14 most interesting Guinness world records concerning the railways

Today, we will briefly introduce 14 most interesting Guinness world records concerning the railways. 

1. Longest passenger train in scheduled service 

The longest passenger train in scheduled service is The Ghan, a weekly sleeper service that runs between Adelaide and Darwin in Australia. The length of the trains vary according to demand, but a typical service comprises two locomotives and 30 carriages, giving a total length of 774 meters or 2359 feet. 

During periods of high demand the trains are sometimes extended to up to 44 carriages and a total length of 1096 meters or 3595 feet. The service's name is an abbreviated version of its old nickname "The Afghan Express" thought to have been a reference to the Afghan camel drivers, or a joke about the famous unreliability of the service during the age of steam. 

There have been longer passenger trains assembled for one-off events or specific charters, but the Ghan is the longest train that operates a regular service. Journeys on the Ghan take three days, and pass through the heart of the Australian outback. 

2. First rail fatality

First rail fatality has been recorded on December 5th, 1821 in the Great Britain. The accident occured when a carpenter named David Brook, walking home from Leeds along the Middleton Railway, in a blinding sleet storm, failed to see or hear an approaching train of coal wagons drawn by one of the Blenkinsop/Murray engines. 

Unfortunately, this encounter with then new and strange mode of transport, was fatal for David. 

3. Longest road-and-rail bridge 

The Wuhu Yangtze River cable-stayed Bridge in Anhui province, in China, is a combined road and railway bridge with a total length, with approaches, of 10 km (6.2 miles) and a main span of 312 meters or 1023 feet. 

What is interesting, the top deck carries four lanes of highway and a footpath, while the lower deck comprises a double-track railway. The construction of this bridge was completed in year of 2000. 

4. Safest high-speed rail network 

Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed rail network was opened for business on October 1st, 1964 and since then, this system has carried over 10 billion passengers without a single fatality due to train accidents such as derailments or collisions. 

The only derailment occurred on October 23rd, 2004 during the Chuetsu Earthquake, but, despite eight out of ten cars being derailed, there were no casualties. Injuries and a single fatality on this railway line have been caused only by the doors closing on passengers or their belongings. 

5. Fastest rail link 

The line between the cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan in China is the world’s fastest rail link with trains achieving an average speed of of **313 km/h **194 mph covering the 1069 kilometer or 664 miles long distance in just 3h. 

This compares favourably with France, where the average speed of high-speed trains is 277 km/h 172 mph, while in Japan high-speed trains operates at average speed of 243 km/h 151mph. 

6. Fastest maximum operating speed for a train 

On 114 km (71 mile) long Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Rail line in China, trains run at a maximum operating speed of 350 km/h or 217 mph. Also, there are other lines in China capable of similar speed however, we have chosen this line due to fact that tests conducted on it shown an unmodified capability of 394 km/h or 245 mph, but the speed has been limited for safety reasons. 

That was conventional rail system. In addition, it’s worth mentioning there is the maglev train running on line that connects Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Longyang Road Station in Shaghai, China, that reaches maximum speed of 431 km/h or 268 mph. Also, this is the fastest commercial train in the world. 

7. Largest railway system under the single management 

India may have only the fourth largest rail network in the world, with a route length of almost 96 000 kilometers or 60 000 miles However, it has the distinction of being the words largest network under single management. 

India's national railway system operated by the Ministry of Railways, is headed by a 7-member railway board. Indian railway is then divided into 18 zones headed by general managers who report this board. The zones are further subdivided into 68 operating divisions headed by divisional railway managers. 

To understand how huge this system is we can mention that Indian railways are transporting 8.1 billion passengers and over 1.1 billion tons of freight annually with rolling stock consisting of 278 000 freight wagons, 71 000 passenger coaches as well as 11 500 locomotives.

It is also the world's eighth largest employer, with more than 1.3 million employees as of March 2018. 

8. First public electric railway 

The first public electric railway line was opened on May 1881 at Lichterfelde near Berlin, Germany. it was 2.5 km or 1.5 miles long, ran on 100 volt current and carried passengers at 48 km/h (30 mph).

