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Hitchin Railway Station
Hitchin railway station serves the town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire. It is located approximately north east of the town centre and north of London King's Cross on the East Coast Main Line. Until the current Stevenage station opened in 1973, many Intercity services stopped at Hitchin. In August 2007 Hitchin was awarded Secure Station status after improvements to station security were made by First Capital Connect, including new lighting, extra CCTV and the installation of automatic ticket gates. History The first section of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) - that from to a junction with the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway at Grimsby - opened on 1 March 1848, but the southern section of the main line, between and , was not opened until August 1850. Hitchin was one of the original stations, opening with the line on 7 August 1850. On 21 October 1850 Hitchin became a junction station with the opening of the first section of the Royston and Hitchin Rai ...
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Hitchin
Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce people, a tribe holding 300 Hide (unit), hides of land as mentioned in a 7th-century document,Gover, J E B, Mawer, A and Stenton, F M 1938 ''The Place-Names of Hertfordshire'' English Place-Names Society volume XV, 8 the Tribal Hidage. Hicce, or Hicca, may mean ''the people of the horse.'' The tribal name is Old English and derives from the Middle Angles, Middle Anglian people. It has been suggested that Hitchin was the location of 'Councils of Clovesho, Clofeshoh', the place chosen in 673 by Theodore of Tarsus the Archbishop of Canterbury during the Synod of Hertford, the first meeting of representatives of the fledgling Christianity, Christian churches of Anglo-Saxon England, to hold annual synods of the churches as Theodore attempted to conso ...
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First Capital Connect
First Capital Connect (FCC) was a British train operating company, owned by FirstGroup, that operated the Thameslink and Great Northern sectors from April 2006 to September 2014 which later became the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) franchise. First Capital Connect was a major provider of commuter and regional services in London and the south east of England. It operated passenger rail services from Luton and Bedford via the Thameslink to Sutton, Wimbledon and Brighton via Central London. It also operated commuter, suburban and regional services out of London King's Cross and London Moorgate to Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. Major destinations served included Cambridge, King's Lynn and Peterborough. First Capital Connect ceased operations at 02:00 on 14 September 2014, when the franchise was taken over by Govia Thameslink Railway, and became part of the larger Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise. History On 8 April 2005, the Strate ...
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Thameslink
Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying more than 28,000 passengers in the morning peak. All the services are currently operated by Govia Thameslink Railway. The Thameslink Programme was a major £5.5billion scheme to increase capacity on the central London section by accommodating more frequent and longer trains, and providing additional routes and destinations. The new services began operating in 2018. In 2016, new Class 700 trains started operating on the route and replaced the Class 319, Class 377 and Class 387 trains which were withdrawn and transferred elsewhere. Route Much of the original route is over the Brighton Main Line (via London Bridge) and the southern part of the Midland Main Line, plus a suburban true loop (circuit) serving Sutton. A branch via the Catford ...
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Thameslink Programme
The Thameslink Programme, originally Thameslink 2000, was a £6billion project in south-east England to upgrade and expand the Thameslink rail network to provide new and longer trains between a wider range of stations to the north and to the south of London. The development facilitated new cross-London journeys, which means that passengers no longer have to change trains in London. Work included platform lengthening, station remodelling, new railway infrastructure, and new rolling stock. The project was originally proposed in 1991 following the successful introduction of the initial Thameslink service in 1988. After many delays, planning permission was granted in 2006 and funding was approved in October 2007. Work started in 2009 and was completed on 18 September 2020, although trains over the new routes began running in 2018. Planning Background The original Thameslink rail network was created by joining the electrified network south of the Thames with the then recently ...
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Electric Multiple Unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number of the carriages. An EMU is usually formed of two or more semi-permanently coupled carriages, but electrically powered single-unit railcars are also generally classed as EMUs. The great majority of EMUs are passenger trains, but versions also exist for carrying mail. EMUs are popular on commuter and suburban rail networks around the world due to their fast acceleration and pollution-free operation. Being quieter than diesel multiple units (DMUs) and locomotive-hauled trains, EMUs can operate later at night and more frequently without disturbing nearby residents. In addition, tunnel design for EMU trains is simpler as no provision is needed for exhausting fumes, although retrofitting existing limited-clearance tunnels to accommodate the ...
