// JavaScript Document var mess = new Array( 'The idea of the railway probably traces it origins to Roman times, when many of their stone paved roads were set with strips of long, smooth stones which would accomodate the wheels of their chariots.', 'The first public railway as we know it today carrying passengers and freight was the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1825.', 'Birmingham New Street opened in 1854.', 'Birmingham New Street serves over 31 million people every year.', 'Charing Cross was opened in 1864 and was the product of the Southern Eastern Railway\'s need to extend westward from London Bridge to get its passengers from Kent right into the heart of London.', '37 million people pass through Charing Cross every year.', 'Edinburgh Waverly opened in 1846 and was rebuilt between 1892-1902.', 'Edinburgh Waverly serves over 14 million people each year.', 'The original Euston station opened in 1837 but was completely rebuilt in conjunction with the electrification of the West Coast Main Line between 1963 and 1968.', 'Fenchurch Street was built in 1854 for London and Blackwall Railway and was the first station to be built in the City.', 'Gatwick Airport Station was opened by British Rail in 1958 and was built on the original Gatwick racecourse, which it was intended to served from its original inception in 1891.', 'Kings Cross was opened in 1852 and the station roof, the largest at the time, was supposedly modelled on the riding school of the Czars of Moscow.', 'It is rumoured that Queen Boudicaa is buried beneath platform 8 at Kings Cross.', 'Liverpool Street, originally completed in 1874, benefited from a major redevelopment in the late 1980s.', 'London Bridge is the oldest station in London and was first opened in 1836.', 'London Bridge was originally made up of two stations and this is still apparent in the combination of through and terminal platforms.', 'Since it opened as the London Road station in 1842, Manchester Piccadilly has been a major gateway to the north west.', 'Piccadilly is one of three main stations in Manchester and handles over 55,000 passengers and 1,000 train movements every day.', '"The Railway Station" (1862) by Frith illustrates passengers boarding a train at Paddington station. The detailing of Brunel\'s roof and Digby Wyatt\'s ornamentation is exceptionally clear and has assisted in recent restoration works.', 'Victoria station, in its current form, has grown from the amalgamation of two stations.', 'Waterloo is the UK\'s largest station, covering an area of 24.5 acres.', 'One of Waterloo\'s most notable features is the Victory Arch, built of Portland Stone. This commemorates the London and South Western and the Southern Railway men who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars.', 'The original Docklands Light Railway opened in 1987 with 15 stations including West India Quay.', 'The Docklands Light Railway extension to Bank opened on 29 July 1991, providing a connection with London Underground.', 'The Docklands Light Railway Beckton extension, incorporating 10 new stations opened in March 1994 with Canning Town opened in March 1998.', 'The original Docklands Light Railway cost £77m including 11 trains.', 'The original Docklands Light Railway Bank extension cost £149m, nearly double the cost of the original line, including trains!', 'The original Docklands Light Railway Beckton extension cost £224m, nearly triple the cost of the original line, including trains!', 'EWS starts a freight train on average every 90 seconds.', 'EWS is the largest rail operator in Britain, providing a range of freight, engineering support and hire services.', 'EWS is the only rail freight operator to provide a full nationwide level of service provision, with access to continental Europe through the Channel Tunnel.', 'EWS services are powered by nearly 500 locomotives with over 14,000 wagons.', 'EWS operates over 8,000 services each week. An EWS service starts its journey every 90 seconds - all day, every day.', 'The Glasgow Subway was originally built for the Glasgow District Subway Company, the railway first opened in 1896 as a cable-hauled system.', 'The steepest Cogwheel railway in the world is in Switzerland.', 'The only railway to go to the top of a volcano was built on Mount Vesuvius in Italy, in 1880.', 'The heaviest train in the world was a freight train in Australia in 2001. It was 7.3 kilometres (4.6 miles) long and weighed 95,000 tonnes.', 'The longest possible journey on one train can be taken between Moscow and Vladivostok in Russia, on the Trans-Siberian Express. The journey is 9,297 kilometres (5,857 miles) long.', 'The largest station in the world is Grand Central in New York. It has 44 platforms.', 'The longest station seat in the world is at Scarborough station. It is 139 metres long.', 'The longest railway tunnel in Britain is the Severn Tunnel. It is over 7 km (about 4 ½ miles) long and would take you over two hours to walk.', 'In England, Scotland and Wales there are 32,186 kilometres (20,277 miles) of track.', 'There are approximately 40,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts, 9,000 level crossings, and more than 1,100 signal boxes in the UK.', 'A Freightliner container train can move the equivalent of 60 trucks.' ); var max = mess.length; var num = Math.floor((Math.random() * max)); document.writeln(mess[num]); // to put into doc // //