Portal:Trains/Did you know/June 2015

• ...that although the two Chard Branch Lines built in the 1860s in South West England connected in Chard, each branch had its own Chard passenger station at first?

• ...that a demonstration section of inventor George Bennie's overhead express passenger railway system known as the Bennie Railplane was built above a dormant industrial siding that branched from the Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway in Scotland?

• ...that the GAIA locomotives introduced in 1962 in Argentina were the first locomotives to be painted in Ferrocarriles Argentinos corporate colors of bordeaux, yellow and red?

• ...that the Fiat-Materfer trains introduced on the Buenos Aires Metro in the 1980s were designed to become a standard train type, accommodating the 1100 V electrification on Line A and the 1500 V electrification on the rest of the system?

• ...that Estação Júlio Prestes, which still serves as a station for Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos Line 8 trains, is also a cultural arts center, Centro Cultural Júlio Prestes, with a performance space, Sala São Paulo, and administrative offices for state-run arts programs?

• ...that the Erie Railroad Depot in Rochester, New York, was one of the Erie Railroad's few electrified railroad stations, and was one of the first stations to provide electric commuter services in 1907?

• ...that the passenger platform at Diridon Station in San Jose, California, was featured in the opening scene of Alfred Hitchcock's film Marnie (1964) as representing the Hartford, Connecticut, train station?

• ...that in 1972 the experimental Class 951 Shinkansen recorded a world speed record of 286 km/h (178 mph) on the Sanyo Shinkansen between Himeji and Nishi-Akashi, Japan, breaking the previous record of 256 km/h (159 mph) set by the Class 1000 Shinkansen?

• ...that a few days after a Hezbollah Katyusha rocket hit a train depot in Haifa on July 16, 2006, Carmel Beach Railway Station became the northernmost Israel Railways station to operate during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict?

• ...that the 241.7-metre long (793 ft) iron plate-girder railway bridge over the Broken River near Benalla railway station was the longest metal girder bridge in Australia at the time of construction in the 1870s?

• ...that after Union Pacific Railroad exited the passenger business in 1971, Auto-Train Corporation purchased most of the fleet of Astra Dome cars and operated them for an additional ten years?

• ...that the three-car Ulster Transport Authority Multi-Engined Diesel trains introduced in 1952 in Northern Ireland proved popular enough that a fourth car and engines with higher power capacities were added beginning in 1956?

• ...that although both JR and the Tokyo government have indicated that improved Haneda Airport access is a high priority, JR has indicated that the connection and necessary upgrades to the Tōkaidō Freight Line will take around ten years to complete and are unlikely to be completely ready for the 2020 Summer Olympics?

• ...that in 2010 the Train Navette Rapide service connecting Casablanca and Kenitra, Morocco, carried over 15 million passengers, half of the entire ONCF traffic, with 3 million season-ticket holders?

• ...that railbuses built by TecnoTren use readily available parts from the Argentine automotive industry, such as the 1.7-litre engine from a Fiat Duna?

• ...that in August 2010 SŽDC was ordered to stop work on all railway infrastructure projects as part of broader Czech government austerity measures, but in September 2010 works were revived for all projects whose contractors agreed to grant a discount against the tender price?

• ...that as the terminus for high-speed trains on the Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Rail and the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway, Beijing South Railway Station in China has become the city's largest station and is one of the largest stations in Asia?

• ...that about six years after the South African Railways Class 14B 4-8-2 locomotives were commissioned, a report claimed that the loss of haulage power and increased water and coal consumption due to the lack of superheaters on these locomotives represented a loss to the SAR of approximately £100,000?

• ...that the daily Sibelius passenger train service operated by VR between Helsinki, Finland, and St. Petersburg, Russia, reduced travel times between its endpoints by over an hour?