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Wilts, Somerset And Weymouth Railway
The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR) was an early railway company in south-western England. It obtained an act of Parliament giving powers to build the line in 1845 to build a railway from near Chippenham in Wiltshire, southward to Salisbury and Weymouth in Dorset. It opened the first part of the network but found it impossible to raise further money and sold its line to the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1850. The GWR took over the construction and undertook to build an adjacent connecting line; the network was complete in 1857. In the early years of the 20th century the GWR wanted to shorten its route from London to the West of England and built "cut-off" lines in succession to link part of the WS&WR network, so that by 1906 the express trains ran over the Westbury to Castle Cary section. In 1933 further improvements were made, and that part of the line was established as part of the "holiday line" to Devon and Cornwall. The network was already a major trunk rou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chippenham
Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, where some form of settlement is believed to have existed since before Roman Britain, Roman times. It was a royal vill and probably a royal hunting lodge, under Alfred the Great. The town continued to grow when the Great Western Railway arrived in 1841. It had a population of 36,548 in 2021. History Etymology The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' records the town as ''Cippanhamme'': this could refer to a person called Cippa who had his hamm, an enclosure in a river meadow. An alternative theory suggests that the name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ''ceap'', meaning 'market'. The name is recorded variously as Cippanhamm (878), Cepen (1042), Cheppeham (1155), Chippenham (1227), Shippenham (1319) and Chippyngham (1541). In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Western Main Line
The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs between London Paddington and . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. The GWML is presently a part of the national rail system managed by Network Rail, while the majority of passenger services upon it are provided by the current Great Western Railway franchise. The GWML was built by the original Great Western Railway company between 1838 and 1841, as a dual track line in the broad gauge. The broad gauge remained in use until 1892, after which standard gauge track has been exclusively used. Between 1877 and 1932, many sections of the GWML were widened to four tracks. During 1908, Automatic Train Control (ATC) was introduced as a safety measure. In 1948, the Great Western Railway, and thus the GWML, was merged into the Western Region of British Railways. During the 1970s, the GWML was upgraded to support higher line speeds, as a result o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Durston
Durston is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the A361 road north east of Taunton and south of Bridgwater. The parish lies on undulating ground between the lowest slopes of the Quantock Hills and the valley of the River Tone at the Curry and Hay Moors. The parish has a population of 136. History The place-name derives from the Anglo-Saxon word 'deór-tún', being a combination of the word for a wild animal, a deer (deór,) and the word for a fenced enclosure (tún). The most likely interpretation is 'deer park’. Alwig (a Saxon; also written Alwi) held DURSTON manor from King Edward the Confessor before the Norman Conquest. Durston appeared in the Domesday Book in 1086 as follows: ''Richard holds of Roger Arundel, DURSTON. Alwig held it TRE and it paid geld for 2 hides and 3 virgates of land. There is land for 4 ploughs. In demesne is 1 plough and 4 slaves; and 4 villans and 5 bordars and 4 cottars with 3 ploughs. There are 15 acres of meadow, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol And Exeter Railway
The Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER) was an English railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter. It was built on the broad gauge and its engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in stages between 1841 and 1844. It was allied with the Great Western Railway (GWR), which built its main line between London and Bristol, and in time formed part of a through route between London and Cornwall. It became involved in the British Gauge War, a protracted and expensive attempt to secure territory against rival companies supported by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) which used the narrow gauge, later referred to as ''standard gauge''. At first it contracted with the GWR for that company to work the line, avoiding the expense of acquiring locomotives, but after that arrangement expired in 1849, the B&ER operated its own line. It opened a number of branches within the general area it served: to Clevedon, Cheddar, Wells, Weston-super-Mare, Chard, Yeovil and Tiver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berks And Hants Railway
The Berks and Hants Railway comprised two railway lines built simultaneously by the Great Western Railway (GWR) south and west from in an attempt to keep the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) out of the area that it considered to be its territory in England. One line ran from Reading to and was entirely in the county of Berkshire ("Berks"). A later Berks and Hants Extension Railway continued the Hungerford line to in Wiltshire. Since 1906 part of this route has formed the direct Reading to Taunton Line used by trains to Devon and Cornwall. The term 'Berks and Hants Line' has been used intermittently by officials and passengers for the whole route from Reading to Taunton even though it does not enter Hampshire and most was never built by the Berks and Hants Railway. The second line ran from Reading to and terminated adjacent to the LSWR station there. Later the GWR station was closed and trains on the Reading to Basingstoke Line now use a platform of the rebuilt LSWR ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Gauge War
