Portal:Trains/Did you know/January 2017

January 2017

A section of the Birkenhead Dock Branch at Beaufort Road in 2013

• ...that the now disused Birkenhead Dock Branch between Rock Ferry and the former Bidston Dock in England is one of the oldest stretches of track in the world, having opened in 1838?

Bidston station in 2007

• ...that Bidston railway station on the Wirral Peninsula in England, has for most of its existence been primarily an interchange point between trains and was closed twice due in part to its low passenger usage and relative isolation from vehicle traffic and nearby Bidston Village?

Bex–Villars–Bretaye trams at Bex station in 2010

• ...that the Bex–Villars–Bretaye railway in Switzerland is actually two railways, one mixed adhesion and rack worked between Bex and Villars-sur-Ollon, the other, linking Villars to the Col de Bretaye being worked on the Abt rack system?

People view a stock car of the Better Farming Train at a station stop in 1920

• ...that the rolling stock used in the Canadian Better Farming Train was provided at no cost by Canadian Pacific Railway and operating expenses were borne by a grant through the Agricultural Instruction Act of 1913?

The green line platform at Berri-UQAM station in 2009

• ...that Montreal Metro's Berri-UQAM station is the second deepest station in the network, and the only one to have 3 lines, the Green, Orange and Yellow lines, stacked on each other?

Bridge piers of the former Bermuda Railway in 2007

• ...that the initial cost of construction and rolling stock purchase for the 21.7-mile long (34.9 km) Bermuda Railway was about B$40 million (adjusted for inflation to dollars as of 2008), which made it one of the most expensive rail lines built, at a cost-per-mile of B$2 million?

A U-Bahn platform at Berlin Friedrichstraße station in 1956

• ...that during the Cold War, despite being wholly located in East Berlin, all of Berlin Friedrichstraße station's underground facilities were only accessible for passengers from the western sectors as a transfer station, or to access the border crossing at the ground level?

Platform at Bergenline Avenue station in 2009

• ...that Bergenline Avenue station, at the border of Union City, West New York and North Bergen, New Jersey, is the only stop on in the Hudson–Bergen Light Rail system with an underground platform?

Recovering the streetcar in Boston after the accident

• ...that the 1916 Summer Street Bridge Disaster, in which 46 passengers died when the streetcar they were riding ran off an open drawbridge into Fort Point Channel, was the deadliest disaster in Boston until surpassed by the Cocoanut Grove fire in 1942?

A Belmond British Pullman train at Victoria station in 2004

• ...that many of the restored carriages used by Belmond British Pullman were part of the former Brighton Belle service and were used to convey royalty?

A train at Belgrave station in 2006

• ...that part of the current 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) gauge Belgrave railway line serving Melbourne, Australia, opened as a 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge line in 1900, the second of four experimental narrow-gauge lines built by the Victorian Railways?

A train leaving Beijing station in 1959

• ...that Beijing Railway Station was the largest train station in China when it opened in 1959 and it remains the only station located inside Beijing's old walled city?

Beeston station in 2005 just after platform reconstruction work

• ...that the Grade II listed station building at Beeston railway station on the Midland Main Line in Nottinghamshire, England, was built in 1847 to replace the original cottage at that location that was built in 1839?

The Bedford Park platform in 2011

• ...that until 2006, Bedford Park Boulevard–Lehman College station on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line was the only station in the entire New York City Subway system to have a barbed wire fence to prevent graffiti to be added to the Manhattan bound platform?

The Brooklyn bound platform at Beach 67th Street station in 2013

• ...that Beach 67th Street station on New York City Subway's IND Rockaway Line was originally built for the Long Island Rail Road in 1888 and named Arverne by the wife of developer Remington Vernam for the way he signed his checks?

Bayreuth Altstadt station in 1987

• ...that the Bayreuth Altstadt–Kulmbach railway in the Bavarian province of Upper Franconia was known colloquially as the Thurnauer Bockela (which roughly translates as "Little Thurnau Goat") due to the rough ride of trains on the line?

The upper platform at Bay station in 2014

• ...that although the Lower Bay platform at Toronto Transit Commission's Bay station was closed in 1966, the tracks leading to it are now used to train new operators, to move trains between lines, for platform-surface experiments, and to allow filming in the subway without disrupting public service?

Trains at Oberammergau station, Bavaria, in 1905

• ...that Bavarian branch lines built between 1872 and 1930 comprised nearly half the total railway network in Bavaria, in present-day southeastern Germany?

A section of baulk road track

• ...that baulk road track was popularised by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for his 7 ft (2,134 mm) broad gauge railways in the United Kingdom, but track like this can still be found in modified form in special locations on present day railways?

Semaphore signal towers at Barnetby in 2003

• ...that the Barnetby railway station area in North Lincolnshire, England, was controlled by semaphore signals until new colour light signalling was installed during a 17-day blockade on Christmas and New Year 2015-2016?

A pair of District Line trains at Monument station in 2014

• ...that Bank and Monument stations, a station complex serving five London Underground lines and the Docklands Light Railway, is one of the busiest stations on the London Underground network

One of the roundhouses at the Martinsburg shop complex in 1970

• ...that Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Martinsburg Shops in West Virginia was the location where the first nationwide strike action in the United States, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, began?