1.
National Rail
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The name and the accompanying double arrow symbol are the intellectual property of the Secretary of State for Transport. The National Rail logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, and was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Identity Style Guidelines published by the Rail Delivery Group, the NR title is sometimes described as a brand. As it was used by British Rail, the operator before franchising, its use also maintains continuity and public familiarity. National Rail should not be confused with Network Rail, the two networks are generally coincident where passenger services are run. Most major Network Rail lines carry traffic and some lines are freight only. About twenty privately owned operating companies, each franchised for a defined term by government. The Rail Delivery Group is the association representing the TOCs and provides core services. It also runs Rail Settlement Plan, which allocates ticket revenue to the various TOCs, and Rail Staff Travel and it does not compile the national timetable, which is the joint responsibility of the Office of Rail Regulation and Network Rail. Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain, the look and feel of signage, liveries and marketing material is largely the preserve of the individual TOCs. However, National Rail continues to use BRs famous double-arrow symbol and it has been incorporated in the National Rail logotype and is displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and other publicity. The trademark rights to the arrow symbol remain state-owned, being vested in the Secretary of State for Transport. The double arrow was already prescribed for indicating a railway station, the lettering used in the National Rail logotype is a modified form of the typeface Sassoon Bold. It is a misconception that Rail Alphabet was also used for printed material. The British Rail typefaces of choice from 1965 were Helvetica and Univers, TOCs may use what they like, examples include Futura, Helvetica, Frutiger, Bliss, and a modified version of Precious by London Midland. Several conurbations have their own metro or tram systems, most of which are not part of National Rail, LO now also possesses some infrastructure in its own right, following the reopening of the former East London line of London Underground as the East London Railway of LO. Heathrow Express and Eurostar are also not part of the National Rail network despite sharing of stations, northern Ireland Railways were never part of British Rail, which was always confined to Great Britain, and therefore are not part of the National Rail network. National Rail services have a common ticketing structure inherited from British Rail, through tickets are available between any pair of stations on the network, and can be bought from any station ticket office
2.
Scottish Gaelic
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Scottish Gaelic or Scots Gaelic, sometimes also referred to as Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish. The 2011 census of Scotland showed that a total of 57,375 people in Scotland could speak Gaelic at that time, the census results indicate a decline of 1,275 Gaelic speakers from 2001. A total of 87,056 people in 2011 reported having some facility with Gaelic compared to 93,282 people in 2001, only about half of speakers were fully literate in the language. Nevertheless, revival efforts exist and the number of speakers of the language under age 20 has increased, Scottish Gaelic is neither an official language of the European Union nor the United Kingdom. Outside Scotland, a group of dialects collectively known as Canadian Gaelic are spoken in parts of Atlantic Canada, mainly Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In the 2011 census, there were 7,195 total speakers of Gaelic languages in Canada, with 1,365 in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island where the responses mainly refer to Scottish Gaelic. About 2,320 Canadians in 2011 also claimed Gaelic languages as their mother tongue, with over 300 in Nova Scotia, aside from Scottish Gaelic, the language may also be referred to simply as Gaelic. In Scotland, the word Gaelic in reference to Scottish Gaelic specifically is pronounced, outside Ireland and Great Britain, Gaelic may refer to the Irish language. Scottish Gaelic should not be confused with Scots, the Middle English-derived language varieties which had come to be spoken in most of the Lowlands of Scotland by the modern era. Prior to the 15th century, these dialects were known as Inglis by its own speakers, from the late 15th century, however, it became increasingly common for such speakers to refer to Scottish Gaelic as Erse and the Lowland vernacular as Scottis. Today, Scottish Gaelic is recognised as a language from Irish. Gaelic in Scotland was mostly confined to Dál Riata until the 8th century, when it began expanding into Pictish areas north of the Firth of Forth, by 900, Pictish appears to have become extinct, completely replaced by Gaelic. An exception might be made for the Northern Isles, however, however, though the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly, a process of Gaelicisation was clearly underway during the reigns of Caustantín and his successors. By a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, by the 10th century, Gaelic had become the dominant language throughout northern and western Scotland, the Gaelo-Pictic Kingdom of Alba. Its spread to southern Scotland, was even and totalizing. Place name analysis suggests dense usage of Gaelic in Galloway and adjoining areas to the north and west as well as in West Lothian, less dense usage is suggested for north Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, the Clyde Valley and eastern Dumfriesshire. In south-eastern Scotland, there is no evidence that Gaelic was ever widely spoken, the area shifted from Cumbric to Old English during its long incorporation into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria
3.
