Portal:Trains/Did you know/January 2021

January 2021

Boat car No. 227 at Stanley Road, Fleetwood, in 2016

• ...that the Boat cars operated as part of the Blackpool Heritage Trams fleet were originally called Luxury Toastrack cars?

The track side of Blackburn station in 1983

• ...that there has been a station on the current site of Blackburn railway station since the Blackburn and Preston Railway opened one there in 1846?

A train on the Blackball Branch's Roa Incline in the mid-20th century

• ...that with grades as steep as 1 in 25 and using a Fell centre rail for braking, the Roa Incline on the New Zealand Railways Department's Blackball Branch was owned by the State Mines Department for its entire useful life?

A 12 inch Mk IX W railway gun in France in 1916

• ...that since the BL 12-inch railway gun allowed only 1° left and right traverse by pivoting the entire gun car body about the forward bogies, it was operated on specially-constructed curved track and moved forward or backward to point it at a new target?

A train at Birmingham Snow Hill station in 2013

• ...that many parts of the Oppenheim's Glassworks building and machinery, which were demolished in the mid-19th century for construction of the original Birmingham Snow Hill railway station, are believed to be buried underneath the current station and car park?

Aerial view of the Big Bayou Canot accident aftermath

• ...that the 1993 Big Bayou Canot rail accident, in which the Sunset Limited derailed on a bridge in Alabama killing 47, is both the deadliest train wreck in Amtrak's history and the worst rail disaster in the United States since the 1958 Newark Bay rail accident in which 48 lives were lost?

Two trains at Primasens Nord station on the Biebermühl Railway in August 2012

• ...that the Biebermühl Railway in Germany is the only one of all the Palatine railway lines that were completed in the 20th century that has never been threatened with closure?

37 class locomotive number 42 at the Richmond Vale Railway Museum in 1990

• ...that initially the first 15 BHP Newcastle 37 class diesel locomotives were swapped between the narrow and standard gauge networks by changing the bogies and couplers?

The eastbound platform at Bethnal Green station in 2008

• ...that Bethnal Green tube station is the site of what is believed to be the largest loss of civilian life in the United Kingdom during the Second World War?

The platforms of Bessarion station in 2003

• ...that from its opening in 2002 until the opening of Downsview Park station in 2018, Bessarion station on Line 4 Sheppard of the Toronto subway was consistently ranked the least-used station on the heavy-rail portion of the subway system?

Detail view of a postcard showing the Besançon tramway circa 1905

• ...that the topography of Besançon led to the early Besançon tramway using some very sharp turns, several with a radius of only 17 metres (55.77 ft)?

Two Rhaetian Railway ABe 4/4 III multiple units with a Bernina Express train on the Bernina Railway, passing Lago Bianco in 2010

• ...that the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge Bernina railway in Switzerland is the highest railway crossing in Europe and the third-highest railway in Switzerland?