Before, the first practical electric railway was built by the German Engineer Werner von Siemens for the Berlin Trades Exhibition held on 1879. It was an oval-shaped line about 300m  or 984 feet in circumference with a gauge of 1 meter or 3.28 feet. 

The electric locomotive that was used had a 2.2 kW motor (which is 3hp), picking up current at 150V from a central third rail and returning it via wheels and running rails It could pull 30 passengers on three cars at 6.5km/h (4mph). 

9. The railway station on highest elevation 

The Tanggula Railway Station on Tibet is the highest railway station in the world at 5,068 m (16,627 ft) above the sea level. The unstaffed station on the Qingzang railway opened on July 1st, 2006 and has a 1.25 km or 0.77 mile long platform 

10. Fastest Maglev train 

The fastest magnetically leviated train or simply maglev is capable of running at the speed of 603 km/h which is 375 mph.This speed is achieved by the Series L0 (A07) which was operated by the Central Japan Railway Company on the Yamanashi Maglev Line, in Yamanashi Japan, on 21st April 2015. 

11. First solar powered train in scheduled service 

The first solar-powered passenger train is the Byron Bay Solar Train, which runs along a 3-km  or 1.86 mile stretch of previously disused MURWILLUMBAH railway line between North Belongil Beach and Byron Beach in Byron Bay, New South Wales Australia. 

The train officially carried its first customers on December 16th 2017. The train runs nine 6 kilometer or 3.7 miles long round trips per day typically making the journey at an average speed of 30–40 km/h, which is 18–25 mph, though the train is capable of speeds of up to 70 km/h Which is 43 mph. 

During the train's first year of service, It carried around 100 000 passengers and did not miss a single service. Solar panels have been fitted to trains before most notably in India, but these earlier installations were all focused on providing power for auxiliary systems such as lights information displays, etc and not for the actual driving power. 

12. The longest railway bridge 

The Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge, on the Jinghu High-Speed Railway (aka Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway) is a 164 kilometers or 102 miles long.

 

This new line opened on June 2011, also crosses the 114 kilometers or 70.8 miles long Langfang–Qingxian viaduct, the second longest bridge in the world. 

13. The longest rail tunnel and deepest traffic tunnel in the world 

The longest rail tunnel and deepest traffic tunnel in the world is the Gotthard Base Tunnel, with a route length of 57 km 35.4 miles. This engineering masterpiece is officially open since June 1st 2016, and it connects the city of Erstfeld in the canton of Uri, and the city of Bodio in the canton of Ticino, both located in Switzerland, Europe. 

It is the part of the project called New Railway Link through the Alps and it is referred to as a "base tunnel" since it bypasses the most of existing Gotthard railway line, a winding mountain route opened in 1882. 

The main purpose that planners had in mind for the Gotthard Base Tunnel is to increase local transport capacity through the Alpine barrier especially for freight, and especially on the Rotterdam–Basel–Genoa corridor, and more specifically to shift freight volumes from trucks to freight trains. 

The tunnel's excavation was completed on october 15 2010 when after a lot of efforts and even nine people dying during construction, engineers working 2,000 m (6,561 ft) beneath the Swiss Alps drilled through the last remaining rock The final cost of the tunnel is projected at 9.56 billion CHF. Becoming operational in December 2016, the tunnel is anticipated to accommodate up to amazing 300 trains per day. 

14. The first underground railway system 

The London Underground, London, UK, is the first and oldest metro system in the world, with its first section opening on January 9th, 1863 and the first passenger journey realized on the following day. 

The initial stretch of then Metropolitan Railway ran 6 km 3.73 miles ) between Paddington and Farringdon Street. To build the line, the "cut and cover" system was used, with streets along the route dug up, tracks laid in a trench, and then re-covered with a brick tunnel and new upper road surface.

Thank you very much for your attention, I hope you enjoyed and also learned something new about the railways of the world.