1.
Rail transport
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Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, also known as tracks. It is also referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a flat surface. Tracks usually consist of rails, installed on ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels. Other variations are possible, such as slab track, where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than road vehicles, so passenger. The operation is carried out by a company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway system or produce their own power. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system, Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. The oldest, man-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC, with Periander, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Rail transport blossomed after the British development of the steam locomotive as a viable source of power in the 19th centuries. With steam engines, one could construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the Industrial Revolution, also, railways reduced the costs of shipping, and allowed for fewer lost goods, compared with water transport, which faced occasional sinking of ships. The change from canals to railways allowed for markets in which prices varied very little from city to city. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, and also the first tramways, starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being almost complete by 2000. During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan, other forms of guided ground transport outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use. The history of the growth, decline and restoration to use of transport can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of motive power used. The earliest evidence of a railway was a 6-kilometre Diolkos wagonway, trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element. The Diolkos operated for over 600 years, Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany
2.
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
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The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, often abbreviated as Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. Chartered in February 1859, the reached the Kansas-Colorado border in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado. To create a demand for its services, the set up real estate offices. Despite the name, its main line never served Santa Fe, New Mexico, as the terrain was too difficult, the Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport, an enterprise that included a tugboat fleet and an airline. Its bus line extended passenger transportation to areas not accessible by rail, the AT&SF was the subject of a popular song, Harry Warren & Johnny Mercers On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, written for the film, The Harvey Girls. The railroad officially ceased operations on December 31,1996, when it merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway was chartered on February 11,1859, to join Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, with Santa Fe, in its early years, the railroad opened Kansas to settlement. Much of its revenue came from wheat grown there and from cattle driven north from Texas to Wichita, rather than turn its survey southward at Dodge City, AT&SF headed southwest over Raton Pass because of coal deposits near Trinidad, Colorado and Raton, New Mexico. D&RG paid an estimated $1.4 million to Santa Fe for its work within the Gorge and agreed not to extend its line to Santa Fe, while Santa Fe agreed to forego its planned routes to Denver and Leadville. Building across Kansas and eastern Colorado was simple, with few natural obstacles and it set up real estate offices in the area and promoted settlement across Kansas on the land that was granted to it by Congress in 1863. It offered discounted fares to anyone who traveled west to land, if the land was purchased. AT&SF reached Albuquerque in 1880, Santa Fe, the destination of the railroad, found itself on a short branch from Lamy. In March 1881 AT&SF connected with the Southern Pacific at Deming, New Mexico, the railroad then built southwest from Benson, Arizona, to Nogales on the Mexican border where it connected with the Sonora Railway, which the AT&SF had built north from the Mexican port of Guaymas. The Atlantic & Pacific Railroad was chartered in 1866 to build west from Springfield, Missouri, the infant A&P had no rail connections. The line that was to become the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway would not reach Springfield for another four years, A&P started construction in 1868, built southwest into what would become Oklahoma, and promptly entered receivership. In 1879 A&P struck a deal with the Santa Fe and Frisco railroads to construct a line for each. The railroads would jointly build and own the A&P railroad west of Albuquerque, in 1883 A&P reached Needles, California, where it connected with an SP line. A&P also built a line between Tulsa, Oklahoma and St. Louis, Missouri for the Frisco, but the Tulsa-Albuquerque portion remained unbuilt, by January 1890, the entire system consisted of some 7,500 miles of track
3.
Kansas
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Kansas /ˈkænzəs/ is a U. S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas is named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribes name is said to mean people of the wind or people of the south wind. For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous, tribes in the eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison. When it was opened to settlement by the U. S. Thus, the area was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided. The abolitionists eventually prevailed, and on January 29,1861, after the Civil War, the population of Kansas grew rapidly when waves of immigrants turned the prairie into farmland. By 2015, Kansas was one of the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of wheat, corn, sorghum, and soybeans. Kansas, which has an area of 82,278 square miles is the 15th largest state by area and is the 34th most populous of the 50 United States with a population of 2,911,641, residents of Kansas are called Kansans, officially. Mount Sunflower is Kansass highest point at 4,041 feet, for a millennia, the land that is currently Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. The first European to set foot in present-day Kansas was Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, in 1803, most of modern Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Southwest Kansas, however, was still a part of Spain, Mexico, from 1812 to 1821, Kansas was part of the Missouri Territory. The Santa Fe Trail traversed Kansas from 1821 to 1880, transporting manufactured goods from Missouri and silver and furs from Santa Fe, wagon ruts from the trail are still visible in the prairie today. In 1827, Fort Leavenworth became the first permanent settlement of white Americans in the future state, the Kansas–Nebraska Act became law on May 30,1854, establishing the U. S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas, and opening the area to broader settlement by whites. Kansas Territory stretched all the way to the Continental Divide and included the sites of present-day Denver, Colorado Springs, Missouri and Arkansas sent settlers into Kansas all along its eastern border. These settlers attempted to sway votes in favor of slavery, the secondary settlement of Americans in Kansas Territory were abolitionists from Massachusetts and other Free-Staters, who attempted to stop the spread of slavery from neighboring Missouri. Directly presaging the American Civil War, these forces collided, entering into skirmishes that earned the territory the name of Bleeding Kansas, Kansas was admitted to the United States as a free state on January 29,1861, making it the 34th state to enter the Union. He was roundly condemned by both the conventional Confederate military and the partisan rangers commissioned by the Missouri legislature and his application to that body for a commission was flatly rejected due to his pre-war criminal record
4.
Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad
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The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was the first railroad to cross Missouri starting in Hannibal in the northeast and going to St. Joseph, Missouri, in the northwest. It is said to have carried the first letter to the Pony Express on April 3,1860, the line connected the second and third largest cities in the state of Missouri prior to the American Civil War. The stage route that it paralleled previously been called the Hound Dog Trail, construction on the railroad began in 1851 from both cities. Bonds from counties along the route along with the donation of 600,000 acres in land voted by Congress paid for construction, the lines met in Chillicothe, Missouri, on February 13,1859. A marker the railroad placed at the site was discovered in 2009 at the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad Museum in Galesburg, john Rogers, well before he became a popular 19th-century American sculptor, worked in 1856 and 1857 as a mechanic on the railroad. Abraham Lincoln rode the route in 1859 en route to a speech in Council Bluffs, the first assignment of Col. Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War was protecting the railroad and Pony Express mail. Grant was promoted to general in August 1861 after the assignment. The first experiment in distributing mails in so-called post offices on wheels was made in 1862 by William A. Davis between Hannibal and St. Joseph, Missouri. It was intended to expedite the connection at St. Joseph with the overland stage, the H&StJ furnished a baggage car, altered to Davis specifications. Similar to a postal route agents car, it had a table and a 65-pigeon-hole letter case, Davis was paid at the rate of $100.00 per month. The railroad was harassed by guerrillas and by lack of maintenance, resulting in several suspensions, after the Civil War, Railway Post Office service was re-established on this line, and it became known as the Chicago & Kansas City RPO. In 1867 a consortium of Charles E. Kearney, Robert T. Van Horn, the railroad, through its subsidiary Kansas City and Cameron Railroad, built a shortcut and the (1, 371-foot Hannibal Bridge over the Missouri River in downtown Kansas City. The bridge established a link between Chicago and Texas. It was the first rail bridge across the Missouri River when it opened July 3,1869, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad used the railroad for through traffic to Chicago almost from the start, and in 1883 acquired it. The rail connection between Hannibal and St. Joseph remained in place for about 125 years, on March 2,1970, the railroad became the property of Burlington Northern after the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad merged with 3 other railroads to form the new company. During the mid-1980s, the railroad discontinued service from Brookfield westward to St. Joseph, today, four miles of track between Brookfield and Laclede remain, and is primarily used for surplus rail car storage on the BNSF Railway. The tracks from Laclede westward to St. Joseph no longer remain, rootsweb history History of Missouri railroads
5.
Missouri
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Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1821. With over six million residents, it is the eighteenth most populous state, the largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. The capitol is in Jefferson City on the Missouri River, the state is the twenty-first most extensive by area and is geographically diverse. The Northern Plains were once covered by glaciers, then tallgrass prairie, in the South are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Mississippi River forms the border of the state, eventually flowing into the swampy Missouri Bootheel. Humans have inhabited the land now known as Missouri for at least 12,000 years, the Mississippian culture built cities and mounds, before declining in the 1300s. When European explorers arrived in the 1600s they encountered the Osage, the French established Louisiana, a part of New France, and founded Ste. Genevieve in 1735 and St. Louis in 1764, after a brief period of Spanish rule, the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Americans from the Upland South, including enslaved African Americans, rushed into the new Missouri Territory, many from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee settled in the Boonslick area of Mid-Missouri. Soon after, heavy German immigration formed the Missouri Rhineland, Missouri played a central role in the westward expansion of the United States, as memorialized by the Gateway Arch. The Pony Express, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, as a border state, Missouris role in the American Civil War was complex and there were many conflicts within. After the war, both Greater St. Louis and the Kansas City metropolitan area became centers of industrialization and business, today, the state is divided into 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis. Missouris culture blends elements from the Midwestern and Southern United States, the musical styles of ragtime, Kansas City jazz, and St. Louis Blues, developed in Missouri. The well-known Kansas City-style barbecue, and lesser known St. Louis-style barbecue can be found across the state, St. Louis is also a major center of beer brewing, Anheuser-Busch is the largest producer in the world. Missouri wine is produced in the nearby Missouri Rhineland and Ozarks, Missouris alcohol laws are among the most permissive in the United States. Outside of the large cities popular tourist destinations include the Lake of the Ozarks, U. S. President Harry S. Truman is from Missouri. Other well known Missourians include Mark Twain, Walt Disney, Chuck Berry, some of the largest companies based in the state include Express Scripts, Monsanto, Emerson Electric, Edward Jones, and OReilly Auto Parts. Missouri has been called the Mother of the West and the Cave State, however, Missouris most famous nickname is the Show Me State, the state is named for the Missouri River, which was named after the indigenous Missouri Indians, a Siouan-language tribe
6.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
7.
