1.
Funicular
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Funiculars of one sort or another have existed for hundreds of years and continue to be used for moving both passengers and goods. Its name derives from the latin, funiculus, diminutive of funis, the basic idea of funicular operation is that two cars are always attached to each other by a cable, which runs through a pulley at the top of the slope. Counterbalancing of the two cars, with one going up and one going down, minimizes the energy needed to lift the car going up, winching is normally done by an electric drive that turns the pulley. Sheave wheels guide the cable to and from the drive mechanism, early funiculars used two parallel straight tracks, four rails, with separate station platforms for each vehicle. The tracks are laid with sufficient space between them for the two cars to pass at the midpoint, the wheels of the cars are usually single-flanged, as on standard railway vehicles. Examples of this type of track layout are the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, layouts that require less width have been developed, with only two or three rails for the most part of the slope and four rails only at the passing section. In layouts using three rails, the rail is shared by both cars. The three-rail layout is wider than the layout, but the passing section is simpler to build. If a rack for braking is used, that rack can be mounted higher in a three-rail layout, some four-rail funiculars have the upper and lower sections interlaced and a single platform at each station. The Hill Train at Legoland, Windsor, is an example of this configuration, until the end of the 1870s, the four-rail parallel-track funicular was the normal configuration. Carl Roman Abt developed the Abt Switch allowing the two-rail layout, in the United States, the first funicular to use a two-rail layout was the Telegraph Hill Railroad in San Francisco, which was in operation from 1884 until 1886. The Mount Lowe Railway in Altadena, California, was the first mountain railway in the United States to use the three-rail layout, three- and two-rail layouts considerably reduced the space required for building a funicular, reducing grading costs on mountain slopes and property costs for urban funiculars. These layouts enabled a funicular boom in the half of the 19th century. The cars can be attached to a cable running through a pulley at the bottom of the incline in case the gravity force acting on the vehicles is too low to operate them on the slope. One of the pulleys must be designed as a wheel to avoid slack in the ropes. In this case, the winching can also be done at the end of the incline. Funiculars used in mines were sometimes unpowered gravity planes, also known as self-acting inclines or brake inclines, the weight of descending loaded wagons was used to pull the empty mine wagons. A few funiculars have been using water tanks under the floor of each car that are filled or emptied until just sufficient imbalance is achieved to allow movement
2.
Llandudno
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Llandudno is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community, which includes Penrhyn Bay, the towns name is derived from its patron saint, Saint Tudno. Llandudno, Queen of the Welsh Resorts, a title first applied as early as 1864, is now the largest seaside resort in Wales, historically a part of Caernarfonshire, Llandudno was formerly in the district of Aberconwy within Gwynedd. The origins in recorded history are with the Manor of Gogarth conveyed by King Edward I to Annan, the manor comprised three townships, Y Gogarth in the south-west, Y Cyngreawdr in the north and Yr Wyddfid in the south-east. Home to several herds of wild Kashmiri goats originally descended from several goats given by Queen Victoria to Lord Mostyn. The summit of the Great Orme stands at 679 feet, the Summit Hotel, now a tourist attraction, was once the home of world middleweight champion boxer Randolph Turpin. A haven for flora and fauna with some species such as peregrine falcons. This great limestone headland has many attractions including the Great Orme Tramway, by 1847 the town had grown to a thousand people, served by the new church of St George, built in 1840. The great majority of the men worked in the mines, with others employed in fishing. In 1848, Owen Williams, an architect and surveyor from Liverpool and these were enthusiastically pursued by Lord Mostyn. The influence of the Mostyn Estate and its agents over the years was paramount in the development of Llandudno, especially after the appointment of George Felton as surveyor, between 1857 and 1877 much of central Llandudno was developed under Feltons supervision. Felton also undertook architectural design work, including the design and execution of Holy Trinity Church in Mostyn Street, the town is just off the North Wales Coast railway line which was opened as the Chester and Holyhead Railway in 1848. It became part of the London and North Western Railway in 1859, Llandudno was specifically built as a mid-Victorian era holiday destination and is served by a branch railway line opened in 1858 from Llandudno Junction with stations at Deganwy and Llandudno. Great Orme Tramway The Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Electric Railway operated a tramway service between Llandudno and Rhos-on-Sea from 1907 and extended to Colwyn Bay in 1908. Modern Llandudno takes its name from the ancient parish of Saint Tudno but also encompasses several neighbouring townships and districts including Craig-y-Don, Llanrhos, also nearby is the small town and marina of Deganwy and these last four are in the traditional parish of Llanrhos. The ancient geographical boundaries of the Llandudno area are complex, today, Deganwy and Llandudno Junction are part of the town community of Conwy even though they are across the river and only linked to Conwy by a causeway and bridge. A beach of sand, shingle and rock curves two miles between the headlands of the Great Orme and the Little Orme, for most of the length of Llandudnos North Shore there is a wide curving Victorian promenade. The road, collectively known as The Parade, has a different name for each block and it is on these parades, near the centre of the bay is the Venue Cymru
3.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
4.
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
5.
Single-track railway
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A single-track railway is a railway where trains travelling in both directions share the same track. Single track is found on lesser-used rail lines, often branch lines. Single track is significantly cheaper to build, but has operational, for example, a single-track line that takes 15 minutes to travel through would have capacity for only two trains per hour in each direction. By contrast, a track with signal boxes four minutes apart can allow up to 15 trains per hour in each direction. This hindrance on the capacity of a track may be partly overcome by making the track one-way on alternate days. Long freight trains are a problem if the passing stretches are not long enough, other disadvantages include the propagation of delays, since one delayed train on a single track will also delay any train waiting for it to pass. Also, a single track does not have a track that can allow a reduced capacity service to continue if one track is closed. These consist of stretches of double track, usually long enough to hold one train. The capacity of a line is determined by the number of passing loops. Passing loops may also be used to trains heading in the same direction at different speeds to overtake. Some form of signalling system is required, in traditional British practice, single-track lines were operated using a token system where the train driver had to be in possession of a token in order to enter a stretch of single track. Because there was one unique token issued at any one time for each stretch of single track. This method is used on some minor lines but in the longest single-track lines in Britain this has been superseded by radio communication. This generally worked but was inflexible and inefficient and it was improved with the invention of the telegraph and the ability to issue train orders. Converting a single-track railway to double track is called duplication or doubling, converting double track to track is known as singling. A double-track railway operating only a track is known as single-line working. Building bike trails on rail corridors has occurred in limited examples, also reclaiming a railway corridor to use trains again, that have become bike paths, limits the use of double tracks. The bike path is usually where the track would be
6.
Passing loop
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A passing loop or passing siding is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at a station, where trains or trams travelling in opposite directions can pass each other. Trains/trams going in the direction can also overtake, providing that the signalling arrangement allows it. A passing loop is double ended and connected to the track at both ends, though a dead end siding known as a refuge siding, which is much less convenient. A similar arrangement is used on the track of cable railways and funiculars. Ideally, the loop should be longer than all trains needing to cross at that point, if one train is too long for the loop it must wait for the opposing train to enter the loop before proceeding, taking a few minutes. Ideally, the train should arrive first and leave second. If both trains are too long for the loop, time-consuming see-sawing operations are required for the trains to cross, the main line has straight track, while the loop line has low speed turnouts at either end. If the station has one platform, then it is usually located on the main line. If passenger trains are few in number, and the likelihood of two passenger trains crossing each other low, the platform on the loop line may be omitted. The through road has straight track, while the road has low speed turnouts at either end. A possible advantage of this layout is that trains scheduled to pass straight through the station can do so uninterrupted and this layout is mostly used at local stations where many passenger trains do not stop. Since there is one passenger platform, it is not convenient to cross two passenger trains if both stop. An example is Scone railway station, but the end was later rearranged to resemble a main. A disadvantage of the platform and through arrangement is the speed limits through the turnouts at each end, in the example layout shown, trains take the left-hand track in their direction of running. Low-speed turnouts restrict the speed in one direction, two platform faces are needed, and they can be provided either at a single island platform or two side platforms. Overtaking is not normally possible at this kind of up and down loop as some of the signals are absent. Crossing loops using up and down working are very common in British practice and it is possible to cross trains at stations equipped with only a siding. At Bombo, Australia, the loop had no platform
7.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
8.
