Portal:Trains/Did you know/October 2011

• ...that Hiranda Station in Kawanehon, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, on the Ōigawa Railway Ikawa Line, was opened in 1990 when part of the Ikawa Line was re-routed to avoid the rising waters of the lake created by the Nagashima Dam?

• ...that after a number of successful lawsuits against the Great Northern Railway attracted the attention of the railway's general manager James J. Hill, he hired Samuel Hill to represent the railway and later became his father-in-law in 1888 when Sam Hill married J. J. Hill's eldest daughter Mary?

• ...that the Heritage Shunters Trust, whose initials HST can be seen as a pun on High Speed Train, is the only railway preservation society that solely specialises in the preservation of diesel shunters in the United Kingdom?

• ...that the Haydarpaşa-Adapazarı Regional, also referred to as Adapazarı Express, that runs between İstanbul and Adapazarı, is the second busiest route of the Turkish State Railways after the Adana-Mersin Regional?

• ...that at the Kobe end of Hankyu Railway's Kōbe Main Line in Japan some trains continue through onto the Kobe Rapid Railway, an underground line allowing interchange between the lines of several commuter rail companies operating in Kobe?

• ...that although the 8.5-kilometre (5.3 mi) long Hallandsås Tunnel, which is currently under construction, will shorten travel time between Gothenburg, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark, by only 5 minutes, the tunnel is part of a double tracking project on the Swedish West Coast Line and will allow an increase in capacity from 4 to 24 trains over the line?

• ...that the present Haddiscoe railway station in Norfolk county, England, on the Wherry Lines operated by National Express East Anglia, was originally opened in 1904 as Haddiscoe Low Level at the junction of the Wherry Line and the now closed Yarmouth to Beccles Line and was given its present name in 1959 when the adjacent Haddiscoe High Level station was closed?

• ...that the GSM-R international wireless communications standard for railway communication and applications now in use throughout Europe is based on GSM and EIRENE - MORANE specifications which guarantee performance at speeds up to 500 km/h (310 mph) without any communication loss?

• ...that in November 1944, during World War II, the strategically located Gouda railway station in the Netherlands was bombed by the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom, severely damaging the station's main building and traces of the bombing are still visible on platforms 3 and 5?

• ...that Goi Station on the Uchibō and Kominato lines, operated by the East Japan Railway Company and Kominato Railway, has a different street address for each of the two railway companies that serve it?

• ...that in 2008 there was an incident at Oslo Metro's Gjønnes station in Norway where the ground under one side of the station suddenly was pressed upwards by around 4 metres (13 ft), but no trains were operating there at the time because most of the Kolsås Line, including Gjønnes, has been closed for upgrades since 2006?

• ...that the original platforms at Gateshead railway station in England opened by the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway in 1844 were known as Gateshead East while the platforms opened to serve the Team Valley Line to Durham in 1868 were known as Gateshead West?

• ...that before becoming a senior executive for the Alaska Railroad and succeeding Bill Sheffield as President of the railroad in 2001, Patrick K. Gamble flew 394 combat missions as a forward air controller in the O-1 Bird Dog in Vietnam and was promoted to Commander, Pacific Air Forces, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii?

• ...that since their introduction in 1992, the Fukuoka Subway's 2000 series trains in Japan, which superseded the 1000 series trains introduced in 1981, have been overhauled four times with only minor changes?

• ...that with over 1,500 trains passing through the station every weekday, Flinders Street Station is the most used metropolitan railway station in Melbourne, Australia, such that in 2009 there was an average of 85,100 passenger boardings per day?

• ...that contactless smart cards completely replaced their magnetic ticket predecessors for fare collection and ticketing on the Light Rail Tranist system in Singapore on 31 December 2002, making Singapore one of the first cities to implement contactless smart card payment on all the main modes of public transportation?

• ...that in 1907, the Enid City Council in Oklahoma awarded a streetcar franchise to allow the Enid City Railway to operate for 50 years, but then in 1929 passed an ordinance outlawing the entire streetcar system on the same day that city buses began operation?

• ...that in the 1970s, part of the Eisenbahnkaserne (literally translated from German as Railroad kaserne) in Munich, formerly used by Germany's Railroad Battalion since 1890 was sold for the construction of the Olympiapark and later another part was torn down for the construction of the Bundeswehr Computer Center?

• ...that the E259 series DC electric multiple unit trains operated by East Japan Railway Company on the Narita Express service feature retracting gangway connections on the end cars allow two sets to be coupled together to form 12-car formations as well as featuring duplicated electrical and safety equipment to improve safety and reliability?

• ...that at a length of 1 mile 354 yards (1,933 m), Drewton Tunnel, which was opened in 1885 on the Hull and Barnsley Railway and closed in 1958, is one of the longest disused tunnels in the United Kingdom?

• ...that Den Haag Laan van NOI railway station, which is located on the oldest railway line in the Netherlands on the border between The Hague and the town of Voorburg, was originally named after a nearby inn, Nieuw Oosteinde, but has since been renamed after the road on which it is located, Laan van Nieuw Oost-Indië?

• ...that all low-floor D-class trams now operated by Yarra Trams in Melbourne, Australia, have a traction braking controller with an integral deadman's trigger that the driver must release and reapply every minute such that if this is not done, an alarm sounds and if the alarm sounds for more than a few seconds then the disc brakes are applied firmly, stopping the tram?

• ...that by 1930 the Czechoslovak State Railways (in Czech Československé státní dráhy, ČSD), originally created in 1918, after the end of World War I and the breakup of Austria-Hungary, had over 13,600 kilometres (8,500 mi) of track, of which 87% was single-track, making ČSD the fifth largest railway system in Europe?

• ...that although the Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway in Ireland closed in 1961, the 91-foot (28 m) high, 500-foot (150 m) long, double track Chetwynd Viaduct, which was built from 1849 to 1851, still stands?

• ...that for a short section near Fontanivent, Switzerland, the Clarens–Chailly–Blonay Railway's line followed the Montreux-Oberland Bernois line to reach the station then crossed the MOB line into a headshunt where the trains reversed in order to continue their journey to Blonay?

• ...that the former Chicago and Northwestern Depot in Wilmette, Illinois, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and originally built in 1873 to replace the original station at that location on what is now Metra's Union Pacific/North Line, has been called "Wilmette's most historic building," and the Chicago Sunday Times referred to the station as "the finest station on the entire line" upon its opening?

• ...that in the 2000s reconstruction of the Central Railway Station in Sofia, Bulgaria, a station that originally opened in 1888, Olympic Stadium Munich-style 4,500 m² (48,000 sq ft) tensile elements were added to the facade?

• ...that Burswood railway station, a Transperth train station 4.8 kilometres (3.0 mi) east of Perth railway station on the Armadale/Thornlie Line in Western Australia, is so named because the station sign's painters misspelled "Burrswood" in 1893 when the railway was first built?

• ...that Central Japan Railway Company, which operates the Tōkaidō Main Line and the Chūō Shinkansen, a proposed Maglev service of which a short demonstration section has been built, is Japan's most profitable and highest throughput high-speed rail operator, carrying 138 million high-speed rail passengers in 2009?