Allahabad
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Allahabad, also known as Prayag is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of Allahabad District, the most populous district in the state. The city is the capital of Uttar Pradesh with Allahabad High Court being the highest judicial body in the state. In 2011 it was ranked the worlds 130th fastest-growing city, Allahabad, in 2013, was ranked the third most liveable city in the state and twenty-ninth in the country. The citys original name – Prayag, or place of offerings – comes from its position at the Sangam of the Ganga, Yamuna and it is the second-oldest city in India, and plays a central role in Hindu scriptures. Allahabad was originally called Kaushambi by the Kuru rulers of Hastinapur, since then, Allahabad has been a political, cultural and administrative centre of the Doab region. Mughal emperor Akbar renamed it Ilahabad, which the British changed to Allahabad, in 1833 it became the seat of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces region before its capital was moved to Agra in 1835. Allahabad became the capital of the North-Western Provinces in 1858, and was the capital of India for a day, the city was the capital of the United Provinces from 1902 to 1920 and remained at the forefront of national importance during the struggle for Indian independence. Located in southern Uttar Pradesh, the metropolitan area covers 70.5 km2. Although the city and its area are governed by several municipalities. The city is home to colleges, research institutions and central, Allahabad has hosted cultural and sporting events, including Kumbh Mela and the Indira Marathon. Although the citys economy was built on tourism, most of its income now derives from real estate, the city was earlier known as Prayāga, a name still commonly used. Prayāga existed during the Vedic period, and is mentioned in the Veda as the location where Brahma attended a ritual sacrifice, excavations have revealed Northern Black Polished Ware dating to 600–700 BCE. The Puranas record that Yayati left Prayaga and conquered the region of Saptha Sindhu and his five sons founded the main tribes of the Rigveda. Lord Rama, the protagonist of the Ramayana, spent time at the Ashram of Sage Bharadwaj before travelling to nearby Chitrakoot, when the Aryans first settled in what they called the Āryāvarta, Allahabad was an important part of their territory. The Kurus, rulers of Hastinapur, established the town of Kaushambi near Allahabad and they shifted their capital to Kaushambi when Hastinapur was destroyed by floods. The Doab region, which includes Allahabad, was controlled by a succession of empires and dynasties, the area became part of the Mauryan and Gupta Empires from the east and the Kushan Empire from the west before being governed by Kannauj during the 15th century. The city was the site of Maratha incursions before India was colonised, Allahabad became a part of the Delhi Sultanate when it was annexed by Mohammad Ghori in 1193. Later, the Mughals took over from the rulers of Delhi
8.
Kanpur
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Kanpur (/ˈkɑːnpʊər/ pronunciation, formerly Cawnpore, is the 12th most populous city in India. It is the headquarters of Kanpur Nagar district and Kanpur division. The name is believed to have derived from Karnapur, another theory is that it came from the nearby town of Makanpur, earlier known as Khairabad, where the Sufi saint of the Madariya Sufi order, Badiuddin Zinda Shah Madar, settled. In 1207, Raja Kanh Deo of the Kanhpuria clan established the village of Kanhpur, in the 19th century, Kanpur was an important British garrison with barracks for 7,000 soldiers. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857,900 British men, women and children were besieged in the fortifications for 22 days by rebels under Nana Sahib Peshwa. They surrendered on the agreement that they would get safe passage to the nearby Satti Chaura Ghat whereupon they would board barges and be allowed to go by river to Allahabad. Some of the British officers later claimed that the rebels had, on purpose, placed the boats as high in the mud as possible and they also claimed that Nana Sahibs camp had previously arranged for the rebels to fire upon and kill all the English. Although the East India Company later accused Nana Sahib of betrayal and murder of innocent people, some historians believe that the Satti Chaura Ghat massacre was the result of confusion, and not of any plan implemented by Nana Sahib and his associates. Lieutenant Mowbray Thomson, one of the four survivors of the massacre. Many were killed and the remaining 200 British women and children were back to shore. After some time, the commanders of the decided to kill their hostages. The rebel soldiers refused to carry out orders and butchers from the town were brought in to kill the hostages three days before the British entered the city on 18 July. The dismembered bodies were thrown into a well nearby. The British under General Neill retook the city and committed a series of retaliations against the rebel Sepoys, the Kanpur Massacre, as well as similar events elsewhere, were seen by the British as justification for unrestrained vengeance. Lucknow =100 km As per 2011 census Kanpur city has a population of 2,701,324. The total population of the district is 4,524,324 out of which males were 24,59,806, the literacy rate was 70.76 per cent. Hinduism is majority religion in Kanpur city with 78.03 % followers, islam is second most popular religion in city of Kanpur with approximately 19.85 % following it. In Kanpur city, Christinity is followed by 0.46 %, Jainism by 0.20 %, Sikhism by 1.01 %, around 0.02 % stated Other Religion, approximately 0.39 % stated No Particular Religion. There are 35 Parsis in Kanpur with their Fire Temple at The Mall, the metropolitan region area includes the area of Shuklaganj Municipal Committee, Unnao Municipal Committee, Akbarpur Village Authority and Bithoor Village Authority area
9.
Royal Albert Bridge
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The Royal Albert Bridge is a railway bridge which spans the River Tamar in England between Plymouth, Devon and Saltash, Cornwall. Its unique design consists of two 455-foot lenticular iron trusses 100 feet above the water, with conventional plate-girder approach spans and this gives it a total length of 2,187.5 feet. It carries the Cornish Main Line railway in and out of Cornwall and it is adjacent to the Tamar Bridge which opened in 1962 to carry the A38 road. The Royal Albert Bridge was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, surveying started in 1848 and construction commenced in 1854. The first main span was positioned in 1857 and the bridge was opened by Prince Albert on 2 May 1859. Brunel died later that year and his name was placed above the portals at either end of the bridge as a memorial. Work was carried out during the century to replace the approach spans. It has attracted sightseers since its construction and has appeared in paintings, photographs, guidebooks, postage stamps. Anniversary celebrations took place in 1959 and 2009, two rival schemes for a railway to Falmouth, Cornwall were proposed in the 1830s. The central scheme was a route from Exeter around the north of Dartmoor, the other, the coastal scheme, was a line with many engineering difficulties but which could serve the important naval town of Devonport and the industrial area around St Austell. Following this Isambard Kingdom Brunel took over as engineer and proposed to cross the water higher upstream using a bridge at Saltash instead, the Act enabling this scheme was passed on 3 August 1846. The two central sections of Brunels bridge are novel adaptations of the design Stephenson employed for the High Level Bridge across the River Tyne in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1849, Brunel was present when Stephenson raised the girders of his Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait in the same year. The river is about 1,100 feet wide at Saltash, Brunels first thoughts had been to cross this on a double track timber viaduct with a central span of 255 feet and six approach spans of 105 feet with 80 feet clearance above the water. The Admiralty again rejected this plan, stipulating that there should not be more than one pier in the part of the river. Brunel now abandoned plans for a double track structure and instead proposed a single track wrought iron design consisting of a single 850-foot span. The two spans are lenticular trusses with the top chord of each truss comprising a heavy tubular arch in compression, each of the trusses is simply supported and therefore no horizontal thrust is exerted on the piers, which is crucial in view of the curved track on either side. Between these two chords are supporting cross-bracing members and suspension standards which hang beneath the bottom chord to carry the deck which is a continuous plate beam. There are also seventeen much shorter and more conventional plate-girder approach spans on the shore and this gives a total length for the nineteen spans of 2,187.5 feet
10.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
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Brunel built dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship, and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering, though Brunels projects were not always successful, they often contained innovative solutions to long-standing engineering problems. Brunel set the standard for a railway, using careful surveys to minimise grades and curves. This necessitated expensive construction techniques, new bridges, new viaducts, one controversial feature was the wide gauge, a broad gauge of 7 ft 1⁄4 in, instead of what was later to be known as standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in. Brunel astonished Britain by proposing to extend the Great Western Railway westward to North America by building steam-powered iron-hulled ships and he designed and built three ships that revolutionised naval engineering, the Great Western, the Great Britain, and the Great Eastern. In 2002, Brunel was placed second in a BBC public poll to determine the 100 Greatest Britons, in 2006, the bicentenary of his birth, a major programme of events celebrated his life and work under the name Brunel 200. Brunels name is an amalgamation of his parents names and he inherited the family name of his father, and his middle name is his mothers surname. Brunels first name, Isambard, comes from his fathers middle name, Isambard is a Norman name of Germanic origin, meaning iron-bright. A cognate name is the German surname Eisenbarth, which can still be found today among Bavarians and German-Americans and he had two older sisters, Sophia and Emma, and the whole family moved to London in 1808 for his fathers work. Brunel had a childhood, despite the familys constant money worries. His father taught him drawing and observational techniques from the age of four, during this time he also learned fluent French and the basic principles of engineering. He was encouraged to draw interesting buildings and identify any faults in their structure, when Brunel was eight he was sent to Dr Morrells boarding school in Hove, where he learned the classics. When Brunel was 15, his father Marc, who had accumulated debts of over £5,000, was sent to a debtors prison. After three months went by with no prospect of release, Marc let it be known that he was considering an offer from the Tsar of Russia. In August 1821, facing the prospect of losing a prominent engineer, Brunel subsequently studied under the prominent master clockmaker and horologist Abraham-Louis Breguet, who praised Brunels potential in letters to his father. In late 1822, having completed his apprenticeship, Brunel returned to England, Brunels father, Marc, was the chief engineer, and the project was funded by the Thames Tunnel Company. The composition of the riverbed at Rotherhithe was often more than waterlogged sediment. The latter incident, in 1828, killed the two most senior miners, and Brunel himself narrowly escaped death and he was seriously injured, and spent six months recuperating
11.
