November 2012

• ...that the Ballymena, Cushendall and Red Bay Railway, which connected Ballymena and Retreat, both in County Antrim, in what is now Northern Ireland, was incorporated in 1872 and was the first narrow gauge railway in Ireland to be sanctioned by Parliament?

• ...that very few of the recommendations in the Ashworth Improvement Plan released in 1940, which detailed extension and development of electrified suburban railways of inner city Melbourne, Australia, were able to be carried out immediately due to the ongoing war effort, but much of the track amplification was carried out as part of the 1950s Operation Phoenix and a variant of the City Railway was built as the City Loop that started in 1970 and was completed in 1985?

• ...that at Agawa Canyon railway station Canadian National Railway provides the option of renting a Canyon Camp Car (a former Wisconsin Central caboose) that has been refurbished for this purpose?

• ...that the Yodo Line (予土線, Yodo-sen), in Shikoku, Japan, now operated by Shikoku Railway Company, derives its name from the ancient provinces of Iyo (伊予) (now Ehime Prefecture) and Tosa (土佐) (now Kōchi Prefecture), which the line connects?

• ...that Willamette Iron and Steel Works, which manufactured the Willamette locomotive in the 1920s after key patents on the Shay locomotive had expired, was originally established in 1865 to manufacture steamboat boilers and engines?

• ...that under the leadership of Edward Watkin, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway built the London Extension in the 1890s, which became the last main line to be constructed into London (until the opening of High Speed 1 in 2007)?

• ...that the Clyde Engineering 12-710G-ES diesel engine used in Westrail's S class of diesel-electric locomotives was developed to alleviate vibration problems that had become evident in the 12-710G engine?

• ...that the Vectron Bo'Bo' multipurpose locomotive built by Siemens Mobility and introduced at Innotrans in 2010 is designed to be easily reconfigurable to a variety of country or work specific configurations with pre-designed mounting points for track equipment, modular safety equipment cabinets in the locomotive body and a driver's desk designed for a wide variety of information equipment?

• ...that in order to avoid a break of gauge between railway systems at borders, some trains, like the RENFE Class 130, are equipped with variable gauge axles that are adjusted by gauge changing equipment that can unlock, move, support and re-lock the adjustable axles while the train traverses it?

• ...that the United States Railway Association (not to be confused with the United States Railroad Administration of the late 1910s) was formed in 1974 to merge the Penn Central, Ann Arbor Railroad, Erie Lackawanna Railway, Lehigh Valley Railroad, Reading Company, Central Railroad of New Jersey and Lehigh and Hudson River Railway, creating Conrail?

• ...that the last three Tōyō Rapid Railway 1000 series trains to be withdrawn from service on the Tokyo Metro Tōzai Line in Japan were sold to Indonesia in 2006 and 2007, where they now operate on suburban services in the Jakarta area?

• ...that the 2,295-foot long (700 m) Tulip Viaduct, built to span Richland Creek in Greene County, Indiana, in 1905-1906 by the Indianapolis Southern Railway and now part of the Indianapolis–Newton, Illinois, line of the Indiana Rail Road, is the longest active railroad trestle in the United States?

• ...that Transports en commun lyonnais, usually abbreviated as TCL, which operates the rapid transit Lyon Metro, funicular, tram and bus lines in Lyon, is the second largest public transport system in France?

• ...that historically in Great Britain, train reporting numbers were used to denote trains in the internal working timetable, to uniquely identify a particular train, or to denote its route (particularly on busier lines)?

• ...that the name of the Toki high-speed Shinkansen train service operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) is taken from the Japanese name of the Crested Ibis, for which Niigata Prefecture is famous?

• ...that it is likely that the first railway accident described in "The Signal-Man," a short story by Charles Dickens that was first published in 1866, was based on the Clayton Tunnel crash that occurred in 1861, five miles from Brighton on the south coast of England?

• ...that after the last train to serve Terminal Station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, departed in 1970, the station complex, which was the largest station in the city, was converted to a convention center, hotel and resort with restaurants and shops?

• ...that Tai Wo Hau Station, which was opened in 1982 on MTR's Tsuen Wan Line in Hong Kong, was one of the first railway stations built in the New Territories and is the first station in the New Territories to be built entirely as an underground station?

• ...that the Sōya Main Line, operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido), was originally built beginning in the late 1890s as a link line between mainland Japan and the then Japanese northern frontier Karafuto (southern half of Sakhalin Island) and is now the northernmost railway line in Japan?

• ...that the Sulitjelma Line, originally constructed in 1891 as a 750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in) gauge line to connect Sjønstå and Fossen in Nordland county, Norway, was the first railway line to be built in Northern Norway, but the line was closed in 1972 and its right-of-way is now used by Norwegian County Road 830?

• ...that in 1879, ownership of the St. Joseph Swing Bridge, crossing the Missouri River connecting St. Joseph, Missouri, and Elwood, Kansas, was transferred to Jay Gould and operated under the name of the St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad Company which primarily served the Union Pacific Railroad?