3 ft 6 in gauge railways
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Railways with a track gauge of 3 ft 6 in/1,067 mm were first constructed as horse-drawn wagonways. From the mid-nineteenth century, the 3 ft 6 in gauge became widespread in the British Empire, there are approximately 112,000 kilometres of 1,067 mm gauge track in the world. 1795 One of the first railways to use 3 ft 6 in gauge was the Little Eaton Gangway in England, other 3 ft 6 in gauge wagonways in England and Wales were also built in the early nineteenth century. 1862 In 1862 the Norwegian engineer Carl Abraham Pihl constructed the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Norway,1865 In 1865 the Queensland Railways were constructed. Its 3 ft 6 in gauge was promoted by the Irish engineer Abraham Fitzgibbon,1868 In 1868 Charles Fox asks civil engineer Edmund Wragge to survey a 3 ft 6 in railway in Costa Rica. 1871 In 1871 the Canadian Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway,1872 In January 1872 Robert Fairlie advocated the use of 3 ft 6 in gauge in his book Railways Or No Railways, Narrow Gauge, Economy with Efficiency v. Broad Gauge, Costliness with Extravagance. 1872 also saw the opening of the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Japan,1873 On 1 January 1873, the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway was opened in New Zealand, constructed by the British firm John Brogden and Sons. Earlier built 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in and broad gauge railways were converted to the narrower gauge. Also in 1873 the Cape Colony adopted the 3 ft 6 in gauge, after conducting several studies in southern Europe, the Molteno Government selected the gauge as being the most economically suited for traversing steep mountain ranges. Beginning in 1873, under supervision of Railway engineer of the Colony William Brounger, the Cape Government Railways rapidly expanded and the gauge became the standard for southern Africa. 1876 Natal also converted its short 10 kilometres long Durban network from 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in broad gauge prior to commencing with construction of a network across the colony in 1876. Other new railways in Southern Africa, notably Mozambique, Bechuanaland, after 1876 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century numerous 3 ft 6 in gauge tram systems were built in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In Sweden, the gauge was nicknamed Blekinge gauge, as most of the railways in the province of Blekinge had this gauge. An alternate name for this gauge, Cape gauge, is named after the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa, the term Cape Gauge is used in other languages, such as the Dutch kaapspoor, German Kapspur, Norwegian kappspor and French voie cape. After metrication in the 1960s, the gauge was referred to in official South African Railways publications as 1065 mm instead of 1067 mm, the gauge is sometimes referred to as CAP gauge, after C. A. The gauge name Colonial Gauge was used in New Zealand, in Australia the imperial term 3 foot 6 inch is used. In some Australian publications the term medium gauge is also used, in Japan 1,067 mm gauge is referred to as kyōki, which directly translates as narrow gauge. It is defined in metric units, Cape Government Railways Heritage railway List of track gauges Norwegian gauge controversy South African Trains – A Pictorial Encyclopaedia Why Did Japan Choose the 36 Narrow Gauge
9.
Gauntlet track
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Gauntlet track or interlaced track is an arrangement in which railway tracks run parallel on a single track bed and are interlaced such that only one pair of rails may be used at a time. Since this requires only slightly more width than a single track, trains run on the discrete pair of rails appropriate to their direction, track gauge or loading gauge. Gauntlet tracks can be used to provide clearance to a fixed obstruction adjacent to a track such as a cutting, bridge. Frog gauntlets are commonly used when a rail lines capacity is increased by the provision of an additional track. They are typically used for short stretches of track where it is cheaper to provide extra rails than to provide switches and this also eliminates the problem of switch failures. In a frog gauntlet, one crosses over a rail on the adjacent track. A frog is used to provide the flangeway for the crossing tracks, the train taking the gauntlet runs over the frog onto the parallel rails, passes through the gauntlet area, and passes over another frog to return to the original line. Since there are no points or other moving parts on a frog gauntlet track, because two trains cannot use the gauntlet at the same time, scheduling and signalling must allow for this restriction. In a point gauntlet track, the rails for the two tracks do not need to cross, so no frog is required. The train taking the gauntlet runs over a set of points onto the parallel rails, passes through the gauntlet area. This arrangement is used at the Roselle Park Station referenced below, at a small number of locations on single track lines in Britain, interlaced loops had been provided where sprung catch points were required because of the steep gradient. The points at either end of the loop were set according to the direction of travel. Trains running uphill were routed via the loop incorporating the sprung catch point, trains running downhill used the opposite loop, bypassing the catch point. Where tracks diverge, a section of track may be provided where the switches require to be located remote from the actual divergence. This arrangement is most commonly used on systems, to move the switches away from a heavily trafficked road. An arrangement similar to gauntlet track is used to allow trains of different gauges to use the same track. In that case, the two interlaced tracks will have different gauges, sometimes sharing one of the rails for a total of three rails, in Sydney, the Como bridge over the Georges River between Oatley and Como was built as single line in the 1880s. The line was duplicated soon after, except for that bridge, the bridge was fitted with gauntlet track, which needs no turnouts, and hence needs no signal box at the far end
10.
Street running
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On-street running or street running is the routing of a railroad track or tramway track running directly along public streets, without any separation. The rails are embedded in the pavement, and the train shares the street directly with pedestrians. Trains generally travel at reduced speed for safety reasons, if there are stations on the section, they can appear similar in style to a tram stop, but often lack platforms, pedestrian islands, or other amenities. Passengers may be required to wait on a distant sidewalk, and then to board or disembark directly among mixed traffic in mid-pavement, rather than at curbside. Although bridges and tunnels are not streets, rails can still be embedded in the surface of bridges and this is also considered to be street running. This list does not include conventional tram, interurban, light rail or the tram portions of tram-train systems, over the Salto Grande Dam, between Concordia, Argentina and Salto, Uruguay. Bridge between Viedma, Río Negro and Carmen de Patagones, Buenos Aires, the North Coast main line runs down Denison Street in Rockhampton, Queensland carrying freight and passenger services. A sugar-cane railway runs down Mill Street, uruguaiana, almost 300 m. in the Vasco Alves street to reach the Paso de los Libres–Uruguaiana International Bridge. Notable examples in Canada include, Brantford, Ontario Clarence Street Guelph, Ontario Kent Street, CNR, near Mannheim, the Oberrheinische Eisenbahn and Rhein-Haardt-Bahn are street running through several villages. In Linkenheim, near Karlsruhe, the Hardt Railway was changed to BOStrab in 2011 for that reason, Road and rail share the Lindaunis Bridge in Schleswig-Holstein. Freight trains using the infrastructure of Rhein-Sieg-Verkehrsgesellschaft to the company Evonik in Niederkassel-Lülsdorf passing the village Sieglar are running inside the Pastor-Böhm-Straße, one of the most famous locations is when the steam-powered Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Toy train squeezes between narrow shop fronts down past a bazaar in India. Indonesia used to have an extensive steam tramways network, which had street running sections in various towns and cities in Java. Two sections remain in use in 2010, part of the Wonogiri branch runs along the Slamet Riyadi street in Surakarta, the earlier line sees both passenger and freight service, while the other line is exclusively for freight. Freight trains to and from the docks at Dublin share the Alexandra road with cars The Bernina Railway runs in the streets of Tirano, the Circumetnea ran until 1999 on the Corso delle Provincie in Catania. The Cremona–Iseo railway ran until 1956 in the street of Cavatigozzi. The Domodossola–Locarno railway started until the 1980s from the square of Domodossola. The Rivabahn was until 1981 a freight railway that ran into the city of Trieste along the seaside street, the Rome–Fiuggi railway runs completely along the Via Casilina in Rome. This railway serves as the only way of reaching Machu Picchu from Cusco without walking
11.
Welsh language
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Welsh is a member of the Brittonic branch of the Celtic languages. It is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, historically it has also been known in English as the British tongue, Cambrian, Cambric and Cymric. The United Kingdom Census 2011 counted 3.1 million residents of Wales, 27% of whom had been born outside Wales, and 73% of whom reported having no Welsh language skills. Of residents of Wales aged three and over, 19% reported being able to speak Welsh, and 77% of these were able to speak, read and this can be compared with the 2001 Census, in which 20. 8% of the population reported being able to speak Welsh. 787,854 of residents in Wales aged three and over had one or more skills in Welsh, in surveys carried out between 2004 and 2006, 57% of Welsh speakers described themselves as fluent in the written language. An estimated 110,000 to 150,000 people speak Welsh in England, Welsh emerged in the 6th century from Common Brittonic, the common ancestor of Welsh, Breton, Cornish and the extinct language known as Cumbric. The Middle Welsh period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, the name Welsh originated as an exonym given to its speakers by the Anglo-Saxons, meaning foreign speech. The native term for the language is Cymraeg, and for the name of the country of Wales it is Cymru, Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons. Classified as Insular Celtic, the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth. During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, evolving into Welsh and it is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Kenneth H. Jackson suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around 550, Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or Early Poets – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was composed in the Hen Ogledd, raising further questions about the dating of the material. An 8th century inscription in Tywyn shows the language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns, the next main period, somewhat better attested, is Old Welsh, poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of the language. Both the works of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin were in this era, Middle Welsh is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts, Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The famous cleric Gerald of Wales tells, in his Descriptio Cambriae, during one of the Kings many raids in the 12th century, Henry asked an old man of Pencader, Carmarthenshire whether the Welsh people could resist his army
12.
