Portal:Trains/Did you know/October 2017

October 2017

Abraham Lincoln's funeral train in Philadelphia in 1865

• ...that a phantom funeral train operating from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Illinois, around the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's death, stopping watches and clocks in surrounding areas as it passes, is just one of many ghost trains that is said to exist?

Locomotives and other rolling stock at the Gilpin Tramway enginehouse circa 1895

• ...that the Gilpin Tramway, built in 1887 to serve gold mines in Gilpin County, Colorado, had more switchbacks than any other American railroad?

Daniel Gilman circa 1890

• ...that in the 1880s, Daniel Hunt Gilman, who had helped establish the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, was an early promoter of using Snoqualmie Falls to generate hydroelectricity?

Sir George Gibb sometime in the 1900s

• ...that as the general manager of the North Eastern Railway in the 1890s, Sir George Stegmann Gibb introduced collective bargaining into his negotiations with labor unions and used independent arbitration to settle disputes?

Construction of Gerrards Cross Tunnel proceeding in 2005

• ...that Gerrards Cross Tunnel was built in 2005 on the Chiltern Main Line to enable a new Tesco supermarket to be built over the railway line?

An electric multiple unit passenger train in Tblisi in 2009

• ...that with 12,700 employees, The Georgian Railway LLC is the largest employer in the country of Georgia?

A former railway bridge at Spalt

• ...that the stones used to construct the Georgensgmünd–Spalt railway bridges and culverts were sourced from the demolished town walls of Spalt?

A preserved Whitcomb 65-DE-19A diesel-electric locomotive built in 1944 for the USATC

• ...that by late 1944 the Whitcomb Locomotive Company, then a subsidiary of Baldwin, was producing one 65-ton locomotive a day?

A Genesee & Wyoming Australia freight train in 2008

• ...that Genesee & Wyoming grew from a 14.5-mile long (23.3 km) single-track line serving a single customer to become a holding company that owns or maintains interests in 120 railroads in North America, Europe and Australia?

Former Pacific Electric Railway streetcars stacked and awaiting destruction in 1956

• ...that most companies involved in what has become known as the General Motors streetcar conspiracy were convicted in 1949 of conspiracy to monopolize interstate commerce in the sale of buses, fuel, and supplies to National City Lines subsidiaries, but were acquitted of conspiring to monopolize the transit industry?

Southern Pacific 3100 preserved at Orange Empire Railway Museum in 2005

• ...that the U25B model diesel-electric locomotive introduced in 1959 was the first commercially successful domestic diesel electric road locomotive designed, built, and sold by General Electric after its split from Alco?

New York Central locomotive 1528 circa 1930

• ...that GE's three-power boxcab electro-diesel hybrid switcher locomotives were termed oil battery electrics to avoid the use of the German name Diesel, unpopular after World War I?

A CM20EMP pulling a passenger train in 2014

• ...that the CM20EMP diesel-electric locomotive was designed as a dual-cab locomotive partly due to a rule from the Indonesia Government's Ministry of Transportation that every new locomotive should not have a 'long-hood' position to help avoid accidents?

Builder's photo of Dan Patch 100, a 57-ton boxcab locomotive

• ...that GE's 57-ton gas-electric boxcab built in 1913 was originally claimed to be the first locomotive type using an engine to drive a generator for traction motors, but later lost this designation to a narrow-gauge diesel-electric locomotive built in 1912?

A Great Orme Tramway car on the street-running section in 2005

• ...that although the street running section of the Great Orme Tramway in Wales resembles the better-known San Francisco cable cars, its operation is quite different in that it adheres to the funicular principle where the cars are permanently fixed to the cable?

Tracks and platforms at Gare de la Bastille circa 1900

• ...that upon its closure in 1969, the Gare de la Bastille was the last terminus in Paris operated entirely by steam locomotives?

The westbound platform of Gants Hill station in 2015

• ...that Gants Hill on London Underground's Central line is the easternmost station to be entirely below ground on the London Underground network?

Exterior view of the gangway connection between cars on the Overland Limited in 1896

• ...that although George M. Pullman introduced his patented vestibule cars in 1887, London and North Western Railway was the first British railway to introduce gangway connections to allow passengers to move from one coach to another whilst the train was in motion?

Gallery Place station in 2004

• ...that Washington Metro's Gallery Place station has been used a testing ground for new station features including tactile edging, new signage and LED platform edge lights?

The tracks and platforms at Gainsborough Central station in 2009

• ...that until as recently as 2006, Gainsborough Central railway station was shown to be one of the least busy in England as trains only call there one day a week?

Fukuoka Subway 3000 series EMU set 01 at Hashimoto Depot in 2015

• ...that on the Fukuoka Subway 3000 series trains' exterior a small light-green line which runs from the front along the top of the windows represents the ridge of Mount Abura, while a light blue stripe along the bottom of the train represents the Muromi River?

Fukutetsu 200 series (left) and 770 series EMUs in 2008

• ...that although Fukui Railway's name refers to its founding as a railway, 75.1% of the company's revenue comes from local and long-distance bus transport with only 16.7% is from its railway operation?