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Thomas The Tank Engine (book)
This article is a list of books in ''The Railway Series'', a British series of children's books written by both the Rev. W. Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry. The Rev. W. Awdry Era: 1945–1972 The first 26 books in the series were written by Rev. W. Awdry. ''The Three Railway Engines'' * Book no. 1 * Published 12 May 1945 * Illustrated by William Middleton, later by C. Reginald Dalby ; Stories * Edward's Day Out * Edward and Gordon * The Sad Story of Henry * Edward, Gordon and Henry This is the first book in the series, and introduces Edward, Gordon, Henry and The Fat Director (then later became The Fat Controller; also known as Sir Topham Hatt). ; Notes * These stories were first told to the young Christopher Awdry when he was sick with measles in 1942, but due to wartime conditions, they were not published until 1945. * Two of the three shed engines are not mentioned again. * These stories were not intended to take place in a single volume, or even on the same ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Railway Series
''The Railway Series'' is a series of British books about a railway known as the North Western Railway, located on the fictional Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first published in May 1945 by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry. Twenty-five more books were written by Awdry, the final one being written in October 1972. Sixteen more were written by his son, Christopher Awdry, between September 1983 and July 2011. The series features many anthropomorphic vehicles, including Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas became the most popular & famous character in the series and the titular character of the television series ''Thomas & Friends'' from 1984 to 2021. Many characters and stories from the books formed the basis of the children's television series. Nearly all of ''The Railway Series'' stories were based on real-life events. As a lifelong railway enthusiast, Awdry was keen that his stories should be as realistic as possible. The engine characters were mostly based upon real c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Railways
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, and was 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 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 tourist line). Passengers replaced freight as the main source of business, and one-third of the network was closed by the Beeching cuts of the 1960s in an effort to reduce rail subsidies. On privatis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toby The Tram Engine
Toby is a fictional anthropomorphic brown square tram engine in ''The Railway Series'' by the Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry and his son, Christopher; he also appears in the television series adaptation ''Thomas & Friends'' and is currently set to appear in its reboot, '' Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go''. Toby, a tram engine with cowcatchers and sideplates, carries the North Western Railway running number seven and works on the same Ffarquhar Branch Line as Thomas the Tank Engine. Toby first appeared in the seventh book in ''The Railway Series'', ''Toby the Tram Engine'' in 1952, and appeared in several subsequent books. The second book focused on Toby was the sixth of Christopher Awdry's books, ''Toby, Trucks and Trouble''. Prototype and back-story Toby is based on a J70 tram engine from the Great Eastern Railway (GER Class C53). His cowcatchers and sideplates allow him to run on roadside tramways, which other engines are not allowed to do for safety reasons. J70s were used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and the use of force legitimized by the state via the monopoly on violence. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usually public sector services, funded through taxes. Law enforcement is only part of policing activity. Policing has included an array of activities in different situations, but the predominant ones are concerned with the pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abbots Ripton Rail Accident
The Abbots Ripton rail disaster occurred on 21 January 1876 at Abbots Ripton, then in the county of Huntingdonshire, England, on the Great Northern Railway main line, previously thought to be exemplary for railway safety. In the accident, the ''Special Scotch Express'' train from Edinburgh to London was involved in a collision, during a blizzard, with a coal train. An express travelling in the other direction then ran into the wreckage. The initial accident was caused by: * over-reliance on signals and block working as allowing high-speed running even in adverse conditions * systematic signal failure in the adverse conditions of that day due to a vulnerability to accumulation of snow and ice The accident (and the subsequent inquiry into it) led to fundamental changes in British railway signalling practice. Overview A coal train preceding the Flying Scotsman on the main East Coast up (south-bound) line was normally scheduled to be shunted into a siding at Abbots Ripton to allo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crewe Works