Tram
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A tram is a rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets, and also sometimes on a segregated right of way. The lines or networks operated by tramcars are called tramways, Tramways powered by electricity, the most common type historically, were once called electric street railways. However, trams were used in urban areas before the universal adoption of electrification. Tram lines may run between cities and/or towns, and/or partially grade-separated even in the cities. Very occasionally, trams also carry freight, Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than conventional trains and rapid transit trains, but the size of trams is rapidly increasing. Some trams may also run on railway tracks, a tramway may be upgraded to a light rail or a rapid transit line. For all these reasons, the differences between the modes of rail transportation are often indistinct. In the United States, the tram has sometimes been used for rubber-tired trackless trains. Today, most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph, in some cases by a sliding shoe on a third rail. If necessary, they may have dual power systems — electricity in city streets, trams are now included in the wider term light rail, which also includes segregated systems. The English terms tram and tramway are derived from the Scots word tram, referring respectively to a type of truck used in coal mines and the tracks on which they ran. The word tram probably derived from Middle Flemish trame, a Romanesque word meaning the beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge, the identical word la trame with the meaning crossbeam is also used in the French language. The word Tram-car is attested from 1873, although the terms tram and tramway have been adopted by many languages, they are not used universally in English, North Americans prefer streetcar, trolley, or trolleycar. The term streetcar is first recorded in 1840, and originally referred to horsecars, when electrification came, Americans began to speak of trolleycars or later, trolleys. The troller design frequently fell off the wires, and was replaced by other more reliable devices. The terms trolley pole and trolley wheel both derive from the troller, Modern trams often have an overhead pantograph mechanical linkage to connect to power, abandoning the trolley pole altogether. Conventional diesel tourist buses decorated to look like streetcars are sometimes called trolleys in the US, the term may also apply to an aerial ropeway, e. g. the Roosevelt Island Tramway. Over time, the trolley has fallen into informal use
13.
Great Orme
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The Great Orme is a prominent limestone headland on the north coast of Wales, next to the town of Llandudno. It is referred to as Cyngreawdr Fynydd in a poem by the 12th-century poet Gwalchmai ap Meilyr and its English name derives from the Viking word for sea serpent, which it is said to resemble. It is echoed by the Little Orme, a smaller but very similar limestone headland on the side of Llandudno Bay in the parish of Llanrhos. Both the Great and Little Ormes have been linked to the Old Norse words urm or orm that mean sea serpent. The Great Orme being the head, with its body being the land between the Great and Little Ormes, still some Norse names remain in use within the former Kingdom of Gwynedd. Despite there being a theory for the origin of the name Orme, prior to this, Welsh names were predominantly used locally and in cartography to name the headlands landward features and the surrounding area. The entire peninsula on which Llandudno was built was known as the Creuddyn, Orme only appears to have been applied to the headland as seen from the sea. The first series Ordnance Survey map follows this convention, the headland is called the Great Ormes Head but its landward features all have Welsh names. It is likely that Orme became established as its name due to Llandudnos burgeoning tourist trade because a majority of visitors and holidaymakers regularly arrived by sea. The headland being the first thing to be sighted of their destination in the journey from Liverpool by paddle steamer. Parts of the Great Orme are managed as a reserve by the Conwy County Borough Countryside Service. The area, which is 2 miles long by 1 mile wide, has a number of protective designations including Special Area of Conservation, Heritage Coast, Country Park, the local authority provides a warden service on the Great Orme that reguarlly patrols the special scientific and conservation areas. There are numerous maintained paths for walking to the summit, a section of the long-distance North Wales Path also crosses the headland, about half the Great Orme is in use as farmland, mostly for sheep grazing. In 2015, the National Trust purchased the summits 140-acre Parc Farm for £1million, the Great Orme is a peninsula made mostly of limestone and dolomite, formed during the Early Carboniferous part of the Earths geological history. Most of the Great Ormes rocks are between 339 and 326 million years old, the upper surface of the Great Orme is particularly noted for its limestone pavements covering several headland areas. There are also rich seams of dolomite-hosted copper ore, the Great Orme copper mine was estimated to have produced enough copper to make about 2,000 tons of bronze during the Bronze Age. The slopes of the Great Orme are subject to occasional subsidence, natural wells were greatly prized in limestone districts and the Great Orme was no exception. Water was required for mining purposes as well as for domestic
14.
Great Britain
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Great Britain, also known as Britain, is a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, Great Britain is the largest European island, in 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people, making it the worlds third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island of Ireland is situated to the west of it, the island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, the island is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island. The term Great Britain often extends to surrounding islands that form part of England, Scotland, and Wales. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England, the archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years, the term British Isles derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, the oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or possibly by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and Ierne. The name Britain descends from the Latin name for Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten, Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together. It is derived from the writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι. The peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοί, Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, Britain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland. The latter were later called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans, the Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. The name Albion appears to have out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a term only. It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself King of Great Brittaine, France, Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination
15.
San Francisco cable car system
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The San Francisco cable car system is the worlds last manually operated cable car system. An icon of San Francisco, the car system forms part of the intermodal urban transport network operated by the San Francisco Municipal Railway. Of the 23 lines established between 1873 and 1890, only three remain, two routes from downtown near Union Square to Fishermans Wharf, and a route along California Street. While the cable cars are used to an extent by commuters. They are among the most significant tourist attractions in the city, along with Alcatraz Island, the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The cable cars are not to be confused with San Franciscos heritage streetcars, which operate on Market Street, the first successful cable-operated street railway was the Clay Street Hill Railroad, which opened on August 2,1873. The promoter of the line was Hallidie, and the engineer was William Eppelsheimer, the line involved the use of grip cars, which carried the grip that engaged with the cable, towing trailer cars, the design was the first to use grips. The term grip became synonymous with the operator, the line started regular service on September 1,1873, and its success led it to become the template for other cable car transit systems. It was a success, and Hallidies patents were enforced on other cable car promoters. Accounts differ as to exactly how involved Hallidie was in the inception of the line, the next cable car line to open was the Sutter Street Railway, which converted from horse operation in 1877. This line introduced the side grip, and lever operation, both designed by Henry Casebolt and his assistant Asa Hovey, and patented by Henry Casebolt. This idea was brought about because Casebolt did not want to pay Hallidie royalties of $50,000 a year for use of his patent, the side grip allowed cable cars to cross at intersections. In 1878, Leland Stanford opened his California Street Cable Railroad and this companys first line was on California Street and is the oldest cable car line still in operation. In 1880, the Geary Street, Park & Ocean Railway began operation, the Presidio and Ferries Railway followed two years later, and was the first cable company to include curves on its routes. The curves were let-go curves, where the car drops the cable, in 1883, the Market Street Cable Railway opened its first line. This company was controlled by the Southern Pacific Railroad and was to grow to become San Franciscos largest cable car operator. At its peak, it operated five lines all of which converged into Market Street to a terminus at the Ferry Building, during rush hours, cars left that terminus every 15 seconds. In 1888, the Ferries and Cliff House Railway opened its initial two-line system, the Powell-Mason line is still operated on the same route today, their other route was the Powell-Washington-Jackson line, stretches of which are used by todays Powell-Hyde line
16.
Ascensor da Bica
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The Bica Funicular, sometimes known as the Elevador da Bica, is a funicular railway line in the civil parish of Misericórdia, in the municipality of Lisbon, Portugal. It connects the Rua de São Paulo with Calçada do Combro/Rua do Loreto, the project was conceived by Raoul Mesnier du Ponsard. The mechanical motor of the elevator was installed in 1890, after the conclusion of the public work, yet, the lift only began functioning on 28 June 1892, after a couple of years of tests. In 1912, the Nova Companhia dos Ascensores Mecânicos de Lisboa signed a new contract with the municipality, between 1914 and 1916, the project to automate the transport system using electrical systems was completed. As a result, the funicular transport became inoperable for the few years. In 1923, the council demanded that company return the Bica lift to operation, forcing it to work on the line and install new cars. After the dissolution of the Nova Companhia dos Ascensores Mecânicos de Lisboa the lift became the property of Companhia Carris, in 1927, the funicular returned to operation. On 29 September 2005, it was proposed that the funicular be included in the Special Protection Zone by the DRCLVTejo. In 2009 the dispatch was approved by the Minister of Culture, and on 20 May 2011, the funicular system is situated on the edge of the Pombaline downtown area of Lisbon overlooking the Tagus River, implanted along an axis dominated by an accentuated slope. Its course follows an area of rental buildings constructed during the 18th century. The funicular/lift rises along an 11. 8% incline to the Rua da Bica de Duarte Belo, the transit system includes the Rua da Bica, Largo de Santo Antoninho and Travessa da Bica Grande. The Bica funicular, much like the Funicular of Lavra and the Glória Funicular, is moved by the Tramway system, using cable and water weights, the lower station is almost hidden behind a facade on the Rua de S. Paulo with the inscription Ascensor da Bica. The lift includes two cars that travel the distance simultaneously in opposite directions, the cars have three doors on either side, and three compartments within the platform, with wooden seats oriented transversely from the central body. The facade is framed in stonework, with gates of wrought iron, the upper floors include rectangular windows, with the first and second floors including wrought iron varandas and the third floor with smaller picture windows. At the top a decorative cornice divides the floor from the Mansard roof. 2 Lagranje, José, O Livro da Carris, CCFL, p.2 www. carris. pt
17.
