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British Rail BEMU
The British Rail BEMU was an experimental two-car battery electric multiple unit (BEMU), converted from the prototype Derby Lightweight Diesel multiple units. The train was powered by many lead-acid batteries, and was used on the Deeside Railway from Aberdeen to Ballater in Scotland from April 1958 until it was finally withdrawn in December 1966. The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board initiated the design and was a joint sponsor. The board promised to supply power at three farthings per unit for a fixed two-year period. It provided a 6,600 V supply to a charger at Aberdeen's platform 1 and 11 kV to a Ballater charger.Railway Magazine June 1958 pp. 419-420 First Battery Railcars on BR Career The estimated cost of the fit-out was £50,000, with the two coaches accounting for almost half of that. Because each set of batteries weighed about eight tons, the underframe of the carriages needed strengthening, at a budgeted cost of £2,000. Motors, conduits and cabling were cost ...
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Cowlairs Railway Works
Cowlairs Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Works, at Cowlairs in Springburn, an area in the north-east of Glasgow, Scotland, was built in 1841 for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and was taken over by the North British Railway (NBR) in 1865. It was named after the nearby mansion of Cowlairs, with both locomotive and carriage & wagon works. It was also the first works in Britain to build locomotives, carriages and wagons in the same place. It was located on the western side of the Glasgow-Edinburgh mainline at Carlisle Street. In September 1904, the Eastfield Running Sheds were built on the other side of the Glasgow-Edinburgh mainline, just to the north of the Cowlairs complex, to maintain locomotives and to free-up more engineering space at Cowlairs Works. They were closed in 1994 but the depot site was redeveloped in 2005 and is once again in use as a maintenance facility for Class 170 trains by First ScotRail. Production The first few locomotives were bought in, but in 18 ...
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Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the northeast and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. It also contains more than 790 Islands of Scotland, islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. Most of the population, including the capital Edinburgh, is concentrated in the Central Belt—the plain between the Scottish Highlands and the Southern Uplands—in the Scottish Lowlands. Scotland is divided into 32 Subdivisions of Scotland, administrative subdivisions or local authorities, known as council areas. Glasgow, Glasgow City is the largest council area in terms of population, with Highland (council area), Highland being the largest in terms of area. Limi ...
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Royal Deeside Railway
The Royal Deeside Railway is a Scottish heritage railway located at Milton of Crathes railway station on a part of the original Deeside Railway. Original Railway Originally constructed between 1853 and 1866, the Deeside Railway ran between Ballater railway station and Aberdeen Ferryhill railway station. The line was regularly used by the Royal Family and other important people visiting Balmoral. The line closed in stages between 1966 and 1967. The line was one of those closed by the Beeching Report. Preservation History The Royal Deeside Railway Preservation Society was formed in 1996 with the intention of restoring the section of the Deeside Railway which ran between Banchory and Milton of Crathes. The society began restoration work in 2003. The society operated a one-mile section of track starting in 2007. The first steam-hauled passenger service operated in 2010. In 2020, the railway opened a new station at Birkenbaud lay-by. After a platform was built at Milton ...
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East Lancashire Railway
East Lancashire Railway is a heritage railway line in North West England which runs between Heywood, Greater Manchester and Rawtenstall in Lancashire. There are intermediate stations at Bury Bolton Street, , Summerseat and Ramsbottom, with the line crossing the border into Rossendale serving Irwell Vale and Rawtenstall. Before closure, the line terminated at Bacup. Overview Passenger services between Bury and Rawtenstall were withdrawn by British Rail on 3 June 1972. Coal services to Rawtenstall ended in 1980 and formal closure of the line followed in 1982. The East Lancashire Railway Trust reopened the line on 25 July 1987. The initial service operated between Bury and Ramsbottom, via Summerseat. In 1991, the service was extended northwards from Ramsbottom to reach Rawtenstall, via Irwell Vale. However, two original stations on the line, closed to passengers by BR in 1972, have not reopened, Ewood Bridge & Edenfield and Stubbins. The latter was the junction of the l ...
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Transperience
Transperience was a short-lived museum of passenger transport located at Low Moor, in the south of Bradford in West Yorkshire, Northern England. It opened in July 1995, but closed only 2 years later in October 1997, with debts of over £1 million. Museum The museum was built on the site of Low Moor railway station, (which had closed in 1965), at a cost of £11.5 million. It included a tram line which made use of the trackbed of the Spen Valley Line towards Cleckheaton, and visitors could ride on a Hungarian tram or a trolleybus. There was also a series of vehicle simulators and an auditorium. The museum failed to attract the numbers of visitors hoped and was closed in 1997. The site today The museum site was sold to a property developer in 1998 and is now an industrial estate. Some parts of the museum, such as the auditorium, still stand. A number of the vehicles in its collection have been sold to other collections, such as the Keighley Bus Museum Keighl ...