The Gauge War (or Gauge Wars) was a figurative war of intense competition to control new territory, waged between expanding railway companies in Great Britain in the nineteenth century. The contest for which track gauge should become the standard carried with it the greater struggle for which companies and stakeholders would win or lose in commerce, controlling or commercially dominating rights of way. The Gauge War was arguably the earliest format war between two similar but incompatible technologies. Origins The Great Western Railway adopted the broad gauge of at the outset, while competing railway companies adopted the gauge of , which later became standard gauge. As the railway companies sought to expand commercially and geographically, they wished to dominate areas of the country, hoping to exclude their competitors. The networks polarised into groups of ''broad gauge companies'' and of ''narrow gauge companies''. The term ''narrow gauge'' at the time referred to as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Standard Gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the most widely used track gauge around the world, with about 55% of the lines in the world using it. All high-speed rail lines use standard gauge except High-speed rail in Russia, those in Russia, High-speed rail in Finland, Finland, High-speed rail in Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan, and some line sections in High-speed rail in Spain, Spain. The distance between the inside edges of the heads of the rails is defined to be 1,435 mm except in the United States, Canada, and on some heritage British lines, where it is defined in Imperial and US customary measurement systems, U.S. customary/Imperial units, British Imperial units as exactly "four feet eight and one half inches", which is equivalent to 1,435.1mm. History As railways developed and expa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broad Gauge
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries (CIS states, Baltic states, Rail transport in Georgia (country), Georgia, Ukraine) and Rail transport in Mongolia, Mongolia. Broad gauge of , commonly known as five foot gauge, is mainly used in Rail transport in Finland, Finland. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Irish gauge, is the dominant track gauge in Ireland, the Australian state of Rail transport in Victoria, Victoria and Railways in Adelaide, Adelaide in South Australia and Rail transport in Brazil, passenger trains of Brazil. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Iberian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in Spain and Portugal. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Indian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in Indian Railways, India, Pakistan Railways, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swindon
Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swindon lies on the M4 corridor, 84 miles (135 km) to the west of London and 36 miles (57 km) to the east of Bristol. The Cotswolds lie just to the town's north and the North Wessex Downs to its south. Recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Suindune'', the arrival of the Great Western Railway in 1843 transformed it from a small market town of 2,500 into a thriving railway hub that would become one of the largest Swindon Works, railway engineering complexes in the world at its peak. This brought with it pioneering amenities such as the UK's first lending library and a 'cradle-to-grave' healthcare centre that was later used as a blueprint for the NHS. Swindon's railway heritage can be primarily seen today with the grade 2 listed Railway Villag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basingstoke
Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United Kingdom, city status. It is located north-east of Southampton, south-west of London, west of Guildford, south of Reading, Berkshire, Reading and north-east of the county town and former capital Winchester. According to the 2021 population estimate, the town had a population of 185,200. It is part of the borough of Basingstoke and Deane and part of the constituency#United Kingdom, parliamentary constituency of Basingstoke (UK Parliament constituency), Basingstoke. Basingstoke is an old market town expanded in the mid-1960s, as a result of an agreement between London County Council and Hampshire County Council. It was developed rapidly after the Second World War, along with various other towns in the United Kingdom, in order to accommodate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bradford-on-Avon
Bradford-on-Avon (sometimes Bradford on Avon) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in west Wiltshire (district), Wiltshire, England, near the border with Somerset. The town's canal, historic buildings, shops, pubs and restaurants make it popular with tourists. The parish had a population of 10,405 at the 2021 census. The history of the town can be traced back to Roman Britain, Roman origins. It has several buildings dating from the 17th century, when the town grew due to the thriving English woollen textile industry. History The earliest evidence of habitation is fragments of Roman Empire, Roman settlements above the town. In particular, archaeological digs have revealed the remains of a large Roman villa with a well-preserved mosaic on the playing fields of St Laurence School. The centre of the town grew up around the ford (crossing), ford across the river Avon, hence the origin of the town's name ("Broad-Ford"). This was supplemented in Norman architecture, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chippenham, Wiltshire
Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, where some form of settlement is believed to have existed since before Roman Britain, Roman times. It was a royal vill and probably a royal hunting lodge, under Alfred the Great. The town continued to grow when the Great Western Railway arrived in 1841. It had a population of 36,548 in 2021. History Etymology The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' records the town as ''Cippanhamme'': this could refer to a person called Cippa who had his hamm, an enclosure in a river meadow. An alternative theory suggests that the name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ''ceap'', meaning 'market'. The name is recorded variously as Cippanhamm (878), Cepen (1042), Cheppeham (1155), Chippenham (1227), Shippenham (1319) and Chippyngham (1541). In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