Bristol and Exeter Railway
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The Bristol & Exeter Railway was an English railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter. It was built on the gauge and its engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in stages between 1841 and 1844 and it was allied with the Great Western Railway, which built its main line between London and Bristol, and in time formed part of a through route between London and Cornwall. 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 area it served, to Clevedon, Cheddar, Wells, Weston-super-Mare, Chard, Yeovil. The B&ER was financially successful but amalgamated with the GWR in 1876, the Great Western Railway obtained its authorising Act of Parliament in 1835, to build its line between London and Bristol. The merchants of Bristol were anxious to secure a route to Exeter, an important commercial centre. They promoted the Bristol and Exeter Railway and when they issued a prospectus on 1 October 1835, the Bill had an easy passage and was enacted on 19 May 1836. The Act did not specify the gauge of the track, branches at Bridgwater, notwithstanding the apparent family connection to the neighbouring GWR, none of the B&ER directors was also a GWR director at this time. The GWR was still under construction, the early euphoria turned to great difficulty in raising finance for construction. 4,000 of the 15,000 subscribed shares were forfeited for non-payment of calls before the line was built, a contract was let for the first part of the line, from a temporary terminus at Pylle Hill, west of the New Cut. The position improved somewhat in 1838, and indeed the Company obtained Parliamentary powers for four short branches, of only one. It was not until 5 March 1839 that the Company adopted the broad gauge, five locomotives were ordered from Sharp, Roberts & Co for the purpose. By the end of 1839 the Directors had decided to avoid the capital outlay by arranging with the GWR—by now in operation—to operate the line for them, by this time three Directors were also directors of the GWR, and the alliance was beginning to strengthen. The proposal to lease the line to the GWR was ratified by shareholders at a meeting in September 1841. The rent was to increase proportionally with the completion of the system, the first section of the line was opened between Bristol and Bridgwater on 14 June 1841, just before the GWR completed its line from London to Bristol. It was 33½ miles in length and double track, with a 1½ mile single-line branch to Weston-super-Mare, the Exeter station was at the site now known as Exeter St Davids station. The opening to Exeter competed the B&ER main line, and with the GWR formed a broad gauge line from London to Exeter with a mileage of 194 miles
12.
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
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The Somerset and Dorset Railway was created in 1862, as an amalgamation of the Somerset Central Railway and the Dorset Central Railway. By the following year, it ran from Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset to Wimborne in Dorset, from Wimborne, the S&D trains could use a line owned by the London and South Western Railway to reach Hamworthy on the South Coast. It was anticipated that traffic would be attracted to this cross-country link between the Bristol Channel and the English Channel. This new line provided a route with the Midlands and the North of England. After the 1 January 1923 Grouping joint ownership of the S&DJR passed to the LMS and its attractions were its quirky individuality, its varied scenery, and the way it seemed to struggle against overwhelming odds. Its origins lay in times before the network in England had settled. Work has now started to restore some remnants of the S&DJR to working condition, the main line was still active, carrying local passenger trains and a daily long-distance train, The Pines Express, from Manchester to Bournemouth West, reversing at Bath Green Park. Local freight on the route survived in adequate volumes, although the Somerset coalfield was largely exhausted, on summer Saturdays, the line continued to carry a very heavy traffic of long-distance trains, from northern towns to Bournemouth and back. It was part of the charm of the route that the towns were mostly on the former Midland Railway. As assistance over the steep gradients was usually required, the original S&D class 7F 2-8-0s were pressed into service to assist, the route remained steam-worked almost entirely until closure, though some diesel multiple units ran over the line on a couple of excursions only in the final years. After closure, diesels worked demolition trains, and some diesel workings operated to Blandford Forum after the line had closed, the Highbridge branch trains were latterly worked by Collett 2251 0-6-0s, and Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2Ts. The branch line from Highbridge to Evercreech Junction had been the main line. It traversed an area of low population density, and when the marine connection ceased, only Glastonbury. There had been other, shorter branches, but these too generated very little traffic, serving only a string of medium-sized market towns between its extremities, the S&D generated a modest internal traffic, and it had daunting operational costs due to the difficulty of its main line. Its strategic significance was the formation of a route between the Midlands and the South Coast, by connecting with the Midland Railway at Bath. The Midland Railway linked Bath to Bristol and via Gloucester to Birmingham, heavy summer holiday passenger traffic and healthy through freight business was the result, but the long and difficult main line was very expensive to support the business. There was only one intermediate connection on the route, at Templecombe railway station where the Salisbury – Exeter route was crossed, there was an awkward layout there, requiring through trains to reverse along a spur between the S&D main line and the east-west L&SWR main line. The throughout journey time for passenger trains was typically four hours
13.
Saltash
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Saltash is a town and civil parish in southeast Cornwall, England, UK. It has a population of 14,964, which rose to 16,184 at the 2011 census and it lies in the south east of Cornwall, facing Plymouth over the River Tamar. It was in the Caradon district until March 2009 and is known as the Gateway to Cornwall, Saltash means ash tree by the salt mill. Saltash is the largest town within the East Cornwall area and is one of the largest in Cornwall, Saltash is the location of Isambard Kingdom Brunels Royal Albert Bridge, opened by HRH Prince Albert on 2 May 1859. It takes the line across the River Tamar. Alongside it is the Tamar Bridge, a bridge carrying the A38 trunk road. Saltash railway station is close to the town centre and it was hoped that the empty buildings could be restored as a visitor centre for the bridge, but they have instead been purchased by a property developer. The station is served by a train service, with some direct High Speed services to. Stagecoach South West, Plymouth Citybus, and Go Cornwall Bus operate bus services from Saltash, into Plymouth city centre, Launceston, Liskeard, Looe, and Polperro. The cottage of Mary Newman, Sir Francis Drakes first wife, nearby are the castles at Trematon and Ince, as well as the nature reserve at Churchtown Farm, where there are some wonderful walks, with stunning views of the river. Burrell House near Saltash was built in 1621 and has a wing dated 1636, the entrance side was altered in the 18th century. The town expanded in the 1990s with the addition of the new estate Latchbrook. In the summer of 2009 the Saltash postcode area was judged as the most desirable place to live in Great Britain in a survey that included statistics from school results, the history of Saltash is linked to the passage, or ferrying place across the Tamar. The original ferry became established by fishermen for those passing to and from the monastery at St Germans and to Trematon Castle. After the Norman Conquest, Robert, Count of Mortain, who held the castle and manor at Trematon, took the market from the canons at St. Germans and established it at Saltash. The Count granted Trematon and other manors to the de Valletorts, in the twelfth century a borough was founded, and Saltash became the only franchised seaport between Dartmouth and Fowey. This fact has given rise to the Saltash saying, Saltash was a borough town, in medieval times the ferry was part of the manor of Trematon, held by the Valletorts. The Antony Passage Ferry, which is mentioned in documents as early as 1324, was situated within the St Stephens suburb of Saltash civil parish, the route linked Jupiter Point, Antony Passage and Passage Point
14.
Cornwall
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Cornwall is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area of England within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, Cornwall has a population of 551,700 and covers an area of 3,563 km2. Cornwall forms the westernmost part of the south-west peninsula of the island of Great Britain, and this area was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age peoples, there is little evidence that Roman rule was effective west of Exeter and few Roman remains have been found. In the mid-19th century, however, the tin and copper mines entered a period of decline, subsequently, china clay extraction became more important and metal mining had virtually ended by the 1990s. Traditionally, fishing and agriculture were the important sectors of the economy. Railways led to a growth of tourism in the 20th century, however, the area is noted for its wild moorland landscapes, its long and varied coastline, its attractive villages, its many place-names derived from the Cornish language, and its very mild climate. Extensive stretches of Cornwalls coastline, and Bodmin Moor, are protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Cornwall is the homeland of the Cornish people and is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, retaining a distinct cultural identity that reflects its history. Some people question the present constitutional status of Cornwall, and a nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the United Kingdom in the form of a devolved legislative Cornish Assembly. On 24 April 2014 it was announced that Cornish people will be granted minority status under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The modern English name Cornwall derives from the concatenation of two ancient demonyms from different linguistic traditions, Corn- records the native Brythonic tribe, the Cornovii. The Celtic word kernou is cognate with the English word horn. -wall derives from the Old English exonym walh, the Ravenna Cosmography first mentions a city named Purocoronavis in the locality. This is thought to be a rendering of Duro-cornov-ium, meaning fort of the Cornovii. The exact location of Durocornovium is disputed, with Tintagel and Carn Brea suggested as possible sites, in later times, Cornwall was known to the Anglo-Saxons as West Wales to distinguish it from North Wales. The name appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 891 as On Corn walum, in the Domesday Book it was referred to as Cornualia and in c.1198 as Cornwal. Other names for the county include a latinisation of the name as Cornubia, the present human history of Cornwall begins with the reoccupation of Britain after the last Ice Age. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods and it continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age people. The Common Brittonic spoken at the time developed into several distinct tongues
15.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
16.