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Railway Technical Centre
The Railway Technical Centre (RTC) in London Road, Derby, England, was the technical headquarters of the British Railways Board, and was built in the early 1960s. British Rail described it as the largest railway research complex in the world. The RTC centralised most of the technical services provided by the regional Chief Mechanical & Electrical Engineers (CM&EE) to form the Department of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering (DM&EE). In addition, it housed the newly formed British Rail Research Division which reported directly to the Board. The latter is well known for its work on the experimental Advanced Passenger Train (APT-E). At that early stage this was a concept vehicle, and in time the DM&EE applied the new knowledge to existing practice in the design of the High Speed Train (HST), the later prototype APT-P and other high-speed vehicles. History Opening The Research Division was the first to move into the purpose-built accommodation on London Road. This was formed initial ...
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Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 635,640. Straddling the border between historic Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire, the city now forms the Glasgow City Council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and is governed by Glasgow City Council. It is situated on the River Clyde in the country's West Central Lowlands. Glasgow has the largest economy in Scotland and the third-highest GDP per capita of any city in the UK. Glasgow's major cultural institutions – the Burrell Collection, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Ballet and Scottish Opera – enjoy international reputations. The city was the European Capital of Culture in 1990 and is notable for its architecture, cult ...
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Farthing (British Coin)
The British farthing (from Old English fēorðing, from fēorða, a fourth) abbreviated ''qua.'' (L. '' quadrans''), was a denomination of sterling coinage worth of one pound, of one shilling, or of one penny; initially minted in copper and then in bronze, which replaced the earlier English farthings. Before Decimal Day in 1971, Britain used the Carolingian monetary system, wherein the largest unit was a pound sterling of 20 shillings, each of 12 pence. Each penny was divided into 4 farthings, thus, a pound sterling contained 960 farthings, and a shilling contained 48 farthings. From 1860 to 1971, the purchasing power of a farthing ranged between 12p and 0.2p in 2017 values. The farthing coin was legal tender during the reigns of eleven British monarchs: George I, George II, and George III, George IV, William IV, and Victoria, Edward VII and George V, Edward VIII, George VI, and Elizabeth II. In Britain and Northern Ireland the farthing coin ceased to be legal tender ...
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North Of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board
The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (1943–1990) was founded to design, construct and manage hydroelectricity projects in the Highlands of Scotland. It is regarded as one of the major achievements of Scottish politician Thomas Johnston, who chaired the board from 1945 to 1959. Background In the 1930s several schemes were proposed to develop hydro-electric power in the north of Scotland. These met with opposition by landowners, sporting interest and the coal mining industry on the grounds of competition. There was also opposition from official sources. Plans to build a power station at Kinlochleven for the benefit of the aluminium industry were shelved when Inverness County Council refused to allow water from the River Spey and River Laggan to cross the county border into Argyllshire. In 1938, the Caledonian Water Power bill was defeated in Parliament. This would have allowed a private company to build hydro-electric schemes in the Highlands, and its defeat was welcomed b ...
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Ballater
Ballater (, gd, Bealadair) is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on the River Dee, immediately east of the Cairngorm Mountains. Situated at an elevation of , Ballater is a centre for hikers and known for its spring water, once said to cure scrofula. It is home to more than 1400 inhabitants and has had a long connection with the British Royal Family. History The medieval pattern of development along this reach of the River Dee was influenced by the ancient trackways across the Grampian Mounth, which determined strategic locations of castles and other Deeside settlements of the Middle Ages. In the early 14th century, the area was part of the estates of the Knights of St John, but the settlement did not develop until around 1770; first as a spa resort to accommodate visitors to the Pannanich Mineral Well, then later upon the arrival of the railway in 1866 it was visited by many tourists taking advantage of the easier access thus afforded. The Victoria and Albert Halls, o ...
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British Rail Derby Lightweight
The British Rail Derby Lightweight diesel multiple units, were the first such trains to be built en-masse for British Railways. The units were built at BR's Derby Works from 1954 to 1955. The units were built in various formations, including 12 power-twin 2-car units, 84 power-trailer 2-car units, and four 4-car units. The two single car units were originally built as a two-car unit and then split two years later when demand came about. Body framing was extruded and riveted together. Panelling was welded into continuous sheets and riveted to the frame. Luggage racks were light alloy. The floors had 2 layers of flameproof hardboard, covered with linoleum. To reduce noise and condensation, the inside structure and undersides were sprayed with asbestos. Lighting was by 60-watt, 24-volt lamps charged by belt driven dynamos. Heating was oil fired. Standard mild steel bogies ran on Timken roller bearings. Contemporaneous with these units was the unique Battery Electric Multiple Un ...
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Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and has a population estimate of for the city of Aberdeen, and for the local council area making it the United Kingdom's 39th most populous built-up area. The city is northeast of Edinburgh and north of London, and is the northernmost major city in the United Kingdom. Aberdeen has a long, sandy coastline and features an oceanic climate, with cool summers and mild, rainy winters. During the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, Aberdeen's buildings incorporated locally quarried grey granite, which may sparkle like silver because of its high mica content. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in 1969, Aberdeen has been known as the offshore oil capital of Europe. Based upon the discovery of prehistoric villages around the mouths of the river ...
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