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Lambourn Valley Railway
The Lambourn Valley Railway (LVR) was a branch railway line running from the town of Newbury, Berkshire north-west to the village of Lambourn. It was opened in 1898. Fulfilling a local need, it was in financial difficulties throughout its independent life and was sold to the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1905. Steam railmotors and a GWR diesel railcar were used on the line, as well as steam engines owned by the Lambourn valley Railway, and Great Western Railway standard engines. The line closed to passenger traffic in 1960, but a section between Newbury and Welford remained open for freight traffic to RAF Welford until 1972. A special passenger service operated on 3 November 1973 between Newbury and Welford Park to give the public a final trip over the line; a nine-coach train made four runs in each direction, and a special souvenir booklet was produced. Origins A horse tramway scheme Lambourn had been an important agricultural and trading centre, but in the second half of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heavy Rail
Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas: Rapid transit A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed (~) and rapid acceleration. It uses passenger railcars operating singly or in multiple unit trains on fixed rails. It operates on separate rights-of-way from which all other vehicular and foot traffic are excluded (i.e. is fully grade-separated from other traffic). It uses sophisticated signaling systems, and high platform loading. Originally, the term ''rapid transit'' was used in the 1800s to describe new forms of quick urban public transportation that had a right-of-way separated from street traffic. This set rapid transit apart from horsecars, trams, streetcars, omnibuses, and other forms of public transport. A variant of the term, ''mass rapid transit (MRT)'', is also used for metro systems in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Though the term was almost alway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newbury West Fields Halt Railway Station
Newbury West Fields Halt was a railway station in Newbury, Berkshire, UK, on the Lambourn Valley Railway. History The station opened on 1 October 1906; the last station on the line to open. It was built as part of an improvement programme undertaken after the Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...'s acquisition of the line on 2 July 1906. Until 1934, the station was staffed. In September 1956, Newbury West Fields Halt was removed from the rail timetables but continued to carry passengers, small goods, and milk. The station closed on 4 February 1957, the first on the line to do so. The station was demolished after closure and the site of the railway formation is now covered by housing development. References Newbury, Berkshire La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Air Brake
A railway air brake is a railway brake power braking system with compressed air as the operating medium. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on April 13, 1869. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was subsequently organized to manufacture and sell Westinghouse's invention. In various forms, it has been nearly universally adopted. The Westinghouse system uses air pressure to charge air reservoirs (tanks) on each car. Full air pressure causes each car to release the brakes. A subsequent reduction or loss of air pressure causes each car to apply its brakes, using the compressed air stored in its reservoirs. Overview Straight air brake In the air brake's simplest form, called the ''straight air system'', compressed air pushes on a piston in a cylinder. The piston is connected through mechanical linkage to brake shoes that can rub on the train wheels, using the resulting friction to slow the train. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Automatic Train Control
Automatic train control (ATC) is a general class of train protection systems for railways that involves a speed control mechanism in response to external inputs. For example, a system could effect an emergency brake application if the driver does not react to a signal at danger. ATC systems tend to integrate various cab signalling technologies and they use more granular deceleration patterns in lieu of the rigid stops encountered with the older automatic train stop (ATS) technology. ATC can also be used with automatic train operation (ATO) and is usually considered to be the safety-critical part of a railway system. Over time, there have been many different safety systems labelled as "automatic train control". The first experimental apparatus was installed on the Henley branch line in January 1906 by the Great Western Railway, although it would now be referred to as an automatic warning system (AWS) because the driver retained full command of braking. The term is especial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railmotor
Railmotor is a term used in the United Kingdom and elsewhere for a railway lightweight railcar, usually consisting of a railway carriage with a steam traction unit, or a diesel or petrol engine, integrated into it. Steam railcars Overview In the earliest days of railways, designers wished to produce a vehicle for passenger carrying that was economical to build and operate on routes where passenger numbers were light. A single coach with its own prime mover was a solution adopted in some cases; this may be thought of as the predecessor to the railcar, a term more associated with the use of internal combustion engines. William Bridges Adams started building railmotors in small numbers as early as 1848. The Bristol and Exeter Railway used a steam carriage. In most cases the early designs were unsuccessful technically, but in the early years of the twentieth century, street-running passenger tramways started to use small steam engines to draw tramcars, replacing the customary hors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hunslet Engine Company
The Hunslet Engine Company is a locomotive-building company, founded in 1864 in Hunslet, England. It manufactured steam locomotives for over 100 years and currently manufactures diesel shunting locomotives. The company is part of Ed Murray & Sons. History The early years 1864–1901 The company was founded in 1864 at Jack Lane in Hunslet by John Towlerton Leather, a civil engineering contractor, who appointed James Campbell (son of Alexander Campbell, a Leeds engineer) as his works manager. The first engine was completed in 1865. It was ''Linden'', a standard gauge delivered to Brassey and Ballard, a railway civil engineering contractor as were several of the firm's early customers. Other customers included collieries. This basic standard gauge shunting and short haul "industrial" engine was to be the main-stay of Hunslet production for many years. In 1871, James Campbell bought the company for £25,000 (payable in five instalments over two years) and the firm remained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Light Railways Act 1896
The Light Railways Act 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c.48) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. History Before the Act each new railway line built in the country required a specific Act of Parliament to be obtained by the company that wished to construct it, which greatly added to the cost and time it took to construct new railways. The economic downturn of the 1880s had hit agriculture and rural communities in the United Kingdom especially hard and the government wished to facilitate the construction of railways in rural areas, especially to facilitate the transport of goods. The 1896 Act defined a class of railways which did not require specific legislation to construct – companies could simply plan a line under the auspices of the new Act, and, having obtained a light railway order, build and operate it. By reducing the legal costs and allowing new railways to be built quickly the government hoped to encourage companies to build the new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horatio Arthur Yorke
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Horatio Arthur York (3 June 1848 - 10 December 1930) C.B. R.E. was Inspector of Railways to the Board of Trade from 1900 to 1913. Life He was born on 3 June 1848 near New Wimpole in Cambridgeshire, the fourth son of the Ven the Hon Henry Reginald Yorke (1803-1871) and Flora Elizabeth Campbell (1813-1852). He was educated at Cheam School and then Charterhouse School. On 24 August 1869, he married Harriette Forsse in Gravesend, Kent. This marriage ended in divorce in 1891. On 26 July 1893 he married Rebecca Caroline Garstin (d.1943), daughter of the Revd. Anthony Gartin, Rector of St Peter's Church, Redmile, Leicestershire. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1904 and knighted on his retirement in 1913. He died on 10 December 1930 in London and left an estate valued at £4,234 (). Military career He entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1865. A year later, he joined the Royal Engineers and entered the Royal Military ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regulation Of Railways Act 1868
The Regulation of Railways Act 1868 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is one of the Railway Regulation Acts 1840 to 1893. It was enacted following the first murder on the railways, that of Thomas Briggs by Franz Muller near Hackney in 1864. The Act made new provisions for: * ensuring a method was available for allowing passengers to communicate with the train's guard, if the train was scheduled to travel more than 20 miles without stopping; * establishing a fine for passengers raising the alarm without due cause (warnings of this fact still routinely appear near train emergency alarms); * removing trees near railway lines that might fall and block the train; * a penalty for trespassing on the railway. Despite the legislation, it was not until 1899 that internal emergency wires came to be used on the majority of trains. The Act also made provision for the construction and working of a railway as a light railway, 'subject to such conditions and regulatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tramways Act 1870
The Tramways Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict c 78) was an important step in the development of urban transport in United Kingdom. Street tramways had originated in the United States, and were introduced to UK by George Francis Train in the 1860s, the first recorded installation being a short line from Woodside Ferry to Birkenhead Park in the town of Birkenhead. However, when Train started laying lines on top of the highway in London, he was arrested and fined, although he thought he had obtained official permission. The Act attempted to promote this new means of transport by clarifying and regulating the legal position. It authorised local boroughs or urban district councils to grant a 21-year concession to a private tramway operator. The operator could construct the track as part of the concession but was responsible for the repair of the public highway between the tracks and a short distance either side. The local authority could construct the track themselves if they wished to retai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Didcot, Newbury And Southampton Railway
The Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway (DN&SR) was a cross-country railway running north–south between Didcot, Newbury and Winchester. Its promoters intended an independent route to Southampton and envisaged heavy traffic from the Midlands and North of England to the port, but they ran out of funds to complete the line to Southampton. The intended heavy through traffic never materialised, and the line was dependent on larger railways—the Great Western Railway and the London and South Western Railway—for support, which was not freely given. The line opened in two stages, in 1882 and 1885. The Company was absorbed by the Great Western Railway in 1923 following the Railways Act 1921. It became strategically important during World War II when huge volumes of munitions and troops were transported to South Coast ports, particularly in the preparations for the Normandy landings, and the Didcot to Newbury section was doubled, while the southern section was upgraded with ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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