Albert, Prince Consort
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Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria. He was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europes ruling monarchs, at the age of 20, he married his first cousin, Queen Victoria, they had nine children. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Queen came to depend more and more on his support and guidance. Albert died at the young age of 42, plunging the Queen into deep mourning for the rest of her life. Upon Queen Victorias death in 1901, their eldest son succeeded as Edward VII, Albert was born at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg, Germany, the second son of Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Alberts future wife, Victoria, was earlier in the same year with the assistance of the same midwife. Albert was baptised into the Lutheran Evangelical Church on 19 September 1819 in the Marble Hall at Schloss Rosenau with water taken from the local river, in 1825, Alberts great-uncle, Frederick IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, died. His death led to a realignment of Saxon duchies the following year and Alberts father became the first reigning duke of Saxe-Coburg, Albert and his elder brother, Ernest, spent their youth in a close companionship marred by their parents turbulent marriage and eventual separation and divorce. After their mother was exiled from court in 1824, she married her lover, Alexander von Hanstein, Count of Polzig and she presumably never saw her children again, and died of cancer at the age of 30 in 1831. The brothers were educated privately at home by Christoph Florschütz and later studied in Brussels, like many other German princes, Albert attended the University of Bonn, where he studied law, political economics, philosophy and the history of art. He played music and excelled at sport, especially fencing and riding and his tutors at Bonn included the philosopher Fichte and the poet Schlegel. By 1836, the idea of marriage between Albert and his cousin, Victoria, had arisen in the mind of their ambitious uncle Leopold, at this time, Victoria was the heiress presumptive to the British throne. Her father, Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, the son of King George III, had died when she was a baby. Her mother the Duchess of Kent, was the sister of both Alberts father—the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha—and King Leopold. Leopold arranged for his sister, Victorias mother, to invite the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, William IV, however, disapproved of any match with the Coburgs, and instead favoured the suit of Prince Alexander, second son of the Prince of Orange. Victoria was well aware of the matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes. Alexander, on the hand, she described as very plain. Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold to thank him for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me and he possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy
17.
Cornwall Railway
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The Cornwall Railway was a 7 ft 1⁄4 in broad gauge railway from Plymouth in Devon to Falmouth in Cornwall, England, built in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was constantly beset with shortage of capital for the construction, the section from Truro to Falmouth, originally part of its main line, never fulfilled its potential and soon became a branch line. Nonetheless the entire route remains open, forming part of the Cornish Main Line from Plymouth to Penzance, the Truro to Falmouth branch continues, the passenger service on it is branded the Maritime Line. The Cornwall Railway was conceived because of fears that Falmouth would lose out, as a port, Falmouth had for many years had nearly all of the packet trade, dispatches from the Colonies and overseas territories arrived by ship and were conveyed to London by road coach. The primitive roads of those days made this a slow business, the completion of the London and Southampton Railway in 1840 meant that dispatches could be taken on to London swiftly by train. At first the promoters wanted the most direct route to London, even if that meant building a line all the way there, by-passing important towns in Cornwall and Devon. A more practical scheme running to Plymouth gradually took priority, and at first the trains were to cross the Hamoaze and this was shown to be unrealistic, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel was called in to resolve the difficulty. He designed the bridge over the River Tamar at Saltash, the Royal Albert Bridge and he also improved the details of the route elsewhere. By reaching Plymouth, the company could connect with the South Devon Railway and on to London over the Bristol and Exeter railway, the line was built on the broad gauge. The object of linking Falmouth to London was quietly dropped, at Truro another railway, the West Cornwall Railway, fed in, linking Penzance to the network. Falmouth was much later connected too, but only by a branch line, the terrain crossed by the railway was exceptionally difficult because of the number of north-south valleys intersecting the route. The spindly appearance of high viaducts made passengers nervous. The shortage of money at construction also forced the company to install single track only, in addition, holiday trade developed as Cornwall became a desirable holiday destination, and as numerous resorts served directly by the railway found favour. The area became branded as the Cornish Riviera, rivalling the French Riviera for the well to do, many branch lines were built to coastal resorts, nearly all by independent companies or later by the Great Western Railway. Having been built cheaply, the route was difficult to operate as speeds and traffic density increased, as many sharp curves, on summer Saturdays in later years serious delay due to congestion. Although the Great Western Railway made some improvements in capital schemes in Cornwall, from the mid-1960s when holidaymakers began to look abroad for holidays in the sun, the Cornish Riviera inevitably declined, although a significant residual traffic remains. Through passenger trains form London continue to operate and the original Cornwall railway route remains the backbone of rail business in the County, at the time of the accession of Victoria to the throne in 1837, Falmouth was the largest population centre in Cornwall, at 12,000. Early proposals, in 1835 and 1836, for the railway favoured a route following the Old Road through Launceston and Okehampton
18.
Devon
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Devon, also known as Devonshire, which was formerly its common and official name, is a county of England, reaching from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. It is part of South West England, bounded by Cornwall to the west, Somerset to the northeast, combined as a ceremonial county, Devons area is 6,707 km2 and its population is about 1.1 million. Devon derives its name from Dumnonia, which, during the British Iron Age, Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the Kingdom of Wessex during the eighth and ninth centuries. The western boundary with Cornwall was set at the River Tamar by King Æthelstan in 936, Devon was constituted as a shire of the Kingdom of England thereafter. The north and south coasts of Devon each have both cliffs and sandy shores, and the bays contain seaside resorts, fishing towns. The inland terrain is rural, generally hilly, and has a low density in comparison to many other parts of England. Dartmoor is the largest open space in southern England at 954 km2, to the north of Dartmoor are the Culm Measures and Exmoor. In the valleys and lowlands of south and east Devon the soil is fertile, drained by rivers including the Exe, the Culm, the Teign, the Dart. As well as agriculture, much of the economy of Devon is linked with tourism, in the Brittonic, Devon is known as Welsh, Dyfnaint, Breton, Devnent and Cornish, Dewnens, each meaning deep valleys. One erroneous theory is that the suffix is due to a mistake in the making of the original letters patent for the Duke of Devonshire. However, there are references to Defenascire in Anglo-Saxon texts from before 1000 AD, the term Devonshire may have originated around the 8th century, when it changed from Dumnonia to Defenascir. Kents Cavern in Torquay had produced human remains from 30–40,000 years ago, Dartmoor is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC. The Romans held the area under occupation for around 350 years. Devon became a frontier between Brittonic and Anglo-Saxon Wessex, and it was absorbed into Wessex by the mid 9th century. This suggests the Anglo-Saxon migration into Devon was limited rather than a movement of people. The border with Cornwall was set by King Æthelstan on the east bank of the River Tamar in 936 AD, the arrival of William of Orange to launch the Glorious Revolution of 1688 took place at Brixham. Devon has produced tin, copper and other metals from ancient times, Devons tin miners enjoyed a substantial degree of independence through Devons Stannary Parliament, which dates back to the 12th century. The last recorded sitting was in 1748, agriculture has been an important industry in Devon since the 19th century
19.
Chicago and North Western Transportation Company
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The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the North Western, the railroad operated more than 5,000 miles of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over 12,000 miles of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s. Until 1972, when the company was sold to its employees, it was named the Chicago and North Western Railway. The C&NW became one of the longest railroads in the United States as a result of mergers with other railroads, such as the Chicago Great Western Railway, Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway and others. By 1995, track sales and abandonment had reduced the total back to about 5,000. The majority of the abandoned and sold lines were lightly trafficked branches in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Large line sales, such as those that resulted in the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad further helped reduce the railroad to a core with several regional feeders. The company was purchased by Union Pacific Railroad in April 1995, the Chicago and North Western Railway was chartered on June 7,1859. It had purchased the assets of the bankrupt Chicago, St. Paul, on February 15,1865, it officially merged with the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, which had been chartered on January 16,1836. The Winona and St. Peter Railroad was added to the network in 1867, the North Western had owned a majority of the stock of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway since 1882. On January 1,1957 it leased the company, and merged it into the North Western in 1972. The Omaha Roads main line ran from an interchange with the North Western at Elroy, Wisconsin, to the Twin Cities, down to Sioux City, Iowa, the North Western picked up several important short railroads during its later years. It finalized acquisition of the Litchfield and Madison Railway on January 1,1958, the Litchfield and Madison railroad was a 44-mile bridge road from East St. Louis to Litchfield, Illinois. On July 30,1968, the North Western acquired two former interurbans — the 36-mile Des Moines and Central Iowa Railway, and the 110-mile Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern Railway. The DM&CI gave access to the Firestone plant in Des Moines, Iowa, on November 1,1960, the North Western acquired the rail properties of the 1, 500-mile Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway. In spite of its name, it ran only from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Peoria and this acquisition provided traffic and modern rolling stock, and eliminated competition. On July 1,1968 the 1,500 mi Chicago Great Western Railway was merged into the North Western and this railroad went from Chicago to Oelwein, Iowa. From there lines went to the Twin Cities, Omaha, Nebraska, a connection from Hayfield, Minnesota, to Clarion, Iowa, provided a Twin Cities to Omaha main line
20.
Samuel Marsh (railroad executive)
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Samuel Marsh was an American business man and president of the Erie Railroad from 1859 to 1861. Samuel Marsh was born in 1786, at Haverhill, Massachusetts, Samuel Marsh came to New York during the War of 1812, and from that time made the metropolis his home. After the cessation of hostilities with Great Britain, he travelled long in Europe for the purpose of completing his business education, in 1819 he established the New York Dyeing and Printing Company, with factories on Staten Island, and was its president until his death. The name of the enterprise was the Fox River Improvement Company, many millions of dollars have been expended on it. The project greatly aided the growth of the State of Wisconsin. Mr. Marsh was among the pioneers of railways in America and he invariably declined to permanently assume the office of president of the corporation. Mr. Marsh engaged with the late Moses Taylor, John I, although he never married, his home at the Astor House was a happy one, and many friends were made welcome there, and many of the older New Yorkers spent care-dispelling hours in his company. Mr. Marsh was the adviser and instructor of his nephew, Nathaniel Marsh, appointed receiver by the courts, as to his duties as secretary, receiver. In 1819 Samuel Marsh established the New York Dyeing and Printing Company, around 1824 it passed into the hands of a Joint Stock Company, who, soon after obtaining their charter, added to the dyeing business, heretofore carried on alone, that of the printing. A1854 article in The New York Times described, The buildings are extensive, the printing shop is a large four-story frame building. Some two thousand pieces were printed in one season, two years ago, during the busy season of the year, now at hand, fifty printers are employed in the building, each having a boy or girl who tears for him. The adult workmen are paid by piece-work, and can earn from 14 shillings to $2 per day, there are three modes of printing, by blocks, cylinders and stereotype plates, all of which are practiced there. There is a department called the Print-cutters shop, in which the blocks used in the printing are all made. Some of these blocks are cut at considerable expense. We observed also two designers busily at work here, by 1860 the company employing over 200 people and eight steam engines annually producing over five million yard of cotton muslin. Beside this company, Samuel Marsh had founded related firms such as the The New York India Rubber Cloth Company and it was located in the town of Castletown, county of Richmond. A man of experience in Erie matters, however, might have been of much hindrance to the Receiver in the management of the complicated business of the Company. Receiver Marsh found a most discouraging outlook when he took charge of the Companys property and he subsequently wrote, The income of the road, owing to the depressed state of business generally, and to other causes, was barely sufficient to defray the current expenses
21.
