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GWR 5700 Class
The GWR 5700 Class, or 57xx class, is a class of 0-6-0 pannier tank steam locomotive, built by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and British Railways (BR) between 1929 and 1950. With 863 built, they were the most prolific class of the GWR, and one of the most numerous classes of British steam locomotive. Although officially designated by GWR as "light goods and shunting engines", they were also used for passenger working on branch, suburban, and shorter mainline journeys. They were distributed across most of the GWR network and, after nationalisation of the railways in 1948, across the Western Region of British Railways, and also other regions. The 5700s were not as large as the GWR Castles and Kings, but became just as much of an icon of the GWR due to their iconic design and quantity. As a result of the 1955 Modernisation Plan, the 5700 Class was withdrawn from BR service between 1956 and 1966. Nineteen withdrawn locomotives were sold to London Transport and industry, of ...
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Charles Collett
Charles Benjamin Collett (10 September 1871 – 5 April 1952) was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1922 to 1941. He designed (amongst others) the GWR's Castle and King Class express passenger locomotives. Education and early career Collett was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School (then at Charterhouse Square, London) and the City and Guilds College of London University. He then became an engineering pupil at Maudslay, Sons and Field, a firm that built marine steam engines. In 1893 he entered the GWR Drawing Office at Swindon as a junior draughtsman. Four years later he was put in charge of the buildings section, and in 1898 became assistant to the Chief Draughtsman. In June 1900 he was appointed Technical Inspector, and soon after Assistant Manager, at the Swindon Works. In 1912 he rose to be Manager of the Works, then in 1919 he was made Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer of the GWR. Chief Mechanical Engineer Collett's predecessor, George Jacks ...
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London Transport Executive
The London Transport Executive was the organisation responsible for public transport in Greater London, England between 1948 and 1962. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand of the organisation was London Transport. Formation On 1 January 1948, pursuant to the Transport Act 1947, the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) was nationalised and renamed the London Transport Executive (LTE), becoming a subsidiary organisation of the British Transport Commission, which was formed on the same day. Another subsidiary of the commission was the Railway Executive (which traded as British Railways), which meant that London Transport and the main-line railways were under the same management for the first and last time in their respective histories. Projects A great deal of the early work of the LTE was spent repairing and replacing stock and stations damaged during World War II. LTE also oversaw the completion of the ...
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British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkhas, and 28,330 volunteer reserve personnel. The modern British Army traces back to 1707, with antecedents in the English Army and Scots Army that were created during the Restoration in 1660. The term ''British Army'' was adopted in 1707 after the Acts of Union between England and Scotland. Members of the British Army swear allegiance to the monarch as their commander-in-chief, but the Bill of Rights of 1689 and Claim of Right Act 1689 require parliamentary consent for the Crown to maintain a peacetime standing army. Therefore, Parliament approves the army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years. The army is administered by the Ministry of Defence and commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. The British ...
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D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France (and later western Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that meant only a few days each month wer ...
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WD Austerity 2-8-0
The War Department (WD) "Austerity" 2-8-0 is a type of heavy freight steam locomotive that was introduced in 1943 for war service. A total of 935 were built, making this one of the most-produced classes of British steam locomotive. They were nicknamed ''Ozzies'' by the railwaymen. Overview The Austerity 2-8-0 was based on the LMS Class 8F, which until that point had been the government's standard design. Various modifications were made to the 8F design by R.A. Riddles in order to prioritise low cost over design life. These included a boiler of simpler construction which was parallel rather than tapered and a round-topped firebox rather than a Belpaire firebox. The firebox was made of steel rather than the rarer and more expensive copper. The North British Locomotive Company (NBL) of Glasgow built 545 (split between their two works at Hyde Park and Queen's Park) and the Vulcan Foundry (VF) of Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, built 390. North British also built a larger ...
