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1944 In Rail Transport
Events January events * January 3: Torre del Bierzo rail disaster in Leon Province, Spain. More than 500 are killed. * January 28: A train of Allied prisoners of war on the Orvieto North railway bridge at Allerona in Italy is inadvertently bombed by United States Army Air Forces 320th Bombardment Group. About 450 are killed. February events * c. February: Charles Fairburn succeeds William Stanier as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway upon Stanier's retirement. March events * March 3: Balvano train disaster, Balvano, Italy: A double-headed mixed train stalls in a tunnel. 521 are killed by carbon monoxide poisoning; five survive. 193 of the dead carrying no identification, most of them Black Marketeers, are buried in a mass grave at the site. * March 19: The last steam locomotive purchased new by Southern Pacific Railroad, cab forward class AC-12 4-8-8-2 number 4294, enters service. April events * April 1: Government of India takes over the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torre Del Bierzo Rail Disaster
The Torre del Bierzo rail disaster occurred on 3 January 1944 near the village of Torre del Bierzo in the El Bierzo region of Spain's León province when three trains collided and caught fire inside a tunnel. Although the official death toll was 78, and at the time it was estimated to be 200–250, the most recent study has estimated it at no more than 100. Overview At 20:30 the previous evening the Galicia mail express, consisting of 12 carriages hauled by two 4-8-0 ‘Mastodon’ steam locomotives, left Madrid bound for A Coruña. It was running two hours late when it arrived at Astorga and was having problems with its brakes; nine minutes were spent at Astorga checking them. Later, one of the locomotives was removed due to a hot axle box. The train was now three hours late, and despite serious problems with its brakes during the steep descent through Branuelas, the decision was made to continue. The train was scheduled to stop at Albares but failed to do so, despite all hand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mass Grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact definition is not unanimously agreed upon. Mass graves are usually created after many people die or are killed, and there is a desire to bury the corpses quickly for sanitation concerns. Although mass graves can be used during major conflicts such as war and crime, in modern times they may be used after a famine, epidemic, or natural disaster. In disasters, mass graves are used for infection and disease control. In such cases, there is often a breakdown of the social infrastructure that would enable proper identification and disposal of individual bodies. History Mass or communal burial was a common practice before the development of a dependable crematory chamber by Ludovico Brunetti in 1873. In ancient Rome waste and dead bodies of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jellico, Tennessee
Jellico is a city in Campbell County, Tennessee, United States, on the state border with Kentucky, by road north of Knoxville. The population was 2,355 at the 2010 census. History The name "Jellico" is a local alteration of "angelica", the name of an herb that grows in abundance in the surrounding mountains. The name was first applied to the mountains to the west and to the mountains' main drainage, Jellico Creek, which passes west of the city of Jellico and empties into the Cumberland River near Williamsburg, Kentucky. In the early 1880s, a high quality bituminous coal was discovered in the Jellico Mountains, and with the completion of railroad tracks to the area in 1883, coal mines quickly sprang up throughout the area. The city of Jellico was initially founded as "Smithburg" in 1878 but changed its name to "Jellico" in 1883 to capitalize on the growing popularity of Jellico coal. The city was incorporated on March 7, 1883.James Hayden Siler,The History of Jellico" Unpubl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemins De Fer Du Calvados
The Chemins de Fer du Calvados was a narrow gauge railway in the département of Calvados. History The railway was originally planned as a line. The département had actually accepted a tender for the construction of such a line but with interest in narrow gauge lines rising the département had a rethink and the line was built to gauge. Paul Decauville was approached following his success at the Paris Exhibition. In October 1890 he was asked to build a line on a similar basis to that already under construction at Royan. Initially, two separate lines were envisaged. A line between Dives and Luc-sur-Mer and a line between Isigny and Grandcamp-le-Château. Ouistreham – Luc-sur-Mer opened to traffic on 15 August 1891, with an official opening date of 15 October. Dives – Sallenelles opened to traffic on 15 July 1892 and Sallenelles – Ouistreham opened on 24 August, following completion of swing bridges at Ranville and Bénouville. The former was designed by Gustave Ei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narrow Gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structure gauges, and lighter rails, they can be less costly to build, equip, and operate than standard- or broad-gauge railways (particularly in mountainous or difficult terrain). Lower-cost narrow-gauge railways are often used in mountainous terrain, where engineering savings can be substantial. Lower-cost narrow-gauge railways are often built to serve industries as well as sparsely populated communities where the traffic potential would not justify the cost of a standard- or broad-gauge line. Narrow-gauge railways have specialised use in mines and other environments where a small structure gauge necessitates a small loading gauge. In some countries, narrow gauge is the standard; Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Aust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Normandy Landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France (and later western Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that meant only a few days each month were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Indian Railway