Coke (fuel)
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Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a high carbon content, usually made from coal. It is the carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash. Cokes made from coal are grey, hard, and porous, while coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made. The form known as coke, or pet coke, is derived from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes. Coke is used in preparation of producer gas which is a mixture of carbon monoxide, producer gas is produced by passing air over red-hot coke. Coke is also used to water gas. Historical sources dating to the 4th century describe the production of coke in ancient China, the Chinese first used coke for heating and cooking no later than the ninth century. By the first decades of the century, Chinese ironworkers in the Yellow River valley began to fuel their furnaces with coke. In 1589 a patent was granted to Thomas Proctor and William Peterson for making iron and steel and melting lead with earth-coal, sea-coal, turf, the patent contains a distinct allusion to the preparation of coal by cooking. In 1590 a patent was granted to the Dean of York to purify pit-coal, in 1620 a patent was granted to a company composed of William St. John, Robert Follensbee and other knights, mentioning the use of coke in smelting ores and manufacturing metals. In 1627 a patent was granted to Sir John Hacket and Octavius de Strada for a method of rendering sea-coal and pit-coal as useful as charcoal for burning in houses, without offense by smell or smoke. In 1603 Hugh Plat suggested that coal might be charred in an analogous to the way charcoal is produced from wood. In 1709 Abraham Darby I established a coke-fired blast furnace to produce cast iron, cokes superior crushing strength allowed blast furnaces to become taller and larger. The ensuing availability of iron was one of the factors leading to the Industrial Revolution. Before this time, iron-making used large quantities of charcoal, produced by burning wood, in the late 18th century, brick beehive ovens were developed, which allowed more control over the burning process. In 1768 John Wilkinson built a more practical oven for converting coal into coke, with greater skill in the firing, covering and quenching of the heaps, yields were increased from about 33 per cent to 65 per cent by the middle of the 19th century. The Scottish iron industry expanded rapidly in the second quarter of the 19th century. In 1802 a battery of beehives was set up near Sheffield, by 1870, there were 14,000 beehive ovens in operation on the West Durham coalfields, capable of producing 4.2 million tons of coke
18.
Trolley pole
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A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a live overhead wire to the control and the electric traction motors of a tram or trolley bus. It is a type of current collector, the term trolley predates the invention of the trolley pole. From the side, the lines made the car seem to be trolling. Later, when a pivoted pole replaced the troller, it came to be known as a trolley pole, an early development of an experimental tramway in Toronto, Ontario was built in 1883, having been developed by John Joseph Wright, brother of swindler Whitaker Wright. While Wright may have assisted in the installation of railways at the Canadian National Exhibition. Likewise, Wright never filed or was issued a patent, credit for development of the first working trolley pole is given to Charles Joseph Van Depoele, a Belgian engineer who moved to the United States in 1869. Van Depoele made the first public demonstration of the device on a temporary streetcar line installed at the Toronto Industrial Exhibition in autumn 1885. However, within a few months, Van Depoele switched to the system for the Montgomery operation. The grooved trolley wheel was used on large city systems through the 1940s and 1950s. The newer sliding carbon trolley shoe was generally used with a newer grooved overhead trolley wire of a roughly figure 8 cross section, the sliding trolley shoe provided better electrical contact, and it dramatically reduced overhead wire wear. Many systems began converting to the trolley shoe in the 1920s, Milwaukee. Curiously, Philadelphia did not convert its trolley wheels on its remaining streetcars until 1978, although a streetcar with a trolley wheel may evoke an antique look, the trolley shoe is modern and more practical as well as economical. A trolley pole is not attached to the overhead wire, the pole sits atop a sprung base on the roof of the vehicle, with springs providing the pressure to keep the trolley wheel or shoe in contact with the wire. If the pole is made of wood, a cable brings the current down to the vehicle. A metal pole may use such a cable, or may itself be electrically live, requiring the base to be insulated from the vehicle body. At terminus points, the conductor must turn the pole around to face the correct direction, pulling it off the wire either with a rope or a pole. In some cases, two poles are provided, one for each direction, in this case it is a matter of raising one. Since the operator could raise the pole at one end whilst the conductor lowered the other, care must be taken to raise the downed pole first, to eliminate the damage caused by arcing between the pole and wire
19.
District of Aberconwy
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The Borough of Aberconwy was one of five districts of Gwynedd, north-west Wales, from 1974 to 1996. It was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 from parts of the counties of Caernarfonshire and Denbighshire. From Caernarfonshire came the municipal borough of Conwy, the districts of Betws-y-Coed, Llandudno, Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr. From Denbighshire came the urban district of Llanrwst, and the parishes of Eglwysbach, Llanddoged, Llanrwst Rural, Llansantffraid Glan Conwy, the parishes had been part of the rural districts of Aled and Hiraethog. The district was abolished in 1996, with its passing to Aberconwy and Colwyn. However, some services were still split into Aberconwy and Colwyn districts such as the registration of births, deaths. From 11 June 2007, there has been one Registration District encompassing the whole County Borough, in 2003, the area of the former district was moved from the preserved county of Gwynedd, to Clwyd
20.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
21.
Heritage Lottery Fund
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The Heritage Lottery Fund was established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. The Fund opened for applications in 1994, although HLF is branded as though a body in its own right, it is administered by a pre-existing non-departmental public body – the Board of Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund. The turnover of HLF is considerably larger than the work of the NHMF. Decisions about policies and large applications are made by the Trustees of the NHMF, there are also decision-making committees in the English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Head office is in London, with offices in nine English regions and in Scotland, Wales. The Heritage Lottery Fund offers a range of different grant programmes from £3,000 to over £5 million
22.
Rail profile
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The rail profile is the cross sectional shape of a railway rail, perpendicular to its length. Early rails were made of wood, cast iron or wrought iron, all modern rails are hot rolled steel with a cross section approximate to an I-beam, but asymmetric about a horizontal axis. The head is profiled to resist wear and to give a ride. Unlike some other uses of iron and steel, railway rails are subject to high stresses and are made of very high quality steel. It took many decades to improve the quality of the materials, minor flaws in the steel that may pose no problems in other applications can lead to broken rails and dangerous derailments when used on railway tracks. By and large, the heavier the rails and the rest of the trackwork, the rails represent a substantial fraction of the cost of a railway line. Only a small number of sizes are made by steelworks at one time. Worn, heavy rail from a mainline is often reclaimed and downgraded for re-use on a branchline, the weight of a rail per length is an important factor in determining rails strength and hence axleloads and speeds. Weights are measured in pounds per yard or kilograms per metre, rails in Canada, the United Kingdom and United States are described using imperial units. In Australia, metric units are used as in mainland Europe, commonly, in rail terminology Pound is a contraction of the expression pounds per yard and hence a 132–pound rail means a rail of 132 pounds per yard. Rails are made in a number of different sizes. Some common European rail sizes include, In the countries of former USSR65 kg/m rails and 75 kg/m rails are common, the American Society of Civil Engineers specified rail profiles in 1893 for 5-pound-per-yard increments from 40 to 100 lb/yd. Height of rail equaled width of foot for each ASCE tee-rail weight, ASCE90 lb/yd profile was adequate, but heavier weights were less satisfactory. In 1909, the American Railway Association specified standard profiles for 10 lb/yd increments from 60 to 100 lb/yd, the trend was to increase rail height/foot-width ratio and strengthen the web. Disadvantages of the foot were overcome through use of tie-plates. AREA recommendations reduced the weight of rail head down to 36%. Attention was also focused on improved fillet radii to reduce stress concentration at the web junction with the head, AREA recommended the ARA90 lb/yd profile. Old ASCE rails of lighter weight remained in use, and satisfied the demand for light rail for a few decades
23.