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LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier Class 5 4-6-0, commonly known as the Black Five, is a class of steam locomotives. It was introduced by William Stanier and built between 1934 and 1951, of which 842 were built and were numbered 4658-5499 (BR then renumbered 44658-45499). Several members of the class survived to the last day of steam on British Railways in 1968, and eighteen are preserved. Origins The Black Five was a mixed-traffic locomotive, a "do-anything go-anywhere" type, designed by Stanier, who had previously been with the GWR. In his early LMS days, he designed his Stanier Mogul in which he experimented with the GWR school of thought on locomotive design. A number of details in this design he would never use again realising the superiority of details not used on the GWR. Stanier realised that there was a need for larger locomotives. These were to be the LMS version of the GWR Halls but not a copy, as the Hall was too wide to run most places in ...
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LNWR DX Goods Class
The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) DX Goods class was a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive, designed by John Ramsbottom for freight duties. 943 were constructed making them the largest single class of steam locomotives built in the United Kingdom. Despite this, none were preserved. History The "DX" goods engine was the first original design produced by Ramsbottom, shortly after becoming Locomotive Superintendent of the Northern Division. An experimental prototype was developed at Longsight whilst Ramsbottom was only in charge of the North-Eastern Division. The first regular example was completed at Crewe Works in September 1858, and was given the running number 355. This was the 399th locomotive built at Crewe, but it was the practice of the LNWR to reuse the numbers of withdrawn locomotives. The first DX, No. 355, was named ''Hardman'', and carried the name on a curved brass plate above the driving wheels. It was painted in the same dark green livery as used by Ramsbot ...
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British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four British railway companies, and was privatisation of British Rail, privatised in stages between 1994 and 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, it became an independent statutory corporation in January 1963, when it was formally renamed the British Railways Board. The period of nationalisation saw sweeping changes in the railway. A process of dieselisation and Railway electrification in Great Britain, electrification took place, and by 1968 steam locomotives had been entirely replaced by diesel and electric traction, except for the Vale of Rheidol Railway (a narrow-gauge railway, narrow-gauge tourist line). Passenger train, Passengers replaced freight train, ...
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Steam Locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomotive's boiler to the point where it becomes gaseous and its volume increases 1,700 times. Functionally, it is a steam engine on wheels. In most locomotives, the steam is admitted alternately to each end of its cylinders, in which pistons are mechanically connected to the locomotive's main wheels. Fuel and water supplies are usually carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in a tender coupled to it. Variations in this general design include electrically-powered boilers, turbines in place of pistons, and using steam generated externally. Steam locomotives were first developed in the United Kingdom during the early 19th century and used for railway transport until the middle of the 20th century. Richard Trevith ...
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Pannier Tank
A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locomotive a tender holds some or all of the fuel, and may hold some water also. There are several different types of tank locomotive, distinguished by the position and style of the water tanks and fuel bunkers. The most common type has tanks mounted either side of the boiler. This type originated about 1840 and quickly became popular for industrial tasks, and later for shunting and shorter-distance main line duties. Tank locomotives have advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional locomotives that required a separate tender to carry needed water and fuel. History Origins The first tank locomotive was the ''Novelty'' that ran at the Rainhill Trials in 1829. It was an example of a ''Well Tank''. However, the more common form ...
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0-6-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangement used on both tender and tank locomotives in versions with both inside and outside cylinders. In the United Kingdom, the Whyte notation of wheel arrangement was also often used for the classification of electric and diesel-electric locomotives with side-rod coupled driving wheels. Under the UIC classification, popular in Europe, this wheel arrangement is written as C if the wheels are coupled with rods or gears, or Co if they are independently driven, the latter usually being electric and diesel-electric locomotives. Overview History The 0-6-0 configuration was the most widely used wheel arrangement for both tender and tank steam locomotives. The type was also widely used for diesel switchers (shunters). Because they lack lea ...
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Blue Until 1950, Then Yellow
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when observing light with a dominant wavelength between approximately 450 and 495 nanometres. Most blues contain a slight mixture of other colours; azure contains some green, while ultramarine contains some violet. The clear daytime sky and the deep sea appear blue because of an optical effect known as Rayleigh scattering. An optical effect called Tyndall effect explains blue eyes. Distant objects appear more blue because of another optical effect called aerial perspective. Blue has been an important colour in art and decoration since ancient times. The semi-precious stone lapis lazuli was used in ancient Egypt for jewellery and ornament and later, in the Renaissance, to make the pigment ultramarine, the most expensive of all pigments. In the ei ...
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