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West Coast Railways
West Coast Railways (WCR) is a railway spot-hire company and charter train operator based at Carnforth MPD in Lancashire. Using buildings and other facilities previously owned by the Steamtown Carnforth visitor attraction, in June 1998 the company became the first privately owned company to be given a licence as a train operating company. History Before 1998 After British Rail closed the Lakeside branch to passengers on 6 September 1965, a group of enthusiasts chaired by Dr Peter Beet formed the Lakeside Railway Estates Company, with the idea of preserving both the line and Carnforth MPD, to provide a complete steam operating system. After agreeing to rent out part of the Carnforth MPD site, but with the counter the development of the A590 road meaning that the complete vision was unsuccessful, Beet developed the visitor attraction Steamtown Carnforth, which became a mecca for steam enthusiasts from 1967. In 1974, Sir Bill McAlpine became a shareholder in the company, w ...
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West Coast Railways Logo
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance languages (''ouest'' in French, ''oest'' in Catalan, ''ovest'' in Italian, ''oeste'' in Spanish and Portuguese). As in other languages, the word formation stems from the fact that west is the direction of the setting sun in the evening: 'west' derives from the Indo-European root ''*wes'' reduced from ''*wes-pero'' 'evening, night', cognate with Ancient Greek ἕσπερος hesperos 'evening; evening star; western' and Latin vesper 'evening; west'. Examples of the same formation in other languages include Latin occidens 'west' from occidō 'to go down, to set' and Hebrew מַעֲרָב maarav 'west' from עֶרֶב erev 'evening'. Navigation To go west using a compass for navigation (in a place where magnetic north is the same dir ...
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The Railway Magazine
''The Railway Magazine'' is a monthly British railway magazine, aimed at the railway enthusiast market, that has been published in London since July 1897. it was, for three years running, the railway magazine with the largest circulation in the United Kingdom, having a monthly average sale during 2009 of 34,715 (the figure for 2007 being 34,661). It was published by IPC Media until October 2010, with , and in 2007 won IPC's 'Magazine of the Year' award. Since November 2010, ''The Railway Magazine'' has been published by Mortons of Horncastle. History ''The Railway Magazine'' was launched by Joseph Lawrence and ex-railwayman Frank E. Cornwall of Railway Publishing Ltd, who thought there would be an amateur enthusiast market for some of the material they were then publishing in a railway staff magazine, the ''Railway Herald''. They appointed as its first editor a former auctioneer, George Augustus Nokes (1867–1948), who wrote under the pseudonym "G. A. Sekon". He quickly bui ...
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Swansea Railway Station
, symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Swansea Railway Station - geograph.org.uk - 1150393.jpg , borough = Swansea, City and County of Swansea , country = Wales , coordinates = , grid_name = Grid reference , grid_position = , manager = Transport for Wales , platforms = 4 , code = SWA , classification = DfT category C1 , original = South Wales Railway , pregroup = Great Western Railway , postgroup = Great Western Railway , opened = as ''Swansea High Street'' , years = 6 May 1968 , events = Renamed ''Swansea'' , mpassengers = , footnotes = Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road Swansea railway station serves the city of Swansea, Wales. It is measured from London Paddington (via Stroud) on the National Rail network. In 2021/22 i ...
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First Great Western
Great Western Railway (GWR) is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the Greater Western passenger railway franchise. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR operates long-distance inter-city services along the Great Western Main Line to and from the West of England and South Wales, inter-city services from London to the West Country via the Reading–Taunton line, and the ''Night Riviera'' sleeper service between London and Penzance. It also provides commuter and outer-suburban services from its London terminus at Paddington to West London, the Thames Valley region including parts of Berkshire, parts of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire; and regional services throughout the West of England and South Wales to the South coast of England. Great Western Railway also provides and maintains the Electrostar Class 387 fleet for Heathrow Express. The company began operating in February 1996 as Great Western Trains, as part of the pri ...
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Great Western Main Line
The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the original route of the first Great Western Railway which was merged into the Western Region of British Railways in 1948. It is now a part of the national rail system managed by Network Rail with the majority of passenger services provided by the current Great Western Railway franchise. The line has recently been electrified along most of its length. The eastern section from Paddington to was electrified in 1998. Work to electrify the remainder of the route started in 2011 with an initial aim to complete the work all the way to Bristol by 2016, but in that year the section through Bath to Bristol Temple Meads was deferred with no date set for completion because costs had tripled. History The line was built by the Great Western Railway ...
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Wootton Bassett Junction Railway Station
Wootton Bassett Junction railway station, formerly Wootton Bassett railway station, was a junction station in Wootton Bassett where the Great Western and South Wales Main Lines diverge. Opened in 1841, it closed in 1965. History Wootton Bassett railway station opened on 30 July 1841, when the Great Western Main Line from London Paddington was extended from Chippenham through the Box Tunnel through to Bristol Temple Meads. It replaced Wootton Bassett Road railway station, Wootton Bassett Road, about to the east as the station serving Wootton Bassett. The railway was double track with a Railway platform, platform on each side of the line and a small stone building on each. The main offices were on the north side of the line but a goods shed was provided on the south side at the London end of the platform. In 1850, an excursion train collided with a horsebox that had escaped from a siding at the station. Following this accident, the Great Western Railway provided trap points an ...
