Portal:Trains/Did you know/July 2018

July 2018

1889 advertisement for Old Colony Railroad showing Mount Hope station

• ...that Mount Hope station was built in the 1880s with a station building on each side of the tracks?

A Moscow Metro train at Sokolniki station in 1935

• ...that when the Moscow Metro opened in 1935, advertising posters lauded it as the busiest and fastest rapid transit system in the world?

An NJT train at Convent Station on the Morristown Line in 2010

• ...that the electrified section of NJ Transit's Morristown Line east of Dover Station in New Jersey was originally electrified in 1930 at 3 kV DC, but was updated in 1984 to 25 kV, 60 Hz AC?

Charles Moran

• ...that soon after taking his position as president of the Erie Railroad in 1857, Charles Moran discontinued the practice of giving free passes to cattle and freight drovers riding Erie trains?

The former Caledonian Railway station at Montrose in 1960

• ...that in order to motivate the Caledonian Railway to reduce the line toll charged to the Montrose and Bervie Railway to access Montrose station, the latter company established a station just on its side of the junction, and terminated its trains there?

The narrow gauge tracks and platforms at Montreux station in 2010

• ...that 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) gauge SBB-CFF-FFS, 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge MOB and 800 mm (2 ft 7+1⁄2 in) gauge MVR trains all call at Montreux railway station, making the station one of only a few in the world to serve trains of three different track gauges?

Derailed locomotive at Gare Montparnasse in 1895

• ...that the locomotive driver in the 1895 Montparnasse derailment was fined 50 francs for approaching the station too fast and one of the guards was fined 25 francs as he had been preoccupied with paperwork and failed to apply the handbrake?

A Monticello Railway Museum train at Nelson's Crossing station in 2008

• ...that the Monticello Railway Museum was founded in 1966 as "SPUR, Inc" (Society for the Perpetuation of Unretired Railfans, Inc) to encourage the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad to continue operating its steam-powered railfan excurions?

An NJ Transit train at Upper Montclair station on the Montclair-Boonton Line in 2006

• ...that plans for connecting the New York and Greenwood Lake Railroad (later known as the Boonton Line) and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's Montclair Branch dated back to 1929, but NJ Transit's Montclair-Boonton Line didn't open until 2002?

A train of the Osaka Monorail descends a grade near Senri-Chuo Station in 2011

• ...that rubber-tired monorails are typically designed to cope with a 6% grade?

'Monarch' at Welshpool Raven Square railway station in 2010

• ...that Monarch is the last industrial narrow gauge locomotive to be built for commercial use in the United Kingdom?

The Dan Patch Line Bridge in 2014

• ...that Twin Cities and Western Railroad purchased the Dan Patch Line Bridge on the Canadian Pacific Railway's MN&S Spur in Minnesota to protect what they feel may become a valuable shipping route in the future?

A mixed train in Australia in 1951

• ...that in some instances, mixed trains, which carried both freight and passengers, would not be run if there was no freight to be hauled regardless of passenger demand?

Soo Line SD60 number 6022 leads a freight train through Wisconsin Dells, WI, in 2004

• ...that the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad was commonly known as the Soo Line since it started regular operations in 1884?

An EP-3 locomotive pulls a passenger train circa 1922

• ...that Milwaukee Road's class EP-3 electric locomotives were built because the United States Railroad Administration dictated that the railroad's 1917 order for electrical equipment be split between GE and Westinghouse?

Milwaukee Road 261 at Milwaukee station in June 2006

• ...that since its restoration, Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 steam locomotive number 261 has logged more than 25,000 miles (40,000 km) under its own power?

Southward view of the Mill Hill East station platform in 2009

• ...that the single-track branch of London Underground's Northern line to Mill Hill East was built as a double track formation in the 1860s but the second track was never laid?

A preserved milk car at Illinois Railway Museum in 2005

• ...that in one test of milk car operations, milk was shipped from Wisconsin to Florida, and the temperature rose only a single degree (0.56 °C) during a trip lasting 101 hours?

A train at Milford Haven station in 2012

• ...that Milford Haven railway station is the westernmost railway station in Wales, but not in Great Britain?

Drawing of Nottingham Carrington Street station in 1840

• ...that the earliest section to open of the current Midland Main Line was opened by the Midland Counties Railway between Nottingham and Derby on 4 June 1839?

The former Midland Great Western station at Clifden in 2008, now the Clifden Station House Hotel

• ...that three former Midland Great Western Railway stations in Ireland are now hotels, two of which are called the "Station House Hotel" but are unconnected by ownership?

Newly overhauled 'Brooks No. 1' leads a train at Middleton Park on the Middleton Railway in September 2017

• ...that the Middleton Railway, which was founded in 1758 to serve nearby collieries and is now a heritage railway, is the world's oldest continuously working public railway?

Two diesel multiple unit trains on the Mid-Cheshire line at Chester in 2011

• ...that since the privatisation of British Rail, passenger journeys on the Mid-Cheshire line have massively increased to over 1.7 million per year?

A preserved set of cars originally owned by the Independent Subway System operating as an excursion train in 2015

• ...that the Independent Subway System in New York operated solely with one family of subway cars, commonly referred to as the Arnines?

Streetcars in Washington, D.C., using underground electrification in the 1910s

• ...that Metropolitan Railroad's 1895 installation of an underground sliding shoe electrification system on the north-south line in Washington, D.C., was the first successful installation of such a system in the Western Hemisphere? (Note: Disputed based on the definition of Western Hemisphere; see Talk:Metropolitan Railroad#Switch to electricity)

A two-car Metromover train at Omni in 2012

• ...that the 25¢ fare to ride the Metromover in Miami, Florida, was lifted partly because it was realized that the cost of collecting the fare nearly exceeded the revenue generated from the fare?

A Metro-North train at Botanical Garden station on the Harlem Line in 2009

• ...that Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line was initially a combination of trackage from the New York and Harlem Railroad and the Boston and Albany Railroad, which date back as far as 1832?