The South Indian Railway Company operated a number of gauge lines in South India from 1874 to 1951. History The Great Southern of India Railway Company was established with its headquarters in England in 1853. The Carnatic Railway Company was founded in 1869. The two companies merged in 1874 to form the South Indian Railway Company. The new firm was registered in London in 1890 with Trichinopoly as its headquarters. In 1891, the Pondicherry Railway Company (incorporated in 1845) merged with the South Indian Railway Company. The company moved its headquarters later to, Chennai Central. The company operated a suburban electric train service for Madras city from May 1931 onwards. The South Indian Railway Company was nationalized in 1944. On 1 April 1951, the South Indian Railway Company, the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway Company and the Mysore Railway Company were merged to form the Southern Railway zone of the Indian Railways. File: Opening of the South Indian Railwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madras And Southern Mahratta Railway
The Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway was a railway company that operated in southern India. It was founded on 1 January 1908 by merging the Madras Railway and the Southern Mahratta Railway. Initially, its headquarters was at Royapuram in Madras but was later shifted to a newly constructed building at Egmore, which was inaugurated on 11 December 1922. On 1 April 1944, its management was taken over directly by the Government of India. On 14 April 1951, the Madras and South Mahratta Railway, the South Indian Railway and the Mysore State Railway were merged to form the Southern Railway, one of the 16 zones of the Indian Railways. Rolling stock In 1936 the company owned 663 locomotives, 1561 coaches and 15.092 goods wagons. Classification It was labeled as a Class I railway according to Indian Railway Classification System of 1926. See also * Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway (NGSR) was a railway company operating in India from 1879 to 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago., "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by modern humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European populations average to between 73–55 ka.", "Modern human beings—''Homo sapiens''—originated in Africa. Then, int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Pacific 4294
Southern Pacific 4294 is a class " AC-12" 4-8-8-2 Cab forward type steam locomotive that was owned and operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). It was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in March 1944 and was used hauling SP's trains over the Sierra Nevada, often working on Donner Pass in California. Today it is preserved at the California State Railroad Museum (CSRM) in Sacramento, California. History No. 4294 was the last of 20 Southern Pacific class AC-12 4-8-8-2 cab forward locomotives in a larger series of 256 Southern Pacific articulated cab forwards starting with class AC-1. Articulated locomotives are essentially two locomotives sharing fire box, boiler and crew. The front locomotive has its cranks quartered 90 degrees apart. The front and rear drive axles are free to roll out of phase with respect to each other. If unloaded, the locomotive has a vertical oscillation, near 50 mph, that can lift the tires above the rails. Its most distinguishing feature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
4-8-8-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a 4-8-8-2 is a locomotive with four leading wheels, two sets of eight driving wheels, and a two-wheel trailing truck. Other equivalent classifications are: UIC classification: 2DD1 (also known as German classification and Italian classification) French classification: 240+041 Turkish classification: 46+45 Swiss classification: 4/6+4/5 The equivalent UIC classification is refined to (2'D)D1' for Mallet locomotives. A locomotive of that length must be an articulated locomotive; meaning all have a joint between the first and second groups of driving wheels. All examples of this type are cab forwards. Normally, the leading truck sits under the smokebox and the trailing truck under the firebox. On a cab-forward, the leading truck supports the firebox and the trailing truck and smokebox are at the rear next to the tender. A 4-8-8-2 is effectively a 2-8-8-4 that always runs in reverse. Southern Pacific The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Pacific Class AC-12
Southern Pacific Railroad's AC-12 class of cab forward steam locomotives was the last class of steam locomotives ordered by Southern Pacific. They were built by Baldwin Locomotive Works during World War II, with the first, number 4275, entering service on October 27, 1943, and the last, 4294, on March 19, 1944. The locomotives were effectively a conventional 2-8-8-4 locomotive running in reverse; the tender being coupled at the smokebox end of the locomotive. This was made possible by the use of oil-firing. The distinct features of these locomotives include: a streamlined front with white band, an air horn on the front, a streamlined pilot, a SP 12 wheel box tender, and air compressors mounted on the smokebox. Southern Pacific used these locomotives all over its system, but they were extremely famous for working on Donner Pass & Cascade Summit. SP used the AC-12s for a little over a decade with the first retirements occurring on April 5, 1955, and the last on September 24, 1958. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
