Portal:Trains/Did you know/March 2016

• ...that Cape Government Railways looked to American locomotive manufacturers for production of its 4th Class 4-4-2 locomotives because British manufacturers were facing labour strikes and steamship companies had suddenly doubled all freight charges to the Cape?

• ...that the design of Cape Government Railways' 3rd Class 4-4-0 locomotives of 1884 was an early attempt at standardisation, since their boilers and tenders and many other parts were made interchangeable?

• ...that after authorizing a Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois passenger train to pass a red signal onto an occupied track, the signalman realized his mistake and tried to cut electricity on that section of track but could not because the train had already entered the different railway electrification system in France, which led to the head-on Zoufftgen train collision?

• ...that like other Gautrain stations in South Africa, Centurion station acts as the focal point of transit-oriented development for projects including the Symbio-City development, which aims at developing the highest skyscraper in Africa in the middle of Centurion Lake?

• ...that the Calgary Stampede grounds were the terminus of the first Calgary municipal railway streetcar route?

• ...that one effect of the Burlington railroad strike of 1888 was the radicalization of a local leader in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen named Eugene V. Debs, and the beginning of his political career?

• ...that before its 1969 merger with three other unions to form the United Transportation Union, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen had grown to become the largest brotherhood of operating railroad employees?

• ...that since Alice Keppel, née Edmonstone, the mistress of Edward VII, lived at Duntreath Castle in Scotland, the Royal Train bearing the King was believed to have used the Blane Valley Railway line from time to time?

• ...that some MBTA stations in and around Boston offer direct connections to off-street trails and bicycle paths, many of which are rail trails built on former railroad rights of way?

• ...that the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Intercity Railway under construction in China is designed such that the venues for the 2022 Winter Olympics will all be within one hour travel time from each other?

• ...that the Atlantic Axis high-speed rail line in Spain was planned to be extended to the south using the longest railway bridge on the Iberian Peninsula for the 4.5 km long (2.8 mi) crossing of the Minho River to connect to Porto, Portugal?

• ...that when electrification work on NJDOT's Hoboken Division was completed in 1984, a portion of the Arrow III fleet was assigned as the only MUs in service on the Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast Line?

• ...that at the time of its construction in 1899, the maximum span of the Alexandra Railway Bridge in Queensland, at 75 metres (246 ft), was the fourth largest achieved in Australia, after the first Hawkesbury Bridge in New South Wales (1889, 125 m or 410 ft), Albert Bridge (1895, 103.7 m or 340 ft) and the Burdekin River's Macrossan Bridge, Qld (76.2 m or 250 ft)?

• ...that the Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro Southern Line, which transports pilgrims between holy sites in Mecca, Mount Arafat, Muzdalifah and Mina, Saudi Arabia, is claimed to have the highest capacity of any metro in the world?

• ...that until the Zürichberg Tunnel in Zürich, Switzerland, was opened in 1990, Zürich Hauptbahnhof was a west-facing terminal station that required through trains to reverse in its platforms?

• ...that Toronto Transit Commission's Yonge streetcar line was its busiest and most congested, and the subway that replaced it was not only Toronto's first, but the first in Canada?

• ...that the 694-kilometre long (431 mi) Yingtan–Xiamen Railway, also called Yingxia Railway, built in the 1950s was the first railroad to be built in Fujian province and now serves as a major trunkline in China's railway network?

• ...that Yenikapı Transfer Center, serving lines M1 and M2 of Istanbul Metro as well as Turkish State Railways trains on the trans-Bosphorus Marmaray tunnel line, is the largest rapid transit station in Turkey?

• ...that the Xi'an–Ankang Railway, which connects two of China's major east-west rail corridors, the Longhai Railway and the Xiangyang-Chongqing Railway, shortened travel distance between its namesake terminal cities by 542 km (337 mi) and travel time by 14 hours?

• ...that in the 1990s, Wipkingen Tunnel in Zürich was extended by covering the existing railway cutting, so that the new southern portal was immediately to the north of Wipkingen station, lengthening the tunnel to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft)?