Portal:Trains/Did you know/December 2010

• ...that a number of hovertrain concepts, a type of high-speed train that replaces conventional steel wheels with hovercraft lift pads, were developed in the 1960s and 1970s, including a number of systems for smaller urban deployments?

• ...that despite the brick facade of the Hockley Railway Viaduct, a bridge built by the London and South Western Railway to connect with the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway, the viaduct in fact has a solid concrete core in its pillars and its construction in the 1880s makes it one of the earliest modern structures to have a solid concrete core?

• ...that in the history of Link Light Rail, a light rail line in Seattle, one of the decisions that helped the line's construction proceed was to shorten its planned 21-mile (34 km) length to 14 miles (23 km) and concentrate work on the southern portion of the line?

• ...that the original Himeji Station, now a major stop on the San'yō Main Line and the western end of the JR Kobe Line in Japan, was built bordering the old city walls of Himeji and the current station building is actually constructed on top of part of the old city wall?

• ...that zig zags (also called switchbacks), spirals, horseshoe curves and rack railways are among the strategies used by hillclimbing railway lines to climb steep grades?

• ...that the current Hawkesbury River Railway Bridge north of Sydney, Australia, was built in the 1940s to replace an earlier bridge after cracks developed in the former bridge's piers, which were built in the 1880s, due to the loads passing over the bridge and the piers not being seated in bedrock?

• ...that when the obituary was published in the New York Times for Fairfax Harrison, who served as president of the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway then the Southern Railway from 1913 to 1937, it was published with the photo of the still living John Jeremiah Pelley, who was president of the Association of American Railroads?

• ...that upon its breakthrough in 2005, the Hakkōda Tunnel in Japan became the world's longest terrestrial based railway tunnel and although it has been surpassed by the mostly single-track Lötschberg Base Tunnel in Switzerland, the Hakkōda Tunnel remains the longest double-tracked tunnel?

• ...that a modified version of the H-series subway cars built from the mid-1960s and onwards for Toronto Transit Commission in Canada was later built and sold in the 1990s for use on the Ankara Metro in Turkey?

• ...that the eastern portion of the Grosvenor Bridge, built in 1858 by the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway to carry trains into Victoria station, was the first railway bridge across the River Thames in central London?

• ...that with around 200 trams as of 2006^[update], which serve twelve day-time and five night-time lines with a combined length of 190 km (118 mi), the Gothenburg tram network in Sweden is the largest tram network in Scandinavia?

• ...that Godley East railway station in Greater Manchester, England, was one of the locations where trains to and from the Liverpool district changed from diesel or steam to electric traction, and vice versa?

• ...that geared steam locomotives such as the Shay, Climax or Heisler locomotive types were designed to provide a low speed locomotive with ample starting tractive effort especially on temporary industrial and logging railway tracks that were not as robustly constructed as on main line railroads?

• ...that the 565-metre (1,854 ft) long Garabit viaduct, a railway arch bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel spanning the Truyère river near Ruynes-en-Margeride, Cantal, France, was the highest railway bridge in the world when it opened in 1885?

• ...that the G22C Series of diesel locomotives, first introduced in 1968 to replace the popular G12, was the first model series exported by EMD to be available with a low nose as a standard option?

• ...that during World War II an ammunition storage depot was built near Longparish, England, and the Fullerton to Hurstbourne Line handled a considerable amount of military traffic, but freight traffic on the line was suspended in 1956 and passenger service on the line ended in 1960?

• ...that the Fuji Kyūkō Line, the earliest section of which began operation as the Tsuru Horsecar in 1900, is the only railway service to access the northern Yamanashi side of Mount Fuji and Fuji Five Lakes, part of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park in Japan?

• ...that Flagstaff railway station is the fifth busiest metropolitan railway station in Melbourne, Australia, but is the least used of the stations that serve the central business district with an average of only 14,300 passenger boardings per day in 2009?

• ...that the FS E428 class electric locomotive, intended to provide a fast service on the newly-electrified Milan-Rome mainline, was originally designed in the early 1930s with a 2-Do-2 wheel arrangement but was modified to 2-Bo-Bo-2 based on unfavorable experiences with the earlier E326 class?

• ...that the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) built the Exeter to Plymouth railway line piecemeal by independent companies supported by the LSWR as a means to compete with the Great Western Railway and its associated companies from London to Exeter and Plymouth in Devon, England?

• ...that because the El Paso and Northeastern Railway connected Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) tracks in El Paso to Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P) tracks (via the El Paso and Rock Island Railway), the line served as a bridge route for the joint SP/CRI&P Golden State Limited passenger trains between Chicago and Los Angeles?

• ...that passenger service on the Echuca railway line in Victoria, Australia, was partly funded by the Department of Education until 1975 using a 153hp Walker railmotor to provide transportation for schoolchildren between Echuca and Kyabram?

• ...that the CRH2 trains delivered to China for use on new high-speed railway lines there are based on latter versions of the E2 Series Shinkansen trains that entered regular service on the Tōhoku Shinkansen in December 2002?

• ...that the Dresdner Parkeisenbahn, a 15 in (381 mm) minimum gauge railway which was founded in 1950 in Dresden, Germany, and planned to only last for one year, has continued in operation and is a survivor of the many children's railways that were built in the former Eastern Bloc countries?

• ...that although the 121 class locomotives proved successful, a model among the earlier diesel locomotives of Ireland, one drawback of their design was the single cab construction requiring the locomotive to be turned at the end of each journey as the drivers refused to operate them "long hood" forward?

• ...that with an infrastructure complex more than 5 km (3.1 mi) long including a commuter passenger terminal and two additional train stops, several sorting yards and locomotive and railcar depots, Darnytsia Railway Station is the largest railroad station and the main freight station of the Ukrainian capital Kiev?

• ...that when the first line of the DART Light Rail system in Dallas opened on time and on budget in June 1996, it became the first light rail system in Texas and the American Southwest?

• ...that the original "Crocodile" locomotives, the SBB Ce 6/8 II and Ce 6/8 III electric locomotives of the SBB, Swiss Federal Railways, built between 1919 and 1927, were highly successful and served until the 1980s and several were preserved and continue in operation on heritage railways?

• ...that a fleet of three converted trams that run on selected standard tram routes through Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and some nearby inner suburbs serves as the dining area for the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant?