Portal:Trains/Did you know/April 2020

April 2020

Aftermath of the 1918 Weesp accident

• ...that with 41 deaths and 42 injuries, the 1918 Weesp train disaster was the largest train disaster in Dutch railway history until the 1962 Harmelen train disaster?

Wee Georgie Wood Railway station

• ...that the 2 ft (610 mm) gauge Wee Georgie Wood Railway in Tasmania was named after its steam locomotive, which itself was named after the British actor and comedian Wee Georgie Wood?

The preserved Wayzata Depot in 2007

• ...that following a dispute with the village of Wayzata, Minnesota, James J. Hill ordered that Wayzata station be removed in 1891, and not rebuilt until the city passed a reconciliation ordinance in 1905?

The Waukesha terminal of the Waukesha Beach Railway in 1895

• ...that the Waukesha Beach Railway operated only two sets of rolling stock, but its 6-mile (9.7 km) length allowed a schedule of a round trip every 40 minutes?

Original Watford Junction station being used as a car dealership office in 2008

• ...that the original station building for Watford Junction railway station built in 1836 and 1837 is now occupied by a second-hand car dealership?

Amtrak's Waterloo station (the former New York Central station building) in Waterloo, Indiana, in 2016

• ...that although Amtrak operated passenger trains through Waterloo, Indiana, as early as 1971, they did not stop at Waterloo station, the nearest Amtrak station to Fort Wayne, until 1990?

A Waterfront Streetcar tram eastbound on Main Street, at the Occidental Park stop in 1994

• ...that Seattle's Waterfront Streetcar, which used five preserved W2 trams from Melbourne, Australia, was the first streetcar service to run in Seattle since the closure of the Seattle Municipal Street Railway?

A Waterford and Suir Valley Railway train at a station in June 2018

• ...that the 3 ft (914 mm) gauge Waterford and Suir Valley Railway was built on the former right-of-way of the 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) gauge Waterford, Dungarvan and Lismore Railway?

A Watco Australia grain train in 2012

• ...that Watco Australia transports an average of 10-12 million tonnes (368-441 million bushels) of grain from 192 country reception sites to CBH Group's four export terminals?

The former station at Purcellville in 2008

• ...that a number of historic railroad structures, some of which date to the pre-Civil War period, including five intact stations, have been preserved in the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park?

Track sections of the Warwickslade Cutting Railway

• ...that the temporary Warwickslade Cutting Railway track used rails that were connected via tube and pin joints like those of a toy train?

The Victoria line platform at Warren Street station in 2008

• ...that Warren Street tube station was originally decorated with tiles portraying a rabbit warren illustration?

The Warren, Ohio, station on the Erie Railroad in the early 1960s, shortly before its 1964 demolition

• ...that Warren station on the Erie Railroad in Ohio had a gauntlet track that served as the western terminus of the Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railroad?

A light railway train on the Western Front in the Ypres area in 1917

• ...that the success of the War Department Light Railways lines built by Canadian Companies during World War I helped the system to extend to 700 miles (1,100 km) of track?

A ten-car EMU train on the Wannsee Railway in 1901

• ...that the Wannsee Railway in Berlin, now part of Berlin S-Bahn line S1, opened in 1891 as the first suburban route in Germany?

A train at Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof in 2014

• ...that the freight yard which formed the basis of Wanne-Eickel Hauptbahnhof was initially named Pluto?

A Wangerooge Island Railway train in 2015 on the dock with freight being transferred between it and the ship docked there

• ...that the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge Wangerooge Island Railway is the only narrow-gauge railway operated by Deutsche Bahn?

The tracks and platforms of Walton-on-Thames station in 2008

• ...that Walton-on-Thames railway station first operated in 1838, and was one of the first stations on the South Western Main Line, between Ditton Marsh (now Esher) and Weybridge?

The Poughkeepsie Bridge in 2008 shortly before its reopening for pedestrian use

• ...that from its reopening in 2009 until fall 2016, the 6,768-foot long (2,063 m) former New Haven Railroad Maybrook Line's Poughkeepsie Bridge was the world's longest pedestrian footbridge?

Portrait of Sir Wavell Wakefield in 1922

• ...that English rugby union player and Conservative politician Sir Wavell Wakefield along with another investor purchased the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway in order to prevent its closure?

The Little Eaton Gangway in July 1908 with the last train of loaded coal wagons arriving

• ...that wagonways preceded steam-powered railways as far back as 600 BC?

The former Wadebridge station, now the John Betjeman Centre, with restored canopy in 2007

• ...that Southern Way, a road in Wadebridge, England, now runs along the old trackbed where the main platform of Wadebridge railway station was?

W7 series set W3 on a public preview run in February 2015

• ...that the W7 Series Shinkansen introduced in 2015 is the first JR West train type to use the "W" prefix, following the method used by JR East (with an "E" prefix)?

A preserved Bagnall standard gauge 0-4-0WT in France in 2018

• ...that locomotive builder W. G. Bagnall developed the inverted saddle tank and introduced several novel types of locomotive valve gear including the Baguley and the Bagnall-Price?

Builder's photo of a Vulcan Foundry locomotive ready for export to India

• ...that the Newton-le-Willows site of locomotive builder Vulcan Foundry had its own railway station from 1916 to 1965 named Vulcan Halt?

A Pr1 class locomotive pulls a passenger train at Kerava station in the 1950s

• ...that although Finnish railways' Pr1 and Vr3 classes of steam locomotives share many parts such as the frame, boiler and space for coal, their wheel arrangements, domes and top speed are very different because of their completely different roles?

Three Dr16s pull a freight train in northern Finland in 2001

• ...that the Dr16 class of diesel-electric locomotives built in the 1980s and early 1990s, which generate a power output of 1,677 kW (2,249 hp), are the most powerful diesel locomotives in VR's fleet?