Wikipedia:Main Page history/2017 February 20

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An RTL Turboliner crosses the Seneca River near Savannah, New York, in 1984.

The Turboliners were a family of gas turbine trains built for Amtrak in the 1970s. They were purchased by Amtrak to update its fleet with faster, more modern trains. The first batch, known as RTGs, were built by the French firm ANF and entered service on multiple routes in the Midwestern United States in 1973. The new trains increased ridership wherever they were used, but the high cost of operating the trains led to their withdrawal from the Midwest in 1981. The second batch, known as RTLs (example pictured), were of a similar design but manufactured by Rohr Industries, an American company. These entered service on the Empire Corridor in the State of New York in 1976. The RTLs remained in service there through the 1990s, supplemented by several rebuilt RTGs. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, New York and Amtrak partnered to rebuild the RTLs for high-speed service; this project failed and Amtrak withdrew them from service in 2003. After the settlement of legal issues, the last RTLs were sold for scrap in 2012. (Full article...)

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Canal Lake Arch Bridge
Canal Lake Arch Bridge

In the news

Damien Chazelle in 2014
Damien Chazelle

On this day...

February 20: Family Day in various regions of Canada (2017)

Photo of the moon taken by Ranger 8
Photo of the moon taken by Ranger 8

Hod Stuart (b. 1879) · Maria Goeppert-Mayer (d. 1972)

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From today's featured list

Keynsham parish
Keynsham parish

The ceremonial county of Somerset, England, is divided into 418 areas known as civil parishes, which are subnational entities forming the lowest unit of local government in England. Parishes arose from Church of England divisions, and were given their current powers and responsibilities by the Local Government Act 1894. Somerset consists of a non-metropolitan county administered by Somerset County Council, divided into five districts and two unitary authorities. The districts of Somerset are West Somerset, South Somerset, Taunton Deane, Mendip and Sedgemoor. The two administratively independent unitary authorities, which were established on 1 April 1996 following the break-up of the county of Avon, are North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset. The city of Bath is the largest centre of population in Bath and North East Somerset. Areas of the city that were formerly within the Bath County Borough are now unparished, but the rest of the authority is divided into 49 parishes (Keynsham pictured). South Somerset is the largest of Somerset's five districts, covering an area of 958 square kilometres (370 sq mi) from the borders with Devon and Dorset to the edge of the Somerset Levels. (Full list...)

Today's featured picture

Öxarárfoss

Öxarárfoss is a 20-metre-high (66 ft) waterfall in Þingvellir National Park, Iceland. It flows from the river Öxará over the Almannagjá and is one of the main attractions in the National Park.

Photograph: Diego Delso

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