March 2010

• ...that in spite of its proximity to important industrial and commercial areas of Gush Dan as well as to residential areas of Tel Aviv, in terms of boardings and alightings Bnei Brak Railway Station is one of the least popular stations of Israel Railways?

• ...that running at an average speed of 93 km/h (58 mph) excluding halts, and reaching a top speed of 161 km/h (100 mph) on the 198 km (123 mi) Delhi-Agra stretch, the Bhopal Shatabdi Express is the fastest train in India?

• ...that Bedlington Ironworks in England, which operated between 1736 and 1867, is most remembered as the place where wrought iron rails were invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820 triggering the railway age, with their first major use being in the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in 1825, about 45 miles (72 km) to the south?

• ...that the Baltimore Terminal Subdivision between Baltimore and Halethorpe, Maryland, now operated by CSX, is one of the oldest rail lines in the United States and in 1830 hosted the first passenger trains to be operated in the U.S.?

• ...that Ballarat railway station in Victoria, Australia, classified by Heritage Victoria and the National Trust, is one of only three stations in Victoria to have had a 19th century train shed, the other two being Geelong and St Kilda?

• ...that the Baden IV e steam locomotives, built between 1894 and 1901 primarily for express and passenger train duties on the steep lines of the Schwarzwaldbahn, were the first locomotives with a 4-6-0 wheel arrangement to be operated in Germany?

• ...that in its new lease on life as a tourist attraction, British Railways standard class 5 number 73096 has been temporarily disguised as 73080 Merlin and as 73054, for special events and commemorations?

• ...that BLS AG, a Swiss railway company created by the 2006 merger of BLS Lötschbergbahn and Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG owns and operates the new 34.6 km (21.5 mi) long Lötschberg base tunnel, currently the longest railway tunnel in the world?

• ...that although it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Ampere station on New Jersey Transit's Montclair-Boonton Line in East Orange, New Jersey, was closed in 1991 and subsequently demolished?

• ...that Japan's largest railway trestle, the Amarube Viaduct on JR West's San'in Main Line between Yoroi and Amarube stations, was built using steel imported from the American Bridge Company's Pencoyd Iron Works in 1910?

• ...that Ametyevo station in Tatarstan is the only station on the Kazan Metro that is located above ground and because it spans a small valley it was designed with a theme reminiscent of a futuristic cosmic weightless construction located in free space?

• ...that RENFE train 100015, one of the AVE Class 100 trains built for AVE service between Madrid and Seville, set one of the most important Spanish speed records, reaching 356.8 km/h (221.7 mph), surpassing the previous record of 330 km/h (210 mph)?

• ...that New South Wales Government Railways C35 class locomotive 3526, a 4-6-0 built in 1917, withdrawn in 1967 and restored to operating condition in 2004, is the only example of the class that is still in existence?

• ...that the 107 series, a DC EMU operated on local services by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan, were the first EMUs to be built by JR East following the splitting of the former Japan National Railways (JNR)?

• ...that the Camas Prairie Railroad, a short line railroad in the U.S. state of Idaho, was known as the "railroad on stilts" due to the many wooden trestles along its route?

• ...that although Würzburg Hauptbahnhof (Würzburg Central Station) in the German state of Bavaria is an important junction in the German rail system, its 1950s station buildings have neither elevators nor escalators, to the dismay of travelers with heavy luggage?

• ...that Ben Gurion Airport Railway Station in Israel handled an average of 8,600 passengers daily in August 2009, and will also be a regular stop on the future Tel Aviv to Jerusalem high-speed rail line which is currently under construction?

• ...that the failed Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System project in Thailand, which stalled in legal acrimony after being only 10-13% completed and was eventually cancelled in 1998, has left over one thousand concrete pillars standing idle along the planned routes, described by the Bangkok Post as "a Bangkok version of Stonehenge"?

• ...that the Pennsylvania Railroad Class D6 steam locomotive, built in the early 1880s, was one of the first American 4-4-0s to place the firebox above, rather than between, the locomotive's frame, enabling a larger, easier to fire and more powerful locomotive?

• ...that although Japan's 885 Series electric multiple unit trains are capable of a maximum speed of only 130 kilometres per hour (81 mph), they are equipped with a tilt mechanism to allow them to complete most journeys in around two hours?

• ...that during a typical journey of the W44 Concentrate Train, a block train used to transport lead and zinc concentrates from the mines of Broken Hill to the Cockle Creek Smelter near Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, the motive power could change up to four times between steam, diesel and electric traction at various points along the route?

• ...that the 21st Century upgrade of the Great Western Main Line, the only remaining major mainline route in the United Kingdom to still rely on diesel power as its principal source of traction, represents the first big railway electrification project in the UK for 20 years?

• ...that many of the canopies at the light rail transit stations in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah in the United States are designed to resemble the canopy of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building?

• ...that despite it derailing at 215 kilometres per hour (134 mph), none of the 170 passengers on board ICE train 885 were killed when 12 of its 14 carriages derailed inside the Landrückentunnel on Germany's Hanover-Würzburg high-speed rail line line after hitting a stray flock of sheep that had wandered inside the tunnel?

• ...that numerous protests, particularly from the wine growers of the Rhône river valley, obliged French President François Mitterrand to ask for alterations to the route of the LGV Méditerranée high speed rail line, with the final route skirting the river and crossing it four times instead of sticking exclusively to one bank as originally planned?

• ...that the Otavi Mining and Railway Company (OMEG), operating the line from the Atlantic coast of Namibia (formerly German South-West Africa) to the mines of Tsumeb, had to modify its locomotives with special steam nozzles to sweep locusts off the tracks after locust plagues in 1924 caused locomotives to slip on crushed insects and brought operations to a standstill?

• ...that the building that today houses the Danbury Railway Museum, which was once the main railway station for the U.S. city of Danbury, Connecticut, was prominently used as a location in the 1951 Alfred Hitchcock thriller film Strangers on a Train?

• ...that the X'Trapolis 100 train used in commuter service in Melbourne, Australia, starting in 2002 was the first EMU in Melbourne to have computer controlled traction, braking, and safety systems?

• ...that the Yamagata Railway Flower Nagai Line connecting Akayu Station in Nanyō to Arato Station in Shirataka in Japan was saved from likely closure largely through the actions of lone train operator Tatsuo Asakura who, working without the knowledge of his superiors, increased out-of-town passenger numbers from 350 in 2005 to 7,000 in 2006 by providing hilarious guided train rides to visitors in which he explained the history and culture of the area in his local dialect?

• ...that the X Class 0-8-2 steam locomotives of India's Nilgiri Mountain Railway are of an unusual four-cylinder compound design with all four cylinders outside the lomotive's frames, where the low pressure cylinders driving the rack wheels being positioned above the high pressure cylinders which drive the main wheels?

• ...that although the EMD BL2 diesel-electric locomotive was not very successful in the locomotive market due to mechanical and ergonomic shortcomings, EMD designers were able to use the lessons learned from it to produce the much more successful GP7?