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Govia Thameslink Railway
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) is a train operating company that operates the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) rail franchise in England. Within the franchise, GTR runs the Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern (Govia Thameslink Railway), Southern and Gatwick Express services. GTR is a subsidiary of Govia, which is itself a joint venture between the British Go-Ahead Group (65%) and French company Keolis (35%). The franchise was awarded, after repeated delays, to Govia Thameslink Railway on 23 May 2014. On 14 September 2014, GTR took over operations for the prior franchisee First Capital Connect; during July 2015, both Southern and Gatwick Express operations were integrated into GTR. This change made it the largest rail franchise in terms of passengers, staff and fleet in the UK. The franchise has an unusual structure involving a management contract that sees all fare revenues going straight to the Department for Transport (DfT), which in turn pays GTR fixed amou ...
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Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's length" public body of the Department for Transport with no shareholders, which reinvests its income in the railways. Network Rail's main customers are the private train operating companies (TOCs), responsible for passenger transport, and freight operating companies (FOCs), who provide train services on the infrastructure that the company owns and maintains. Since 1 September 2014, Network Rail has been classified as a "public sector body". To cope with fast-increasing passenger numbers, () Network Rail has been undertaking a £38 billion programme of upgrades to the network, including Crossrail, electrification of lines and upgrading Thameslink. In May 2021, the Government announced its intent to replace Network Rail in 2023 with a ne ...
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Reginald Hine
Reginald Leslie Hine (25 September 1883 – 14 April 1949) FSA, FRHS was a solicitor and historian whose writings centred on the market-town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire and its environs. He committed suicide in 1949 by jumping in front of a train at Hitchin railway station when facing disciplinary proceedings from The Law Society. Early years Hine was born in 1883 at Newnham Hall near Baldock in Hertfordshire, the son of Alderman Joseph Neville Hine (1849–1931), a tenant farmer, and his wife Eliza Taylor (1843–1892). Hine was educated at Grove House in Baldock, was privately tutored by the Revd George Todd of Baldock, and attended Kent College in Canterbury and The Leys School in Cambridge.Alan L. Fleck, ‘Hine, Reginald Leslie (1883–1949)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200accessed 16 Dec 2016/ref> Minsden Chapel In 1907 Hine and two others, the Hitchin photographer Thomas William Latchmore (1882–1946) and the artist and etche ...
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Ickleford
Ickleford is a large village situated on the northern outskirts of Hitchin in North Hertfordshire in England. It lies on the west bank of the River Hiz and to the east of the main A600 road. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 1,833. Etymology Its name is derived from it being a ford, that is a way to cross a river, along the Icknield Way. Thus Ick + Ford. Another village, Ickford, shares the same etymology. Governance The modern parish of Ickleford includes areas that were historically detached parts of Shillington and Holwell, both of which were in Bedfordshire. The Shillington exclave was transferred to Hertfordshire by the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844. The Holwell exclave was transferred to Hertfordshire in 1897. Ickleford Parish Council was established under the Local Government Act 1894. Notable buildings St Katharine's church, set amid cedar trees, has a 12th-century Norman nave and blocked north doorway with beautifully carved zigzag arches, and ...
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Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines
''Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines; Or, How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes'' is a 1965 British period comedy film that satirizes the early years of aviation. Directed and co-written by Ken Annakin, the film stars an international ensemble cast, including Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, Robert Morley, Terry-Thomas, James Fox, Red Skelton, Benny Hill, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Gert Fröbe and Alberto Sordi. Based on a screenplay entitled ''Flying Crazy'', the fictional account is set in 1910, when English press magnate Lord Rawnsley offers £10,000 () to the winner of the ''Daily Post'' air race from London to Paris to prove that Britain is "number one in the air". Plot A brief narration outlines man's first attempts to fly since the Stone Age inspired by a bird's flight, seen with footage from the silent film era, and man being represented by a "test pilot" (Red Skelton) encountering periodic misfortune in his attempts. In 1910, just seven years ...
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Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It amalgamated with several other railways to create the London, Midland and Scottish Railway at grouping in 1922. The Midland had a large network of lines emanating from Derby, stretching to London St Pancras, Manchester, Carlisle, Birmingham, and the South West. It expanded as much through acquisitions as by building its own lines. It also operated ships from Heysham in Lancashire to Douglas and Belfast. A large amount of the Midland's infrastructure remains in use and visible, such as the Midland main line and the Settle–Carlisle line, and some of its railway hotels still bear the name '' Midland Hotel''. History Origins The Midland Railway originated from 1832 in Leicestershire / Nottinghamshire, with the purpose of serving the needs o ...
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