Portal:Trains/Anniversaries
Selected Anniversaries
- November 30
- 1832 – The United States Post Office Department enters into its first contracts with stage carriers to carry mail by rail between Philadelphia and Chester, Pennsylvania.
- 1891 – John D. Spreckels incorporates the San Diego Electric Railway Company.
- 1994 – Alaska Railroad, which lacks a direct rail connection with the rest of the North American rail network, brings a 700-foot (210 m) long railgrinder to Alaska by ship at a cost of $1.2 million to service the company's tracks.
- 1995 – Union Pacific Railroad files its application to the Interstate Commerce Commission to acquire Southern Pacific Railroad (pictured).
Today is November 30. The Trains portal will automatically show the current day's Selected anniversaries box (at right).
Criteria for inclusion
Related to rail transport
All anniversary events listed in the Selected anniversaries section of the Trains portal must be related to rail transport. However, the events included do not need to be about a railroad or a train, it can be about a person or technology connected to rail transport.
Limit to four events on the main template pages
Please limit the number of events in the main template to four so the page is not overwhelmed with events. If a specific date has more than four anniversary events, list four significant events on the main template page and list all of the anniversary events on a subpage called {{anniversary day}} in rail transport. For example, a large number of events have occurred on January 1, but only four events are listed on Portal:Trains/Anniversaries/January 1; the main template page includes a link at the bottom (More...) that takes the reader to the page listing all of the anniversary events for the day (Portal:Trains/Anniversaries/January 1/More).
International scope
Keep in mind that these anniversary events will be read by viewers around the world. Select items for inclusion in the main templates from railroads around the world, not just your own little corner of the world. If a particular anniversary day is heavy in events from one region, try to find an event or two from a different region for variety.
Image encouraged but not necessary
At least one of the anniversary events on the main template page should have an image that can be used to illustrate the section. Typically, the image relates to the first event listed, but to keep the portal page from showing the same images over and over again, the image selected can relate to any of the displayed events. Note which fact the image relates to by adding (pictured) after the image subject in the appropriate anniversary event.
Do not use company logos, as fair use images are not allowed outside the main namespace.
To add an image to a template, use the template {{Trains portal/DYK image|FILENAME|ALT-TEXT}} where FILENAME is the image filename (without the File: part) and ALT-TEXT is the text that will appear when a reader hovers the mouse cursor over the image. For example, {{Trains portal/DYK image|Mallard locomotive 625.jpg|LNER Mallard}} produces the image shown at right.
In some cases, it may be appropriate to show two images, such as when an event in the template describes a merger between two railway companies. If a suitable image of the merged company is not available, representative images of the two constituent railways can be used. The template {{Trains portal/News image 2|FILE1|ALT1|FILE2|ALT2}} can be used for this purpose.
The template pages
Following are links to all of the rail transport anniversary pages that are transcluded as part of Portal:Trains (see also Category:Anniversaries in rail transport for links to pages that include references and more than four events per page).