Falkirk
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Falkirk is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley,23.3 miles north-west of Edinburgh and 20.5 miles north-east of Glasgow, Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the 2001 census. The population of the town had risen to 34,570 according to a 2008 estimate, the town is at the junction of the Forth and Clyde and Union Canals, a location which proved key to its growth as a centre of heavy industry during the Industrial Revolution. In the 18th and 19th centuries Falkirk was at the centre of the iron and steel industry, the company was responsible for making carronades for the Royal Navy and later manufactured pillar boxes. In the last 50 years heavy industry has waned, and the economy relies increasingly on retail, despite this, Falkirk remains the home of many international companies like Alexander Dennis, the largest bus production company in the United Kingdom. Falkirk has an association with the publishing industry. The company now known as Johnston Press was established in the town in 1846, the company, now based in Edinburgh, produces the Falkirk Herald, the largest selling weekly newspaper in Scotland. Attractions in and around Falkirk include the Falkirk Wheel, The Helix, Callendar House and Park, in a 2011 poll conducted by STV, it was voted as Scotlands most beautiful town, ahead of Perth and Stirling in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. The Scottish Gaelic name was translated into Scots as Fawkirk, then amended to the modern English name of Falkirk. The Latin name Varia Capella also has the same meaning, Falkirk Old Parish Church stands on the site of the medieval church, which may have been founded as early as the 7th century. The Antonine Wall, which stretches across the centre of Scotland, passed through the town and remnants of it can be seen at Callendar Park. Much of the best evidence of Roman occupation in Scotland has been found in Falkirk, including a hoard of Roman coins. In the 18th century the area was the cradle of Scotlandss Industrial Revolution, james Watt cast some of the beams for his early steam engine designs at the Carron Iron Works in 1765. The area was at the forefront of construction when the Forth. The Union Canal provided a link to Edinburgh and early railway development followed in the 1830s and 1840s, the canals brought economic wealth to Falkirk and led to the towns growth. Through time, trunk roads and motorways followed the same canal corridors through the Falkirk area, many companies set up work in Falkirk due to its expansion. A large brickworks was set up at this time, owned by the Howie family. During the 19th century, Falkirk became the first town in Great Britain to have an automated system of street lighting, designed and implemented by a local firm
4.
Falkirk (council area)
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Falkirk is one of 32 unitary authority council areas of Scotland. It was formed on 1 April 1996 from the boundaries of Falkirk District Council by way of the Local Government etc. Prior to 1975 the majority of the area was part of the county of Stirlingshire. The council area borders with North Lanarkshire, Stirling and West Lothian, labours card was higher than the SNPs. To form a stable administration Labour then formed a coalition with the 4 members of the Conservative and this Labour/Conservative/Independent coalition hold 18 seats compared to the 13 SNP and 1 non-aligned Independent. The leader of the administration is Councillor Craig Martin, following the elections on 3 May 2012, the composition of Falkirk Council is as follows, As such, the Council is controlled by a Labour/Conservative/Independent coalition. The electoral system of councils in Scotland is governed by the Local Governance Act 2004. Further education is provided by the Falkirk campus of Forth Valley College, Falkirk Council Website Falkirk at DMOZ Falkirk Community Trust Website Royal National Mod, Falkirk 10-18 Oct 2008 Things to do around Falkirk
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Ordnance Survey National Grid
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The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude. It is often called British National Grid, the Ordnance Survey devised the national grid reference system, and it is heavily used in their survey data, and in maps based on those surveys. Grid references are commonly quoted in other publications and data sources. