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Fifteen Guinea Special
The ''Fifteen Guinea Special'' was the last main-line passenger train to be hauled by steam locomotive power on British Rail on 11 August 1968 before the introduction of a steam ban that started the following day, the extra day added to allow for the movement of locomotive BR Standard Class 7 70013 Oliver Cromwell to Bressingham Steam Museum. It was a special rail tour excursion train organised for the occasion from Liverpool Lime Street via Manchester Victoria to Carlisle and back, and was pulled in turn by four steam locomotives during the four legs of the journey (with two engines sharing the third leg). The last scheduled standard gauge steam-hauled passenger services had run on 3 August 1968 from Preston. Steam continued to be used on the narrow gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway under British Rail, which was subsequently privatised in 1989. Reason for name The ''Fifteen Guinea Special'' was so named because of the high cost of tickets for the rail tour (15 guineas =& ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchester Victoria Railway Station
Manchester Victoria station in Manchester, England is a combined mainline railway station and Metrolink tram stop. Situated to the north of the city centre on Hunts Bank, close to Manchester Cathedral, it adjoins Manchester Arena which was constructed on part of the former station site in the 1990s. Opened in 1844 and part of the Manchester station group, Victoria is Manchester's third busiest railway station after Piccadilly and Oxford Road and the second busiest station managed by Northern after Oxford Road. The station hosts local and regional services to destinations in Northern England, such as , , Bradford, , , , Halifax, Wigan, , Blackpool (Sundays only) and Liverpool using the original Liverpool to Manchester line. Most trains calling at Victoria are operated by Northern. TransPennine Express services call at the station from Liverpool to Newcastle/Scarborough and services towards Manchester Airport (via the Ordsall Chord) from Middlesbrough/Redcar/Newcastle. Man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Railway Magazine
''The Railway Magazine'' is a monthly British railway magazine, aimed at the railway enthusiast market, that has been published in London since July 1897. it was, for three years running, the railway magazine with the largest circulation in the United Kingdom, having a monthly average sale during 2009 of 34,715 (the figure for 2007 being 34,661). It was published by IPC Media until October 2010, with , and in 2007 won IPC's 'Magazine of the Year' award. Since November 2010, ''The Railway Magazine'' has been published by Mortons of Horncastle. History ''The Railway Magazine'' was launched by Joseph Lawrence and ex-railwayman Frank E. Cornwall of Railway Publishing Ltd, who thought there would be an amateur enthusiast market for some of the material they were then publishing in a railway staff magazine, the ''Railway Herald''. They appointed as its first editor a former auctioneer, George Augustus Nokes (1867–1948), who wrote under the pseudonym "G. A. Sekon". He quickly bui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RAF Biggin Hill
London Biggin Hill Airport is an operational general aviation airport at Biggin Hill in the London Borough of Bromley, located south-southeast of Central London. The airport was formerly a Royal Air Force station RAF Biggin Hill, and a small enclave on the airport still retains that designation. Biggin Hill is best known for its role during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War, when it served as one of the principal fighter bases protecting London and South East England from attack by German Luftwaffe bombers. Over the course of the war, fighters based at Biggin Hill claimed 1,400 enemy aircraft, at the cost of the lives of 453 Biggin Hill based aircrew. The airport has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P804) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee (Regional Airports Limited). It specialises in general aviation, handling a spectrum of traffic from private aviation to large business jets. It c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Severn Valley Railway
The Severn Valley Railway is a heritage railway in Shropshire and Worcestershire, England. The heritage line runs along the Severn Valley from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster, following the course of the River Severn for much of its route, and crossing the river on the historic Victoria Bridge. The railway is the sixth-longest standard gauge heritage line in the United Kingdom. Train services are hauled predominantly by steam locomotives, with vintage diesel locomotives hauling occasionally. Diesel locomotives are also used for engineering trains, to replace failed steam locomotives at short notice, and during periods of high fire risk. The railway hosts numerous special events throughout the year, including both steam and diesel galas. History Commercial history The Severn Valley Railway was built between 1858 and 1862, and linked Hartlebury, near Droitwich Spa, with Shrewsbury, a distance of . Important stations on the line were , , and within Worcestershire; and , , , , , ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GWR 6000 Class 6000 King George V
Great Western Railway (GWR) 6000 Class ''King George V'' is a preserved British steam locomotive. Background After developing the "new" GWR Star Class in the form of the GWR Castle Class, chief mechanical engineer Charles Collett was faced with the need to develop an even more powerful locomotive to pull 13+ carriage express trains. Collett successfully argued with the GWR's General Manager, Sir Felix Pole, that had the axle-loading restriction of of the "Castle" class been increased to the maximum allowable of , an even more powerful locomotive could have been created. Pole agreed to allow Collett to explore such a design, subject to getting tractive effort above . Collett designed the "King" Class to the maximum dimensions of the original GWR broad-gauge engineering used to develop its mainline, resulting in the largest loading gauge of all the pre-nationalisation railways in the UK, with a maximum height allowance of . Consequently, this restricted them as to where th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heritage Railway
A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) in the history of rail transport. Definition The British Office of Rail and Road defines heritage railways as follows:...'lines of local interest', museum railways or tourist railways that have retained or assumed the character and appearance and operating practices of railways of former times. Several lines that operate in isolation provide genuine transport facilities, providing community links. Most lines constitute tourist or educational attractions in their own right. Much of the rolling stock and other equipment used on these systems is original and is of historic value in its own right. Many systems aim to replicate both the look and operating practices of historic former railways companies. Infrastructure Heritage railway lines ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Pegler
Alan Francis Pegler OBE, FRSA (16 April 1920 – 18 March 2012) was a British businessman, entrepreneur, and railway preservationist. Early life Born in London on 16 April 1920, he was the great grandson of Alfred Pegler, founder of the Northern Rubber Company based in Retford, and son of Francis Egerton Pegler. His mother Enid was the daughter of amateur golfer Frederick Schomberg Ireland, who was written about by Bernard Darwin in his book ''Green Memories''. Raised in the Nottinghamshire village of Sutton cum Lound, he was educated at Hydneye House School, Sussex, and Radley College near Oxford. His uncle was Stephen Pegler. Career Pegler gained his Private Pilot Licence aged 17 at Radley, and spent much of his time chasing LNER expresses along the East Coast Main Line. Accepted into Jesus College, Cambridge, to study law, the outbreak of World War II meant that he was instead commissioned into the Fleet Air Arm, training to fly Blackburn Skua fighter/dive-bombers. Howe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman
LNER Class A3 4472 ''Flying Scotsman'' is a 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive built in 1923 for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Doncaster Works to a design of Nigel Gresley. It was employed on long-distance express East Coast Main Line trains by the LNER and its successors, British Railways Eastern and North-Eastern Regions, notably on the London to Edinburgh '' Flying Scotsman'' train service after which it was named. The locomotive set two world records for steam traction, becoming the first steam locomotive to be officially authenticated as reaching on 30 November 1934, and then setting a record for the longest non-stop run by a steam locomotive when it ran on 8 August 1989 while in Australia. Retired from regular service in 1963 after covering 2.08 million miles, ''Flying Scotsman'' enjoyed considerable fame in preservation under the ownership of, successively, Alan Pegler, William McAlpine, Tony Marchington, and finally the National Railway Museum (NR ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Locomotive
An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas turbines, are classed as diesel-electric or gas turbine-electric and not as electric locomotives, because the electric generator/motor combination serves only as a power transmission system. Electric locomotives benefit from the high efficiency of electric motors, often above 90% (not including the inefficiency of generating the electricity). Additional efficiency can be gained from regenerative braking, which allows kinetic energy to be recovered during braking to put power back on the line. Newer electric locomotives use AC motor-inverter drive systems that provide for regenerative braking. Electric locomotives are quiet compared to diesel locomotives since there is no engine and exhaust noise and less mechanical noise. The lack of re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diesel Locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels. Early internal combustion locomotives and railcars used kerosene and gasoline as their fuel. Rudolf Diesel patented his first compression-ignition engine in 1898, and steady improvements to the design of diesel engines reduced their physical size and improved their power-to-weight ratios to a point where one could be mounted in a locomotive. Internal combustion engines only operate efficiently within a limited power band, and while low power gasoline engines could be coupled to mechanical transmissions, the more powerful diesel engines required the development of new forms of transmission. This is because clutches would need to be very large at these power levels and would not fit in a standard -wide locomotive frame, or wear too quic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Ireland Railways
NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) ( ga, Iarnród Thuaisceart Éireann); and for a brief period Ulster Transport Railways (UTR), is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink, whose parent company is the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), and is one of seven publicly owned train operators in the United Kingdom, the others being Direct Rail Services, Northern Trains, Transport for Wales Rail, Southeastern, LNER, and ScotRail. It has a common Board of Management with the other two companies in the group, Ulsterbus and Metro (formerly Citybus). The rail network in Northern Ireland is not part of the National Rail network of Great Britain, nor does it use Standard Gauge, instead using Irish Gauge in common with the Republic of Ireland. Also, NIR is the only commercial non-heritage passenger operator in the United Kingdom to operate a vertical integration model, with responsibility of all aspects of the net ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diss Railway Station
Diss railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the town of Diss, Norfolk. It is down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between to the south and to the north. It is approximately south of Norwich. Its three-letter station code is DIS. The station is currently operated by Greater Anglia, who also operate all trains serving it, as part of the East Anglia franchise. Due to its location, Diss is the only station on the Greater Anglia network (and, by extension, one of the only stations in the UK) to be served exclusively by inter-city trains. History The station at Diss was proposed by the Ipswich & Bury Railway, as part of their route to Norwich. Such were the changes in the railway industry that, in 1847, the Ipswich & Bury Railway became part of the Eastern Union Railway, which started operating in 1849. This became part of the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) in 1854, which amalgamated with several other companie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
