Portal:Trains/Did you know/May 2008

May 2008

• ...that lateral motion devices enable locomotives with a long, fixed wheelbase such as the Southern Pacific class GS-4 to negotiate tight curves without the wheel flanges binding against the rail?

• ...that the
  diesel-electric locomotives to enter main line service on a Government-owned railway in Australia
  ?

• ...that
  mechanical engineer Oliver Bulleid's problematic chain-driven valve gear was an attempt to design a new miniaturised Walschaerts motion layout that was compact enough to enclose the whole system in an oil bath
  casing, obviating the daily need to oil all moving parts as they were protected from the elements?

• ...that the
  shunting locomotive weighing 16 tonnes (35,000 lb) built in the 1950s by Fablok, was the first diesel locomotive class to be built in Poland
  ?

• ...that hammer blow, also called dynamic augment, refers to the vertical forces transferred to the track by the driving wheels of a steam locomotive, due to the unbalanced reciprocating motion as well as piston thrusts, which cannot be compensated for by a counterweight?

• ...that the
  patented in 1901 by Nicolas Charles Eugène Flaman of France
  , enabled locomotive speed to be immediately indicated as well as recorded to paper tape for later study?

• ...that the
  Garratt
  -type articulated locomotive, and the original prototype locomotive K 1 has survived into preservation and has returned to operating condition?

• ...that
  replacement bridge
  built in its wake?

• ...that the
  Otis Elevator Company plant in Yonkers, New York, which was the first elevator
  factory in the world?

• ...that a number of
  indigenous
  artists?

• ...that the
  C44-9W and AC4400CW as a result of stringent United States EPA
  emissions requirements that went into effect in 2005?

• ...that a
  0-4-4 tank locomotive in which the water tank is stored behind the cab rather than above or beside the boiler, had the advantage of a constant axle load on the driving wheels
  compared to other tank locomotive designs where axle load varied according to how much water remained in the tanks?

• ...that the state-owned
  North-South Railway, which is in poor condition and subject to closure in times of flood
  ?
• ...that
  British Railways from closing the fictional Titfield branch line, featured the historic Liverpool and Manchester Railway locomotive Lion
  starring as the Thunderbolt?

• ...that
  public company that managed the entire Argentine railway system for nearly 45 years, at one point operated the largest rail system in Latin America
  with over 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi) of railways?

• ...that the
  Sir Nigel Gresley and Harold Holcroft, which enables a three-cylinder
  locomotive to operate with only two sets of valve gear for the outside cylinders, using levers connected to them to derive the valve motion for the third cylinder?

• ...that only one of the once-numerous
  standard gauge
  soon?

• ...that the
  Forth Bridge, using the previously closed Kincardine Line and Stirling and Dunfermline Railway to provide an alternative route via the north shore of the River Forth
  ?
• ...that
  International Exposition of Art and Technology in Paris in 1937
  ?

• ...that
  Matadi-Kinshasa Railway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo cost the lives of 1,932 people during its construction, the hard conditions of which were witnessed by author Joseph Conrad and later mentioned in his novel Heart of Darkness
  ?

• ...that Uganda Railways Corporation, the parastatal railway of Uganda, was a joint recipient of the 2001 Worldaware Business Award for "assisting economic and social development through the provision of appropriate, sustainable and environmentally complementary transport infrastructure"?

• ...that restored
  Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Ladysmith, Wisconsin
  ?

• ...that Connex South Eastern, a train operating company in the United Kingdom, was originally contracted to run passenger services in South London and Kent until 2011, but in June 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority decided to cut the South Eastern franchise short at the end of 2003, citing poor financial management?

• ...that the
  gauge-convertible locomotive design on Victorian Railways, and the first Victorian Railways locomotive to be equipped with a booster engine
  ?

• ...that
  diesel-hydraulic locomotive was driven by twin V12 engines supplied by Maybach or MAN
  , and due to both designs being completely interchangeable, it was not unusual for a V200 to run with one Maybach and one MAN engine?

• ...that a compound locomotive is a kind of steam locomotive where steam is expanded twice by passing it through high and low pressure cylinders in series, resulting in increased efficiency and in many cases, superior riding qualities with consequent less wear on the track?

• ...that
  thermic syphons are heat-exchanging elements in the firebox or combustion chamber of some steam locomotive designs, and are utilised to increase the evaporative capacity of a locomotive boiler
  by increasing the heating surface?