Hixon Rail Crash
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Hixon Rail Crash
On 6 January 1968, a low-loader transporter carrying a 120-ton electrical transformer was struck by a British Rail express train on a recently installed automatic level crossing at Hixon, Staffordshire, England. The collision resulted in eleven deaths and 45 people injured, and led to improvements in signage around automatic level crossings. Background In the 1950s, British Railways found that the cost of manning some 2,400 level crossings had risen past £1 million per annum, with some locations seeing a tenfold increase. In the postwar labour market it was often difficult to recruit crossing keepers, the job itself being a responsible but rather dull occupation. In addition, manually operated crossings often caused long delays to road traffic because of the need to close the gates and clear the distant signal before the approaching train reached it. In October 1956, senior members of Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) embarked on a fact-finding trip to the Netherlands ...
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Hixon, Staffordshire
Hixon is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Staffordshire.OS Explorer Map 244: Cannock Chase & Chasewater: (1:25 000) : Location The village is east of the town of Stafford, southeast of the town of Stone, Staffordshire, Stone, northwest of the town of Rugeley and south west of Uttoxeter. The nearest railway station is at Rugeley Trent Valley, Rugeley. The nearest main roads are the A518 road, A518 which skirts north of the village, and the A51 road, A51 which runs to the west.– Staffordshire A-Z County Atlas: 2011 Edition: Scale:3.8 inches to 1 mile (5.9 cm to 1 km) History Etymology The genesis of the village name is said to be of Scandinavian origin. The first part, ''Hus'' is thought to be the Viking word for house.Staffordshire Place Names Including The Black Country – Page 63:Author: Anthony Poulton-Smith: Publisher: Countryside Books (1995): The last part Dun is an old English word for Hill, so giving the origins as ''The Hous ...
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RAF Hixon
Royal Air Force Hixon or more simply RAF Hixon was a Royal Air Force station located on the north western edge of the village of Hixon in Staffordshire, England. The airfield was east of Stafford and bounded at the west and north by railways. After opening in 1942, it served as a base for No. 30 Operational Training Unit and, after the OTU left up until its closure in 1957, it served as a satellite site for No. 16 Maintenance Unit based at RAF Stafford. History Permission was granted to build a base at Hixon in August 1941 with opening coming on 13 May 1942. The base was to be used for operational flying, but instead it was used as a training environment for Bomber aircrews flying Vickers Wellington aircraft on No. 30 OTU, Curtiss Tomahawks and Hawker Hurricanes on 1686 Bomber (Defence) Training Flight (BDTF) and Bristol Blenheims flown by No. 12 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit ((P)AFU). It was originally intended to be a No. 7 Group asset, but when it was handed over to the Ro ...
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Crossing Sequence (operation)
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass or tunnel. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate Right-of-way (railroad), right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion. Other names include railway level crossing, railway crossing (chiefly international), grade crossing or railroad crossing (chiefly American), road through railroad, criss-cross, train crossing, and RXR (abbreviated). There are more than 100,000 level crossings in Europe and more than 200,000 in North America. History The history of level crossings depends on the location, but often early level crossings had a Flagman (rail), flagman in a nearby booth who would, on the approach of a train, wave a red flag or lantern to stop all traffic and clear the tracks. Gated crossings bec ...
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Euston Railway Station
Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railway. Euston is the eleventh-busiest station in Britain and the country's busiest inter-city passenger terminal, being the gateway from London to the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland. Intercity express passenger services are operated by Avanti West Coast and overnight services to Scotland are provided by the Caledonian Sleeper. London Northwestern Railway and London Overground provide regional and commuter services. Trains run from Euston to the major cities of Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is also the mainline station for services to and through to for connecting ferries to Dublin. Local suburban services from Euston are run by London Overground via the Watford DC Line which runs ...
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81 022 At Kenton
81 may refer to: * 81 (number) * one of the years 81 BC, AD 81, 1981, 2081 * Nickname for the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. "H" is the eighth letter of the alphabet, and "A" is the first. See also * * List of highways numbered A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
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Overhead Line
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipment (OHE) * Overhead line equipment (OLE or OHLE) * Overhead lines (OHL) * Overhead wiring (OHW) * Traction wire * Trolley wire This article follows the International Union of Railways in using the generic term ''overhead line''. An overhead line consists of one or more wires (or rails, particularly in tunnels) situated over rail tracks, raised to a high electrical potential by connection to feeder stations at regular intervals. The feeder stations are usually fed from a high-voltage electrical grid. Overview Electric trains that collect their current from overhead lines use a device such as a pantograph, bow collector or trolley pole. It presses against the underside of the lowest overhead wire, the contact wire. Current collectors ar ...