Railroad tie
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A railroad tie/railway tie/crosstie or railway sleeper is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer loads to the track ballast and subgrade, hold the rails upright, railroad ties are traditionally made of wood, but pre-stressed concrete is now also widely used, especially in Europe and Asia. Steel ties are common on secondary lines in the UK, plastic composite ties are also employed, as of January 2008, the approximate market share in North America for traditional and wood ties was 91. 5%, the remainder being concrete, steel, azobé and plastic composite. Approximately 3,520 wooden crossties are used per mile of railroad track in the US,2,640 per mile on main lines in the UK. The type of railroad tie used on the predecessors of the first true railway consisted of a pair of stone blocks laid into the ground, one advantage of this method of construction was that it allowed horses to tread the middle path without the risk of tripping. In railway use with heavier locomotives, it was found that it was hard to maintain the correct gauge. The stone blocks were in any case unsuitable on soft ground, such as at Chat Moss, bi-block ties with a tie rod are somewhat similar. Historically wooden rail ties were made by hewing with an axe, a variety of softwood and hardwoods timbers are used as ties, oak, jarrah and karri being popular hardwoods, although increasingly difficult to obtain, especially from sustainable sources. Sometimes non-toxic preservatives are used, such as copper azole or micronized copper, New boron-based wood preserving technology is being employed by major US railroads in a dual treatment process in order to extend the life of wood ties in wet areas. Some timbers are durable enough that they can be used untreated, problems with wooden ties include rot, splitting, insect infestation, plate-cutting, also known as chair shuffle in the UK and spike-pull. For more information on wooden ties the Railway Tie Association maintains a website devoted to wood tie research. Wooden ties can, of course, catch fire, as they age they develop cracks that allow sparks to lodge so that they catch fire more easily, concrete ties are cheaper and easier to obtain than timber and better able to carry higher axle-weights and sustain higher speeds. Their greater weight ensures improved retention of track geometry, especially when installed with continuous-welded rail, concrete ties have a longer service life and require less maintenance than timber due to their greater weight, which helps them remain in the correct position longer. Concrete ties need to be installed on a well-prepared subgrade with a depth on free-draining ballast to perform well. Concrete ties amplify wheel noise, so wooden ties are used in densely populated areas. On the highest categories of line in the UK, pre-stressed concrete ties are the only permitted by Network Rail standards. Steel ties are formed from pressed steel and are trough-shaped in section, the ends of the tie are shaped to form a spade which increases the lateral resistance of the tie. Housings to accommodate the system are welded to the upper surface of the tie
24.
Track ballast
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Track ballast forms the trackbed upon which railroad ties are laid. It is packed between, below, and around the ties and it is used to bear the load from the railroad ties, to facilitate drainage of water, and also to keep down vegetation that might interfere with the track structure. This also serves to hold the track in place as the roll by. It is typically made of crushed stone, although ballast has sometimes consisted of other, less suitable materials, the term ballast comes from a nautical term for the stones used to stabilize a ship. The appropriate thickness of a layer of track ballast depends on the size and spacing of the ties, the amount of traffic on the line, and various other factors. Track ballast should never be laid down less than 150 mm thick, an insufficient depth of ballast causes overloading of the underlying soil, and in unfavourable conditions overloading the soil causes the track to sink, usually unevenly. Ballast less than 300 mm thick can lead to vibrations that damage nearby structures, however, increasing the depth beyond 300 mm adds no extra benefit in reducing vibration. In turn, track ballast typically rests on a layer of crushed stones. The sub-ballast layer gives a solid support for the top ballast, sometimes an elastic mat is placed on the layer of sub-ballast and beneath the ballast, thereby significantly reducing vibration. The ballast shoulder always should be at least 150 mm wide, the shape of the ballast is also important. Stones must be cut, with sharp edges, so that they properly interlock and grip the ties in order to fully secure them against movement. In order to let the stones fully settle and interlock, speed limits are often lowered on sections of track for a period of time after new ballast has been laid. If ballast is badly fouled, the clogging will reduce its ability to drain properly, therefore, keeping the ballast clean is essential. Bioremediation can be used to clean ballast and it is not always necessary to replace the ballast if it is fouled, nor must all the ballast be removed if it is to be cleaned. Removing and cleaning the ballast from the shoulder is often sufficient, such machines can clean up to two kilometres of ballast in an hour. In such cases, it is necessary to replace the ballast altogether, the dump and jack method cannot of course be used through tunnels, under overbridges, and where there are platforms. Where the track is laid over a swamp, such as the Hexham swamp in Australia, the ballast continuously sinks, after 150 years of topping up, there appears to be 10 m of sunken ballast under the tracks. Chat Moss in the United Kingdom is similar, regular inspection of the ballast shoulder is important, as noted earlier, the lateral stability of the track depends upon the shoulder
25.
Sheave
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A sheave is a pulley with a grooved wheel for holding a belt, wire rope, or rope. The grooved wheel spins inside the frame of the sheave and this allows the wire or rope to move freely minimizing wear and abrasion on cable. Sheaves can be used to redirect a cable or rope, lift loads, the words sheave and pulley are sometimes used interchangeably. A sheave can also refer to a pulley which has an adjustable operating diameter for use with a mechanical belt and this is accomplished by constructing the pulley out of several pieces. The two main halves of the pulley can be moved together or farther apart, thus altering the operational diameter. The usual construction is some sort of locking collar or set screws to secure the components, one half with a central shaft. By rotating the one can screw the parts closer together or further apart. The adjustments are constrained to a range of size and are not limitless. One application of this is the Variomatic automatic transmission, Block and tackle Block Eccentric Slickline Wireline
26.
Seiriol
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Seiriol was an early 6th-century saint, who created a cell at Penmon Priory on Anglesey, off the coast of north Wales. He later moved to Ynys Seiriol and he was a son of King Owain Danwyn of Rhos. According to legend, he and Saint Cybi were good friends, Saint Cybi would walk from Holyhead, facing the rising sun in the morning and setting sun in the evening. Saint Cybi was known as Cybi Felyn, as he was tanned during his journey, Seiriol, travelling in the opposite direction, from Penmon, would have his back to the sun. Thus, he was known as Seiriol Wyn, rhyd-y-Saint railway station on the Red Wharf Bay branch line near Pentraeth, was named so as Seiriol and Cybi are said to have met there. Seiriol was a brother of King Cynlas of Rhos and King Einion of Llŷn. His cell at Penmon is said to have been rebuilt by his brothers, St Seiriols Well lies in a small chamber adjoining its remains. Both are protected by Cadw, the publicly funded body responsible for the monuments of Wales. Adjacent to them are the church and ruins of a monastery dating back to Seiriols day. In his old age, Seiriol retired to Ynys Lannog which subsequently became known as Ynys Seiriol, later it would be known to the Vikings as Priestholm, and is known as Puffin Island in English since the 19th century. Saint Seiriol is commemorated 1 February in both the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches, Seiriol on National Library of Wales Dictionary of Welsh Biography Catholic Online St. Seiriols Well Pilgrimage Site in Wales
27.
Saint Trillo
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Saint Trillo is the patron saint and founder of the churches at Llandrillo, Denbighshire and Llandrillo yn Rhos, Rhos-on-Sea in Conwy County Borough, Wales. According to Enwogion Cymru, Trillo was a saint who lived in the part of the sixth century. He was one of the sons of Ithel Hael, Trillo was nobly born in Brittany and went to Wales as a disciple and student of Saint Cadfan, who later admitted Trillo to the religious life. Trillo became an Abbot and church-founder, noted for his holiness and his church at Llandrillo contains representations in stained glass of some of the stories of Trillos life. The glass was commissioned in the 1920s in memory of a parish priest
28.
Rail Accident Investigation Branch
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The Rail Accident Investigation Branch is a British government agency that investigates rail accidents in the United Kingdom and the Channel Tunnel in order to find a cause, not to lay blame. Created in 2005, it is required by law to investigate accidents causing death and it also has authority to investigate incidents that could have resulted in accidents. It currently has two bases — Derby and Farnborough — to allow it to quickly to accidents. The RAIB became operational on 17 October 2005, before then, railway accidents were investigated by Her Majestys Railway Inspectorate, and the British Transport Police. The agency has operational centres in The Wharf, a facility in Derby, previously its southern office was in Woking, Surrey. The RAIB has this setup so that it can respond to rail accidents in any part of the United Kingdom. The Chief Inspector and Deputy Chief Inspector operate out of both Derby and Farnborough offices, each site has two inspectorate teams and its own operational support staff. Office of Rail Regulation Health and Safety Executive Air Accidents Investigation Branch Marine Accident Investigation Branch RAIB website
29.
