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Northern Belle (train)
The ''Northern Belle'' is a luxury train that operates day and weekend journeys around Britain from many different departure points. The train is named to recall the ''Belle'' trains of the 1930s, such as the weekly ''Northern Belle'' land cruise; operated by the London & North Eastern Railway every June from 1933 to 1939. It was launched on 31 May 2000 with a journey from to . The carriages had been restored by the Venice-Simplon Orient Express which became Belmond Limited in 2014. Services ''Northern Belle'' visits places of interest throughout Britain such as castles, country houses, cities, sporting occasions and events including the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. There are also weekend journeys to destinations including Inverness, with overnight hotel accommodation, and non-stop round trips with dining on board. ''Northern Belle'' operates mainly throughout northern Britain, with destinations ranging from Edinburgh, Cardiff, Chelt ...
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Direct Rail Services
Direct Rail Services (DRS) is a rail freight company in Great Britain. As of 2022, it is one of seven publicly owned railway companies in the United Kingdom, the others being NI Railways (the passenger rail operator in Northern Ireland), LNER, Northern Trains, Southeastern, Transport for Wales Rail and ScotRail. DRS was created as a wholly-owned subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) during late 1994 with the primary purpose of taking over the rail-based handling of nuclear material from British Rail. As early as 1997, the company begun diversified into other operations, initially bidding for contracts to haul freight traffic for other companies such as Tesco and Eddie Stobart Group. Furthermore, DRS has branched into passenger services, these have included charters, such as the Northern Belle, and contracts with operators such as National Express East Anglia, Chiltern Railways, and Arriva Rail North. Additional rolling stock, such as the Class 57 and Class 88 locom ...
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Arriva TrainCare
Arriva TrainCare (formerly LNWR) is a railway rolling stock maintenance company. Formed in 1993 by Pete Waterman, it is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. History In 1993, Pete Waterman formed LNWR to provide maintenance for locomotives and rolling stock for specialist and charter operators from premises in Crewe. In 1999, it began maintaining rolling stock for train operating companies. In 2004 a facility in Leeds was opened to service Freightliner Class 66s, this was later sold to Freightliner. In November 2008, LNWR was sold to Arriva UK Trains. Following a restructure, DB Schenker's facilities in Bristol, Cambridge, Eastleigh and Newcastle also became part of LNWR. Today as well as servicing trains for Arriva UK Trains subsidiaries, it services rolling stock for Bombardier Transportation ( CrossCountry and Avanti West Coast Class 220/221 ''Voyagers''), Freightliner ( Class 86s and 90s) and Siemens (West Midlands Trains West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a train oper ...
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Arbutus
''Arbutus'' is a genus of 12 accepted speciesAct. Bot. Mex no.99 Pátzcuaro abr. 2012.''Arbutus bicolor''/ref> of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to warm temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, the Canary Islands and North America. The name ''Arbutus'' was taken from Latin, where it referred to ''Arbutus unedo''. Description ''Arbutus'' are small trees or shrubs with red flaking bark and edible red berries.Mabberley, D. J. 1997. ''The plant book: A portable dictionary of the vascular plants''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Fruit development is delayed for about five months after pollination, so that flowers appear while the previous year's fruit are ripening. Peak flowering for the genus is in April with peak fruiting in October. History The smooth wood of the tree is mentioned by Theophrastus in his ''Enquiry into Plants'' (''Historia Plantarum'') as formerly being used to make weaving spindles. An article on Arbutus tree cultivatio ...
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Rosewood
Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues. True rosewoods All genuine rosewoods belong to the genus ''Dalbergia''. The pre-eminent rosewood appreciated in the Western world is the wood of ''Dalbergia nigra''. It is best known as "Brazilian rosewood", but also as "Bahia rosewood". This wood has a strong, sweet smell, which persists for many years, explaining the name ''rosewood''. Another classic rosewood comes from ''Dalbergia latifolia'', known as (East) Indian rosewood or ''sonokeling'' (Indonesia). It is native to India and is also grown in plantations elsewhere in Pakistan (Chiniot). Madagascar rosewood (''Dalbergia maritima''), known as ''bois de rose'', is highly prized for its red color. It is overexploited in the wild, despite a 2010 moratorium on trade and illegal logging, which continues on a large scale. Throughout southeast Asia, ''Dalbergia oliveri'' is harvested for use in ...
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Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle () is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a residence of the British royal family. It is near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and west of Aberdeen. The estate and its original castle were bought from the Farquharson family in 1852 by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Soon afterwards the house was found to be too small and the current Balmoral Castle was commissioned. The architect was William Smith of Aberdeen, and his designs were amended by Prince Albert. Balmoral remains the private property of the monarch and is not part of the Crown Estate. It was the summer residence of Queen Elizabeth II, who died there on 8 September 2022. The castle is an example of Scottish baronial architecture, and is classified by Historic Environment Scotland as a category A listed building. The new castle was completed in 1856 and the old castle demolished shortly thereafter. The Balmoral Estate has been added to by successive mem ...
