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British Transport Commission
The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain (Northern Ireland had the separate Ulster Transport Authority). Its general duty under the Transport Act 1947 was to provide an efficient, adequate, economical and properly integrated system of public inland transport and port facilities within Great Britain for passengers and goods, excluding transport by air. The BTC came into operation on 1 January 1948. Its first chairman was Lord Hurcomb, with Miles Beevor as Chief Secretary. Its main holdings were the networks and assets of the Big Four national regional railway companies: the Great Western Railway, London and North Eastern Railway, London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the Southern Railway. It also took over 55 other railway undertakings, 19 canal undertakings and 246 road haulage firms, as well as t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecil Thomas (sculptor)
Cecil Walter Thomas, FRBS, (3 March 1885 – 16 September 1976) was a British sculptor and medallist. As a sculptor, he created many private memorials for display in churches and cemeteries and as a medallist was regularly commissioned by the Royal Mint. Early career Thomas was born in the Shepherd's Bush area of London to John Thomas, a seal engraver, and Alice Sophia Thomas (née Ings). As a teenager, Cecil became an apprentice in his father's practice and continued working for his father while studying at the Slade School of Fine Art, Heatherley School of Fine Art, and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. In his early career, he specialised in gem engraving, receiving commissions from all over the world, including several from the House of Fabergé. Nonetheless, his work in creating cameo portraits inspired his interest in medals and coins; he was one of the few artists to engrave directly into the die. Among his earliest works were a small medal in 1899 for S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European islands by area, largest European island, and the List of islands by area, ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The island of Ireland, with an area 40 per cent that of Great Britain, is to the west – these islands, along with over List of islands of the British Isles, 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, comprise the British Isles archipelago. Connected to mainland Europe until 9,000 years ago by a land bridge now known as Doggerland, Great Britain has been inhabited by modern humans for around 30,000 years. In 2011, it had a population of about , making it the world's List of islands by population, third-most-populous islan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative and Unionist Party, commonly the Conservative Party and colloquially known as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. The party sits on the Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing of the Left–right political spectrum, left-right political spectrum. Following its defeat by Labour at the 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024 general election it is currently the second-largest party by the number of votes cast and number of seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons; as such it has the formal parliamentary role of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition. It encompasses various ideological factions including One-nation conservatism, one-nation conservatives, Thatcherism, Thatcherites and Traditionalist conservatism, traditionalist conservatives. There have been 20 Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minis ... [...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 rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 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. British Railways was formed on 1 January 1948 as a result of the Transport Act 1947, which nationalisation, nationalised the Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four British railway companies along with some other (but not all) smaller railways. Profitability of the railways became a pressing concern during the 1950s, leading to multiple efforts to bolster performance, including some line closures. The History of rail transport in Great Britain 1948–1994#The Modernisation Plan, 1955 Modernisation Plan formally directed a process of dieselisation and Railway electrification in Great Britain, electrification ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Executive
The British Railways Board (BRB) was a nationalised industry in the United Kingdom that operated from 1963 to 2001. Until 1997, it was responsible for most railway services in Great Britain, trading under the brand name British Railways and, from 1965, British Rail. It did not operate railways in Northern Ireland, where railways were the responsibility of the Government of Northern Ireland. It is a statutory corporation, which when operating consisted of a chairman and nine to fifteen other members appointed by the Secretary of State for Transport. The Board, now reduced to a minimum membership of a chairman and one other member, continues to exist to hold the French law benefits and obligations of the Channel Tunnel Rail Usage Contract. Formation The BRB was created on 1 January 1963 under the Transport Act 1962 by Harold Macmillan's Conservative government to inherit the railway responsibilities of the British Transport Commission, which was dissolved at the same time. Ope ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was London Transport (brand), London Transport. History The London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) was established pursuant to the London Passenger Transport Act 1933 enacted on 13 April 1933. The bill had been introduced by Herbert Morrison (politician), Herbert Morrison, who was Secretary of State for Transport, Transport Minister in the Second MacDonald ministry, Labour Government until 1931. Because the legislation was a hybrid bill it had been possible to allow it to 'roll over' into the new parliament under the incoming First National ministry, National Government. The new government, although dominated by Conservative Party (UK), Conservatives, decided to continue with the bill, with no serious changes, despite its extensive transfer of pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Railway (UK)
