1.
National Rail
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The name and the accompanying double arrow symbol are the intellectual property of the Secretary of State for Transport. The National Rail logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, and was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Identity Style Guidelines published by the Rail Delivery Group, the NR title is sometimes described as a brand. As it was used by British Rail, the operator before franchising, its use also maintains continuity and public familiarity. National Rail should not be confused with Network Rail, the two networks are generally coincident where passenger services are run. Most major Network Rail lines carry traffic and some lines are freight only. About twenty privately owned operating companies, each franchised for a defined term by government. The Rail Delivery Group is the association representing the TOCs and provides core services. It also runs Rail Settlement Plan, which allocates ticket revenue to the various TOCs, and Rail Staff Travel and it does not compile the national timetable, which is the joint responsibility of the Office of Rail Regulation and Network Rail. Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain, the look and feel of signage, liveries and marketing material is largely the preserve of the individual TOCs. However, National Rail continues to use BRs famous double-arrow symbol and it has been incorporated in the National Rail logotype and is displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and other publicity. The trademark rights to the arrow symbol remain state-owned, being vested in the Secretary of State for Transport. The double arrow was already prescribed for indicating a railway station, the lettering used in the National Rail logotype is a modified form of the typeface Sassoon Bold. It is a misconception that Rail Alphabet was also used for printed material. The British Rail typefaces of choice from 1965 were Helvetica and Univers, TOCs may use what they like, examples include Futura, Helvetica, Frutiger, Bliss, and a modified version of Precious by London Midland. Several conurbations have their own metro or tram systems, most of which are not part of National Rail, LO now also possesses some infrastructure in its own right, following the reopening of the former East London line of London Underground as the East London Railway of LO. Heathrow Express and Eurostar are also not part of the National Rail network despite sharing of stations, northern Ireland Railways were never part of British Rail, which was always confined to Great Britain, and therefore are not part of the National Rail network. National Rail services have a common ticketing structure inherited from British Rail, through tickets are available between any pair of stations on the network, and can be bought from any station ticket office
2.
London Overground
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The London Overground is a suburban rail network in the United Kingdom. Established in 2007, it serves a large part of Greater London and parts of Hertfordshire, the network forms part of the National Rail network, but under the franchise control and branding of Transport for London. Operation has been franchised to Arriva Rail London since 13 November 2016, the Overground has been assigned the colour orange as a mode specific colour by Transport for London. This colour is used in the Overground version of the TfL roundel, for the representation of Overground routes on the map, in train interiors. Rail services in Great Britain are mostly run under franchises operated by train operating companies. The concept of developing a network of services around London goes back to the independently produced Ringrail proposals in the early 1970s. The proposal from Barren was for several overlapping services mainly using the North London Line and this was given the marketing name Cross Town Link-Line, and operated with basic 2-car diesel units. The next initiative came from the GLC in 1984, when the government supported the Broadgate development that would entail the demolition of Broad Street Station. The closure process was convoluted because of problems in making arrangements for the North London Line. These would eventually run to and from Liverpool Street via a new section of track and this used a name once associated with a semicircular service that operated from Broad Street to Mansion House, but ceased during World War 1. The pamphlets and briefings, first issued in 1997, initially suggested a route from Clapham Junction to the Greenwich Peninsula, intended to improve access from south London to the Millennium Dome. However, this was thwarted by architect Richard Rogers who considered a railway route on an elevated viaduct could cause community severance, nothing further happened to develop this network until after the new GLA was set up in 2000. But the lobbying discreetly continued with a series of short briefings published by one RDS member based in North London, mayoral and GLA candidates were approached to discuss the viability of the Outer Circle concept. The principle was widely supported and was adopted into the first Mayors Transport Plan, meanwhile, a pilot scheme was launched in 2003 to bring several National Rail local services, mainly in South London and operated by multiple companies, under the ON – Overground Network brand. TfL introduced consistent information displays, station signage and maps on the routes in South London. The pilot scheme was later dropped, in January 2004 the Department for Transport announced a review of the rail industry in Great Britain. As part of review, proposals were put forward by TfL for a London Regional Rail Authority to give TfL regulatory powers over rail services in. A result of consultation was agreement by the then Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling
3.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936
4.
Richmond, London
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Richmond is a suburban town in southwest London,8.2 miles west-southwest of Charing Cross. The town is on a meander of the River Thames, with a number of parks and open spaces, including Richmond Park, and many protected conservation areas. A specific Act of Parliament protects the scenic view of the River Thames from Richmond, Richmond was founded following Henry VIIs building of Richmond Palace in the 16th century, from which the town derives its name. During this era the town and palace were particularly associated with Elizabeth I, during the 18th century Richmond Bridge was completed and many Georgian terraces were built, particularly around Richmond Green and on Richmond Hill. These remain well preserved and many have listed building architectural or heritage status, the opening of the railway station in 1846 was a significant event in the absorption of the town into a rapidly expanding London. Richmond was formerly part of the ancient parish of Kingston upon Thames in the county of Surrey, in 1890 the town became a municipal borough, which was later extended to include Kew, Ham, Petersham and part of Mortlake. The municipal borough was abolished in 1965 when, as a result of boundary changes, Richmond is now part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, and has a population of 21,469. It has a significant commercial and retail centre with a developed day, the area now known as Richmond was formerly part of Shene. Shene was not listed in Domesday Book, although it is depicted on the maps as Sceon. Henry VII had a palace there and in 1501 he named it Richmond Palace in recognition of his earldom. The town that developed nearby took the name as the palace. Henry I lived briefly in the Kings house in Sheanes, Edward II, following his defeat by the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, founded a monastery for Carmelites at Sheen. When the boy-king Edward III came to the throne in 1327 he gave the manor to his mother Isabella, Edward later spent over two thousand pounds on improvements, but in the middle of the work Edward himself died at the manor, in 1377. Richard II was the first English king to make Sheen his main residence and it was rebuilt between 1414 and 1422, but destroyed by fire 1497. Following that fire Henry VII built a new residence at Sheen, there are unconfirmed beliefs that Shakespeare may have performed some plays there. Once Elizabeth I became queen she spent much of her time at Richmond and she died there on 24 March 1603. The palace was no longer in use after 1649, but in 1688 James II ordered partial reconstruction of the palace. The bulk of the palace had decayed by 1779, but surviving structures include the Wardrobe, Trumpeters House, and this has five bedrooms and was made available on a 65-year lease by the Crown Estate Commissioners in 1986
5.
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
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The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south-west London, England, forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963 and it is governed by Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council. The borough is approximately half parkland – large areas of Londons open space fall within the boundaries, including Richmond Park, Kew Gardens, Bushy Park. A neighbouring authority in Surrey achieved the best quality of life in that report, demography is a diverse picture as in all of London, each district should be looked at separately and even those do not reflect all neighbourhoods. Whatever generalisations are used, the texture of London poverty by its minutely localised geography must always be taken into account according to an influential poverty report of 2010. Londons German business and expatriate community is centred on this borough, the above are arranged by post town Parks take up a great deal of the borough and include Richmond Park, Bushy Park, Kew Gardens, and Hampton Court Park. There are over 100 parks and open spaces within its boundary and 21 miles of river frontage,140 hectares within the borough are designated as part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. The name Richmond upon Thames was coined at that time, it is now commonly but inaccurately used to refer to Richmond only, the boroughs history is reflected in the coat of arms, which was officially granted on 7 May 1966. It is, Ermine a portcullis or within a bordure gules charged with eight fleurs-de-lis or. The crest is, On a wreath argent and gules out of a mural crown gules a swan rousant argent in beak a branch of climbing red roses leaved and entwined about the neck proper. The supporters are, On either side a griffin gules, armed and beaked azure, each supporting an oar proper, the blade of the dark blue. Red, gold and ermine are the royal colours, reflecting Richmonds royal history. The swan represents the River Thames, which flows through the borough, the oars are from the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club, reflecting the fact that the Boat Race between the two universities ends at Mortlake in the borough. The borough currently has a Conservative-led council which has been the most common administration since its formation, the borough is served by many Transport for London bus routes. The borough is connected to central London and Reading by the National Rail services of South West Trains, the London Undergrounds District line serves Richmond and Kew Gardens stations, both are also served by London Overground trains on the North London Line. The other stations are, Barnes, Barnes Bridge, Fulwell, Hampton, Hampton Wick, Mortlake, North Sheen, St Margarets, Strawberry Hill, Teddington, Twickenham, Richmond upon Thames is the local education authority for the borough. The borough has a football club, Hampton & Richmond Borough F. C. who play at Beveree Stadium in Hampton. The Twickenham Stadium hosts rugby internationals and the Twickenham Stoop is home to the Harlequins Rugby Team, Richmond Rugby Club are also active and share their grounds with London Scottish F. C
6.
