Wikipedia:Today's second feature
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Today's second feature is a section on the Wikipedia:Main Page alternative (Classic 2006), a main page alternative that displays the style of the Main Page in February 2006, where additional areas of Wikipedia are displayed. On weekdays it highlights new articles with the Did You Know section (DYK). On weekends it shows the Picture of the Day (POTD) from Wikipedia's Featured Pictures.
This rotating section was originally implemented in July 2005 as a compromise after there were requests to add the POTD to the Main Page, combined with complaints that DYK was badly maintained at the time (see archived discussion). Today's second feature appeared on the Main Page until a new design was implemented in March 2006.
Current version of this section on the Classic 2006 Main Page:
The Tocopilla railway was a mountain railway built to serve the sodium nitrate mines in the Toco area of the Antofagasta Region in Chile. With a gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm), it ran from the port of Tocopilla on the Pacific coast up to a height of 4,902 feet (1,494 metres), with gradients up to 1 in 24. The railway was built by a joint-stock company founded in London and was designed by William Stirling of Lima, with a detailed description of the initial operation of the railway published by his brother Robert in 1900.The line was electrified in the mid-1920s and expanded in 1930 with the addition of lines serving new areas of mining. It continued operating into the 21st century, but was forced to close in 2015 when flash flooding caused numerous washouts on the electrified section of the railroad. With the declining prospects for nitrate, it was not economical for the line to be repaired. This photograph taken in 2013 shows a boxcab on the Tocopilla railway, leading a train down towards the coast.
Photograph credit: David Gublerview - talk - page history - related changes - Edit (admins only)