Ten Things You Never Knew About Trains

[Flyboy]

An article from the Daily Express today - 15th September 2009 :

Ten Things You Never Knew About Trains

TODAY is not only the 150th anniversary of the death of the great railway engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1859, but also the anniversary of the opening of the Liverpool to Manchester line in 1830.

1. The Liverpool to Manchester line got off to a terrible start when the President of the Board of Trade, William Huskisson was hit by the engine known as Stephenson’s Rocket and died soon after.
2. Around 70 per cent of all train journeys in the UK either start or finish in London.
3. British trains were first fitted with lavatories on April 2, 1873, but only in sleeping cars.
4. The first passenger train service was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway which opened in 1807 with the trains drawn by horses.
5. On one 50km stretch of railway in Alaska, 68 moose were once killed by trains on a single night.
6. In 1825, George Stephenson assured a parliamentary inquiry that trains would never go faster than 25mph.
7. ‘National Rail Timetables’ is an anagram of ‘All trains aim to be late in’.
8. Four per cent of complaints to rail operating companies are about the way they handle complaints.
9. When the original Jumbo the Elephant was killed in a railway accident in Canada in 1885, it took 160 men to remove his body from the tracks.
10. The word ‘train’ originally meant tarrying or delay.

 

[37401]

11. the daily express over uses the word "delay"

 

[mumrar]

11. the daily express over uses the word "delay"

And has the most irrelevant anagram. National Rail Timetables means nothing other than an assemblance of 3 words.

 

[Lower Quadrant]

How fitting for the article to be in The Daily Express.

 

[yorkie]

When the original Jumbo the Elephant was killed in a railway accident in Canada in 1885, it took 160 men to remove his body from the tracks.

What has this got to do with trains? :roll:

 

[bluebottle]

What has this got to do with trains? :roll:

He was hit by one.

 

[Dai.]

"7. ‘National Rail Timetables’ is an anagram of ‘All trains aim to be late in’."


Didn't believe that one, but tried it myself and it works.

 

[SouthEastern-465]

About half this stuff I knew already probally the same with all of you guys too.

The only one's I didnt know was about the elephant being killed (guessing it derailed the train?),and 5 and 10 are ones I never heard of.