Llandudno Cable Car
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The Llandudno Cable Car is an attraction in the seaside resort of Llandudno in Conwy County Borough, Wales. The cable car runs along the Great Orme spanning a distance of one mile, the cable car was opened in summer 1969, and has been operational ever since. The cabins give wonderful views of the Irish Sea looking over to Rhyl, there are currently 20 cabins in service, which leave each station at approximately one-minute intervals. The cabins are painted in red, yellow, orange, light blue, the cable car is now owned by Kinetics Industrial Ltd. The highest point from the ground is around 80 feet, the lower station is situated on Aberdeen Hill in Happy Valley Gardens. The station is visible from the promenade and Llandudno Pier, access, via some steps, is not suitable for wheelchair users. The upper station is next to the summit of the Great Orme. The cable car is visible from many locations surrounding Llandudno, the cable car cannot operate in wind speeds of over 22 mph because of safety restrictions. It is often much calmer in Happy Valley but the wind is unpredictable at the summit, the cable cars also cannot operate in thunderstorms and might close if rain is too heavy. The cable cars normally operate from the beginning of the Easter holidays to the end of the October half-term school holiday, on 6 April 2007, a 33-year-old Polish woman fell to her death from a gondola at the routes highest point. A subsequent inquest recorded a verdict of suicide
30.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
31.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
32.
Blackpool Tramway
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The Blackpool tramway runs from Blackpool to Fleetwood on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire, England. The line dates back to 1885 and is one of the oldest electric tramways in the world and it is operated by Blackpool Transport, and runs for 11 miles. It carried 4,900,000 passengers between March 2015 and March 2016 and it is the last surviving first-generation tramway in the United Kingdom, though the majority of services on the line have since 2012 been operated by a fleet of modern Flexity 2 trams. A heritage service using the traditional trams now operates on Bank Holidays and weekends from March to November, excluding museums, it is one of only a few tramways in the world to use double-deck trams, others including Hong Kong and Alexandria Tram in Egypt. The first part opened on 29 September 1885, a line from Cocker Street to Dean Street on Blackpool Promenade. It was one of the first practical electric tramways in the world, the inauguration was presided over by Holroyd Smith, the inventor of the system, and Alderman Harwood, the Mayor of Manchester. It was operated by the Blackpool Electric Tramway Company until 1892 when its lease expired, a line was added in 1895 from Manchester Square along Lytham Road to South Shore, extended to South Pier with a line on Station Road connecting Lytham Road to the promenade in 1897. During bad weather, sea water washed over the track and into the conduit where it short circuited the traction supply, sand from the beaches was blown across the tracks and filled up the conduits. It was constantly necessary to remove sand, as the addition of sea water would leave the conduits filled with wet sand which short circuited the supply. In 1899 550V overhead wiring was installed and the conduit removed, in 1900 the line was extended north to Gynn Square where it linked up with the Blackpool and Fleetwood Tramroad. In 1901 the Marton loop was opened, connecting Talbot Square and Central Station along Church Street, Devonshire Square, Whitegate Drive, Waterloo Road, a new depot was built on Whitegate Drive in Marton. A line was added from Talbot Square along Talbot Road to Layton in 1902, by 1903 the promenade line had reached the Pleasure Beach. In 1920 Blackpool Corporation took over the tramroad, gaining eight miles of track, the small Bold Street Depot in Fleetwood was closed and a loop constructed at Fleetwood Ferry. The original Blundell Street Depot was replaced by a depot on Rigby Road in 1920. Along the line to Fleetwood, between Rossall and Broadwater a more direct line was built in 1925, the final tramway extension was in 1926, along the promenade to Clifton Drive at Starr Gate where a connection was made with Lytham St. Annes Corporation Tramways. These formed the backbone of the fleet into the 21st century, in 1936 route closures began with the Central Drive and Layton routes. Lytham Road closed in 1961, Marton in 1962, and the line on Dickson Road to North Station in 1963. Marton and Copse Road Depots closed in 1963 and Bispham Depot in 1966 and this left the line from Starr Gate to Fleetwood, which remains
33.
Edinburgh Trams
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Edinburgh Trams is a tramway in Edinburgh, Scotland, operated by Transport for Edinburgh. It is a 14-kilometre line between York Place in New Town and Edinburgh Airport, with 16 stops, construction began in June 2008, and after encountering delays it opened on 31 May 2014. The scheme had an estimated cost of £375 million in 2003, but by May 2008, when contracts were signed. The final cost after delays was £776 million, Edinburgh Corporation Tramways ran from 1871 until 16 November 1956. After that date, public transport consisted of buses and a network of commuter rail lines. Towards the end of the 20th century, there was revived interest in trams and networks were introduced in Birmingham, Croydon, Manchester, Nottingham, a 2001 proposal envisaged three routes, lines 1,2 and 3. The first was a route around the northern suburbs. All lines would have passed through the city centre, in May 2004, a 15-year operating contract was awarded to Transdev, to operate and maintain the tram network. This contract was cancelled in 2009, two bills to reintroduce a tram network were passed by the Scottish Parliament in March 2006. The party made clear its intention to cancel the scheme, along with the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link, a report by Audit Scotland, commissioned by the Scottish Government, confirmed that the cost projections were sound. The cost of the scheme in 2003 was estimated at £498 million, £375 million in funding from the Scottish Government, on 25 October 2007, the council approved the final business case. Approval was given on 22 December 2007 for TIE to sign contracts with CAF to supply vehicles and BBS to design, contract negotiations finished in April 2008, and construction started in June 2008. By this stage the cost of the project was estimated at £521 million, funding problems and political disputes led to the scaling back of the original plans. In April 2009, the council cancelled phase 1b, citing revenue shortfall created by the economic slowdown to save an estimated £75 million, the Granton extension was also cancelled. These works followed a plan by System Design Services, a joint design team led by Parsons Brinckerhoff, in May 2008, final contracts to build the tram system were awarded to BSC, a consortium of Bilfinger Berger, Siemens and Spanish tram builder Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles. The tramway uses a mix of street running and segregated off-road track, stops are fitted with shelters, ticket machines, lighting and CCTV. The network is operated from a depot in Gogar, close to the A8 roundabout, the route of the line required the construction of bridges to cross railway lines at Edinburgh Park and Stenhouse, and a tunnel under the A8 near the Gogar roundabout. A bridge at Balgreen was widened, works to build a tram interchange at Haymarket station involved the demolition of a Category C listed building, the former Caledonian Alehouse on Haymarket Terrace
34.
Manchester Metrolink
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Metrolink is a tram/light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. The system is owned by Transport for Greater Manchester and operated and maintained under contract by RATP Group, in 2015–16,34.3 million passenger journeys were made on the system. The network consists of seven lines which radiate from Manchester city centre to termini at Altrincham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Bury, East Didsbury, Eccles, Manchester Airport, Metrolink has 93 stops along 57 miles of standard-gauge track making it the largest light rail system in the United Kingdom. It consists of a mixture of track shared with other traffic, reserved track sections, segregated from other traffic. It is operated by a fleet of Bombardier Flexity Swift M5000s, a light rail system for Greater Manchester emerged from the failure of the 1970s Picc-Vic tunnel scheme to obtain central government funding. A light-rail scheme was proposed in 1982 as the least expensive rail-based transport solution for Manchester city centre, construction work on the Trafford Park Line extension from Pomona to the Trafford Centre commenced in early 2017 with an estimated operational date of 2020/21. Furthermore, TfGM have endorsed more speculative expansion proposals for new lines to Stockport, a loop around Wythenshawe, Manchesters first tram age began in 1877 with the first horse-drawn trams of Manchester Suburban Tramways Company. Electric traction was introduced in 1901, and the municipal Manchester Corporation Tramways expanded across the city, by 1930, Manchesters tram network had grown to 163 miles route miles, making it the third largest tram system in the United Kingdom. After World War II, electric trolleybuses and motor buses began to be favoured by local authorities as a cheaper transport alternative, trolleybuses were withdrawn from service in 1966. The central commercial district had no links, and over the years. In the 1960s, transport design studies were undertaken to address the problems of increasing traffic congestion, a number of urban public transport schemes were evaluated for Manchester, including several types of monorail systems and metro-style systems. While the monorail schemes were all abandoned, a scheme to create a tunnel link gained momentum. SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive — the body formed in 1969 to improve public transport for Manchester and this was a proposal to link Piccadilly and Victoria stations via a tunnel under the city centre and enable train services to run across the Manchester conurbation. Inter-station links were provided by the Centreline shuttle bus service for many years, Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, the successor to SELNEC, continued to examine possible rail link solutions. A Rail Study Group, composed of officials from British Rail, GMC, to promote the scheme, GMPTE held a public proof of concept demonstration in March 1987 using a Docklands Light Railway P86 train on a freight-only line adjacent to Debdale Park. The Project Light Rail proposals were presented to the UK Government for taxpayer funding, following route revisions in 1984 and 1987, additional taxpayer funding came from the European Regional Development Fund and bank lending. Parliamentary authority to proceed with Phase 1 construction was obtained with two Acts of Parliament – the Greater Manchester Act 1988 and Greater Manchester Act 1988. Tracks were laid down along a 1. 9-mile route from Victoria station, via Market Street to the G-Mex and this route is now known as the First City Crossing, and it was built with network expansion in mind
35.
Midland Metro
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Victoria Square is a proposed stop for the planned extension of Line 1 of the Midland Metro into Birmingham City Centre in the United Kingdom. Transport for West Midlands have issued a plan of showing this as their stop on Pinfold Street. The stop will allow passengers improved access to Victoria Square, the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, permission for the line extension was granted on 21 October 2013 and works are due to be completed in 2017. Midland Metro Order – Inspectors Report Proposed Metro City centre map of 2003
36.
Nottingham Express Transit
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Nottingham Express Transit is a 32-kilometre-long tramway in Nottingham, England. The system opened to the public on 9 March 2004 and a second phase, the tramway is operated and maintained by Nottingham Trams Ltd. on behalf of the Tramlink Nottingham consortium. It was operated by Arrow Light Rail, another consortium, from 9 March 2004 until 16 December 2011, Arrow Light Rail had been contracted to operate the system for 30 years, the addition of lines to the system led to retendering. Nottingham and the urban area is the UKs seventh largest. The consortium was made up of Adtranz, who were responsible for the trams, Carillion, as built, the system was 14 kilometres long and served 23 tram stops. Construction cost a total of £200 million, a sum equivalent to £277 million at 2015 prices, once the line was complete, operation was sub-contracted by Arrow Light Rail to the Nottingham Tram Consortium, an equal partnership between Transdev and Nottingham City Transport. The line itself exceeded expectations, with 8.4 million journeys in 2004-5 and 9.7 million in 2005-6, by 2007-8, ridership had reached 10.2 million journeys. This bolstered the case for the construction of new lines, on 27 July 2009 the GMB trade union held a strike in protest at a proposed paycut of 0. 6% offered by Nottingham Tram Consortium. A maximum of five out of a normal service of 13 ran from 0600 until 1800 on the Hucknall route. Approval for phase two was given on 25 October 2006 with the UK Government agreeing to provide up to £437 million in Private Finance Initiative credits, the local councils will also provide up to £141 million in PFI credits. The two local councils voted on 22 February 2007 and 3 March 2007 respectively to table an application for a Transport & Works Act Order. The City and County Councils’ application for the order were available to view from 26 April 2007 to 7 June 2007 when it was submitted to the Secretary of State for Transport for consideration, a public inquiry was held in December 2007. The project was given the go-ahead by the government on 30 March 2009, nottinghamshire County Council confirmed that it would not obstruct the project. Funding was approved by the government on 31 July 2009, selecting and appointing the contractor was expected to take two years. Building work was expected to begin in 2011, in two phases, with trams running from 2014, the scheme survived the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review ordered by the government, and on 24 March 2011 the government confirmed that funding had been approved. As part of process, the concession to operate the existing system was terminated. A new concession put out to tender to design and build phase two, to operate and maintain the system in the meantime, and to operate. As with the consortium, operation was further sub-contracted to a consortium of Keolis and Wellglade
37.
Sheffield Supertram
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The Sheffield Supertram is an English light rail tram system in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The infrastructure is owned by the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, the service commenced in 1994 and currently consists of three lines, named after colours. It was operated by South Yorkshire Supertram Limited, an owned subsidiary company of SYPTE. In December 1997, the company was sold to Stagecoach for £1.15 million, Stagecoach gained the concession to maintain and operate the Supertram trams until 2024. Patronage has grown from 7.8 million passenger journeys in 1996/97, in 2014/15 it carried 11.5 million passengers. A tram-train extension to Rotherham is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in 2018 and this will involve trams operating on Network Rails Dearne Valley Line from Meadowhall Interchange to Rotherham station with a short extension to Rotherham Parkgate Shopping Centre. The proposed station will be a tram stop and railway station. It is also planned that Rotherham Parkgate will be the hub for longer distance inter regional services, while Central station will be the hub for local, to cater for the tram train services, Rotherham Central will have a third platform built. It is thought that constructing the station will cost around £14 million, a study has concluded that it is not worth expanding Rotherham Central railway station because it would cost £161 million to expand the station but only deliver benefits worth £76 million. This is why constructing a new station is considered more viable and it is proposed a new Supertram line will be built from Meadowhall to Dore in south-west Sheffield in order to improve connections to the new Sheffield Meadowhall high-speed rail station. Construction started in 1991 and the first section to open was along a former heavy rail alignment to Meadowhall on 21 March 1994, the system consists of a mix of on-street running, reserved right-of-way and former railway alignment. The inner part of the Halfway and Herdings Park lines consist of running, with the exception of the railway station. The Herdings line then runs on reserved track, and the Halfway line crosses the county border into Derbyshire and this line also serves Crystal Peaks Shopping Centre. The three main City Centre stops are located on one side of a dual carriageway, now a single lane. These three stops are served by all routes The Sheffield Supertram network is organised around Park Square, two small branches serving Malin Bridge, from Hillsborough Interchange, and Herdings Park branch out from two of the main lines. The Class 399s are expected to be painted into normal Supertram livery, the tram-train scheme, which was first planned to be in service by 2015 has been delayed and is not expected to start until the summer 2018. The Class 399 units were built in 2015/16 with the first delivered in December 2015, the Supertram network operates a fleet of 25 three car trams built by Siemens-Duewag of Düsseldorf, Germany in 1992. The trams are capable of carrying 88 seated and 155 standing passengers and are 40% low floor design, launched in an initial light grey livery, following the takeover by Stagecoach the trams were reliveried in Stagecoachs corporate livery from 1997
38.
Tramlink
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Tramlink is a light rail tram system serving Croydon and surrounding areas in South London, England. It began operation in 2000, the first tram system in London since 1952 and it is owned by London Trams, an arm of Transport for London, and operated by FirstGroup. The Tramlink is the fourth-busiest light rail network in the UK behind Manchester Metrolink, Tyne and Wear Metro, in 1990 Croydon Council with London Regional Transport put the project to Parliament and the Croydon Tramlink Act 1994 resulted, which gave LRT the power to build and run Tramlink. In 1996 Tramtrack Croydon Limited won a 99-year Private Finance Initiative contract to design, build, operate, TCL was a partnership comprising FirstGroup, Bombardier Transportation, Sir Robert McAlpine and Amey, and Royal Bank of Scotland and 3i. TCL kept the revenue generated by Tramlink and LRT had to pay compensation to TCL for any changes to the fares, TCL subcontracted operations to CentreWest Buses. One of the leading to its creation was that the London Borough of Croydon has no London Underground service. There are four routes, Route 1 – Elmers End to Croydon, Route 2 – Beckenham Junction to Croydon, Route 3 – New Addington to Wimbledon, and Route 4 – Therapia Lane to Elmers End. Route 2 runs parallel to the Crystal Palace to Beckenham Junction line of the Southern network between Birkbeck and Beckenham Junction – the National Rail track had been singled some years earlier. At Woodside the old station buildings stand disused, and the platforms have been replaced by accessible low platforms. From Woodside to near Sandilands and from near Sandilands almost to Lloyd Park, Tramlink follows the former Woodside and South Croydon Railway, including the Park Hill tunnels. The section of Route 3 between Wimbledon and West Croydon mostly follows the single-track British Rail route, closed on 31 May 1997 so that it could be converted for Tramlink, a partial obstruction near this point has necessitated the use of interlaced track. A Victorian footbridge beside Waddon New Road was dismantled to make way for the flyover over the West Croydon to Sutton railway line, the footbridge has been re-erected at Corfe Castle station on the Swanage Railway. In March 2008, TfL announced that it had reached agreement to buy TCL for £98m, the purchase was finalised on 28 June 2008. The background to this purchase relates to the requirement that TfL compensates TCL for the consequences of any changes to the fares, in 2007 that payment was £4m, with an annual increase in rate. In October 2008 TfL introduced a new livery, using the blue, white and green of the routes on TfL maps, the colour of the cars was changed to green, and the brand name was changed from Croydon Tramlink to simply Tramlink. These refurbishments were completed in early 2009, the tram stops have low platforms,35 cm above rail level. They are unstaffed and have automated ticket machines, in general, access between the platforms involves crossing the tracks by pedestrian level crossing. There are 39 stops, most being 32.2 m long and they are virtually level with the doors and are all wider than 2 m
39.