Charles Moran (railroad executive)
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Charles Moran was an American business man and president of the Erie Railroad from 1857 to 1859. Charles Moran was born at Brussels, Belgium in 1811 and he came to New York City while a young man and engaged in business, becoming in time senior partner in the dry-goods commission and importing house of Moran & Iselin. This firm was dissolved in 1852, Mr. Moran retiring and he had won an enviable reputation as a careful and successful business man, and as his bent was toward finance, he founded the New York banking-house of Moran Bros. The foreign correspondence of the house was extensive and of high class. Few men would have faced the obstacles he encountered, much less have attempted to overcome them, Mr. Moran retired from the Erie management, August,1859, and gave his entire attention to his banking business. He continued as partner of the house he founded until his death. Charles Moran had two sons, Amedee Depau Moran and D. Comyn Moran, who succeeded him in his banking business. In 1854 Charles Moran, broker and private banker, and Louis Von Hoffman, private banker, both from New York City, where elected among the sixteen directors of the New York, Moran would soon become one of Homer Ramsdells confidant. Work on the facilities at Jersey City was begun in 1856. In June of that year the Mallory & Co. of Newburgh for putting the tunnel through Bergen Hill, in 1857, misfortune marked Erie, and it was evident that the Companys affairs were once more approaching a crisis. This was the situation that confronted the Erie when Charles Moran returned from Europe in July,1857, the Board of Directors had been led to believe that Charles Moran, better than any other person available, could take hold of the Companys critical affairs and straighten them out. They notified him of their belief, and solicited him to charge of the management. He replied that he would undertake the task, with assurances that he could perform it if the Company would pay him $25,000 a year for his services. This was as much as the President of the United States was paid, the Board decided, however, that Moran was worth the outlay, and they agreed to his terms. July 18,1887, William E. Dodge, who was outraged because the Company persisted in permitting work to be done on the railroad on Sunday, resigned from the Board. Moran was chosen in his place, and was unanimously elected President, all this about Mr. Early in his incumbency, President Moran demonstrated that his policy was to be radically different in the management of the Companys affairs from that of any of his predecessors. It had been the custom, as a bid for new business and an inducement to retain old, to issue passes to drovers who accompanied their cattle to market on the stock trains. Who controlled produce shipments in those days, there were about 160 persons receiving these free tickets, and the issuing of them had been regarded as good business policy by all managements up to the Moran control
22.
Erie Railroad
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It expanded west to Chicago with its 1941 merger with the former Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, also known as the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. Its mainline route proved influential in the development and economic growth of the Southern Tier, including such as Binghamton, Elmira. The Erie Railroad repair shops were located in Hornell, and were Hornells largest employer, Hornell was also where Eries main line split into two routes, one north to Buffalo and the other west to Cleveland. On October 17,1960, the Erie merged with the former rival Delaware, the Hornell repair shops were closed, and repair operations moved to the Lackawannas Scranton facility, this had a devastating effect on Hornell from which it has never recovered. Most of the former Erie line between Hornell and Binghamton was destroyed in 1972 by the floods of Hurricane Agnes, what was left of the Erie Lackawanna became part of Conrail in 1976. In 1983, Erie remnants became part of New Jersey Transit rail operations, today, most of the surviving Erie Railroad routes are operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway. The New York and Erie Rail Road was chartered April 24,1832 by Governor of New York, Enos T. Throop to connect the Hudson River at Piermont, north of New York City, west to Lake Erie at Dunkirk. On February 16,1841 the railroad was authorized to cross into the northeast corner of Pennsylvania on the west side of the Delaware River, construction began in 1836, and it opened from Piermont to Goshen on September 23,1841. After some financial problems, construction resumed in August 1846, further extensions opened to Binghamton December 27,1848, Owego January 1,1849, and the full length to Dunkirk May 19,1851. At Dunkirk steamboats continued across Lake Erie to Detroit, Michigan, the line was built as 6 ft wide gauge, this was believed to be a superior technology to standard gauge, providing more stability. In 1848 the railroad built the Starrucca Viaduct, a railroad bridge over Starrucca Creek in Lanesboro. The viaduct is 1,040 feet long,100 feet high and 25 feet wide at the top and it is the oldest stone rail bridge in Pennsylvania still in use. The Eries charter was amended April 8,1845 to allow the building of the Newburgh Branch, running from the line near Harriman north-northeast to Newburgh. The branch opened January 8,1850 and it was later used as a connection to the New York and New England Railroad via a car float operation across the river to Beacon, New York. Through ticketing began in 1851, with a change of cars at Ramapo due to the gauge break. In 1852 the Buffalo and Rochester Railroad, part of the New York Central Railroad system, the alignment from Buffalo to Attica was sold to the Eries Buffalo and New York City Railroad, a reorganization of the Attica and Hornellsville Railroad, and converted to the Eries wide gauge. The extension from Attica southeast to Hornellsville opened on November 17,1852, giving the Erie access to Buffalo, the Erie began operating the Chemung Railroad in 1850, this provided a branch from Horseheads north to Watkins. The Canandaigua and Elmira Railroad opened in 1851 as an extension from Watkins to Canandaigua and was operated by the Erie until 1853
23.
Pullman (car or coach)
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In the United States, Pullman was used to refer to railroad sleeping cars which were built and operated on most U. S. railroads by the Pullman Company from 1867 to December 31,1968. Pullman also refers to dining cars in Europe that were operated by the Pullman Company. Specifically, in Great Britain, Pullman refers to the cars operated by the British Pullman Car Company. Such coaches ran in Kiev since 1907 and in Odessa since 1912, since 1920s tramcars nicknamed Pullmanwagen in German ran in Leipzig, Cologne, Frankfurt and Zürich. In some Western European countries in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, in 1963, the luxurious Mercedes-Benz 600 was introduced, with a range including a long wheelbase version called Pullman. Later, stretched versions of regular Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars were also called Pullman, in Greek and Italian, the word pullman is used to refer to a coach bus. In Greek, it would be spelled as πούλμαν, in Latin America, pullman may refer to a luxury bus as well as to a railroad sleeping car. In the video game Sid Meiers Railroads, players can bid on the Pullmans Palace Car patent. This patent makes Passengers pay an extra 25% to bask in its comfort. Buses portal Pullman loaf, a type of long, square bread developed to be baked in the kitchens of rail cars Starlight Express. Clerestory#Transportation, Railway Coach roof design following the Pullman American influence, travel by Pullman, a century of service. A Century of Pullman Cars, Volume I, Alphabetical List. Greenberg Publishing Company, a Century of Pullman Cars, Volume II, The Palace Cars. The Pullman Project Canadian National Railways Sleeping Car No.1683 St. Hyacinthe—photographs, chicago Historical Societys Pullman website Pullman Prototypes—Pantagraph
24.
Sleeping car
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The sleeping car or sleeper is a railway passenger car that can accommodate all its passengers in beds of one kind or another, primarily for the purpose of making nighttime travel more restful. The first such cars saw use on American railroads in the 1830s. Some of the more types have private rooms. The Cumberland Valley Railroad pioneered sleeping car service in the spring of 1839, with a car named Chambersburg, a couple of years later a second car, the Carlisle, was introduced into service. The man who made the sleeping car business profitable in the United States was George Pullman. Pullman cars were normally a dark Pullman green, although some were painted in the host railroads colors, the cars carried individual names, but usually did not carry visible numbers. Pullman-Standard continued manufacturing sleeping cars and other passenger and freight cars until 1980. One unanticipated consequence of the rise of Pullman cars in the US in the 19th and early 20th centuries was their effect on civil rights, each Pullman car was staffed by a uniformed porter. The majority of Pullman Porters were African Americans, the pullman attendants, regardless of their true name, were traditionally referred to as George by the travelers, the name of the companys founder, George Pullman. The Pullman company was the largest employer of African Americans in the United States, subsequently, railway porters fought for political recognition and were eventually unionized. Their union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, became an important source of strength for the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement in the early 20th century, notably under the leadership of A. Because they moved about the country, Pullman porters also became an important means of communication for news, the African-American newspaper, the Chicago Defender, gained a national circulation in this way. Porters also used to re-sell phonograph records bought in the metropolitan centres, greatly adding to the distribution of jazz and blues. From the 19th to the century, the most common type of sleeping car accommodation on North American trains was the open section. Open-section accommodations consist of pairs of seats, one facing forward. The seat pairs can be converted into the combination of an upper, a famous example of open sections can be seen in the movie Some Like It Hot. As the 20th century progressed, a variety of private rooms was offered. Most of these rooms provided significantly more space than open-section accommodations could offer, Some of them, such as the rooms of the misleadingly named Slumbercoach cars manufactured by the Budd Company and first put into service in 1956, were triumphs of miniaturization
25.