Network Rail
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Network Rail is the owner and infrastructure manager of most of the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales. Network Rail is an arms length public body of the Department for Transport with no shareholders, since 1 September 2014, Network Rail has been classified as a public sector body. Britains railway system was built by companies, but it was nationalised by the Transport Act 1947. Infrastructure and passenger and freight services were separated at that time, between 1994 and 2002 the infrastructure was owned and operated by Railtrack. The Hatfield train crash on 17 October 2000 was a moment in the collapse of Railtrack. The costs of modernising the West Coast Main Line were also spiralling, the purchase was completed on 3 October 2002. The SRA was abolished in November 2006, the company moved its headquarters to Kings Place,90 York Way, from 40 Melton Street, Euston, in August 2008. In October 2008, Sir Ian McAllister announced that he would not stand for re-election as chairman of Network Rail and he had held the position for six years. He noted that as Network Rail moved to a new phase in its development it was appropriate for a new chairman to lead it there, many track safety initiatives have been introduced in the time Network Rail has been responsible for this area. This ruling came into force in January 2009 for maintenance and property workers and in April 2009 for infrastructure, in 2009, allegations appeared in the media from the Transport Salaried Staffs Association concerning treatment of Network Rail employees. Former chief executive Iain Coucher was also accused of financial impropriety involving unspecified payments to his business partner Victoria Pender during his tenure at Network Rail, an internal investigation held by Network Rail in 2010, vetted by its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing. An independent enquiry headed by Anthony White QC in 2011 further examined the claims, critical commentary appeared in the media concerning the knighthood awarded to John Armitt in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to engineering and construction. The reorganisation has been interpreted as a move back towards vertical integration of track, in 2016 Network Rail failed to check whether the Flying Scotsman could fit through tunnels along the Borders Route resulting in the cancellation of a trip just 24 hours before departure. Scottish Transport Minister Derek Mackay branded the affair a debacle, Network Rails attempt to electrify the West Coast Mainline has been dogged by poor planning and cost overruns, the projected cost has ballooned from by £1.2 billion to £2. It however owns a fleet of departmental stock, although it owns over 2,500 railway stations, it manages only 18 of the biggest and busiest of them, all the other stations being managed by one or other of the various train operating companies. Network Rail has a 15-year lease on Square One in Manchester with 800 staff in one of Manchesters largest refurbished office spaces, Network Rail should not be confused with National Rail. National Rail is not an organisation, but merely a brand, used to explain, the majority of Network Rail lines also carry freight traffic, some lines are freight only. A few lines that carry passenger traffic are not part of the National Rail network, conversely, a few National Rail services operate over track which is not part of the Network Rail network
7.
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
8.
World Geodetic System
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The World Geodetic System is a standard for use in cartography, geodesy, and navigation including GPS. It comprises a standard system for the Earth, a standard spheroidal reference surface for raw altitude data. The latest revision is WGS84, established in 1984 and last revised in 2004, earlier schemes included WGS72, WGS66, and WGS60. WGS84 is the coordinate system used by the Global Positioning System. The coordinate origin of WGS84 is meant to be located at the Earths center of mass, the error is believed to be less than 2 cm. The WGS84 meridian of longitude is the IERS Reference Meridian,5.31 arc seconds or 102.5 metres east of the Greenwich meridian at the latitude of the Royal Observatory. The WGS84 datum surface is a spheroid with major radius a =6378137 m at the equator. The polar semi-minor axis b then equals a times, or 6356752.3142 m, currently, WGS84 uses the EGM96 geoid, revised in 2004. This geoid defines the sea level surface by means of a spherical harmonics series of degree 360. The deviations of the EGM96 geoid from the WGS84 reference ellipsoid range from about −105 m to about +85 m, EGM96 differs from the original WGS84 geoid, referred to as EGM84. Efforts to supplement the national surveying systems began in the 19th century with F. R. Helmerts famous book Mathematische und Physikalische Theorien der Physikalischen Geodäsie. Austria and Germany founded the Zentralbüro für die Internationale Erdmessung, a unified geodetic system for the whole world became essential in the 1950s for several reasons, International space science and the beginning of astronautics. The lack of inter-continental geodetic information, efforts of the U. S. Army, Navy and Air Force were combined leading to the DoD World Geodetic System 1960. Heritage surveying methods found elevation differences from a local horizontal determined by the level, plumb line. As a result, the elevations in the data are referenced to the geoid, the latter observational method is more suitable for global mapping. The sole contribution of data to the development of WGS60 was a value for the ellipsoid flattening which was obtained from the nodal motion of a satellite. Prior to WGS60, the U. S. Army, the Army performed an adjustment to minimize the difference between astro-geodetic and gravimetric geoids. By matching the relative astro-geodetic geoids of the selected datums with an earth-centered gravimetric geoid, since the Army and Air Force systems agreed remarkably well for the NAD, ED and TD areas, they were consolidated and became WGS60
9.
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
10.
Greater London
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London, or Greater London, is a region of England which forms the administrative boundaries of London. It is organised into 33 local government districts, the 32 London boroughs, the Greater London Authority, based in Southwark, is responsible for strategic local government across the region and consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The county of Greater London was created on 1 April 1965 through the London Government Act 1963, administratively, Greater London was first established as a sui generis council area under the Greater London Council between 1963 and 1986. The area was re-established as a region in 1994, and the Greater London Authority formed in 2000, the region covers 1,572 km2 and had a population of 8,174,000 at the 2011 census. In 2012, it had the highest GVA per capita in the United Kingdom at £37,232, the Greater London Built-up Area—used in some national statistics—is a measure of the continuous urban area of London, and therefore includes areas outside of the administrative region. The term Greater London has been and still is used to different areas in governance, statistics, history. In terms of ceremonial counties, London is divided into the small City of London, outside the limited boundaries of the City, a variety of arrangements has governed the wider area since 1855, culminating in the creation of the Greater London administrative area in 1965. The Greater London Arterial Road Programme was devised between 1913 and 1916, one of the larger early forms was the Greater London Planning Region, devised in 1927, which occupied 1,856 square miles and included 9 million people. The LCC pressed for an alteration in its boundaries soon after the end of the First World War, noting that within the Metropolitan, a Royal Commission on London Government was set up to consider the issue. The LCC proposed a vast new area for Greater London, with a boundary somewhere between the Metropolitan Police District and the home counties, protests were made at the possibility of including Windsor, Slough and Eton in the authority. The Commission made its report in 1923, rejecting the LCCs scheme, two minority reports favoured change beyond the amalgamation of smaller urban districts, including both smaller borough councils and a central authority for strategic functions. The London Traffic Act 1924 was a result of the Commission, Greater London originally had a two-tier system of local government, with the Greater London Council sharing power with the City of London Corporation and the 32 London Borough councils. The GLC was abolished in 1986 by the Local Government Act 1985 and its functions were devolved to the City Corporation and the London Boroughs, with some functions transferred to central government and joint boards. Greater London was used to form the London region of England in 1994, a referendum held in 1998 established a public will to recreate an upper tier of government to cover the region. The Greater London Authority, London Assembly and the directly elected Mayor of London were created in 2000 by the Greater London Authority Act 1999, in 2000, the outer boundary of the Metropolitan Police District was re-aligned to the Greater London boundary. The 2000 and 2004 mayoral elections were won by Ken Livingstone, the 2008 and 2012 elections were won by Boris Johnson. The 2016 election was won by Sadiq Khan, Greater London continues to include the most closely associated parts of the Greater London Urban Area and their historic buffers. Thus it includes, in five boroughs, significant parts of the Metropolitan Green Belt which protects designated greenfield land in a way to the citys parks
11.