Luton Airport Parkway railway station
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Luton Airport Parkway railway station is on the Midland Main Line in England, serving Luton Airport in Bedfordshire. It is 29 miles 19 chains down-line from London St Pancras and is situated between Harpenden to the south and Luton to the north and its three-letter station code is LTN. The station is served by Thameslink-operated trains on the Thameslink route and it is situated approximately 1 mile west of the airport, to which it is linked by a frequent shuttle bus service. The station was opened in 1999, specifically to serve Luton Airport, initially it was linked to the airport by free shuttle buses operated by National Car Parks on behalf of the airports owners. In January 2008 the free bus service was replaced by a more frequent. Now that Govia are once again operating Thameslink, the service is planned to revert to being free, in November 2008, the station became the first on the Thameslink route to have its platforms extended in order to accommodate twelve-coach trains as part of the Thameslink Programme. In April 2013, a new entrance was opened on Kimpton Road. A1. 4-mile light rail link is planned to link Luton Airport Parkway station to the airport, the £200 million link, scheduled to open by the end of 2020, is being funded by Luton Borough Council and will be designed by the engineering firm Arup. The link will be operated 24 hours a day by an automated guided people mover which would offer a 5-minute transfer time between Parkway station and the airport terminal. The project will involve the construction of bridges over the neighbouring A1081 dual carriageway and tunnels, the light rail platforms at the Parkway station will be built on a new level above the current main line rail platforms. Negotiations are underway with the Department for Transport to extend the validity of the Oyster card contactless ticketing system to Luton Airport by 2018, a planning application will be submitted in Autumn 2016, and it is expected that construction will begin in 2017. London Oyster Cards and contactless cards are expected to be accepted by 2018 to Luton Airport, interchange with these services can be made at Leicester and St Pancras. The station is connected to London Luton Airport by a bus which takes 10 minutes for the journey. Services run every 10 minutes during the day and connect with all trains calling at the station overnight, the service is provided by Thameslink, and through booking to the airport is available from all National Rail stations. Passengers without through tickets must pay a fare to use the buses. It is in the town as Luton and Leagrave stations. Media related to Luton Airport Parkway railway station at Wikimedia Commons Train times and station information for Luton Airport Parkway railway station from National Rail
40.
South Wales Metro
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The South Wales Metro is a proposed integration of heavy rail and development of light rail and bus-based public transport services and systems in South East Wales around the hub of Cardiff Central. The first phase was approved for development in October 2013, most of these closed lines ran across the north-south geography, cutting through and across the South Wales Valleys. Ever since these cuts, which many smaller former mining communities isolated and without rail services. In addition, the provision of connecting services across the wider South East Wales region by creating a system has come on to the policy agenda. This would allow access to the employment and shopping opportunities in both Cardiff and the wider area. Submitted in April 2012, after internal consultation it was submitted by CDP to the Welsh Governments Business Minister Edwina Hart in December 2012, Hart then commissioned Barry to write a further report, detailing a phased approach to his original scheme. In October 2013, after Barry had submitted his report to Hart at the end of Summer 2013, further, she set up a working group to examine detailed proposals for the potential subsequent stages of the Cardiff Capital Region Metro system. WG approval of Phase1 South Wales Metro information brochure
41.
Abbey Line
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The Abbey line, also called the St Albans Abbey branch line, is a railway line from Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey. The 6. 5-mile route passes through town and countryside in the county of Hertfordshire, just outside the boundaries of the Oyster Card and London fare zones. Its northern terminus in St Albans Abbey is located in the south of the city, the Abbey line is a semi-rural line and, due to its single-track operation, service frequencies are limited. The service is referred to locally as the Abbey Flyer. The line was opened by the London and North Western Railway on 5 May 1858 and was the first railway to reach St Albans, originally there were two intermediate stations, Bricket Wood Park Street In 1910 a station at Callowland opened, now Watford North. In 1924 the terminus at St Albans became St Albans Abbey to distinguish it from the Midland Railway main line station at St Albans City, the LNWR station was also served by a branch of the Great Northern Railway from Hatfield. A sixth station was added at Garston in 1966 and a seventh at How Wood in 1988, the line was built in its current form, a branch from Watford to St. Albans. However, the line was at times connected to two other lines, One, the Hatfield and St Albans Railway, opened in 1865 from St. Albans Abbey station to the East Coast main line at Hatfield. Mostly a local route, the construction of the Midland main line ensured that it never became popular with the market of passengers to London. It closed to passengers in 1951, part of a cutback of minor routes after the war, the whole route closed to goods in 1964, though a short stub at the Hatfield end lasted until 1968. During construction of the Midland main line in the 1860s, a branch was laid from near How Wood to the Midland route to carry building materials. Never used by services, Ordnance Survey maps indicate it closed between 1883 and 1898 although the embankment and some bridge abutments remain very visible. As part of a plan in the 1980s, British Rail examined reopening this, with the aim of diverting the branch to the City station. Passenger services are operated by London Midland, stations on the branch are unstaffed and tickets must be bought on the train, except at St Albans Abbey and Watford North which have a ticket machine, and Watford Junction which is staffed. If starting your journey at Watford Junction, in compliance with National Rail conditions of carriage, the Abbey line is part of the Network Rail Strategic Route 18, SRS18.10 and is classified as a Rural line. The line is single track and is electrified at 25 kV AC using overhead line equipment and it has a loading gauge of W6 and a line speed of between 40 and 75 mph. The service is operated using EMUs, a Class 319 EMU is in regular use, with services formerly operated by Class 321 and Class 313 units before that. Rarely a Class 150 DMU has been substituted, London Midland recently acquired the Class 319 trains to replace the Class 321 units acquired by Abellio ScotRail to operate on Glasgows suburban rail network
42.
Cross River Tram
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Cross River Tram was a Transport for London proposal for a 10-mile tram system in London. It was planned to run on a route from Camden Town in the north, via Kings Cross, to Peckham. The Cross River Tram scheme was proposed to relieve overcrowding on the London Underground and was due to operation by 2016. The project was cancelled in 2008 due to funding problems, however, in July 2016, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has said he does not intend to revive the Cross River Tram project cancelled by his predecessor Boris Johnson. Trams would have run up to every 4 minutes on each branch, despite following the same route, it was not envisaged that the Cross River Tram line would use the former Kingsway tramway subway. In May 2008, Livingstones successor as mayor, Boris Johnson, on 6 November 2008, Transport for London announced that the Cross River Tram would not be built
43.
Bristol Supertram
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Bristol Supertram was a proposed light rail system for the Bristol and South Gloucestershire regions of England. In 2001, the project was given backing from the government to build a line that would link the city centre with the North Bristol region, but the project was cancelled in 2004. The Bristol Supertram project was launched in March 2001 with an announcement from the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport, the initial cost of £194 million was to be provided by a public–private partnership, which would include 20% funding from the private sector. The remaining funds were to come from the government and the authorities of Bristol. Bristol was one of 25 cities and conurbations that had selected for light rail development by the New Labour government. This was part of a government white paper and a 10-year plan to improve transport in the UK. Opinion polls in Bristol have consistently shown that the issues of public transport. Public interest in a rail system had been raised with a demonstration service by Bristol Electric Railbus Ltd. This service operated a Parry People Movers railcar along the first 0. 5-mile of the Bristol Harbour Railway, the first stage of the project was the construction of a route called Line One, which was planned to run from Bristol city centre to Almondsbury. The 10-mile journey would be completed in 30 minutes and make 16 stops, the line would start from a central terminus in Union Street, which is close to Bristol Bus Station. It would then run along recessed rails to stops in Quay Street, Prince Street, after this it would connect with the National Rail network at Bristol Temple Meads railway station. From Temple Meads, Line One would head northwards on the Cross Country Route, two stops would be made at reopened stations on this line that were originally closed as a result of the Beeching cuts in 1964. Ashley Hill railway station would be refurbished and reopened as Ashley Down, horfield railway station would be renamed as Bonnington Walk to serve the Lockleaze area. The line would now enter South Gloucestershire and stop at Filton Abbey Wood railway station followed by Bristol Parkway station, an extension was proposed with stops at the MoD Abbey Wood headquarters and the University of the West of England. From Parkway station, the line would now depart from the rail network, the next stop at Parkway North would serve as a park and ride from the M4 motorway. The line would make three stops across the Bradley Stoke residential area. The northern terminus for Line One was planned to be Aztec West and this would operate as a park and ride from the M5 motorway. The line was intended to provide an affordable and efficient transport service that would improve the competitiveness of the North Bristol
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