Bloomington, Illinois
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Bloomington is a city in Illinois, United States and the county seat of McLean County. It is adjacent to Normal, and is the populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area. The 2010 census showed the city had a population of 76,610, making it the 12th most populated city in Illinois, combined with Normal, the twin cities have a population of roughly 130,000. Bloomington is located at 40°29′03″N 88°59′37″W, the city is at an elevation of 797 feet above sea level. According to the 2010 census, Bloomington has an area of 27.229 square miles. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 1.71 inches in February to 4.52 inches in May, the Bloomington area was at the edge of a large grove occupied by the Kickapoo people before the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the early 1820s. Springing from the settlement of Keg Grove, later called Blooming Grove, Bloomington was named as county seat on December 25,1830, when the County of McLean was incorporated, a county seat was established. However, the legislation stated the site of Bloomington would be located later, james Allin, one of the new countys promoters, offered to donate 60 acres of his land for the new town. His offer was accepted, and Bloomington was laid out and its lots were sold at a well-attended and noisy auction on the 4th of July 1831. At this time there were few roads, but rich soils brought new farmers who began commerce by conducting their business in the newly formed county. People came from all over to trade and do business at the center, known today as Downtown Bloomington, including Abraham Lincoln who was working as a lawyer in nearby Springfield. In 1900 an officer on patrol discovered a fire in a laundry across the street from the old City Hall and he sounded the alarm but the fire destroyed the majority of the downtown, especially the areas north and east of the courthouse. However, the burnt area was rebuilt from the designs of local architects George Miller. During the first two decades of the 20th century, Bloomington continued to grow, agriculture, the construction of highways and railroads, and the growth of the insurance business all influenced the growth of Bloomington and its downtown area. The downtown area became a shopping center attracting trade from adjoining counties. This trend has continued to the present day, where expansion has included many restaurants, as of the census of 2010, there were 76,610 people and 30,454 households within the city. The population density was 2,814.8 people per square mile, there were 34,339 housing units at an average density of 1,261.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 77. 5% White,10. 1% African American,0. 3% Native American,7. 0% Asian,1. 42% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 5. 6% of the population
26.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
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Pullman porter
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Pullman porters were men hired to work on the railroads as porters on sleeping cars. Starting shortly after the American Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars, Pullman porters served American railroads for 100 years from the late 1860s until late in the 20th Century. Until the 1960s, Pullman porters were exclusively black, and have widely credited with contributing to the development of the black middle class in America. Philip Randolph, Pullman porters formed the first all-black union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, formation of the union was instrumental in the advancement of the Civil Rights Movement. Prior to the 1860s, the concept of sleeping cars on railroads had not been widely developed, George Pullman pioneered sleeping accommodations on trains, and by the late 1860s, he was hiring only African-Americans to serve as porters. After the Civil War ended in 1865 Pullman knew that there was a pool of former slaves who would be looking for work. He was aware that most Americans, unlike the wealthy, didn’t have personal servants in their homes, hence, part of the appeal of traveling on sleeping cars was, in a sense, to have an upper class experience. From the very start, porters were featured in Pullmans ads promoting his new sleeper service. While the pay was low by the standards of the day, in an era of significant racial prejudice. Thus, for men, while this was an opportunity, at the same time it was also an experience of being stereotyped as the servant class. Many passengers called every porter “George, as if he were George Pullman’s “boy”, the only ones who protested were other men named George, who founded the Society for the Prevention of Calling Sleeping Car Porters George, or SPCSCPG, which eventually claimed 31,000 members. Although the SPCSCPG was more interested in defending the dignity of its members than in achieving any measure of racial justice. In 1926, the SPCSCPG persuaded the Pullman Company to install small racks in each car, of the 12,000 porters and waiters then working for Pullman, only 362 turned out to be named George. Stanley G. Grizzle, a former Canadian porter, titled his autobiography, My Names Not George, Porters were not paid a livable wage and needed to rely on tips to earn enough to make a living. All the porters wanted to be on that run, Not only because he gave every porter $100.00, but it was just the fun, the excitement, the respect that he gave the porters. Instead of their names being George, he called everybody by their first name and he always had like a piano in the car and they sang and danced and had a great time. He was just a fun person to be around, the number of porters employed by railroads declined as sleeping car service dwindled in the 1960s and as railroad lines went bankrupt due to competition from the airlines. By 1969, the ranks of the Pullman sleeping car porters had declined to 325 men with an age of 63
28.
Drammen
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Drammen is a city in Buskerud, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the eastern, Drammen is the capital of the county of Buskerud. There are more than 63000 inhabitants in the municipality, Drammen and the surrounding communities are growing more than ever before. The city makes good use of the river and inland waterway called Drammensfjord, no city in the country has received as many awards for environmental and urban development as Drammen,6 national and 2 international prizes since 2003. The Old Norse form of the name was Drafn. The fjord is, however, probably named after the river Drammenselva, the coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 17 November 1960, the arms are blue with a gray/silver column on top of a foundation of rocks. A key and a Viking sword are crossed in the forming a x. It is based upon the old seal dating from 1723 for Bragernes, the motto for Bragernes was In Fide Et Justitia Fortitudo, and the items in the seal are referring to this, key = faith, sword = justice, column on rocks = strength. The municipality of Drammen was established on 1 January 1838, the rural municipality of Skoger was merged with the municipality of Drammen on 1 January 1964 and was transferred from Vestfold county to Buskerud county at the same time. The city itself has 66000 inhabitants, making it Norways ninth largest, Drammen is currently divided into eight districts. The largest rock carving at Åskollen depicts a moose, Drammen originally consisted of three small seaports, Bragernes and Strømsø and Tangen. For trade purposes, small seaports were placed under market towns, despite their geographical proximity, Bragernes was placed under Christiania and Strømsø under Tønsberg. For this reason, cooperation between the adjacent seaport towns was almost impossible, in 1662, a merger was proposed to unite Strømsø and Bragernes to form a market town with the name Frederiksstrøm. The proposal was rejected by Frederick III of Denmark, Bragernes received limited market town rights in 1715, and merged with Strømsø to gain status as a single city on 19 June 1811. Its geographical location made the city favorable for seafaring, shipbuilding, log driving, during 19th century, paper and pulp industries were developed. Large parts of the city were ruined in the fire of 12–13 July 1866. The Drammen Line opened in 1872 providing rail service between Drammen and Oslo, in 1909, Drammen got the first trolleybus system in Scandinavia, the Drammen trolleybus
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Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
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Randsfjorden
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Randsfjorden is Norways fourth-largest lake with an area of 138 km2. Its volume is estimated at just over 7 km3, and its greatest depth is 120 metres, the lake is 135 metres above sea level. It is located in the county of Oppland and borders the municipalities of Gran, Jevnaker, Nordre Land and it is drained by the Randselva river. Although the term usually describes a saltwater inlet, Randsfjorden is actually a freshwater lake with a narrow shape. The Icelandic chronicler Snorri Sturluson recorded that Halfdan the Black, father of the first King of Norway, travelling with a horse and sleigh while the lake was frozen, he fell through the ice and drowned. In modern times, many courses have been set up on the edge of the lake. There is a car ferry connection between Horn on the east side and Tangen on the west, which is Norways last remaining, the Old Norse form of the name was just Rǫnd, derived from the word rǫnd f stripe, edge. The last element -fjorden is a later addition - first recorded in 1691, sightseeing boat MS Kong Haud sail on Randsfjorden from Jevnaker to Odnes
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Randsfjorden Line
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The Randsfjorden Line is an 87-kilometre-long railway located in Buskerud in Norway connecting Drammen to Hønefoss and Hadeland in Oppland. The railway is used for passenger trains, and the only scheduled trains on the stretch are Norwegian State Railways express trains on the Bergen Line between Oslo and Bergen. Freight trains to Bergen go to Hønefoss via the Gjøvik Line, the railway is owned by the Norwegian National Rail Administration. The entire line is standard gauge, and the 71 kilometres from Drammen to Hønefoss is electrified at 15 kV 16 2⁄3 Hz AC, the remaining 16 kilometres from Hønefoss to Randsfjorden is not electrified and currently disused. The line gets its name from the lake Randsfjorden, on 11 June 1857, railway director Carl Abraham Pihl was demanded by a Royal Decree to instruct a terrain investigation of the area along the river Drammenselva from Drammen to Randsfjorden. He presented the results of the investigation on 31 May 1858, Pihl thereupon proposed a rail line from Randsfjorden with a branch line to Hen. He argued with forester Thorvald Meiddell, who wanted to construct a canal rather than a rail line, in a meeting on 12 September 1859 in the Drammen chairmanship, the rail line solution was decided upon. On 6 March 1863, the decision was made, with six against three votes. It was also decided to make a government loan of 2,32 million kr, parliament passed the construction of the rail line on 11 June 1863, with 65 against 44 votes. The construction of the Randsfjord Line was begun on 4 December 1863, and, on 1 September 1866, two years later, the entire line to Randsfjord Station was opened. A celebration took place at the station, where King Charles XV with his family took part, on 1 December 1867 Skjærdalen and Tyristrand were connected to the line and finally on 12 October 1868 Hønefoss Station opened and the line could stretch all the way to Randsfjorden. The line was the railway line to be built in Norway. When the Bergen Line was built a new line between Roa on Gjøvikbanen and Hønefoss was opened in 1909, providing two different lines between Hønefoss and Oslo, narrow gauge railways in Norway Berntsen, Ulf, Lund, Thure, Lunner, Dagfinn. Norwegian Railway Club / Krøderen Line Foundation
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Grand Trunk Railway