North London line
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The North London line is a railway line of the London Overground, which passes through the inner suburbs of north London, England. Its route is a rough semicircle between the south-west and the north-east, avoiding central London, the line is owned and maintained by Network Rail and London Overground. It is an important freight route and is used by the Richmond to Stratford service of the London Overground, also, between Richmond and Gunnersbury, London Undergrounds District line shares tracks with London Overground services, although this part is also owned and maintained by Network Rail. The line reopened on 1 June 2010 with a service and none on Sundays, and with the upgrade work completed. The later construction of the Royal Victoria Dock necessitated a swing-bridge on the route south of Canning Town which was rerouted in 1850 via Custom House. The original route was retained as the Silvertown Tramway, a freight line connected at both ends to the new main line. The main central section opened from 1850 to 1852 as the East & West India Docks & Birmingham Junction Railway and this gave a link from the Euston main line near Primrose Hill to the docks at Poplar via Bow. In the west, the North & South Western Junction Railway was opened in 1853 from Willesden Junction to a junction with the Hounslow Loop Line near Kew Bridge, the last link in the east was opened between the NLR near Victoria Park and Stratford in 1854. To obviate NLR trains running on the busy Euston main line, to give the NLR direct access to the City of London, the City extension to Broad Street was opened from Dalston Junction in 1865. The final part of the route was the opening of a link from South Acton to Richmond by the London & South Western Railway in 1869, the line from Broad Street to Kew Bridge and Richmond was electrified by the LNWR in 1916 on the 4th-rail DC system. In 1944, passenger services on the NLR Poplar branch ceased, freight traffic continued on the branch to the docks on the Isle of Dogs until 1980. The trackbed of the part of the branch, from Poplar to Bow, was used for the Docklands Light Railway branch to Stratford. The service was listed for closure in the 1963 Beeching Report and it was saved after a huge campaign. The line was Grant Aided under the Transport Act 1968 and came under threat when the Conservative Government of 1970-71 proposed to reduce Grant Aid funding. That threat, eventually lifted, led to the founding of a new group, the North London Line Committee. In 1979, the North Woolwich to Stratford service was extended to Camden Road as the CrossTown LinkLine service, using the same Cravens-built diesel multiple unit trains. There were no stations until, in 1980, Hackney Wick was opened, near the site of the former Victoria Park station and Hackney Central was re-opened. New platforms were built at West Ham for interchange with the adjacent Underground station, in the 1980s, Broad Street station closed and the Tottenham Hale–Stratford link and the station at Lea Bridge ceased to be used by regular passenger trains
12.
North Sheen railway station
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North Sheen railway station is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, in south London, and is in Travelcard Zone 3. The station, on the edge of Richmond, is named after the North Sheen area which. It was opened by the Southern Railway on 6 July 1930, the station and all trains serving it are now operated by South West Trains. North Sheen station serves the area between Mortlake and Richmond stations on the South West Trains main line rail service, North Sheen station is just off Manor Road, where there is a level crossing. Originally, the railway was planned to run through a cutting, allowing Green Lane to be carried over the railway by a road bridge. The station had a footbridge allowing access to the platforms from both sides of the level crossing, but now only the northern half of that bridge remains. A new bridge, on the side of the level crossing to the station, was opened in October 2013. When the level crossing is closed, passengers wishing to access to the platforms from the south side of Manor Road have to use both the new bridge and the existing one. The station is not wheelchair-accessible, nor is the footbridge
13.
St Margarets (London) railway station
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St Margarets railway station, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in southwest London, is in Travelcard Zone 4. It was opened by the London & South Western Railway in 1876 on the line from Waterloo to Windsor. The station and all trains serving it are operated by South West Trains, the station entrance is at the east end, nearer to London. The station is known as St Margarets and St Margarets to differentiate it from St Margarets railway station and it is now possible to use the Oyster card for travel here. Normal tickets to Waterloo are not valid by second and third routes, Trains direct to or towards London call at Platform 1. The vast majority of trains calling here stop at all stations to Waterloo, fast trains towards Waterloo use the track that passes Platform 2. There is only one outbound platform, fast trains away from London pass through the station along the track for Platform 3. St. Margarets is often visited by passing fast services to Reading and Windsor and Chertsey, London Buses routes 969 and H37 serve the station. Train times and station information for St Margarets railway station from National Rail
14.
London Waterloo station
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Waterloo main line station is one of 19 in the country that are managed by Network Rail and the station complex is in fare zone 1. The first railway station on site opened in 1848, the present structure was inaugurated in 1922. Part of the station is a Grade II listed building, with just under 100 million National Rail passenger entries/exits in 2015/16, Waterloo is Britains busiest railway station by patronage. Waterloo railway station alone is the 15th-busiest passenger station in Europe, however, including National Rail interchanges, the Underground station, and Waterloo East, the complex handled a total of 211 million passengers in the 2015/2016 financial year. It is therefore the busiest transport hub in Europe and it has more platforms and a greater floor area than any other station in the UK. The station was the London terminus for Eurostar international trains from 1994 until 2007, the London and South Western Railway opened the station on 11 July 1848 as Waterloo Bridge Station when its main line was extended from Nine Elms. The station, designed by William Tite, was raised above ground on a series of arches. The unfulfilled intention was for a station with services to the City of London. In 1886, it officially became Waterloo Station, reflecting long-standing common usage, the L&SWRs aim throughout much of the 19th century was to extend its main line eastward beyond Waterloo into the City of London. Given this, it was reluctant to construct a grand terminus at Waterloo. However traffic and passenger usage continued to grow and the company expanded the station at regular intervals and this resulted in the station becoming increasingly ramshackle. The original 1848 station became known as the Central Station as other platforms were added, each of these stations-within-a-station had its own booking office, taxi stand and public entrances from the street, as well as often poorly marked and confusing access to the rest of the station. Passengers were, not surprisingly, confused by the layout and by the two adjacent stations called Waterloo, from 1897 there had also been the adjacent Necropolis Company station. This complexity and confusion became the butt of jokes by writers and music hall comics for many years in the late 19th century, by the late 1890s the L&SWR accepted that main-line access to the City was impossible. In 1898, the company opened the Waterloo & City line and this gave the company the direct commuter service it had long desired. Legal powers to carry out the work were granted in 1899 and extensive groundwork and slum clearance were carried out until 1904, the new station was opened in stages, the first five new platforms being opened in 1910. The engineers J. W. Jacomb-Hood and Alfred Weeks Szlumper designed the roof and platforms, construction continued sporadically throughout the First World War, and the new station finally opened in 1922, with 21 platforms and a concourse nearly 800 feet long. The new station included a stained glass window depicting the L&SWRs company crest over the main road entrance
15.
Kew Gardens station (London)
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Kew Gardens is a Grade II listed London Underground and London Overground station in Kew in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It first opened in 1869 and is now managed by London Underground, Kew Gardens is the nearest station to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, about 500 yards to the west, and The National Archives, about 600 yards to the north east. Kew Gardens Station Footbridge, also a Grade II-listed structure, is next to the station, on the southern side, the main entrance to the station is at the junction of Station Parade, Station Avenue and Station Approach, about 100 yards from Sandycombe Road. There is also an entrance, which is wheelchair-accessible, on North Road, on the side of the railway line. The station was opened by the London and South Western Railway on 1 January 1869, in an area of market gardens, the station was located on a new L&SWR branch line to Richmond built from the West London Joint Railway starting north of Addison Road station. The line ran through Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith via a now closed curve and Grove Road station in Hammersmith, via a short connection from the North & South Western Junction Railway to Gunnersbury the line was also served by the North London Railway. On 1 June 1877, the District Railway opened an extension from its terminus at Hammersmith to connect to the L&SWR tracks east of Ravenscourt Park station. The DR then began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond, on 1 October 1877, the Metropolitan Railway restarted the GWRs former service to Richmond via Grove Road station. From 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MRs Richmond service and served Kew Gardens once again, meaning that passengers from Kew Gardens could travel on the services of five operators. Following the electrification of the DRs own tracks north of Acton Town in 1903 and this was completed on 1 August 1905 and DR services on the line were then operated with electric trains. However, the L&SWR, NLR, GWR and MR services continued to be steam-hauled, MR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1906 and GWR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1910, leaving operations at Kew Gardens and Gunnersbury to the DR, the NLR and L&SWR. A plaque at the station commemorates its reopening on 7 October 1989 by Michael Portillo MP, Minister of State of Transport, the two-storey yellow brick station buildings are unusually fine examples of mid-Victorian railway architecture and are protected as part of the Kew Gardens conservation area. This signal was replaced by a version in 2011. Kew Gardens is the station on the London Underground network that has a pub attached to it. The pub has a door leads out onto platform 1. Previously known as The Railway, the pub reopened after renovation in 2013 as The Tap on the Line, the footbridge to the south of the station is also noteworthy and is Grade II-listed in its own right. The railway line bisected Kew, but it was not until 1912 that the bridge was provided to residents to cross the tracks safely. It is a surviving example of a reinforced concrete structure built using a pioneering technique devised by the French engineer François Hennebique
16.