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system is used to provide references for worldwide locations. European-wide agencies also use UTM when mapping locations, or may use the Military Grid Reference System system, the grid is based on the OSGB36 datum, and was introduced after the retriangulation of 1936–1962. It replaced the previously used Cassini Grid which, up to the end of World War Two, had issued only to the military. The Airy ellipsoid is a regional best fit for Britain, more modern mapping tends to use the GRS80 ellipsoid used by the GPS, the British maps adopt a Transverse Mercator projection with an origin at 49° N, 2° W. Over the Airy ellipsoid a straight grid, the National Grid, is placed with a new false origin. This false origin is located south-west of the Isles of Scilly, the distortion created between the OS grid and the projection is countered by a scale factor in the longitude to create two lines of longitude with zero distortion rather than one. Grid north and true north are aligned on the 400 km easting of the grid which is 2° W. 2° 0′ 5″ W. OSGB36 was also used by Admiralty nautical charts until 2000 after which WGS84 has been used, a geodetic transformation between OSGB36 and other terrestrial reference systems can become quite tedious if attempted manually. The most common transformation is called the Helmert datum transformation, which results in a typical 7 m error from true, the definitive transformation from ETRS89 that is published by the OSGB is called the National Grid Transformation OSTN02. This models the detailed distortions in the 1936–1962 retriangulation, and achieves backwards compatibility in grid coordinates to sub-metre accuracy, the difference between the coordinates on different datums varies from place to place. The longitude and latitude positions on OSGB36 are the same as for WGS84 at a point in the Atlantic Ocean well to the west of Great Britain. In Cornwall, the WGS84 longitude lines are about 70 metres east of their OSGB36 equivalents, the smallest datum shift is on the west coast of Scotland and the greatest in Kent. But Great Britain has not shrunk by 100+ metres, a point near Lands End now computes to be 27.6 metres closer to a point near Duncansby Head than it did under OSGB36. For the first letter, the grid is divided into squares of size 500 km by 500 km, there are four of these which contain significant land area within Great Britain, S, T, N and H. The O square contains an area of North Yorkshire, almost all of which lies below mean high tide
7.
Abellio ScotRail
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Abellio ScotRail, operating services under the name ScotRail, is the national train operating company of Scotland. A subisidary of Abellio, it has operated the ScotRail franchise since 1 April 2015, in November 2013, Transport Scotland announced that Abellio, Arriva, FirstGroup, MTR Corporation and National Express had been shortlisted to bid for the new ScotRail franchise. In October 2014, the franchise was awarded to Abellio, the franchise will operate for seven years with a three-year extension available contingent on performance criteria being met. Abellio began operating the franchise on 1 April 2015, on 6 September 2015, Abellio ScotRail commenced operating services on the Borders Railway. In June 2016 the RMT union announced that train guards would be going in strike several times during the months in protest of more driver only trains. An agreement was reached in September 2016, bringing an end to the dispute and it was agreed that the new Class 385 trains will have the doors controlled by both the driver and guard, with the driver opening the doors and the guard closing them. On 20 January 2017 the Managing Director of ScotRail and the ScotRail alliance stepped down from his role after 18 months in the company, within a few days Alex Hynes was named as the new Managing Director. The franchise agreement requires the introduction of Great Scottish Scenic Railway trains on the West Highland, Far North, Kyle, Borders Railway, steam special services are also promoted by Abellio ScotRail. Abellio ScotRail operates 354 stations in Scotland, not included are Glasgow Prestwick Airport station, owned and operated by the airport, as well as both Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central, which are managed by Network Rail. Abellio ScotRail operates Lockerbie even though none of its services call there and it also took over management of Dunbar, previously operated by Virgin Trains East Coast, in June 2015. Abellio ScotRails fleet is maintained at Edinburgh Haymarket, Glasgow Eastfield, Glasgow Shields Road, Corkerhill, Abellio ScotRail began operations with the rolling stock below, mainly transferred from First ScotRail, Abellio ScotRail has mentioned the following as part of the future rolling stock. This new rolling stock will result in 10 Class 156, eight Class 158 and 21 Class 170s returning to their leasing companies, five of the 156s, all the 158s and 16 of the 170s released will join Northern when their leases expires in 2018. Transport Scotland negotiated to retain an extra 13 Class 170s to support services through Fife to Aberdeen, media related to Abellio ScotRail at Wikimedia Commons Official website
8.