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The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, with corporate headquarters in London, England. The Grand Trunk, its subsidiaries, and the Canadian Government Railways were precursors of todays Canadian National Railways, gTRs main line ran from Portland, Maine to Montreal, and then from Montreal to Sarnia, Ontario, where it joined its western subsidiary. The GTR had three important subsidiaries during its lifetime, Central Vermont Railway which operated in Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Grand Trunk Pacific Railway which operated in Northwestern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. Grand Trunk Western Railroad which operated in Michigan, Indiana, a new line to Providence would have allowed for more extensive port facilities than were possible for the Central Vermont at New London, Connecticut. Construction began in 1910 and continued in fits and starts for more than 20 years until finally abandoned in the early 1930s because of the Great Depression. Another important factor was the opposition of the New Haven Railroad. The company was incorporated on November 10,1852, as the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada to build a line between Montreal and Toronto. The charter was extended east to Portland, Maine and west to Sarnia. A line was built to Lévis, via Richmond from Montreal in 1855. In the same year it purchased the Toronto and Guelph Railroad, but the Grand Trunk Railway Company changed the original route of the T&G and extended the line to Sarnia, a hub for Chicago-bound traffic. By July,1856, the section from Sarnia to Toronto opened, by 1859 a ferry service was established across the St. Clair River to Fort Gratiot. The Grand Trunk was one of the factors that pushed British North America towards Confederation. The original colonial economy structured along the route from the Maritimes up the St. Lawrence River. The explosive growth in trade during the 1850s within the United Province of Canada, during this time the GTR extended its line to Lévis further east to Rivière-du-Loup. By 1860, the Grand Trunk was on the verge of bankruptcy, on the eve of the American Civil War, it stretched from Sarnia in the west to Rivière-du-Loup in the east and Portland in the southeast. Thus the British North America Act,1867 included the provision for an Intercolonial Railway to link with the Grand Trunk at Rivière-du-Loup, by 1880, the Grand Trunk Railway system stretched all the way from Portland in the east to Chicago, Illinois, in the west. Several impressive construction feats were associated with the GTR, the first successful bridging of the St. Clair River, connecting Sarnia, Ontario, the latter work opened in August 1890 and replaced the railcar ferry at the same location. S. To overcome the difference, the GTR experimented with a form of Variable gauge axles called adjustable gauge trucks
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Toronto
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Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 2,731,571, it is the fourth most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years, the city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga. Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, the British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York, York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canadas major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Toronto is known for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere. The name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto and this refers to the northern end of what is now Lake Simcoe, where the Huron had planted tree saplings to corral fish. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, in the 1660s, the Iroquois established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagonon the banks of the Humber River. By 1701, the Mississauga had displaced the Iroquois, who abandoned the Toronto area at the end of the Beaver Wars, French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the British-controlled lands north of Lake Ontario, the new province of Upper Canada was in the process of creation and needed a capital. Dorchester intended the location to be named Toronto, in 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase lands, instead naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe decided to move the Upper Canada capital from Newark to York, the York garrison was constructed at the entrance of the towns natural harbour, sheltered by a long sandbar peninsula. The towns settlement formed at the end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day intersection of Parliament Street. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the towns capture, the surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. US soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation, the sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington by British troops later in the war
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Sarnia
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Sarnia is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, and had a 2011 population of 72,366. It is the largest city on Lake Huron and in Lambton County, Clair River on 23 August 1679. Located in the harbour, the Sarnia port remains an important centre for lake freighters and oceangoing ships carrying cargoes of grain. The complex of refining and chemical companies is called Chemical Valley, while in 2011, the city had the highest level of particulates air pollution of any Canadian city, it has since dropped down to 30th. About 60 percent of the matter, however, comes from the neighboring United States. In the winter, Sarnia occasionally experiences lake-effect snow from Arctic air blowing across the waters of Lake Huron. Culturally, Sarnia is a part of the artistic presence in Southern Ontario. The citys International Symphony Orchestra is renowned in the area and has won the Outstanding Community Orchestra Award given by the Detroit Music Awards in 2011, Michael Learned graced the stage of the Imperial Theatre for a 2010 production of Driving Miss Daisy. Sarnia Bayfest, which used to be the largest event in Sarnia annually, was a music festival that took place during the summer. In 2013, organizers cancelled the event because of money troubles but are taking a hiatus while planning for the future. The name Sarnia is Latin for Guernsey, which is a British Channel Island, in 1829 Sir John Colborne, a former governor of Guernsey, was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. In this capacity, he visited two small settlements in 1835 that had laid out on the shores of Lake Huron. One of these, named The Rapids, consisted then of 44 taxpayers, nine houses, four log houses. The villagers wished to change its name but were unable to agree on an alternative, the English settlers favoured the name Buenos Aires and the Scottish New Glasgow. Sir John Colborne suggested Port Sarnia, on 4 January 1836, the name was formally adopted by a vote of 26 to 16, and Colborne also named the nearby village Moore after British military hero Sir John Moore. Sarnia adopted the nickname The Imperial City on 7 May 1914 because of the visit of Canadas Governor General, the Duke of Connaught, and his daughter Princess Patricia. First Nations peoples have lived, hunted, and traveled across the area for at least 10,000 years, as shown by archaeological evidence on Walpole Island. These peoples were drawn from an amalgamation of Ojibwa, Odawa, and Potowatami clans and these clans came together through common links in both language and culture, developing a self-sufficient society where tasks and responsibilities were equally shared among all members
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Train ferry
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A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with tracks. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as car ferries, as distinguished from auto ferries used to transport automobiles. The wharf has a ramp, and a linkspan or apron, balanced by weights, a train ferry that is a barge is called a car float or rail barge. An early train ferry was established as early as 1833 by the Monkland, to extend the line over the Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotland, the company began operating a wagon ferry to transport the rolling stock over the canal. In April 1836, the first railroad car ferry in the U. S. Susquehanna, the first modern train ferry was Leviathan, built in 1849. The Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway was formed in 1842, the company hired the up-and-coming civil engineer Thomas Bouch who argued for a train ferry with an efficient roll-on roll-off mechanism to maximise the efficiency of the system. Custom-built ferries were to be built, with lines and matching harbour facilities at both ends to allow the rolling stock to easily drive on and off the boat. To compensate for the tides, adjustable ramps were positioned at the harbours. The wagons were loaded on and off with the use of steam engines. ”The company was persuaded to install this train ferry service for the transportation of goods wagons across the Firth of Forth from Burntisland in Fife to Granton. The ferry itself was built by Thomas Grainger, a partner of the firm Grainger and Miller, the service commenced on 3 February 1850. The Japanese train ferry, Toya Maru, sank during typhoon Marie on 26 September 1954, killing more than a thousand. Four other train ferries, Seikan maru No.11, Kitami Maru, Tokachi Maru and Hidaka Maru also sank on that day, the loss appeared to be of about 1,430 people. In those days, Japanese train ferries did not have a rear sea-gate, because engineers believed that water would simply flow out again quickly. After the accidents, all Japanese train ferries were retrofitted with rear sea-gates, one person subsequently died of injuries, and six freight cars and a number of automobiles sank to the bottom with the ship. The Canadian train ferry MV Patrick Morris sank on 20 April 1970, while assisting in a search, the ferry was trying to maintain position to retrieve a body when its stern gates were overpowered by 30-foot waves. It sank within 30 minutes taking several cars and 4 crew members, including the Captain. Train ferries rarely sank because of sea hazards, although they have some weaknesses linked to the nature of transporting trains on rail on a ship
36.
St. Clair River
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The river is a significant component in the Great Lakes Waterway, with shipping channels permitting cargo vessels to travel between the upper and lower Great Lakes. The river, which consider a strait, flows in a southerly direction. It branches into several channels near its mouth at Lake St. Clair, the river is 40.5 miles long and drops 5 feet in elevation from Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair. The flow rate averages around 182,000 cubic feet per second, and this takes into account the combined drainage areas of Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior. In the 18th century, French voyageurs and coureurs des bois travelled on the river to trade with Native Americans and transport furs in canoes to major posts of French, European demand for American furs, especially beaver, was high until the 1830s. Ships built at Marine City, Michigan, during the mid-19th century carried immigrants up the river on their way to new homes in the American West, lumber harvested on The Thumb of Michigan was shipped downriver as log rafts to Detroit. In the early 20th century, lake steamers carried passengers and traveled among the towns along the St. Clair and Detroit rivers. During the 20th century, freighters traveled throughout the Great Lakes transporting commodities such as ore from the Mesabi Range, copper. Iron was taken to Ashtabula, Ohio and other cities for processing and steel manufacture. The St. Clair River and its Lambton County tributaries in Ontario contributes 103,210 acres to the watershed, stag Island lies between Corunna, Ontario and Marysville, Michigan. Fawn Island is near Port Lambton, Ontario and Marine City, Walpole, Seaway, Bassett, Squirrel, Pottowatamie, St. Anne, Dickinson, Russell and Harsens islands are located where the St. Clair River flows into Lake St. Clair near Algonac, Michigan. These islands are part of the St. Clair Flats, the major river delta in the Great Lakes. Six of the islands in this delta are unceded territory that are part of the Walpole Island First Nations, whose members include Ojibwe, Potowatomi and they call this delta area Bkejwanong, meaning where the waters divide. Most of the watershed away from the river in Ontario and Michigan is used for agriculture, there were numerous sugar beet farms in the flatlands, and an annual beet market was held in Marine City, Michigan, for years at harvest time. Many of the 19th-century English immigrants to this came from Lincolnshire, England. A few forest and wetland areas have survived, although their area has declined significantly since European settlement, clearing, much of the shoreline on both sides of the St. Clair River is urbanized and heavily industrialized. Intensive development has occurred in and near the adjacent cities of Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario, the heaviest concentration of industry, including a large petrochemical complex, lies along the Ontario shore south of Sarnia. Several communities along the St. Clair rely on the river as their source of drinking water
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Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
38.
