Portal:Trains/Did you know/June 2010

June 2010

Medstead & Four Marks Station in 2005

• ...that Medstead and Four Marks railway station in Hampshire, England, originally opened in 1868 simply as Medstead, was reopened on 28 May 1983 by the preserved Watercress Line, which runs from Alton to New Alresford?

Mawson bus/rail interchange looking north

• ...that Mawson Interchange, which opened in 2006 as the first new railway station to be built in Adelaide for more than 20 years (since the extension of the Noarlunga Centre line), is expected to soon become one of Adelaide's five busiest stations?

Manseibashi Station some time between 1912 and 1923

• ...that after the main station building of Manseibashi Station in Tokyo was closed and razed in 1943, the lot was used as the location for the Tokyo Railway Museum and the Transportation Museum until 2006, when the museum was re-focused towards railways and moved to Saitama, Saitama as the Railway Museum?

Maffei workers celebrating the completion of their 500th locomotive in 1864

• ...that the German steam locomotive manufacturing company Maffei, which was founded in 1836 by Joseph Anton von Maffei, completed construction of their 500th locomotive in 1864?

An M-series train at the Greenwood Subway Yard

• ...that the 23-metre (75 ft 6 in) long M-series cars built in the early 1960s by Montreal Locomotive Works for Toronto Transit Commission were the first Canadian-built subway cars and, at the time of their construction, were the longest subway cars in the world?

A rack-railway train of line C at the Croix-Paquet station in 2005

• ...that Line C of the Lyon Metro in France consists of a formerly independent rack railway including the Croix Paquet station which claims to be the steepest metro station in the world, with an incline of 17%?

Ukrainian postage stamps commemorating Luhansktepovoz locomotives

• ...that Ukrainian locomotive manufacturing company Luhanskteplovoz, founded in 1896 and in continuous operation since then, produced thousands of the well known 'M62' and DR Class 130 ("ludmillas") diesel-electric locomotives for eastern European soviet bloc countries?

D2554 at Havenstreet Station in 1986

• ...that of all the locomotives on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, former British Rail Class 05 shunting locomotive D2554 Nuclear Fred has only worked demonstration freights and service trains, as it has not been fitted with air brakes?

Line 15 under construction in September 2009 near the future Wangjing Station

• ...that the tunnels for Beijing Subway's Line 15, which is due to open in December 2010, will be up to 38 metres (125 ft) underground, making them the deepest in Beijing's subway system?
• ...that in poor financial condition, the Lehigh Valley Transit Company, an interurban transit company in Pennsylvania, abruptly abandoned operations in September 1951 with no prior notice, an action that puzzled riders who were waiting to be picked up the next day?

A departing InterCityExpress next to a regional train at Landeck-Zams in 2007

• ...that Landeck-Zams railway station between Innsbruck and Bludenz in Tyrol, Austria, serves as important station for the operations flow on the Arlberg railway as banking engines are often coupled (or decoupled) to heavy freight- or passenger trains, since the ramp section of Europe's most difficult mountain railway (max. 26 ‰ on the east- and 31 ‰ on the west-ramp) starts in Landeck?

Lam Tin station in 2008

• ...that when construction of the Eastern Harbour Crossing and the MTR's Kwun Tong Line extension was completed, as part of his official visit with Diana, Princess of Wales, to Hong Kong, Charles, Prince of Wales, officiated the opening of Lam Tin Station in October 1989?

LB&SCR locomotive Belgravia shortly after construction in 1872

• ...that of the seven Belgravia class 2-4-0 steam locomotives built for secondary passenger service on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in the late 19th century, two of the class were rebuilt from 2-2-2 locomotives?

Preserved LM-33 number 4275 and a trailer in 2007

• ...that the Soviet LM-33 tram built between 1933 and 1939 by the Leningradskiy vagonoremontny plant in Leningrad was originally based on the Peter Witt streetcar design that was then in use across North America?

158735 at Kyle of Lochalsh station in 2006

• ...that in 1989 the bridge over the River Ness on the Kyle of Lochalsh Line in Scotland was washed away, leaving both it and the Far North Line stranded, but new "Sprinter" trains were brought over by road, and a temporary yard was built to service them at Muir of Ord?

Kumura Station building in 2005

• ...that in 2008 Japanese newspapers and news programs reported on two cats found sleeping on the ticket gate machine in Kumura Station and subsequently the cats came to be known as the "Station Cats"?