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British Royal Train
The British Royal Train is used to convey senior members of the British royal family and associated staff of the Royal Household around the railway network of Great Britain. It is owned, maintained and operated by DB Cargo UK. The Royal Train comprises a dedicated set of claret liveried sleeper, dining and lounge carriages. The current rolling stock dates from 1977 to 1987. They are arranged according to requirements, and stored when not in use. The earliest royal coaches date back to the mid-19th century in the reign of Queen Victoria; until an upgrade in 1977 there were multiple sets based in different regions, a legacy of the pre-nationalisation era of railways in Britain. Many are now in museums or on heritage railways; the National Railway Museum in York has a royal themed exhibition. Dedicated locomotives have never traditionally been part of the Royal Train, first appearing in special livery only in the 1990s, but also seeing use on other trains since 2003. In the 2 ...
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Juglans
Walnut trees are any species of tree in the plant genus ''Juglans'', the type genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are referred to as walnuts. All species are deciduous trees, tall, with pinnate leaves , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts (''Pterocarya''), but not the hickories (''Carya'') in the same family. The 21 species in the genus range across the north temperate Old World from southeast Europe east to Japan, and more widely in the New World from southeast Canada west to California and south to Argentina. Edible walnuts, which are consumed worldwide, are usually harvested from cultivated varieties of the species ''Juglans regia''. China produces half of the world total of walnuts. Etymology The common name ''walnut'' derives from Old English ''wealhhnutu'', literally 'foreign nut' (from ''wealh'' 'foreign' + ''hnutu'' 'nut'), because it was introduced from Gaul and Italy. The Latin name for the wal ...
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Acer Pseudoplatanus
''Acer pseudoplatanus'', known as the sycamore in the British Isles and as the sycamore maple in the United States, is a species of flowering plant in the Sapindus, soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is a large deciduous, broad-leaved tree, tolerant of wind and coastal exposure. It is native to Central Europe and Western Asia, from France eastward to Ukraine, northern Turkey and the Caucasus and southward in the mountains of Italy and northern Iberia. The sycamore establishes itself easily from seed and was introduced to the British Isles by 1500. It is now Naturalisation (biology), naturalised there and in other parts of Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, where it may become an invasive species. The sycamore can grow to a height of about and the branches form a broad, rounded Crown (botany), crown. The Bark (botany), bark is grey, smooth when young and later flaking in irregular patches. The leaves grow on long Petiole (botany), leafstalks and are lar ...
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Taxus Baccata
''Taxus baccata'' is a species of evergreen tree in the family Taxaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe (including Britain and Ireland), northwest Africa, northern Iran, and southwest Asia.Rushforth, K. (1999). ''Trees of Britain and Europe''. Collins . It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may now be known as common yew, English yew, or European yew. It is primarily grown as an ornamental. Most parts of the plant are poisonous, with toxins that can be absorbed through inhalation and through the skin; consumption of even a small amount of the foliage can result in death. Taxonomy and naming The word ''yew'' is from Proto-Germanic ''*īwa-'', possibly originally a loanword from Gaulish ''*ivos'', compare Breton ''ivin,'' Irish '' ēo'', Welsh ''ywen'', French '' if'' (see Eihwaz for a discussion). In German it is known as ''Eibe''. ''Baccata'' is Latin for ''bearing berries''. The word ''yew'' as it was originally ...
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Buxus
''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, with the majority of species being tropical or subtropical; only the European and some Asian species are frost-tolerant. Centres of diversity occur in Cuba (about 30 species), China (17 species) and Madagascar (9 species). They are slow-growing evergreen shrubs and small trees, growing to 2–12 m (rarely 15 m) tall. The leaves are opposite, rounded to lanceolate, and leathery; they are small in most species, typically 1.5–5 cm long and 0.3–2.5 cm broad, but up to 11 cm long and 5 cm broad in ''B. macrocarpa''. The flowers are small and yellow-green, monoecious with both sexes present on a plant. The fruit is a small capsule 0.5–1.5 cm long (to 3 cm i ...
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Alnwick Castle
Alnwick Castle () is a castle and country house in Alnwick in the English county of Northumberland. It is the seat of the 12th Duke of Northumberland, built following the Norman conquest and renovated and remodelled a number of times. It is a Grade I listed building now the home of Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland and his family. In 2016, the castle received over 600,000 visitors per year when combined with adjacent attraction the Alnwick Garden. History Alnwick Castle guards a road crossing the River Aln. Ivo de Vesci, Baron of Alnwick, erected the first parts of the castle in about 1096. Beatrix de Vesci, the daughter of Yves de Vescy, married the Constable of Chestershire and Knaresborough, Eustace fitz John. By his marriage to Beatrix de Vesci he gained the baronies of Malton and Alnwick. The castle was first mentioned in 1136 when it was captured by King David I of Scotland. At this point it was described as "very strong". It was besieged in 1172 and again i ...
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