Portal:Trains/Did you know/August 2019

August 2019

• ...that George Stephenson's conservative views on the capabilities of locomotives meant he favoured circuitous routes and civil engineering that were more costly than his successors thought necessary?

• ...that the
  Stephansplatz station
  station lie up to five storeys below the Stephansplatz?

• ...that
  diesel-electric locomotives
  to be placed in service by the SAR?

• ...that in October 1981, the Steamtown Peterborough Railway Preservation Society operated the last steam-hauled train to travel the line between Peterborough and Quorn, South Australia?

• ...that some pioneering early steam locomotives used steam springs rather than leaf or coil springs for suspension because at the time high quality steel was so expensive as to be regarded as 'a semi-precious metal'?

• ...that Stanlow and Thornton, which saw only 40 passengers in the 2004-05 fiscal year, is the least used railway station in Cheshire?

• ...that
  South African Railways' Class 32-000 locomotive because they would not provide a 1Co+Co1 bogied
  locomotive is credited as a major factor in ALCO's demise?

• ...that
  The Horse in Motion
  ?

• ...that the original
  Stanford train station was built in 1866 as part of Ambrose Burnside's goal of easier supply transport in central Kentucky
  ?

• ...that when Stamford Brook station opened in 1912, it was served by both District Railway and London and South Western Railway trains?

• ...that the
  SAR
  service in quantity?

• ...that the Class Afro 4000, a Cape gauge version of the Euro 4000, was the first new locomotive type to be acquired by PRASA since its establishment?

• ...that since the original station building was demolished in 1963,
  switch house
  as a station building?

• ...that in the 1990s, the two island platforms at St James railway station in Sydney, Australia, were connected by filling in the space between them, resulting in one single, large island platform?

• ...that the only
  South African Railways Class 20 2-10-2 steam locomotive, assembled in 1935 using parts of former Class 19A and Class 8 locomotives, was the third locomotive type to be designed and built in South Africa
  ?

• ...that the
  broad gauge
  passenger railway to be constructed in England?

• ...that the
  railway bridge
  over another railway line?

• ...that on an average weekday St Erth railway station sees up to 69 trains, making it the busiest station in Cornwall in terms of services?

• ...that
  boiler diameter than the Class 14 to reduce the axle loading
  from 16 long tons 3 hundredweight (16,410 kg) to 15 long tons (15,240 kg)?

• ...that the former
  United States Army Transportation Corps S100 Class steam locomotives purchased and adapted by Southern Railway (SR) to become the USA class
  were given the nickname "Yank Tanks" by SR crews?

• ...that at the eastern end of St Austell railway station Network Rail replaced a nearly 150-year-old road bridge with a prototype modular fibre reinforced polymer footbridge?

• ...that the former Chesapeake and Ohio Railway's rail car ferry SS Badger, now operated for passenger service, is the last coal-fired passenger vessel operating on the Great Lakes?

• ...that
  Imperial Military Railways 4-10-2
  T locomotives?

• ...that Southern Railway's Merchant Navy class locomotive 35018 British India Line was the first of its class to emerge from a 1950s rebuild programme that influenced the design of the West Country and Battle of Britain classes?

• ...that London and South Western Railway's class 3SUB electric multiple unit trains introduced in 1915 were the first trains on the LSWR not to offer second class accommodation?