January 2018

• ...that when a new direct sleeping car service between Tokyo and Sapporo was announced in 1987, the name Hokutosei was chosen from among 24,000 public ballots?

• ...that when the standard gauge Nagano Shinkansen opened in October 1997, the parallel narrow gauge Shinetsu Main Line between Karuizawa and Shinonoi was transferred to Shinano Railway?

• ...that Hof Hauptbahnhof in Bavaria is located between two bridges over the river Saale?

• ...that when the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) acquired control of the Pere Marquette Railway (PM) in 1929, the former Hocking Valley Railway, of which the C&O had gained control in 1910, served as the PM's connection to the rest of the C&O system?

• ...that aside from fulfilling the relative needs of industrial growth and populations, the early history of rail transport in Finland in the mid-19th century was guided by the interests of the Russian empire?

• ...that Deutsche Reichsbahn steam locomotive number 01 118, built by Krupp in 1934 and now preserved and operated by the Historic Railway, Frankfurt, is the only one of its class still in existence that has seen unbroken operational service?

• ...that as of the end of December 2016, China has 22,000 kilometres (14,000 miles) of high-speed rail, accounting for two-thirds of the world's total high-speed trackage?

• ...that the High Bridge, built in 1876 and which now carries Norfolk Southern Railway over the Kentucky River Palisades, was the first cantilever bridge built in the United States?

• ...that The Kauai Plantation Railway, one of the heritage railways in Kauai, opened for business in January 2007 as "the first new railroad to be built in Hawaii in 100 years"?

• ...that Deutsche Reichsbahn could not operate test runs of the Henschel-Wegmann Train until after propaganda events where they hosted a visit to the driver's cab by Adolf Hitler were complete in 1935?

• ...that one of the Hengoed Viaduct's arches is effectively a separate bridge skewed across the Brecon and Merthyr Railway, to allow for crossing their Hengoed railway station?

• ...that in March 2013, a HEMU-430X train achieved 421.4 km/h (261.8 mph) in a test run, making South Korea the fourth country after France, Japan and China to develop a high-speed train running on conventional rail above 420 km/h (260 mph)?

• ...that unlike the other London Underground stations serving Heathrow Terminal 4 and Terminals 2 & 3, the Terminal 5 station is staffed entirely by Heathrow Express personnel?

• ...that the first instance of head-end power electrical supply for passenger trains was by the North British Railway in 1881?

• ...that the film Trains at Hayes Station, showing trains passing through Hayes & Harlington railway station on the former Great Western Railway main line, was almost the first demonstration of stereophonic sound to accompany moving pictures?

• ...that artwork at the MAX Light Rail Hawthorn Farm station uses electronics to provide waiting passengers with indicators of approaching trains as well as the wind's direction and sounds from a neighboring wetlands area?

• ...that the MBTA Commuter Rail system's Haverhill Line to the north of Boston has the most single track on the MBTA system?

• ...that prior to the 1921 grouping, the "Battle of Havant" took place between the LB&SCR and the L&SWR when the two fought for the right to use LB&SCR tracks into Havant in order for the L&SWR to reach Portsmouth?

• ...that the Hastings Miniature Railway was developed in part to provide a place to operate some 10+1⁄4 in (260 mm) gauge rolling stock owned by railway entrepreneur Captain J.E.P. Howey, who built and owned the 15 in (381 mm) gauge Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway?