Portal:Trains/Did you know/August 2014

August 2014

The Shelburne Freight Shed in 2012

• ...that Robert Henderson Robertson, architect of the Vanderbilt-Webb estate on Shelburne Farms in Vermont, designed the Shelburne Railroad Station in 1890 using the Shingle Style to retain stylistic consistency between the station and the nearby Vanderbilt-Webb estate?

The current Shin-Kotoni Station as seen in 2012

• ...that three different 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) gauge lines formerly connected to the Sasshō Line, which is now operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido) in Japan, at Shin-Kotoni and Tōbetsu stations?

The first car fully in flames during the Sakuragichō train fire in 1951

• ...that after the Sakuragichō train fire in Yokohama, Japan, in 1951 which killed 106 people and injured 92, Hideo Shima, director of the railway's rolling stock department, resigned but was later rehired by Japanese National Railways in 1955 to design and build Japan's first "bullet train" (Shinkansen)?

A streamlined C&NW Class E-4 Hudson steam locomotive (right) in Chicago in 1942; this locomotive was very similar to those used on the Rochester 400

• ...that because the Rochester 400 served Rochester, Minnesota, and its famous Mayo Clinic, there was at least one car on each train with wider doors for allowing patients on stretchers and other accommodations?

Installation of a steam locomotive tire in 1943

• ...that the inside diameter of a steam locomotive driving wheel tire is machined to be slightly less than the diameter of the wheel centre on which it is mounted, to give an interference fit, and then is fitted by heating it to a controlled temperature?

Samuel Polyakov, date unknown

• ...that the speed of building two railroads in Russia during the Russo-Turkish War earned Samuel Polyakov a medal at the Paris World Exhibition of 1878 and over 20 million roubles from the government, including a 4.5 million time bonus?

Salt Lake City Union Depot in 2002

• ...that after moving to San Francisco, California, in 1889, architect Daniel J. Patterson caught the attention of Southern Pacific Railroad and went on to design many of the railroad's stations including union stations in Seattle and Salt Lake City?

Oil Creek Railroad stock certificate from 1866

• ...that in 1865 the Oil Creek Railroad in Pennsylvania added a third rail to its 6 ft (1,829 mm) gauge track to allow the railroad to connect to standard gauge railroads such as the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad?

SGMm 2983 at Deventer station in 2006

• ...that the Nederlandse Spoorwegen Class 2100 and 2900 SGMm EMU trains built from 1975 to 1983 by Talbot were originally designed to be used on the Amsterdam Metro network, which would have necessitated third rail shoes as well as pantographs for current collection?

An 11000 series train of Nankai Electric Railway in 2006

• ...that for historical reasons, the Nankai Electric Railway's Kōya Line formally begins at Shiomibashi Station in Osaka and crosses the Nankai Main Line at Kishinosato-Tamade Station, although operationally it starts at Namba Station together with the Nankai Line, diverges at Kishinosato-Tamade Station and goes to Gokurakubashi Station, to connect to Koyasan through Nankai Cable Line?

The facade of Motomachi Station in 2007

• ...that although Motomachi Station in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, serves both the JR West's JR Kōbe Line (Tōkaidō Main Line) and the Hanshin Electric Railway's Main Line and Kōbe Kōsoku Line, the JR and Hanshin platforms are separated and no interchange is possible without completely leaving one building and entering another?

Route map showing the several circle routes of Victorian era London

• ...that Great Western Railway's Middle Circle services in London, England, which operated from 1872 to 1905, followed a route through stations that are now served by London Underground's Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines?

Preserved Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway locomotive No. 957 under steam in 2008

• ...that John Marshall, the railway historian best known for his three-volume history of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in England, greatly disliked his work being described as "definitive"?

Luzhniki Metro Bridge in 2006

• ...that the Luzhniki Metro Bridge, carrying a road and a Moscow Metro line across the Moskva River in Moscow, Russia, houses Vorobyovy Gory, the only station of Moscow Metro located above water?

Soldiers from the Somerset Light Infantry man an armoured train on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch miniature railway in Kent in 1940

• ...that the 15 in (381 mm) gauge Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in England was one of many railway companies worldwide that rostered armoured trains during times of war?

LMR's Saginaw Yard as it appeared in 2008

• ...that the entire 5.1-mile long (8.2 km) route of the Lansing Manufacturers Railroad was entirely within the city limits of Lansing, Michigan, USA, which allowed the company to claim that it "makes a complete circuit of the city, connecting all the steam and electric lines"?