Portland stone
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Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries consist of beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds and it has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles, notably in major public buildings in London such as St Pauls Cathedral and Buckingham Palace. It is also exported to many countries—Portland stone is used in the United Nations headquarters building in New York City, Portland stone formed in a marine environment, on the floor of a shallow, warm, sub-tropical sea probably near land. When seawater is warmed by the sun, its capacity to hold dissolved gas is reduced, calcium and bicarbonate ions within the water are then able to combine, to form calcium carbonate as a precipitate. The process of lime scale build up in a kettle in hard water areas is similar, calcium carbonate is the principal constituent of most limestones. Billions of minute crystals of precipitated calcium carbonate accumulated forming lime mud which covered the sea floor, small particles of sand or organic detritus, such as shell fragments, formed a nucleus, which became coated with layers of calcite as they were rolled around in the muddy micrite. The calcite gradually accumulated around the fragments of shell in concentric layers and this process is similar to the way in which a snowball grows in size as it is rolled around in the snow. Over time, countless billions of these balls, known as ooids or ooliths, became partially cemented together by more calcite and this is one of the reasons why Portland stone is so favoured as a monumental and architectural stone. Dr Geoff Townson conducted three years research on the Portlandian, being the first to describe the patch-reef facies. Stone has been quarried on Portland since Roman times and was being shipped to London in the 14th century, Extraction as an industry began in the early 17th century, with shipments to London for Inigo Jones Banqueting House. Wrens choice of Portland for the new St Pauls Cathedral was a great boost for the quarries, the island was connected by railway to the rest of the country from 1865. Albion Stone PLC has been quarrying and mining Portland stone since 1984, Portland Stone Firms Ltd have been quarrying Portland stone since 1994. Jordans is part of the Inmosthay Quarry in the centre of the Island, the quarry has been worked since the late 19th century. Albion Stone leases the section from The Crown Estate and purchased the northern part of the site in 2006. The majority of the southern reserves lie under the grounds of the cricket club. To avoid disturbing the site at surface level, the company has applied and received permission to extract the stone using mining rather than quarrying techniques, the reserves to the north will be quarried using the diamond bladed cutting machines, hydro bags and wire saws to shape the blocks. Albion Stone PLC now extract all their stone through mining which dramatically reduces the impact on the environment, jordans Mine is currently the biggest mine on Portland. Bowers Quarry has been operational since the late 18th century and it has been leased from The Crown Estate since 1979 and in 2002 it became the site of the first Portland stone mine by Albion Stone PLC
17.
Art Deco
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Art Deco, sometimes simply referred to as Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture and design that first appeared in France just before World War I. It took its name, short for Arts Decorators, from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925 and it combined modernist styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials. During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, Art Deco was a pastiche of many different styles, sometimes contradictory, united by a desire to be modern. It featured rare and expensive materials such as ebony and ivory, the Chrysler Building and other skyscrapers of New York were the most visible monuments of the new style. In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, the became more subdued. New materials arrived, including chrome plating, stainless steel and plastic, a more sleek form of the style, called Streamline Moderne, appeared in the 1930s, it featured curving forms and smooth, polished surfaces. Art Deco became one of the first truly international architectural styles, with examples found in European cities, the style came to an end with the beginning of World War II. Deco was replaced as the dominant global style by the functional and unadorned styles of modernism. The term arts décoratifs was first used in France in 1858, in 1868, Le Figaro newspaper used the term art décoratifs with respect to objects for stage scenery created for the Théâtre de lOpéra. In 1875, furniture designers, textile, jewelry and glass designers and it took its present name of ENSAD in 1927. The term Art déco was then used in a 1966 newspaper article by Hillary Gelson in the Times, describing the different styles at the exhibit. Art Deco gained currency as a broadly applied stylistic label in 1968 when historian Bevis Hillier published the first major book on the style. Hillier noted that the term was already being used by art dealers and cites The Times, in 1971, Hillier organized an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which he details in his book about it, The World of Art Deco. The emergence of Art Deco was closely connected with the rise in status of decorative artists, the term arts décoratifs had been invented in 1875, giving the designers of furniture, textiles, and other decoration official status. The Société des artistes décorateurs, or SAD, was founded in 1901, a similar movement developed in Italy. The first international exhibition devoted entirely to the arts, the Esposizione international dArte decorative moderna, was held in Turin in 1902. Several new magazines devoted to decorative arts were founded in Paris, including Arts et décoration, Decorative arts sections were introduced into the annual salons of the Sociéte des artistes français, and later in the Salon dautomne. French nationalism also played a part in the resurgence of decorative arts, in 1911 the SAD proposed the holding of a major new international exposition of decorative arts in 1912
18.
Clapham Junction railway station
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Clapham Junction railway station is a major railway station and transport hub near St Johns Hill in the south-west of Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Despite its name, it is not located in Clapham, a district situated some 1.5 kilometres east-south-east of the station, the station is also the busiest UK station for interchanges between services. Before the railway came, the area was rural and specialised in growing lavender, the coach road from London to Guildford ran slightly south of the future station site, past The Falcon public house at the crossroads in the valley between St. Johns Hill and Lavender Hill. On 21 May 1838 the London and Southampton Railway became the London and South Western Railway and that was the first railway through the area but it had no station at the present site. The second line, initially from Nine Elms to Richmond, opened on 27 July 1846, Nine Elms was replaced in 1848 as the terminus by Waterloo Bridge station, now Waterloo. The line to Victoria opened by 1860, Clapham Junction opened on 2 March 1863, a joint venture of the L&SWR, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the West London Extension Railway as an interchange station for their lines. When the station was built, much of Battersea was the site of heavy industry while Clapham, Side, London and Clapham Common W. Side, London despite being well away from those park-side streets. Additional station buildings were erected in 1874 and 1876, batterseas slums unfit for human habitation were entirely replaced with council and charitable housing between 1918 and 1975. A £39.5 million planning application from Metro Shopping Fund was withdrawn before governmental planning committee consideration on 20 May 2009, Overground, the change would have been at Clapham Junction. On the morning of 12 December 1988 two collisions involving three commuter trains occurred slightly south-west of the station, thirty-five people died and more than 100 were injured. On the morning of 16 December 1991, a bomb ripped through tracks on one of the stations platforms, the Provisional Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility. The station is named Clapham Junction because it is at the junction of rail lines. Latchmere Main Junction connecting the WLL to the Brighton Line at Falcon Junction, West London Extension Junction and Junction for Waterloo, relaid for Eurostar empty-stock moves from the Windsor Lines to the WLL. Pouparts Junction where the low-level and high-level approaches to Victoria split, each day about 2,000 trains, over half of them stopping, pass through the station, more than through any other station in Europe. At peak times 180 trains per hour pass through of which 117 stop and it is not the busiest station by number of passengers, most of whom pass through. Interchanges make some 40% of the activity and on that basis too it is the busiest station in the UK, in 2011 the station had three entrances, all with staffed ticket offices, though only the south-east entrance is open 24 hours a day. The most heavily used of the three, this leads from St Johns Hill via an indoor shopping centre into a subway some 15 ft wide. The north entrance, which has restricted opening hours, leads from Grant Road to the same subway, the subway is crowded during rush hours, with the ticket barriers at the ends being pinch points
19.