0-6-0
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This was the most common wheel arrangement used on both tender and tank locomotives in versions with both inside and outside cylinders. In the United Kingdom, the Whyte notation of wheel arrangement was often used for the classification of electric and diesel-electric locomotives with side-rod coupled driving wheels. The 0-6-0 configuration was the most widely used wheel arrangement for both tender and tank steam locomotives, the type was also widely used for diesel switchers. On the other hand, the lack of unpowered leading wheels have the result that 0-6-0 locomotives are less stable at speed and they are therefore mostly used on trains where high speed is unnecessary. The tank engine versions were used as switching locomotives since the smaller 0-4-0 types were not large enough to be versatile in this job. The earliest 0-6-0 locomotives had outside cylinders, as these were simpler to construct, however, once designers began to overcome the problem of the breakage of the crank axles, inside cylinder versions were found to be more stable. Thereafter this pattern was adopted, particularly in the United Kingdom. Tank engine versions of the type began to be built in quantity in the mid-1850s and had become common by the mid-1860s. 0-6-0 locomotives were amongst the first types to be used, the earliest recorded example was the Royal George, built by Timothy Hackworth for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1827. Derwent, a locomotive built in 1845 by William and Alfred Kitching for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, is preserved at Darlington Railway Centre. On most branch lines, though, larger and more powerful tank engines tended to be favoured, in New South Wales, the Z19 class was a tender type with this wheel arrangement, as was the Victorian Railways Y class. The Dorrigo Railway Museum collection includes seven Locomotives of the 0-6-0 wheel arrangement, tank locomotives used by Finland were the VR Class Vr1 and VR Class Vr4. The VR Class Vr1s were numbered 530 to 544,656 to 670 and 787 to 799 and they had outside cylinders and were operational from 1913 to 1975. Built by Tampella, Finland and Hanomag, they were nicknamed Chicken, number 669 is preserved at the Finnish Railway Museum. The Vr4s were a class of four locomotives, numbered 1400 to 1423, originally built as 0-6-0s by Vulcan Iron Works, United States, but modified to 0-6-2s in 1951-1955. Finland’s tender locomotives were the classes C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, the Finnish Steam Locomotive Class C1s were a class of ten locomotives numbered 21 to 30. They were operational from 1869 to 1926 and they were built by Neilson and Company and were nicknamed Bristollari. Number 21, preserved at the Finnish Railway Museum, is the second oldest preserved locomotive in Finland, the eighteen Class C2s were numbered 31 to 43 and 48 to 52
39.
London and North Western Railway
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The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the world, the company was formed on 16 July 1846 by the amalgamation of the Grand Junction Railway, London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. This move was prompted in part by the Great Western Railways plans for a railway north from Oxford to Birmingham, the company initially had a network of approximately 350 miles, connecting London with Birmingham, Crewe, Chester, Liverpool and Manchester. The headquarters were at Euston railway station, as traffic increased it was greatly expanded with the opening in 1849 of the Great Hall, designed by Philip Charles Hardwick in classical style. It was 126 ft long,61 ft wide and 64 ft high, the station stood on Drummond Street. Further expansion resulted in two platforms in the 1870s, and four more in the 1890s, bringing the total to 15. The LNWR described itself as the Premier Line, as the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom, it collected a greater revenue than any other railway company of its era. With the Grand Union Railway acquisition of the North Union Railway in 1846, in 1858 they merged with the Chester and Holyhead Railway and became responsible for the lucrative Irish Mail trains via the North Wales Main Line to Holyhead and handled the Irish Mail. On 1 February 1859 the company launched the limited mail service, the Postmaster General was always willing to allow a fourth coach provided the increased weight did not cause time to be lost in running. The train was timed to leave Euston at 20.30 and operated until the GPO instituted its own post train, wholly of Post Office vehicles, on 1 October 1873 the first sleeping carriage ran between Euston and Glasgow, attached to the limited mail. It ran three nights a week in each direction, on 1 February 1874 a second carriage was provided and the service ran every night. In 1860 the company pioneered the use of the water trough designed by John Ramsbottom and it was introduced on a section of level track at Mochdre, between Llandudno Junction and Colwyn Bay. At the core of the LNWR system was the main line network connecting London Euston with the cities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. This route is known as the West Coast Main Line. The LNWR also had a line connecting Liverpool and Manchester with Leeds. At its peak just before World War I, it ran a route mileage of more than 1,500 miles, in 1913 the company achieved a total revenue of £17,219,060 with working expenses of £11,322,164. With this, the LNWR achieved a route mileage of 2,707.88 miles, the LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish railway when the railways of Great Britain were merged in the grouping of 1923. Ex-LNWR lines formed the core of the LMSs Western Division, nationalisation followed in 1948, with the English and Welsh lines of the LMS becoming the London Midland Region of British Railways
40.
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
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The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City, because of this extensive trackage in the midwest and mountain states, the railroad used the advertising slogans Everywhere West, Way of the Zephyrs, and The Way West. It merged into Burlington Northern in 1970, in 1967, it reported 19,565 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 723 million passenger miles, corresponding totals for C&S were 1,100 and 10 and for FW&D were 1,466 and 13. At the end of the year CB&Q operated 8,538 route-miles, C&S operated 708, the earliest predecessor of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, the Aurora Branch Railroad, was chartered by act of the Illinois General Assembly on October 2,1848. The Aurora Branch was built from Aurora, through Batavia, to Turner Junction in what is now West Chicago, the line was built with old strap rail and minimal, if any, grading. The line from Aurora to Chicago was built through the towns of Naperville, Lisle, Downers Grove, Hinsdale, Berwyn. It was opened in 1864, and passenger and freight service began, regular commuter train service started in 1864 and remains operational to this day, making it the oldest surviving regular passenger service in Chicago. Both the original Chicago line, and to a lesser extent. With a steady acquisition of locomotives, cars, equipment, and trackage, the Burlington Route was able to enter the trade markets in 1862. From that year to date, the railroad and its successors have paid dividends continuously, the B&MR continued building west into Nebraska as a separate company, the Burlington & Missouri River Rail Road, founded in 1869. During the summer of 1870 it reached Lincoln, the designated capital of Nebraska and by 1872 it reached Kearney. That same year the B&MR across Iowa was absorbed by the CB&Q, by the time the Missouri River bridge at Plattsmouth, Nebraska was completed the B&MR in Nebraska was well on its way to the Mile High city of Denver, Colorado. That same year, the Nebraska B&MR was purchased by the CB&Q, Burlingtons rapid expansion after the American Civil War was based upon sound financial management, dominated by John Murray Forbes of Boston and assisted by Charles Elliott Perkins. Perkins was an administrator who eventually forged a system out of previously loosely held affiliates. Ultimately, Perkins believed the Burlington Railroad must be included into a powerful transcontinental system, though the railroad as far west as Denver and Billings, Montana, it had failed to reach the Pacific Coast during the 1880s and 1890s, when construction was less expensive. Though approached by E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad, with its river line to the Twin Cities, the Burlington Route formed a natural connection between Hills home town of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the railroad hub of Chicago. Moreover, Hill was willing to meet Perkins $200-a-share asking price for the Burlingtons stock, by 1900, Hills Great Northern, in conjunction with the Northern Pacific Railway, held nearly 100 percent of Burlingtons stock. In 1901 a rebuffed Harriman tried to gain an indirect influence over the Burlington by launching a raid on the Northern Pacific
41.
Kansas City Southern Railway
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The Kansas City Southern Railway Company, owned by Kansas City Southern, is the smallest and third-oldest Class I railroad in North America still in operation. KCS was founded in 1887 and is operating in a region consisting of ten central U. S. states. Including all trackage owned by wholly owned subsidiaries, KCS owns a total of approximately 9,600 kilometers of track, Kansas City Southern is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Annual revenues as of 2007 were US$1.7 billion with 6,485 employees, as of first quarter 2008, KCSs CEO was Michael R. Haverty. As of August 1,2010, Dave Starling was named the new CEO of KCS, Kansas City Southern company stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol KSU. Gateway Eastern Railway Company is an owned subsidiary of KCS. GWER provides rail service over approximately 17 miles of track in the East St. Louis, Illinois area, Kansas City Southern de México, formerly Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana, is the name of a company dedicated to freight transportation using rail in the north eastern part of Mexico. KCSM is indirectly owned and operated by Kansas City Southern Industries via NAFTA Rail, KCSM owns its own fleet and the rights to operate and maintain a rail system through a concession from the Mexican government. KCSMs rail system consists of 4,235 km in a 17-state region, which serves northeastern and central Mexico, KCSM provides KCS with key routes for handling goods imported into North America. It also has a Pacific coast route to the recently developed deepwater container port of Lázaro Cárdenas. Kansas City Southern Railway operates 5,165 km in a 10-state region of the United States, with major hubs including Kansas City, MO, Shreveport, LA, New Orleans, LA, and Dallas, TX. Among the Class I railroads, KCSR has the shortest route between Kansas City, the second largest rail hub in the country, and the Gulf of Mexico. Norfolk Southern Corporation, through its wholly owned subsidiary, the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, owns a minority interest in MSLLC. NAFTA Rail, S. A. de C. V. is the company for KCSM because at the time KCS purchased KCSM. KCS created this Mexican corporation as a company for KCS ownership in KCSM. NAFTA Rail is wholly owned by Caymex Transportation, Inc. which is owned by KCS, Southern Capital, Development, and Industrial Services Companies, The Southern Capital company consists of bulk storage facilities complete with ocean terminals along with a tie and timber plant. The Southern Development Company is a company that owns various properties. The Panama Canal Railway Company is jointly owned by KCS and Panama Holdings, LLC of Hazel Crest, PCRC provides ocean-to-ocean transshipment service between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
42.
Hugo Lentz
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Hugo Lentz was an Austrian mechanical engineer, born in South Africa. He was the inventor of many award-winning improvements to the steam engine, the correct spelling of his name is Lenz but it has been Anglicised to Lentz in English-speaking countries. Lentz was born on 21 July 1859 in South Africa, when he was six years old, his father died and the family returned to relatives in Germany. He became an engineer in the Prussian Navy, in 1888, Lentz founded his own machine factory in Vienna. At an exposition in honour of Alessandro Volta in Como in 1899, at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, it won the Grand Prix while Lentz himself was awarded the gold medal. From 1907, Davey, Paxman & Co, and later the Erie City Iron Works in Pennsylvania built Lentzs steam engines, in total, Lentz acquired some 2000 patents. He is best known for his valve gear with oscillating and rotating cams to actuate poppet valves. He also developed a form of locomotive boiler, the Lentz boiler. Lentz died on 21 March 1944, a History of Lentz Valve Gear on British Steam Locomotives
43.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