An 8000 class electric locomotive of Korail pulling a freight train in 2007

• ...that on January 1, 2005, the Korean National Railroad, commonly known as Korail, was split into the Korea Railroad Corporation (which retained the Korail name) to become the company that operates the trains and the Korea Rail Network Authority to become the company responsible for infrastructure maintenance?

An EW60 class EMU of Koleje Mazowieckie in 2007

• ...that when Koleje Mazowieckie in Poland was founded in 2004, the company was created as a joint venture between the Masovian Voivodeship, with 51% shares, and the government-owned Przewozy Regionalne, with 49% shares, but by the end of 2007 Koleje Mazowieckie was completely owned by the Masovian Voivodeship?

Norman Kittson circa 1880

• ...that after serving as mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota, Norman Kittson collaborated with James J. Hill, Donald Alexander Smith and George Stephen to purchase the financially troubled St. Paul and Pacific Railroad in 1879 which they then reorganized as the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, the first rail link between Saint Boniface, Manitoba, and St. Paul and later becoming the oldest predecessor of Great Northern Railway?

A Kita-Osaka Kyūkō Railway EMU in 2006

• ...that the Kita-Osaka Kyūkō Railway, often abbreviated as Kitakyū Railway, in Osaka, Japan, not only operates the Namboku Line, an extension of the Osaka Municipal Subway's Midōsuji Line, but also owns various commercial and residential properties along the line?

A train at Kirk Michael station in 1965

• ...that much of the Isle of Man Railway's marketing stated Kirk Michael railway station's name as either ’Michael or simply Michael, the apostrophe one assumes acknowledging the potential "Kirk" prefix, but in later times the station was given its full title?

Claude Kinder in 1909

• ...that English-born Claude W. Kinder studied railway engineering in St. Petersburg then worked for the Imperial Japanese Railways in the 1870s before building a steam locomotive, The Rocket of China, for the Kaiping Tramway, a line that evolved into China's first major railway line and administration known as Imperial Railways of North China?

Opposing trains on the Kiel-Flensburg Railway meet at Süderbrarup in 2007

• ...that because trains on the Kiel-Flensburg Railway in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, reach a speed of 120 km/h (75 mph) with travel times over the 80 km (50 mi) railway around 75 minutes, the line is nicknamed schnellste Nebenbahn Deutschlands (fastest local railway in Germany)?

Kenepuru station in 2008

• ...that Kenepuru and Muri stations in New Zealand are both now under consideration for closure by the Wellington Regional Council as it is claimed that both have low usage and that they would require considerable expenditure for upgrading for the new MEM class electric multiple units and for safety considerations?

Kegi station shortly before it was closed in 2003

• ...that Kegi Station located near Jinshin Bridge in Hiroshima, Japan, was originally to be named after the bridge, but when it came time to name the station, the residents in the area wanted it named Kegi, after the area in which it was located?

The Keadby Bridge in 2006

• ...that the 163-foot (50 m) long electrically-powered bascule (lifting span) of Keadby Bridge in Lincolnshire, England, was one of the first of its type in Britain and when built, was the largest in Europe, but the bridge has not been lifted since 1956 and following capacity improvements in 1960 the bascule was fixed in position?

The front facade of the railway station in 2008 after redevelopment

• ...that although the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer Orientaux received a concession to build a railway from the Ottoman Empire to Vienna, Austria, via Edirne, the railway company built Karaağaç Railway Station in 1871 in order to avoid building a bridge across the Maritsa River?

East Indian Railway Mail leaving Kalka Station circa 1906

• ...that the Kalka Mail passenger train, which began operation in 1866 between Delhi and Calcutta and then, starting in 1891, from Kalka to Calcutta, India, was the principal mechanism for British civil servants to move from the capital, Calcutta, to the summer capital in Simla?

The Kyoto Line at Jūsō Station in 2006

• ...that because the six-track trunk line from Umeda Station in Japan diverges into the three double tracks of the Kobe Line, the Kyoto Line and the Takarazuka Line at Jūsō Station, a large number of the users of the station just transfer between trains here and do not exit the station?

Jokioinen railway station on the Jokioinen Museum Railway in 2008

• ...that several of the structures that make up the current Jokioinen railway station on the Jokioinen Museum Railway in Finland were built at other locations and moved to the station site separately, including a former switchman's shanty from Mellilä, an old building of Kumila railway station on the Turku-Toijala railway, and an information shelter built at Minkiö?