North British Railway
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The North British Railway was a British railway company, based in Edinburgh. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick, the line opened in 1846, and from the outset the Company followed a policy of expanding its geographical area, and competing with the Caledonian Railway in particular. In doing so it committed huge sums of money, and in doing so incurred shareholder disapproval that resulted in two leaving the company. Nonetheless the Company successfully reached Carlisle, where it made a partnership with the Midland Railway. It also linked from Edinburgh to Perth and Dundee, but for years the journey involved a ferry crossing of the Forth. Eventually the North British built the Tay Bridge, but the structure collapsed as a train was crossing in high wind, the company survived the setback and opened a second Tay Bridge, followed soon by the Forth Bridge, which together transformed the railway network north of Edinburgh. Early on, mineral traffic became dominant and brought in more revenue than the passenger services. At the grouping of the railways in 1923, the North British Railway was the largest railway company in Scotland, in that year it was a constituent of the new London and North Eastern Railway. Early railways in Scotland had been involved with conveyance of minerals—chiefly coal. The opening of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in 1842 showed that a longer distance general purpose railway could be commercially successful, during the construction of the E&GR, the money market had eased somewhat and a rapid development of long distance railways took place in England. Scottish promoters began to consider how central Scotland could be connected to the growing English network, and it was assumed for some time that only a single route was commercially viable. During this frenzy, a group of businesspeople formed the North British Railway Company to build a line from Edinburgh to Berwick (later named Berwick-on-Tweed with a branch to Haddington and they got their authorising Act of Parliament in 1844. The Newcastle and Berwick Railway was building its line, and in time they would part of a through chain of railways between Edinburgh and London. However the Caledonian was unable to secure subscriptions to present a Parliamentary Bill in 1844. The Chairman of the North British Railway, John Learmonth, saw that capturing as much territory as possible for the North British was essential in the competitive struggle, in the 1845 session of Parliament Learmonth secured authorising Acts for numerous branch lines, mostly to forestall incursion by competitors. Also in the 1845 session, the Caledonian Railway was authorised, the Caledonian was to prove a bitter rival. The Edinburgh and Perth Railway failed to get Parliamentary authorisation, all these plans for expansion were committing huge sums of money even before the main line was ready. At last on 22 June 1846 the line to Berwick and Haddington was open to the public, there were five trains daily, with an additional ten short journeys between Edinburgh and Musselburgh
9.
London and North Eastern Railway
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The London and North Eastern Railway was the second largest of the Big Four railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948, at that time, it was divided into the new British Railways Eastern Region, North Eastern Region, and partially the Scottish Region. Sir Ralph Wedgwood was the Chief Officer for its first 16 years, the North Eastern Railway had the largest route mileage,1,757 miles, the Hull and Barnsley Railway just 106.5 miles. The M&GNJR was incorporated into the LNER in 1936, in 1933, on the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board, the LNER acquired the remaining operations of the Metropolitan Railway Company. The LNER was the majority partner in the Cheshire Lines Committee, the LNER covered the area north and east of London. It included the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh via York and Newcastle upon Tyne, most of the country east of the Pennines was within its purview, including East Anglia. The main workshops were in Doncaster, with others at Darlington, Inverurie and Stratford, the LNER inherited four of Londons termini, Fenchurch Street (ex-London and Blackwall Railway, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, and Marylebone. In addition, it ran suburban services to Broad Street and Moorgate, on 13 February 1923, an express passenger train overran signals at Retford, Nottinghamshire and was in a rear-end collision with a freight train. On 23 December 1923, a passenger train overran signals and was in collision with a light engine at Belford. On 28 July 1924, a train overran signals and collided with another at Haymarket station, Edinburgh. On 12 May 1926, during the General Strike, a passenger train was deliberately derailed south of Cramlington. On 7 August 1926, a multiple unit overran signals and was in collision with a freight train at Manors station, Newcastle upon Tyne. The accident was caused by the tying down the controller with a handkerchief. When he leant out of the train he struck an overbridge and was killed, the train was able to continue moving until the collision. On 14 February 1927, two trains were in a head-on collision at Hull Paragon station, Yorkshire due to a signalmans error. Twelve people were killed and 24 were injured, on 27 February 1927, an express passenger train collided with a light engine at Penistone, Yorkshire due to a signalmans error. On 17 August 1928, a train collided with a lorry on a level crossing at Shepreth. On 27 June 1928, a train was in a head-on collision with a parcels train that was being shunted at Darlington
0.509 million
0.688 million
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