Multi-storey car park
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A multi-storey car park is a building designed for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place. It is essentially a stacked car park, the term multistorey car park is used in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and many Commonwealth of Nations countries and commonly spelled with a hyphen. In the western United States, the parking structure is used. In some places in North America, parking garage refers only to an indoor, often underground, Parking ramp is used in the upper Midwest, especially Minnesota and Wisconsin, and has been incorrectly observed as far east as Rochester, New York. Parkade is widely used in Canada and South Africa Parking building is used in New Zealand. Architects and civil engineers in the USA are likely to call it a parking structure, since their work is all about structures, when attached to a high-rise of another use, it is sometimes called a parking podium. Natural or mechanical ventilation provides fresh air flow to disperse car exhaust in normal conditions, or hot gas, the earliest known multi-storey car park was built in 1918 for the Hotel La Salle at 215 West Washington Street in the West Loop area of downtown Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by Holabird and Roche, the Hotel La Salle was demolished in 1976, but the parking structure remained because it had been designated as preliminary landmark status and the structure was several blocks from the hotel. It was demolished in 2005 after failing to receive landmark status from the city of Chicago, a 49-storey apartment tower,215 West, has taken its place, also featuring a multi-tiered parking garage. An alternative claim has emerged from Glasgow, Scotland, for a building that was built between 1906 and 1912, in the 1920s an English cartoonist imagined a hotel for cars, he drew a multi-storey car park. Many car parks are independent buildings dedicated exclusively to that use, the design loads for car parks are often less than the office building they serve, leading to long floor spans of 55–60 feet that permit cars to park in rows without supporting columns in between. The most common structural systems in the United States for these structures are either prestressed concrete floor systems or post-tensioned cast-in-place concrete floor systems. This saves land for other uses, is cheaper and more practical in most cases than a separate structure and it protects customers and their cars from weather such as rain, snow, or hot summer sunshine that raises a vehicles interior temperature to extremely high levels. In Toronto, a 2,400 space parking lot below Nathan Phillips Square is one of the worlds largest, car parks which serve shopping centres can be built adjacent to the centre for easier access at each floor between shops and parking. One example is Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, USA, a common position for car parks within shopping centres in the UK is on the roof, around the various utility systems, enabling customers to take lifts straight down into the centre. Examples of such are The Oracle in Reading and Festival Place in Basingstoke and these garages often have low ceiling clearances, which restrict access by full-size vans and other large vehicles. On 15 December 2013, a man was killed during a robbery in the garage at The Mall at Short Hills in Millburn, the ambulance responding to the shooting was delayed because it was too large to enter the garage. Parking structures are subjected to the heavy and shifting loads of moving vehicles, expansion joints are used between sections not only for thermal expansion but to accommodate the flexing of the structures sections due to vehicle traffic
20.
London and South Western Railway
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The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. It also had many routes connecting towns in Hampshire and Berkshire, including Portsmouth, in the grouping of railways in 1923 the LSWR became part of the Southern Railway. The London and South Western Railway originated as a renaming of the London and Southampton Railway, the railway was an immediate success, and this encouraged the company to think of extensions, to Windsor, to Gosport and to Salisbury. It made a start but eventually had its own line from Basingstoke to Salisbury and Exeter, continuing by a northerly arc to Plymouth. Coming later than the Great Western to the area, it never achieved the solid prosperity there of its broad gauge neighbour. The Southampton line had extended to Weymouth via Ringwood, and the LSWR consolidated its home area building branches closer to London, and direct lines to Portsmouth. It also became joint owner, with the Midland Railway, of the Somerset and Dorset Railway, responsible for infrastructure, shipping became significant also, with passenger and freight services to the Channel Islands, to Saint-Malo in France, and to the Isle of Wight. In the twentieth century it embarked on a programme of electrifying the suburban routes, eventually this covered the entire suburban area. At the same time they revolutionised express passenger train speeds to Weymouth, electrification of the Portsmouth line was now carried out. However, in 1966 the geographical limits of the British Railways regions was rationalised, the Bournemouth line was electrified in 1967, at first with converted steam coaching stock, later replaced by purpose built stock, the electrification was extended to Weymouth. In recent years the system has remained constant, with increasing train frequency from about 1990 now forming a limitation. The services were transferred to St Pancras International in 2007 and at present the Eurostar terminal is dormant, construction probably started on 6 October 1834 under Francis Giles, but progress was slow. The Parliamentary fight had been bitter, and a combination of resentment, a more immediate opportunity was taken up, of serving Portsmouth by a branch line. Interests friendly to the L&SR promoted a Portsmouth Junction Railway, which would have run from Bishopstoke via Botley, however resentment in Portsmouth—which considered Southampton a rival port—at being given simply as branch and thereby a roundabout route to London, killed the prospects of such a line. Portsmouth people wanted their own line, but in trying to play off the L&SR against the London & Brighton Railway they were unable to secure the committed funds they needed. The L&SR now promoted a line to Gosport, shorter and simpler than the earlier proposal. To soothe feelings in Portsmouth, the L&SR included in its Bill a change of name to the London, construction of the Gosport branch was at first quick and simple under Thomas Brassey. Stations were built at Bishopstoke and Fareham, an extremely elaborate station was built at Gosport, tendered at £10,980, seven times the tender price for Bishopstoke
21.
Kensington (Olympia) station
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Kensington is a combined rail and tube station in Kensington, West London. It is managed and served by London Overground and also served by Southern and it is in Travelcard Zone 2. The stations name is drawn from its location in Kensington and the adjacent Olympia exhibition centre. A station was opened by the West London Railway as its terminus on 27 May 1844 as Kensington, just south of Hammersmith Road. A scant and erratic goods service continued, the line re-opened to passengers with a new station called Addison Road on 2 June 1862, Great Western Railway trains started serving the station in 1863, with London & North Western Railway trains arriving in 1872. A link to the Hammersmith & City Railway enabled the Middle Circle service to operate via Paddington to the north and South Kensington to the south. From 1869, the London & South Western Railway operated trains from Richmond to London Waterloo via Addison Road, by 1907 the Middle Circle had been replaced by four Hammersmith & City line trains an hour. The station appears on the first London Underground map in 1908 with Metropolitan, in 1940, Addison Road and the link to the Metropolitan line at Latimer Road closed along with the other West London Line stations. There was also a District line shuttle to Earls Court, the current District line bay platform opened in 1958, but the 1872 connection between the District and the main line south of the station was not finally lifted until 1992. London Underground ran a train from Earls Court only when an exhibition was on at Olympia. In 1981 the Motorail facility was closed, from 12 May 1986, services at the station were greatly enhanced. Southern Region destinations included Brighton, Newhaven Harbour and Dover Western Docks, as part of this the footbridge was painted in InterCity colours. These were operated by the InterCity division of British Rail, then after privatisation by Virgin CrossCountry, there were two bay platforms on the south-eastern side mainly used by services from Clapham Junction. The land behind the platform was sold for redevelopment. There was an Express Dairies creamery and milk bottling plant close to the served by milk trains from the Great Western Railway from Old Oak Common to a siding adjacent to the station. Kensington was included in cold war plans to ensure continuity of government in the event of the Cold War taking a hot turn, in 1994, a full passenger service between Willesden Junction and Clapham Junction was reinstated after a gap of 54 years. The planned Regional Eurostar and Nightstar services were to call at platform 2 to undertake border control procedures, the services to Plymouth and Swansea were scheduled to change motive power from a British Rail Class 92 to a Class 37/6 here. Secret plans entailed use of the station, in the prelude to a nuclear war, the ticket office was refurbished in 2011 with the upholstered seating, plants and lighting removed
22.
West London Line
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The West London Line is a short railway in inner West London that links Clapham Junction in the south to Willesden Junction in the north. The line has always been an important cross-London link especially for freight services, Southern and London Overground provide regular passenger services, detailed below. Construction was delayed by engineering and financial problems, the low number of passengers became such a regular target of Punch magazine that the line was called Punchs Railway. After only six months it closed on 30 November 1844, an Act of 1845 authorised the GWR and the L&BR to take a joint lease of the WLR. The line was used only to coal, and passenger service was not re-introduced. The existing line was doubled, and the crossing of the GWR main line. For a time, the West London Line formed part of the GWRs Middle Circle route which ran from Mansion House to Aldgate via Earls Court, Earls Court, Kensington Olympia, Latimer Road and Baker Street. The West London Line was also part of London Underground for a time, the branch was eventually closed and the link between the West London Line and todays Hammersmith & City line was dismantled in 1930. Through trains in the era changed locomotives here. From the 1920s there was a United Dairies depot on the site of a dairy farm here. The northern section of the line, from Willesden Junction to Kensington Olympia, after a period of popularity, passenger usage dwindled on the West London Railway. Competition from the new deep-level Underground railways and electric tramways took away custom by offering more direct routes into Central London. With the onset of World War II, the West London Line was badly hit in parts by enemy action during the Blitz. In 1940, LMS steam trains from Clapham Junction to Kensington ceased on 20 October, in 1948, the line became part of British Rail, following the nationalisation of the railways, but remained mostly in use as a freight route. For a decade, the West London Line was operated with the green-and-purple liveried Silverlink Metro trains, channel Tunnel infrastructure work in 1993 electrified the line at 750 V DC third rail from the South to the North Pole depot. The line is electrified at 25 kV AC overhead wires from Westway to Willesden, until the High Speed 1 railway line from St Pancras opened in November 2007, Eurostar trains from Waterloo International used the West London Line to access their North Pole depot. Platforms were reinstated at West Brompton in 1999, the line appears today on the Tube Map as an orange stripe. New stations opened at Shepherds Bush in 2008 and Imperial Wharf in 2009, in 1966 British Rail launched Motorail, a long-distance accompanied car train which transported passengers and their cars to the West of England and Scotland
23.
Hammersmith (Grove Road) railway station
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Hammersmith was a railway station on the London and South Western Railway, located on Grove Road in Hammersmith, west London. It was opened in 1869 and closed in 1916, for much of its existence, the station was also served by the Metropolitan Railway and the Great Western Railway. Its site was adjacent to another station named Hammersmith, which today is served by the Circle, LSWR trains serving Hammersmith ran from Waterloo via Addison Road to Richmond. MR and GWR trains ran from Paddington via the Hammersmith & City Railway, to the west of the station, the line became what is now the District line to Richmond, starting just to the east of Ravenscourt Park. In 1870, Grove Junction was built north of the station connecting the HCR and LSWR tracks, enabling GWR trains on the HCR to access Hammersmith, however, the GWR service ran for only a few months during 1870. In June 1877, the District Railway opened an extension from its own Hammersmith station to a junction to connect to the LSWR tracks east of Ravenscourt Park, from 1 October 1877, the MR began to run trains through Hammersmith to Richmond. From 1 January 1894, the GWR also initiated services along this route, MR services ended on 31 December 1906, shortly after the HCR tracks from Paddington were electrified. GWR services continued until 31 December 1910 and LSWR services continued until 3 June 1916 when the line between the Studland Road Junction and Addison Road was closed. The section west of the junction remains part of the District line, although authorisation was granted in 1920, the connection was never realised. The station site is now occupied by a block on Hammersmith Grove
24.
Turnham Green tube station
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Turnham Green is a London Underground station in Chiswick of the London Borough of Hounslow, west London. To the east, District line trains stop at Stamford Brook, to the west, District line trains run to either Chiswick Park or Gunnersbury and Piccadilly line trains stop at Acton Town. The station is in both Travelcard Zone 2 and Zone 3, the station is located on Turnham Green Terrace on the eastern edge of Chiswick Common, but the actual green is much closer to Chiswick Park station. It is about 200 m north of Chiswick High Road and as well as Central Chiswick, the station is located close to the site of the Battle of Turnham Green, during the First English Civil War. The line ran through Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith via a now unused curve, on 1 June 1877, the District Railway opened a short extension from its terminus at Hammersmith to connect to the L&SWR tracks east of Ravenscourt Park station. The DR then began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond, on 1 October 1877, the Metropolitan Railway restarted the GWRs former service to Richmond via Grove Road station. On 5 May 1878 The Midland Railway began running a service known as the Super Outer Circle from St Pancras to Earls Court via Cricklewood. It operated over a now disused connection between the North London Railway and the L&SWR Richmond branch, the service was not a success and was ended on 30 September 1880. The success of the DRs operations lead it, on 1 July 1879, from 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MRs Richmond service and served Turnham Green once again, meaning that passengers from Turnham Green could travel on the services of four operators. Following the electrification of the DRs own tracks north of Acton Town in 1903, the tracks between Acton Town and central London were electrified on 1 July 1905 and those on the Richmond branch on 1 August 1905. Whilst DR services were operated with trains, the L&SWR, GWR. MR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1906 and GWR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1910 leaving operations at Turnham Green to the DR, express non-stop tracks were provided for the Piccadilly line between the stopping lines of the District line. Services on the Piccadilly line began running through Turnham Green on 4 July 1932, during the rest of the day they run non-stop through the station as before. The signalling constraints and the size of the train fleet mean that we are unlikely to be able to implement changes in the short term. TfL therefore plans to stop Piccadilly line trains at Turnham Green station all day once the line is modernised and we have a new and larger fleet of trains and this upgrade is set to commence in 2019 with introduction of the first new train in 2022. In the interim, passengers using Turnham Green station will benefit from the upgrade of the District line, the introduction of a fleet of new larger and walk-through, air-conditioned trains will start this year and be complete by 2016. This will be followed by a new signalling system enabling a faster, more frequent, additionally, the Piccadilly line will stop throughout the night at Turnham Green when the Night Tube network starts in 2015. There is a flower seller located outside Turnham Green station, there are four ticket barriers and a gate that control access to all platforms
25.
Gunnersbury station
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Gunnersbury is a station in Gunnersbury within the London Borough of Hounslow, Greater London. On the District line the station is between Turnham Green and Kew Gardens, and on the North London Line it is between South Acton and Kew Gardens, the station is located off Chiswick High Road and is in Travelcard Zone 3. The line ran through Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith via a now closed curve and Grove Road station in Hammersmith, a short connection was also made from the North & South Western Junction Railway line to Brentford meeting the L&SWR line immediately north of the station. This line was served by the North London Railway, Brentford Road station originally had four platforms, two on the line to Richmond and two serving a loop which connected to the line through Kew Bridge station. The station was given its current name in 1871, on 1 June 1877, the District Railway opened a short extension from its terminus at Hammersmith to connect to the L&SWR tracks east of Ravenscourt Park station. The DR then began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond, on 1 October 1877, the Metropolitan Railway restarted the GWRs former service to Richmond via Grove Road station. From 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MRs Richmond service and served Gunnersbury once again, following the electrification of the DRs own tracks north of Acton Town in 1903, the DR funded the electrification of the tracks through Gunnersbury. The tracks on the Richmond branch were electrified on 1 August 1905, whilst DR services were operated with electric trains, the L&SWR, NLR, GWR and MR services continued to be steam hauled. MR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1906 and GWR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1910 leaving operations at Gunnersbury to the DR, in 1932, the Chiswick Curve was closed and the tracks were later removed. The site of the curve is now an estate known as Chiswick Village. On 8 December 1954 the station was damaged by a tornado ripped off the roof. Almost exactly fifty-two years later, another tornado hit London, damaging several properties in the Kensal Rise area on 7 December 2006, in the 1960s the station was redeveloped with just the two platforms it currently possesses. The London Overground and London Underground services share the same tracks
26.
Barnes, London
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Barnes is a suburban district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is located in the extreme northeast of the borough and it is centred 5.8 miles west south-west of Charing Cross in a bend of the River Thames. On the east riverside is the WWT London Wetland Centre adjoining several fields for the three national team sports. The Thames Path National Trail provides a promenade along the entire bend of the river which is on the Championship Course in rowing. Barnes has two stations and is served by bus routes towards central London and Richmond. Hammersmith Bridge at the north end links Barnes to the centre of Hammersmith, Barnes adjoins the South Circular Road and Putney, which forms a rival commercial hub to Hammersmith. Unlike Mortlake and Hammersmith, Barnes has no dual carriageways, the locality is one of a minority at its radius from the centre of London in the early 21st century to be defined by suburban by a Greater London Authority paper. Barnes has two railway stations, Barnes Bridge railway station Barnes railway station Its nearest tube station is Hammersmith. London Buses serving Barnes are, Historically part of Surrey, Barnes appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Berne. It was held by the Canons of St Paul of London when its assets were,8 hides and it rendered to its feudal system overlords £7 per year. The original Norman chapel of St Marys, Barnes village church, was built at some point between 1100 and 1150, and was extended in the early 13th century. In 1215, immediately after confirming the sealing of the Magna Carta, Stephen Langton, the church was added to in 1485 and in 1786. After a major fire in 1978 destroyed the Victorian and Edwardian additions to the building, some of the oldest riverside housing in London is to be found on the Terrace, a road lined with Georgian mansions which runs along the west bend of the river. Construction of these began as early as 1720. Gustav Holst and Ninette de Valois lived in houses on this stretch, the Terrace also has an original red brick police station, built in 1891. It has been remodelled as flats but still preserves the original features, the Grade II listed Barnes Railway Bridge, originally constructed in 1849 by Joseph Locke, dominates the view of the river from the Terrace. In 2009, a project began to re-paint the bridge, Castelnau, in north Barnes and on the banks of the river, has a small church, Holy Trinity. The area between Castelnau and Lonsdale Road contains a 1930s council estate, mostly consisting of Boot Houses, a 2014 survey found that Barnes had the highest proportion of independent shops of any area in Britain, at 96. 6%
27.
