Portal:US Railways/Did you know/January 2008

January 2008

• 
  ...that the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad crosses the border between Colorado and New Mexico eleven times on the section between Antonito and Osier?
  
• 
  ...that the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway was operated as a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) from 1888 to 1960, then was reorganized as an independent railway, then folded into Soo Line Railroad, another CP subsidiary?
  
• 
  ...that the Green Mountain Cog Railway in Maine was built in 1883 following the designs in the Marsh patents developed for the Mount Washington Cog Railway, which opened in 1868?
  
• 
  ...that In 1916 the Pennsylvania Railroad began using the advertising slogan "Standard Railroad of the World", which meant that it was perceived as the standard to which all other railroads aspired?
  
• 
  ...that the demise of Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles has been tied by some to the alleged General Motors streetcar conspiracy, in which a consortium of General Motors, Standard Oil and others formed a front company, National City Lines, in order to buy streetcar lines, shut them down, and replace them with buses?
  
• 
  ...that when Santa Fe's Super Chief was introduced in 1936, it was scheduled only as a once-weekly train?
  
• 
  ...that the Carrollton Viaduct, located over Gwynn's Falls near Carroll Park in Baltimore, Maryland, and still in use by CSX is the first stone masonry bridge built for railroad use in the United States?
  
• 
  ...that the record breaking Scott Special passenger train that left Los Angeles on July 9 1905, bound for Chicago, was chartered and planned on July 8 1905, just the day before its departure?
  
• 
  ...that in downtown Washington, DC, the use of overhead wire was prohibited so Washington streetcars acted as conduit cars where an underground delivery system similar to a third rail system was used?
  
• 
  ...that Milwaukee Road's EP-3 class electric locomotives were rebuilt five times during their service lives between 1919 and 1957?
  
• 
  ...that parts of the Overseas Railroad, built in the early 1900s to provide a rail connection to Key West, Florida, have been reused in the consruction of the Overseas Highway?
  
• 
  ...that the White Pass and Yukon Route in Alaska is one of the few North American narrow gauge railroads to have dieselized regular operations?
  

• ...that due to the nature of the high-speed Acela Express service, only eleven grade crossings remain on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor between Washington, DC, and Boston, Massachusetts?
  

• ...that the tracks of Colorado's Argentine Central Railway reached the 13,117 ft summit of Mount McClellan, the highest altitude reached by a regular adhesion railway (as opposed to a rack railway) in the United States?
  

• ...that the Kansas Pacific Railway, reorganized in 1863 as the Union Pacific Eastern Division, was authorized by the United States Congress as part of the Pacific Railway Act, to create a second southerly branch of the First Transcontinental Railroad, alongside the Union Pacific Railroad?
  

• ...that the Utah and Northern Railway was originally built by the Mormons as a narrow gauge line northward from a connection on the First Transcontinental Railroad to the present Utah/Idaho border?
  

• ...that the Riverside and Great Northern Railway in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, was originally built as a demonstration railroad for 15 inch gauge Sandley locomotives?
  

• ...that in 2002, its first year of operation, the TECO Line Streetcar System in Tampa, Florida, carried 420,000 passengers, 20% more than was projected?
  

• ...that the narrow gauge Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad in Massachusetts began construction using 30 pound (per yard) rail but laid it on standard gauge ties to allow for regauging later?
  

• ...that the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad line in Colorado has been in continuous operations using steam locomotives since its construction in 1881?
  

• ...that one of the trains used in the Nebraska Zephyr service which operated in the era between the 1930s and the 1970s was donated to the Illinois Railway Museum, where it is operated in conjunction with the only surviving EMD E5?
  

• ...that the tourist railroad operations of the California State Railroad Museum uses the track and former right of way of the Sacramento Southern Railroad?
  

• ...that the Stourbridge Lion was not only the first locomotive to be operated in the United States, it was also one of the first locomotives to operate outside of England, where it was manufactured in 1828?
  

2007												December
2008	January  ·	February