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Secretary Of State For Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office holder works alongside the other transport ministers. The corresponding shadow minister is the shadow secretary of state for transport, and the secretary of state is also scrutinised by the Transport Select Committee. History The Ministry of Transport absorbed the Ministry of Shipping and was renamed the Ministry of War Transport in 1941, but resumed its previous name at the end of the war. The Ministry of Civil Aviation was created by Winston Churchill in 1944 to look at peaceful ways of using aircraft and to find something for the aircraft factories to do after the war. The new Conservative government in 1951 appointed the same minister to both Transport and Civil Aviati ...
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A51 Road
The A51 is a road in England which runs for 85 miles (137 km) from Chester, Cheshire to Kingsbury, North Warwickshire. It takes on the following route: *Chester *Vicars Cross * Littleton *Tarvin (bypass opened 1984) *Duddon * Clotton *Tarporley (merges briefly with A49) *Nantwich *Woore *Stone (merges briefly with A34) * Sandon *Weston *Great Haywood *Little Haywood *Rugeley (bypass opened 200 *Lichfield * Tamworth *Kingsbury The A51 is used by some long-distance traffic as an alternative to the M6 motorway, which is prone to congestion through Birmingham. The nearby M6 Toll motorway now serves a similar function. Originally the A51 terminated at Two Gates where it met the A5, the road south continuing as the A423 The A423 road is a primary A road in England in two sections. The main section leads from central Banbury to the A45 near Coventry. Route It starts in Banbury town centre as Southam Road and goes through the Southam Road Industrial Estat .... When ...
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Stone, Staffordshire
Stone is a canal town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, north of Stafford, south of Stoke-on-Trent and north of Rugeley. It was an urban district council and a rural district council before becoming part of the Stafford (borough), Borough of Stafford in 1974. Population Stone is a growing town, according to the national census. Stone recorded a population of 12,305 in 1991, 14,555 in 2001, and 16,385 in 2011. Etymology The place-name's meaning is exactly what is stated, a "stone, rock (geology), rock", from the Old English language, Old English ''wikt:stan#Old English, stān'' (stone). The local story is that the town was named after the pile of stones taken from the River Trent raised on the graves of the two princes, Ruffin and Wulfad, killed in AD 665 by their father, King Wulfhere of Mercia, because of their conversion to Christianity. However, this legend is unlikely to be true. Wulfhere was already a Christian when he became king, and the story on which ...
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A34 Road (England)
The A34 is a major road in England. It runs from the A33 and M3 at Winchester in Hampshire, to the A6 and A6042 in Salford, close to Manchester City Centre. It forms a large part of the major trunk route from Southampton, via Oxford, to Birmingham, The Potteries and Manchester. For most of its length (together with the A5011 and parts of the A50, and A49), it forms part of the former Winchester–Preston Trunk Road. Improvements to the section of road forming the Newbury Bypass around Newbury were the scene of significant direct action environmental protests in the 1990s. It is 151 miles (243 km) long. Route The road is in two sections. The northern section runs south through Manchester and Cheadle, and bypasses Handforth, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge, before passing through Congleton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and the southern suburbs of Stoke-on-Trent. It then continues south via Stone, Stafford, Cannock and Walsall, passes through the middle of Birmingham (where ...
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M6 Motorway
The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby before heading north-west. It passes Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Preston, Lancaster and Carlisle before terminating at Junction 45 near Gretna. Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74(M) which continues to Glasgow as the M74. Its busiest sections are between junctions 4 and 10a in the West Midlands, and junctions 16 to 19 in Cheshire; these sections have now been converted to smart motorways. It incorporated the Preston By-pass, the first length of motorway opened in the UK and forms part of a motorway "Backbone of Britain", running north−south between London and Glasgow via the industrial North of England. It is also part of the east−west route betwe ...
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Police Escort
A police escort, also known as a law enforcement escort, is a service offered by police and law enforcement to assist in transporting important individuals or resources. This is done by means of assigning police vehicles, primarily cars or motorcycles, to precede, surround, and/or follow a vehicle, or group of vehicles. Other government departments also provide escort services, such as secret service and military police. An escort can range widely in size, beginning with a single vehicle. They almost always assist with motorcades for the transportation of senior public officials, such as heads of state or heads of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a gro ..., or can be hired by celebrities, professional athletes, funerals.A police escort does not need to be side b ...
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