September 2013

A Keisei AE series "Skyliner" EMU at Higashi-Matsudo Station in 2010

• ...that Keisei Electric Railway's AE series trains introduced in 2009 for Skyliner limited express services to and from Narita International Airport in Japan are the first Keisei trains to use bolsterless bogies and the train's design and styling was overseen by Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto?

A 207 series EMU on a Katamachi Line local service in 2009

• ...that in 1932 the section between Katamachi and Shijōnawate on the present-day Katamachi Line became the first line in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area to be electrified by then current operator Japanese Government Railways?

A Kanto Railway KiHa 2300 series DMU at Moriya Station on the Jōsō Line in 2008

• ...that in fiscal 1999, the Jōsō Line, which originally opened in 1913, carried an annual total of 14.16 million passengers (38,000 per day), making it the busiest non-electrified private line in Japan?

ED60 7 pulls a freight train circa 1985

• ...that despite its diminutive size, the Bo-Bo wheel arrangement ED60 design introduced to pull freight trains on Japanese National Railways in 1958 offered performance comparable with the much larger Class EF15 1Co+Co1 design weighing almost twice as much?

James Staats Forbes in 1902

• ...that after serving as general manager for the Dutch–Rhenish Railway in the Netherlands, James Staats Forbes was offered the position of general manager for the Great Western Railway, but instead took over the failing London, Chatham and Dover Railway in the early 1870s, where he served until 1899 when the company merged with the South Eastern Railway of Forbes's long-term rival, Sir Edward Watkin?

Trains of the Kashima Railway at Ishioka Depot adjacen to Ishioka Station in January 2007

• ...that Ishioka Station, on the JR East Jōban Line in Ishioka, Ibaraki, Japan, used to be the terminal for the Kashima Railway Line which connected Ishioka to Hokota until the Kashima line closed on 31 March 2007?

The Illinois Central freight depot in 2010

• ...that although the Illinois Central Railroad built multiple train stations, engine houses, and turntables near what is now the Bloomington West Side Historic District's eastern edge in Indiana, only the freight depot remained by 1987 and as the sole railroad-related building within the district, it has been deemed one of the leading components of the district?

Ron Huberman at Harper High School in 2009

• ...that Ron Huberman, an avowed "L" rider during his tenure as president at the Chicago Transit Authority, once removed an unruly and disorderly passenger from a train he was riding on after the rider verbally harassed a female passenger?

Trams of different construction eras operating concurrently on the Hiroden network in 2005

• ...that the rolling stock of Hiroshima Electric Railway, which was established in 1910 in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, includes an eclectic range of trams manufactured from across Japan and Europe, earning it the nickname "The Moving Streetcar Museum"?

The eastern portal of Hex River Tunnel number 4 in 2005

• ...that upon its completion in 1989, the 13.5-kilometre long (8.4 mi) tunnel number 4 of the Hex River Tunnels in South Africa, a part of the Hexton line that helped to eliminate the Hex River rail pass bottleneck, became the longest railway tunnel in Africa?

East London Harbour Grasshopper type construction locomotive, c. 1880

• ...that to facilitate construction of breakwaters at East London harbour in the Cape Colony (present day South Africa), four vertical boiler Harbour Board EL 0-4-0 locomotives, similar to the American Grasshopper type of the 1830s, were delivered in the 1870s?

A 485-3000 series Hakuchō at Aomori Station in 2003

• ...that although the current Hakuchō services between Shin-Aomori and Hakodate via the undersea Seikan Tunnel in Japan were introduced in 2002, the Hakuchō name actually dates back to 1960, as the name of a service which ran from Ōsaka to Aomori until March 2001; the name was reused for the new services by popular demand?

Groningen railway station in 2007

• ...that Groningen railway station, which originally opened in 1866 in the Netherlands and the present building completed in 1896, is now the furthest north station that Nederlandse Spoorwegen operates, with all services further north operated by Arriva?

JA1250 leads a passenger train on the Glenbrook Vintage Railway at the railway's workshops in 2008

• ...that the 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge Glenbrook Vintage Railway, which opened in 1977 on a restored section of the Waiuku branch line between Glenbrook and Pukeoware in New Zealand, carried its one millionth passenger on January 7, 2007?

The track side of Gare d'Abbeville in 2010

• ...that Gare d'Abbeville, which was originally opened in northern France in 1856 and declared a historic monument in 1984, was the last wooden station built in France until the Gare de Meuse TGV opened in 2007?

The Iizaka Line's yard at Sakuramizu in 2011

• ...that while the termini of the Fukushima Kōtsū Iizaka Line in Japan are Fukushima and Iizaka Onsen stations, all trains night at the line's rail yard located at Sakuramizu Station, which also means that all trains' initial morning departure is from Sakuramizu?

Map of the Ferrocarril Rosario y Puerto Belgrano line

• ...that the main line of the Ferrocarril Rosario y Puerto Belgrano in Buenos Aires and Santa Fe provinces, Argentina, connected its namesake cities in 1910 after many other east to west lines had already been laid, necessitating a large number of bridges with short, sharp gradients to cross them on an otherwise near level course?

The former Pettigo station building, now a private residence, as seen in 2007

• ...that the partition of Ireland in 1922, which turned the boundary between counties Donegal and Fermanagh into an international frontier, imposed three border crossings on the Enniskillen and Bundoran Railway line: one each side of Pettigo and a third just west of Belleek?

An E5 series Shinkansen on a Hayabusa service in 2011

• ...that the first revenue-earning service operated on the Joetsu Shinkansen by an E5 series trainset was a special Joetsu Shinkansen 30th Anniversary (上越新幹線開業30周年号」, Jōetsu Shinkansen Kaigyō 30-shūnen-gō) service from Niigata to Tokyo on 17 November 2012 using E5 series set U8, with a special ceremony at Niigata Station before departure?

A postcard view of the interior of an Astra Dome lounge car in the 1950s

• ...that most dome lounge cars, a type of dome car that includes lounge, cafe, dining or other space on the upper level or both levels of the car, remained in service for their original owners up to the end of privately run passenger trains in North America when many were transferred to Amtrak?

An artist's conception of a Dalkey Atmospheric Railway train arriving at Kingstown in 1844

• ...that the Dalkey Atmospheric Railway, which opened in 1844 as an extension of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway using part of the Dalkey Quarry industrial tramway in Ireland, was the first atmospheric railway in the world and served as inspiration for Isambard Kingdom Brunel's South Devon Railway in England?