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Signal Passed At Danger
A signal passed at danger (SPAD), known in the United States as a stop signal overrun and in Canada as passing a stop signal, is an event on a railway where a train passes a stop railway signal, signal without authority. In the United States and Canada, this may be known colloquially as ''wikt:run a red light, running a red'', though this idiom principally refers to automobiles passing red traffic signals. The name derives from red Railway_signal#Colour_light_signals, colour light signals and horizontal Railway semaphore signal, semaphore signals in the United Kingdom, which are said to be ''at danger'' when they indicate that trains must stop (also known as the signal being ''on''). This terminology is not used in North America where not all red signals indicate stop. In the UK, the alternative description signal passed at red (S.P.A.R.) is used where a signal changes to red in front of a train due to either a technical fault or in an emergency, such that the train is unable t ...
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SR West Country And Battle Of Britain Classes
The SR West Country and Battle of Britain classes, collectively known as ''Light Pacifics'' or informally as ''Spam Cans'', are air-smoothed 4-6-2 ''Pacific'' steam locomotives designed for the Southern Railway by its Chief Mechanical Engineer Oliver Bulleid. Incorporating a number of new developments in British steam locomotive technology, they were amongst the first British designs to use welding in the construction process, and to use steel fireboxes, which meant that components could be more easily constructed under wartime austerity and post-war economy.Arlett (1989), p. 29–30 They were designed to be lighter in weight than their sister locomotives, the Merchant Navy class, to permit use on a wider variety of routes, including in the south-west of England and the Kent coast. They were a mixed-traffic design, being equally adept at hauling passenger and freight trains, and were used on all types of services, frequently far below their capabilities. A total of 110  ...
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Chippenham Railway Station
Chippenham railway station is on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) in South West England, serving the town of Chippenham, Wiltshire. It is down the line from the zero point at and is situated between and on the GWML. The Wessex Main Line diverges from the GWML to the southwest of Chippenham and runs to via . It is managed by Great Western Railway, which also operates all the trains that call. Only two platforms at the station remain in use; the platform by the main entrance is now disused. History The main line of the Great Western Railway (GWR) was authorised in 1835, and opened in stages: the section from westward to Chippenham opened on 31 May 1841. The final section of the line, between Chippenham and Bath, opened on 30 June 1841. Chippenham was soon served by other lines. The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR) was authorised in 1845 and the first section opened on 5 September 1848; this ran from Thingley Junction, west of Chippenham, to , and the WS&WR ...
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Southend East Railway Station
Southend East railway station is on the London, Tilbury and Southend line, serving the Southchurch area to the east of Southend-on-Sea, Essex. It is down the main line from London Fenchurch Street via and it is situated between to the west and to the east. Its three-letter station code is SOE. It was opened in 1932. There is no step-free access available on the Shoeburyness bound platform. The station and all trains serving it are currently operated by c2c. History London, Tilbury and Southend (1884-1922) The railway through the site was opened on 1884 when the London Tilbury and Southend Railway was extended eastwards from Southend to Shoeburyness. Increasing traffic levels saw the need for an intermediate block signal box called Southend East to be provided in order that more trains could run and this was provided in 1896 on the down side east of Southend station. As central Southend developed and the resort expanded it became clear that better goods facilities would b ...
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Bristol Temple Meads Railway Station
Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is located away from London Paddington. It is an important transport hub for public transport in the city; there are bus services to many parts of the city and surrounding districts, with a ferry to the city centre. Bristol's other major station, Bristol Parkway, is a more recent station on the northern outskirts of the conurbation. Temple Meads was opened on 31 August 1840, as the western terminus of the Great Western Railway. The railway, including Temple Meads, was the first to be designed by the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Soon, the station was also used by the Bristol and Exeter Railway, the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, the Bristol Harbour Railway and the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway. To accommodate the increasing number of trains, the station was expanded in the 1870s by Francis Fox and again between 1930 and 1935 by Percy Emerson Culverhouse. Brunel's termi ...
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Cathedrals Express
The ''Cathedrals Express'' was a named passenger express introduced in 1957 on the Western Region of British Railways. It connected the cathedral cities of Hereford and Worcester to . The service started on 16 September 1957 and was operated six days a week. It departed Hereford at 07:45 with the return service leaving Paddington at 16:45. Coaching stock was in the Great Western Railway chocolate and cream livery, not the British Railways standard maroon of this period. The service also stopped at , another cathedral city, although this was already well-served by other London services. Although a named train, the ''Cathedrals Express'' was by no means a fast service throughout. Between Hereford and Worcester it was at most a semi-fast. In later years the number of stops increased. The timetable in summer 1963 was: Hereford (d. 08:00), Ledbury, Colwall, Great Malvern, Malvern Link, Worcester Foregate Street, Worcester Shrub Hill (d. 09:10), Evesham, Moreton-in-Marsh, Oxford, ...
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