Great Western Railway
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The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England, the Midlands, and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835, Goods wagons were painted red but this was later changed to mid-grey. Great Western trains included long-distance express services such as the Flying Dutchman, the Cornish Riviera Express and it also operated many suburban and rural services, some operated by steam railmotors or autotrains. The company pioneered the use of larger, more economic goods wagons than were usual in Britain and it operated a network of road motor routes, was a part of the Railway Air Services, and owned ships, docks and hotels. The Great Western Railway originated from the desire of Bristol merchants to maintain their city as the port of the country. The company was founded at a meeting in Bristol in 1833 and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, then aged twenty-nine, was appointed engineer and this was by far Brunels largest contract to date. Firstly, he chose to use a gauge of 7 ft to allow for the possibility of large wheels outside the bodies of the rolling stock which could give smoother running at high speeds. Secondly, he selected a route, north of the Marlborough Downs and this meant the line was not direct from to London to Bristol. From Reading heading west, the line would curve in a northerly sweep back to Bath, the first 22.5 miles of line, from Paddington station in London to Maidenhead Bridge station, opened on 4 June 1838. When Maidenhead Railway Bridge was ready the line was extended to Twyford on 1 July 1839, the cutting was the scene of a railway disaster two years later when a goods train ran into a landslip, ten passengers who were travelling in open trucks were killed. This accident prompted Parliament to pass the 1844 Railway Regulation Act requiring railway companies to provide carriages for passengers. The next section, from Reading to Steventon crossed the Thames twice, a 7. 25-mile extension took the line to Faringdon Road on 20 July 1840. Meanwhile, work had started at the Bristol end of the line, on 17 December 1840, the line from London reached a temporary terminus at Wootton Bassett Road west of Swindon and 80.25 miles from Paddington. The section from Wootton Bassett Road to Chippenham was opened on 31 May 1841, as was Swindon Junction station where the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway to Cirencester connected. That was an independent line worked by the GWR, as was the Bristol and Exeter Railway, in 1851, the GWR purchased the Kennet and Avon Canal, which was a competing carrier between London, Reading, Bath and Bristol. The GWR was closely involved with the C&GWUR and the B&ER, the South Wales Railway had opened between Chepstow and Swansea in 1850 and became connected to the GWR by Brunels Chepstow Bridge in 1852. It was completed to Neyland in 1856, where a port was established
28.
Hammersmith & City line
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The Hammersmith & City line of the London Underground runs between Hammersmith and Barking. Coloured salmon pink on the map, it serves 29 stations in 15.8 miles. It runs below ground in the section between Paddington and Bow Road, between Farringdon and Aldgate East it skirts the City of London, the capitals financial heart. The tunnels are just below the surface and are a size to those on British main lines. In 1863, the Metropolitan Railway began the worlds first underground railway service between Paddington and Farringdon with wooden carriages and steam locomotives. The following year, a railway west from Paddington to Hammersmith was opened, the line was then extended to the east, in stages, reaching the East London Railway in 1884. The Hammersmith & City route was shown on the map as part of the Metropolitan line until 1990. The track and signalling systems are being upgraded, and the old 6-car C Stock trains have been replaced by new 7-car S Stock trains in a programme to increase capacity by 65 per cent by 2019. The line runs parallel to the Great Western Main Line between Paddington and Westbourne Park, and parallel to the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway between West Ham and Barking. The line was mostly under the New Road using the cut-and-cover method between Paddington and Kings Cross and then in tunnel and cuttings beside Farringdon Road. From 1865 the Met ran trains to Hammersmith and the GWR trains to Addison Road, in 1867 the line became jointly owned by the two companies. A year earlier some services had been extended via London & South Western Railways Hammersmith railway station, the railway was extended east of Farringdon and a terminus opened at Aldgate on 18 November 1876. In October 1884 the Met extended some Hammersmith services over the ELR to New Cross, the 6-car electric multiple units were jointly owned by the Met and GWR until 1923 when the GWR sold theirs to the Met. On 1 July 1933 the Metropolitan Railway was amalgamated with other Underground railways, tramway companies, to relieve congestion on the District line east of Whitechapel from 1936 some trains from Hammersmith were diverted from the East London line to Barking. However, this caused problems and from 1941 Barking was again served by trains from Hammersmith. From 1937 new steel O stock trains, with remotely operated by the guard. It had been intended to operate the new trains with four or six cars, services to Kensington via the curve at Latimer Road were suspended in 1940 after bomb damage to the West London line and not restarted after the war. When the similar trains running on the Circle line were lengthened to six cars in 1959 and 1960, aluminium C Stock trains, with public address systems and originally unpainted, replaced these trains from 1970
29.
District Railway
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The Metropolitan District Railway was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete the circle, an underground railway in London. The Metropolitan Railway operated all services until the District introduced its own trains in 1871, the railway was soon extended westwards through Earls Court to Fulham, Richmond, Ealing and Hounslow. After completing the circle and reaching Whitechapel in 1884, it was extended to Upminster in Essex in 1902. To finance electrification at the beginning of the 20th century, American financier Charles Yerkes took it over, Electric propulsion was introduced in 1905, and by the end of the year electric multiple units operated all of the services. On 1 July 1933, the District Railway and the other UERL railways were merged with the Metropolitan Railway, today, former District Railway tracks and stations are used by the London Undergrounds District, Piccadilly and Circle lines. In 1863, the Metropolitan Railway opened the worlds first underground railway, the line was built from Paddington beneath the New Road, connecting the main line railway termini at Paddington, Euston and Kings Cross. Then it followed Farringdon Road to a station at Farringdon Street in Smithfield, the Mets early success prompted a flurry of applications to parliament in 1863 for new railways in London, many competing for similar routes. The House of Lords established a committee that recommended an inner circuit of railway that should abut, if not actually join. Proposals to extend west and then south from Paddington to South Kensington, initially, the District and the Met were closely associated and it was intended that they would soon merge. The District was established as a company to enable funds to be raised independently of the Met. The District also had permission to extend westward from Brompton station and, on 12 April 1869. There were no stations and this service initially operated as a shuttle. By summer 1869 additional tracks had been laid between South Kensington to Brompton and from Kensington to a junction with the line to West Brompton, during the night of 5 July 1870 the District secretly built the disputed Cromwell curve connecting Brompton and Kensington. East of Westminster, the section ran in the newly constructed Victoria Embankment built by the Metropolitan Board of Works along the north bank of the River Thames. The line was opened from Westminster to Blackfriars on 30 May 1870 with stations at Charing Cross, The Temple, the Met initially operated all services, receiving 55 per cent of the gross receipts for a fixed level of service. The District were also charged for any extra trains and the Districts share of the income dropped to about 40 per cent, the Districts level of debt meant that merger was no longer attractive to the Met and its directors resigned from the Districts board. To improve its finances, the District gave the Met notice to terminate the operating agreement, on Saturday 1 July 1871, an opening banquet was attended by the Prime Minister William Gladstone, who was also a shareholder
30.