Crewe Works is a British railway engineering facility located in the town of Crewe, Cheshire. The works, which was originally opened by the Grand Junction Railway in 1840, employed around 7,000 to 8,000 workers at its peak. In the 1980s, a lot of the engineering works were closed. Much of the site has been redeveloped but the remaining parts are owned and operated by French-owned multinational rolling stock manufacturer, Alstom SA. During the late 19th century, the London and North Western Railway used Crewe Works to produce many famous locomotives such as the Webb Jumbo class and the compounds, the Whale Experiment and Precursor classes, and the Bowen-Cooke Claughtons. In particular, Whale's 1912 superheated G1 Class developed from a locomotive introduced by Webb in 1892, lasted, in many cases until 1964, near the end of steam in 1968. After grouping, the works were taken over by London, Midland and Scottish Railway which was the successor to the LNWR. It was during ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dead plant matter decays into peat and is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. Vast deposits of coal originate in former wetlands called coal forests that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous ( Pennsylvanian) and Permian times. Many significant coal deposits are younger than this and originate from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Coal is used primarily as a fuel. While coal has been known and used for thousands of years, its usage was limited until the Industrial Revolution. With the invention of the steam engine, coal consumption increased. In 2020, coal supplied about a quarter of the world's primary energy and over a third of its electricity. Some iron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in 2021 of 3,107,500 and has a total area of . Wales has over of coastline and is largely mountainous with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon (), its highest summit. The country lies within the Temperateness, north temperate zone and has a changeable, maritime climate. The capital and largest city is Cardiff. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales was formed as a Kingdom of Wales, kingdom under Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in 1055. Wales is regarded as one of the Celtic nations. The Conquest of Wales by Edward I, conquest of Wales by Edward I of England was completed by 1283, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Percy The Small Engine
This article is about the characters that have appeared in the books of ''The Railway Series'' by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry and Christopher Awdry. Unless otherwise stated on this page, the technical notes come from actual notes laid out by Wilbert Awdry when he was developing the characters and setting for his stories; these notes are cited in his publication ''The Island of Sodor: Its People, History, and Railways''. North Western Railway These are the main rolling stock of the North Western Railway (NWR), commonly referred to as the Fat Controller's railway: Steam engines The Eight Famous Engines =Thomas (Number 1)= ''Thomas'' is a blue ex-London, Brighton and South Coast Railway E2 class locomotive. =Edward (Number 2)= ''Edward'' is an old blue ex-Furness Railway K2 class locomotive. He is the first character to appear in ''The Railway Series''. =Henry (Number 3)= ''Henry'' was originally a designed by Sir Nigel Gresley. He was built circa 1919 and arrived on Sodo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strike Action
Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievances. Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution, when Labour economics, mass labor became important in factories and mines. As striking became a more common practice, governments were often pushed to act (either by private business or by union workers). When government intervention occurred, it was rarely neutral or amicable. Early strikes were often deemed unlawful conspiracies or anti-competitive cartel action and many were subject to massive legal repression by state police, federal military power, and federal courts. Many Western nations legalized striking under certain conditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Strikes are sometimes used to pressure governments to change policies. Occasionally, strikes destabilize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winter Of 1946-47 In The United Kingdom
Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures define different dates as the start of winter, and some use a definition based on weather. When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and vice versa. In many regions, winter brings snow and freezing temperatures. The moment of winter solstice is when the Sun's elevation with respect to the North or South Pole is at its most negative value; that is, the Sun is at its farthest below the horizon as measured from the pole. The day on which this occurs has the shortest day and the longest night, with day length increasing and night length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice. The earliest sunset and latest sunrise dates outside the polar regions differ from the date of the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maidenhead
Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Buckinghamshire. The town is situated west of Charing Cross, London and east-northeast of the county town of Reading, Berkshire, Reading. The town differs from the Maidenhead (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency of Maidenhead, which includes a number of outer suburbs and villages (including parts of Wokingham and Reading) such as Twyford, Berkshire, Twyford, Charvil, Remenham, Ruscombe and Wargrave. History The antiquary John Leland (antiquary), John Leland claimed that the area around Maidenhead's present town centre was a small Roman settlement called Alaunodunum. He stated that it had all but disappeared by the end of the Roman occupation. Although his source is unknown, there is documented and physical evidence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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