Portal:Trains/Did you know/December 2009

• ...that when news reached the New York Stock Exchange that the American bank Jay Cooke & Company, the exclusive bond agent and primary source of funding for Northern Pacific Railway, had suspended operations after overextending itself in railroad securities, equities plummeted, causing a chain reaction of bank runs and failures known as the Panic of 1873?

• ...that the Congo-Ocean Railway was constructed using forced labour by the French colonial administration, and it has been estimated that 17,000 of the construction workers, who were mainly recruited from what is now southern Chad and the Central African Republic, died during the construction of the railway?

• ...that the N441 - Steam Locomotive Project is an attempt by Australian railway enthusiasts to recreate an operable Victorian Railways N class 2-8-2 steam locomotive, of which only two survive and both as permanent static exhibits in museums, by converting one of the 21 surviving Victorian Railways K class 2-8-0s into an N?

• ...that the design of the SA3 coupler, an automatic railway coupling used mainly in Russia and other States from the former Soviet Union, has formed the basis for the new European Automatic Center Coupler (C-AK)?

• ...that the DRB Class 41 steam locomotive demonstrated the financial advantages of the Deutsche Reichsbahn ("German Reich Railway") policy of locomotive standardisation, as through the use of components from the simultaneously developed Class 03, 06 and 45 engines, construction costs of each engine were under 10,000 Reichsmarks?

• ...that at the time it was acquired by General Steel Castings Corp (later known as General Steel Industries) in 1929, the Commonwealth Steel Company was a critical supplier to railroad companies and it was said that virtually all of the locomotives and passenger cars made in the United States were made using products produced at the Commonwealth plant?
• ...that English nobleman Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale, founder of the Automobile Association and avid sportsman after whom the Lonsdale clothing brand is named, had a private waiting room built for his use at Clifton Moor railway station, which was nearby to Lowther Castle?

• ...that the Big Hill on the Canadian Pacific Railway main line in British Columbia, an eight-mile (13 km) section of track west of the Continental Divide and Kicking Horse Pass with an exceptionally steep 4.5% gradient, was built as a temporary diversion but remained the main line for twenty-five years?

• ...that the Kuhn slide is part of a modified Walschaerts valve gear that requires less space and runs equally smoothly when the locomotive is moving in either direction, and as such was preferred on tank locomotives which, for operational reasons, often had to run backwards for long periods?

• ...that Eisenbahn Kurier, a popular monthly railway magazine originally founded in 1966 in Wuppertal, West Germany, by a small group of railway fans, has purchased an operational steam locomotive, number 24 009, as well as the oldest still operational dining car in Germany (1700D) and the Prussian Crown Prince's coach?

• ...that Battersea Park railway station in London, England, remained into the current decade effectively unmodernised since its construction in the Victorian era, with platform access only via steep wooden staircases that were unusable by infirm or physically disabled travellers, and Platform 1 constructed entirely of wood?

• ...that passenger ticket fares on China Railways trains are based on a series of calculations that include the distance traveled, the type of accommodations requested, travel insurance and a premium to cover the cost of the ticketing system itself?

• ...that construction of the Stillwater–Westport Line was one of the longest-running projects in New Zealand's history, with its first section opened in 1889 but the full line not completed until 1942?

• ...that the four-cylinder Prussian S 10 steam locomotives were produced between 1910 and 1914 in both simple expansion and compound locomotive form?

• ...that the Finnish locomotive builder Tampella grew from humble origins beginning in 1861 in the manufacture of grave crosses and linen?

• ...that the opening of Line 4 on China's Shanghai Metro was delayed by almost a year after part of the tunnel that was under construction near the Huangpu River collapsed, causing a six-storey building to collapse?

• ...that the Japanese National Railways 63 series electric multiple unit trains, originally introduced in 1944 as a means of transporting weapons and military personnel in case of an emergency, had electrical systems that were prone to short-circuiting as was seen with fatal consequences in the 1951 Sakuragichō train fire?

• ...that with a total production of 111, the Great Southern and Western Railway 101 class was by far the most numerous class of locomotive (diesel or steam) ever to run in Ireland, and that while the oldest in the class dated back to 1866, nearly half were still in traffic when the Córas Iompair Éireann completed dieselisation at the end of 1962?

• ...that ballast tampers, machines used to pack (or tamp) the track ballast under railway tracks to make the tracks more durable, are essential for the use of concrete sleepers since they are too heavy to be packed into the ballast by hand?

• ...that the Lyttelton rail tunnel, linking the city of Christchurch with the port of Lyttelton in the Canterbury region of New Zealand’s South Island, was the first tunnel in the world to be taken through the side of an extinct volcano?
• ...that the Japanese National Railways Class D51 2-8-2 steam locomotives introduced in 1936, which eventually became one of the most popular steam locomotive types in Japan, were known as "Namekuji" ("slug") type?

• ...that the Railpower Technologies GG20B, a low-emissions diesel hybrid switcher locomotive, is powered by a single Caterpillar C9 I6 engine developing 300 horsepower (224 kW), which is also connected to a large battery bank where both sources combine for a total power output of 2,000 horsepower (1,490 kW)?

• ...that with stakes in railway operations as far afield as London's Docklands Light Railway, Australia's Great Southern Railways and the Dubai Metro, and business operations in other fields, business services company Serco Group has been described by The Guardian newspaper as "probably the biggest company you've never heard of"?

• ...that as its condition deteriorated, the bridge over the Hokitika River on the Ross Branch of New Zealand's Midland Line became known as the "longest xylophone in the world" in New Zealand railfan jargon due to the rattling its planks made?

• ...that Forum Station on the Copenhagen Metro was nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 2005?

• ...that the Pullman Strike, a conflict between labor unions and railroads in 1894 that began when 3,000 employees of the Pullman Palace Car Company began a wildcat strike in response to recent reductions in wages, escalated to the point where 250,000 workers in 27 U.S. states were involved, ultimately costing then-U.S. President Grover Cleveland his renomination at the 1896 Democratic National Convention?
• ...that while today it has had its main line platforms removed and serves only as a branch line station, Carnforth railway station is famous for its prominent use as the location in the 1945 British film Brief Encounter?
• ...that the 1926 Murulla rail accident occurred when the rear portion of a New South Wales Government Railways goods train broke away and rolled downhill into the path of the Sydney-bound Northwest Mail train, killing 26 persons?

• ...that a personal pet project of Adolf Hitler during the Third Reich of Germany was the proposed Breitspurbahn (broad-gauge railway) on which double-story coaches would run on 3-metre (9.8 ft) gauge track between major cities of Grossdeutschland, Hitler's proposed unified German-speaking state?

• ...that the double decker configuration of U.S. operator Amtrak's Superliner trainsets extends to the dining car, where a dumbwaiter is used to bring food to the upper dining level, as well as to return dishes to the lower kitchen level?

• ...that although it was used by 250 trains and 23,000 passengers each day, St Enoch railway station in Glasgow, Scotland, was closed and its traffic diverted to other stations as part of the rationalisation of British Railways undertaken by Dr Richard Beeching, and despite protests the century-old station buildings were later demolished?