Portal:Trains/Did you know/July 2014

July 2014

A Kurobe Senyo Railway (Jobu Track) train at Keyakidaira-Jobu Station in 2007

• ...that construction of the Kurobe Senyō Railway section called High Temperature Tunnel (高熱隧道, Kōnetsu Zuidō) in Toyama Prefecture, Japan, was made difficult by the temperature of surrounding rocks which reached as high as 160 °C (320 °F) at the time?

• ...that the Hōzanji Line (宝山寺線, Hōzanji-sen), part of the Kintetsu Ikoma Cable Line, in Ikoma, Nara, Japan, is not only the oldest commercially operated funicular in Japan, but is also the only double-track funicular in the country?

• ...that for the first two and a half months of operations for Kansai Airport Station, at Kansai International Airport in Tajiri, Sennan District, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, the station was open to the public but only airport employees and related personnel were allowed to leave the station concourse?

• ...that of the 172 JNR Class EF58 electric locomotives built between 1946 and 1958, one of the class, EF58 61, was built specially for use as the official Imperial Train locomotive and is still maintained in immaculate condition in its original brown livery?

A postcard view of the Jardin d'Acclimatation railway circa 1910

• ...that the 500 mm (19 ³⁄₄ in) minimum gauge Jardin d'Acclimatation railway, in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, became the first passenger-carrying narrow gauge railway of France when it opened in 1878?

Markings on the platform at Hitomarumae Station showing the Japan Standard Time meridian

• ...that the meridian demarking Japan Standard Time passes directly through Hitomarumae Station on the Sanyo Electric Railway Main Line in Akashi, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan?

• ...that Benjamin Hick, founder of steam locomotive manufacturing company B. Hick and Sons, was both a serious collector and patron of the arts alongside other industrialists and bankers from the North of England who favoured English art particularly that depicting nature and history?

The platforms and tracks at Dekijima station in 2010

• ...that the predecessor of the Hanshin Namba Line in Japan, the Dempō Line (伝法線), was planned as a bypass for the Hanshin Main Line, and to connect from Amagasaki to Noda via Dempō?

Two CAF-built trainsets on the Sacramento light rail system, passing at Mather Field/Mills station in 2006

• ...that the original portion of what is now Sacramento Regional Transit District's Gold Line in California was built mainly using a railroad right-of-way, coupled with use of structures of an abandoned freeway project?

• ...that SNCF's Class Z 50000 electric multiple unit trains, built by Bombardier Transportation and introduced in regular service in 2009, are sometimes called "NAT", an acronym for the train's development project name (French: "Nouvelle Automotrice Transilien")?

• ...that when the Flemington Racecourse railway line in Melbourne, Australia, is operated for trains to Showgrounds and Flemington Racecourse stations, services can run as frequently as every four minutes, but at other times the line is used to store trains between peak hours?

A train at Ichijodani Station on the Etsumi-Hoku Line in 2005

• ...that the Etsumi-Hoku Line, which connects Echizen-Hanandō Station in Fukui to Kuzuryūko Station in Ōno, Japan, was originally intended to be the northern half of an Etsumi Line (越美線) to connect the prefectures of Fukui and Gifu?

The former University station in 1975

• ...that in 1997, the portion of the Chicago 'L' Green Line's East 63rd branch east of Cottage Grove, which included University, Dorchester and Jackson Park stations, was demolished with less than 24 hours public notice?

• ...that since the 2,182-kilometre long (1,356 mi) Delhi–Chennai line in India is used as the main route of the Grand Trunk Express, the line is often referred to as the Grand Trunk Route?

• ...that the Comeng trains, which were introduced in 1981 and continue to operate on the suburban railway network of Melbourne, Australia, were the first suburban trains in Melbourne to have air conditioning in the passenger saloon?

Preserved 0-4-2 locomotive "Blackie" at Cape Town station in 2007

• ...that Edson Joseph Chamberlin was promoted from vice president to president of the Grand Trunk Railway when Charles Melville Hays lost his life on the RMS Titanic in 1912?

• ...that an 0-4-0T locomotive built by R and W Hawthorn in 1859, which was later rebuilt as an 0-4-2T and became engine number 9 of the Cape Town Railway and Dock Company and then of the Cape Government Railways, was the first locomotive in the territory that is now South Africa?

The platforms at Denville Junction station in 2010

• ...that Conrail specifically indicated the severing of the Garret Mountain section of the Boonton Branch in New Jersey as a key reason in its decision to abandon entire former Erie Lackawanna Railroad freight lines?

Barry Links station in 2005

• ...that in the Strategic Rail Authority's 2002/03 financial year, only three fare-paying passengers boarded trains at Barry Links railway station in Scotland, and five disembarked, making it the least busy station in the United Kingdom for that year, tied with Gainsborough Central?

• ...that the Aonami Line, connecting Nagoya and Kinjō-Futō stations in Japan, was originally opened as a freight-only branch line of the Tōkaidō Main Line but was later converted to allow passenger traffic in 2004?