat, Morocco, in 2010

• ...that EMD's GT26CW-2 diesel-electric locomotive type, derived from the SD40-2 design for export, has been used in Iran, Israel, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, South Korea, Turkey and Yugoslavia?

Aftermath of the 1908 accident at Sunshine station

• ...that within about a year of being renamed from Baybrook Junction, in 1908 Sunshine railway station in Melbourne was the scene of the worst train crash in Victorian railway history, the Sunshine train disaster?

Amtrak's Sunset Limited in 2004

• ...that Amtrak's Sunset Limited is the oldest named train in the United States, having been first introduced in 1894 by Southern Pacific Railroad and transferred to Amtrak operation in 1971?