The Southern Railway (SR), sometimes shortened to 'Southern', was a British railway company established in the Railways Act 1921, 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the English Channel, Channel ports, South West England, Seaside resort#British seaside resorts, South coast resorts and Kent. The railway was formed by the amalgamation of several smaller railway companies, the largest of which were the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR).Bonavia (1987) pp. 26–28 The construction of what was to become the Southern Railway began in 1838 with the opening of the London and Southampton Railway, which was renamed the London & South Western Railway. The railway was noted for its astute use of public relations and a coherent management structure headed by Herbert Ashcombe Walker, Sir Herbert Walker. At , the Southern Railway was the smallest of the Big Four (British railway comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London, Midland And Scottish Railway
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally used in historical circles. The LMS occasionally also used the initials LM&SR. For consistency, this article uses the initials LMS.) was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railways into four. The companies merged into the LMS included the London and North Western Railway, the Midland Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (which had previously merged with the London and North Western Railway on 1 January 1922), several Scottish railway companies (including the Caledonian Railway), and numerous other, smaller ventures. Besides being the world's largest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London And North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At that time, it was divided into the new British Railways' Eastern Region of British Railways, Eastern Region, North Eastern Region of British Railways, North Eastern Region, and partially the Scottish Region of British Railways, Scottish Region. History The company was the second largest created by the Railways Act 1921. The principal List of constituents of the London and North Eastern Railway, constituents of the LNER were: * Great Eastern Railway * Great Central Railway * Great Northern Railway (Great Britain), Great Northern Railway * Great North of Scotland Railway * Hull and Barnsley Railway * North British Railway * North Eastern Railway (UK), North Eastern Railw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838 with the initial route completed between London and Bristol in 1841. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who chose a broad gauge of —later slightly widened to —but, from 1854, a series of Consolidation (business), amalgamations saw it also operate Standard gauge, standard-gauge trains; the last broad-gauge services were operated in 1892. The GWR was the only company to keep its identity through the Railways Act 1921, which amalgamated it with the remaining independent railways within its territory, and it was finally merged at the end of 1947 when it was Nationalization, nationalised and became the Western Region of British Railways. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big Four British Railway Companies
The "Big Four" was a name used to describe the four largest railway companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923–1947. The name was coined by ''The Railway Magazine'' in its issue of February 1923: "The Big Four of the New Railway Era". The Big Four were: * Great Western Railway (GWR) * London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) * London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) * Southern Railway (SR) The companies were formed as a result of the Railways Act 1921, in a process known as "The Grouping" (of the railways), which came into effect on 1 January 1923. On 1 January 1948, the companies were nationalised to form British Railways as a result of the Transport Act 1947. Characterisation The three larger companies relied heavily on freight (especially coal), as well as long-distance passenger traffic. The Southern Railway, in contrast, was predominantly a passenger railway, which, despite its small size, carried more than a quarter of the total UK passenger traffic. That w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miles Beevor
Miles Beevor (8 March 1900 in Hendon, London – 9 September 1994 in Wolverhampton) was a solicitor, pilot and businessman. The son of Rowland Beevor and Margaret Frances Evans, Beevor was educated at Winchester College, and graduated from New College, Oxford University in 1921 with a Bachelor of Arts. He qualified a solicitor in 1925, and latterly held the office of Justice of the Peace for Hertfordshire. At the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and gained the rank of flight lieutenant in 1941. He became chief legal advisor for London and North Eastern Railway in 1943, a post he held until the LNER was nationalised. In light of his service, on 1 November 1947 the LNER named an LNER A4 Pacific after him Just before nationalisation, Beevor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