Ravenscourt Park tube station
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Ravenscourt Park is a London Underground station located in west Hammersmith, west London. The station is served by the District line and is between Hammersmith and Stamford Brook stations, the station is located between Dalling Road and Ravenscourt Road and is about 100 m north of King Street. The station takes its name from the nearby Ravenscourt Park and is in Travelcard Zone 2, the station has four tracks serviced by two island platforms. The outside tracks are used by the District line, London Assembly member Murad Qureshi has called for Piccadilly line trains to stop at Ravenscourt Park on a regular basis. The line through Ravenscourt Park station was opened on 1 January 1869 by the London, the branch was built from the West London Joint Railway starting north of Addison Road station. The line ran through Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith via a now closed curve, Ravenscourt Park station was opened as Shaftesbury Road by the L&SWR on 1 April 1873. On 1 June 1877, the District Railway opened an extension from its terminus at Hammersmith to connect to the L&SWR tracks east of Ravenscourt Park station. The DR then began running trains over the L&SWR tracks to Richmond, on 1 October 1877, the Metropolitan Railway also started a service to Richmond via Grove Road station. On 5 May 1878 The Midland Railway began running a service known as the Super Outer Circle from St Pancras to Earls Court via Cricklewood. It operated over a now disused connection between the North London Railway and the L&SWR Richmond branch, the service was not a success and was ended on 30 September 1880. The Richmond branch was a stimulus to residential development along the route. On 1 March 1888, the station was given its present name in advance of the park being opened to the public. From 1 January 1894, the GWR began sharing the MRs Richmond service and served Turnham Green once again, following the electrification of the DRs own tracks north of Acton Town in 1903, the DR funded the electrification of the tracks through Ravenscourt Park. The tracks between Acton Town and central London were electrified on 1 July 1905, whilst DR services were operated with electric trains, the L&SWR, GWR and MR services continued to be steam hauled. MR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1906 and GWR services were withdrawn on 31 December 1910 leaving operations at Ravenscourt Park to the DR, the inner tracks at Ravenscourt Park were designated for the Piccadilly line between the stopping lines of the District line. Services on the Piccadilly line began running through Ravenscourt Park on 4 July 1932, London Buses routes 27,190,266,391 and H91 and night routes N9 and N11 serve the station
31.
Metropolitan Railway
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Its first line connected the main-line railway termini at Paddington, Euston, and Kings Cross to the City. It opened to the public on 10 January 1863 with gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives, the line was soon extended from both ends, and northwards via a branch from Baker Street. Harrow was reached in 1880, and the line extended to Verney Junction in Buckinghamshire, more than 50 miles from Baker Street. Electric traction was introduced in 1905 and by 1907 electric multiple units operated most of the services, unlike other railway companies in the London area, the Met developed land for housing, and after World War I promoted housing estates near the railway using the Metro-land brand. On 1 July 1933, the Met was amalgamated with the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, former Met tracks and stations are used by the London Undergrounds Metropolitan, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Piccadilly, and Jubilee lines, and by Chiltern Railways. In the first half of the 19th century the population and physical extent of London grew greatly, only Fenchurch Street station was within the City. The congested streets and the distance to the City from the stations to the north, none were successful, and the 1846 Royal Commission investigation into Metropolitan Railway Termini banned construction of new lines or stations in the built-up central area. The concept of a railway linking the City with the mainline termini was first proposed in the 1830s. Charles Pearson, Solicitor to the City, was a promoter of several schemes. The scheme was rejected by the 1846 commission, but Pearson returned to the idea in 1852 when he helped set up the City Terminus Company to build a railway from Farringdon to Kings Cross. Although the plan was supported by the City, the companies were not interested. The Bayswater, Paddington, and Holborn Bridge Railway Company was established to connect the Great Western Railways Paddington station to Pearsons route at Kings Cross, a bill was published in November 1852 and in January 1853 the directors held their first meeting and appointed John Fowler as its engineer. After successful lobbying, the company secured parliamentary approval under the name of the North Metropolitan Railway in the summer of 1853 and this dropped the City terminus and extended the route south from Farringdon to the General Post Office in St. Martins Le Grand. The route at the end was also altered so that it connected more directly to the GWR station. Permission was also sought to connect to the London and North Western Railway at Euston and to the Great Northern Railway at Kings Cross, the companys name was also to be changed again, to Metropolitan Railway. Royal assent was granted to the North Metropolitan Railway Act on 7 August 1854, construction of the railway was estimated to cost £1 million. Initially, with the Crimean War under way, the Met found it hard to raise the capital, while it attempted to raise the funds it presented new bills to Parliament seeking an extension of time to carry out the works. In July 1855, an Act to make a connection to the GNR at Kings Cross received royal assent
32.
Willesden Junction station
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Willesden Junction is a Network Rail station in Harlesden, north-west London, UK. It is served by both London Overground and the Bakerloo line of the London Underground.5 miles to the northwest, passenger services ended in 1962 when the platforms were removed during electrification of the WCML to allow the curvature of the tracks to be eased. Later the bridges for the North London Line were rebuilt, the High-Level station on the NLL was opened by the North London Railway in 1869 on a track crossing the WCML roughly at right angles. In 1894 a new high level platform was built, together with a new entrance. By 1897199 passenger and 47 goods trains passed through the High Level station each day. The Willesden New Station or Low-Level station on the Watford DC Line was opened in 1910 to the north of the line with two outer through platforms and two inner bay platforms at the London end. In 1896 staff totalled 271, including 79 porters,58 signalmen and 58 shunters and they issued 1,006,886 tickets to passengers in 1896, up from 530,300 in 1886. Many of them were housed in what is now the Old Oak Lane conservation area, built by the LNWR in 1889, the main-line platforms were numbered from the south side followed by the high level platforms and then the DC line platforms which thus had the highest numbers. Later the surviving platforms were re-numbered, on 5 December 1910, a passenger train was in a rear-end collision with another at the station. Three people were killed and more than 40 were injured,23 of 25 passengers were injured, all but one were discharged from hospital during the same evening. There are no platforms on the West Coast Main Line, which is separated from the station by the approach road to Willesden Depot which lies immediately south-east of the station. Both platforms have been extended across the DC line to accommodate 4-coach class 378 trains, the HL station previously had a third platform on the eastern side which was used by services to/from Earls Court. There is another turnback siding further east which was previously used, in October 2014 the DC line was closed temporarily between Wembley Central and Queens Park reportedly by Network Rail to allow platform 2 to be extended further west as a through platform. Most of the original and later buildings were demolished when platform 2 was extended in preparation for longer Class 378 trains and provision of a new footbridge. Platforms 1 and 3 are used by the Bakerloo line services, until May 2008 north-bound Bakerloo line trains which were to reverse at Stonebridge Park depot ran empty from Willesden Junction although the southbound service began at Stonebridge Park. The station signs on the say, below the Overground roundel. The LNWR opened a locomotive depot on a site on the south side of the main line to the west of the station. The London Midland and Scottish Railway opened an additional roundhouse on the site in 1929, both buildings were demolished when the depot was closed in 1965 by British Railways and replaced by a Freightliner depot
33.
Electrification
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Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history and this included the change over from line shaft and belt drive using steam engines and water power to electric motors. The electrification of particular sectors of the economy is called by such as factory electrification, household electrification. Electrification was called the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th Century by the National Academy of Engineering, the earliest commercial uses of electricity were electroplating and the telegraph. In the years of 1831–1832, Michael Faraday discovered the principle of electromagnetic generators. He also built the first electromagnetic generator, called the Faraday disk and it produced a small DC voltage. Around 1832, Hippolyte Pixii improved the magneto by using a wire wound horseshoe, with the coils of conductor generating more current. André-Marie Ampère suggested a means of converting current from Pixiis magneto to DC using a rocking switch, later segmented commutators were used to produce direct current. William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone developed a telegraph around 1838-40, in 1840 Wheatstone was using a magneto that he developed to power the telegraph. Wheatstone and Cooke made an important improvement in electrical generation by using an electromagnet in place of a permanent magnet. The self-excited magnetic field dynamo did away with the battery to power electromagnets and this type of dynamo was made by several people in 1866. The first practical generator, the Gramme machine was made by Z. T Gramme, crompton improved the generator to allow better air cooling and made other mechanical improvements. Compound winding, which gave more stable voltage with load, improved operating characteristics of generators, the improvements in electrical generation technology increased the efficiency and reliability greatly in the 19th century. The first magnetos only converted a few percent of energy to electricity. By the end of the 19th century the highest efficiencies were over 90%, Sir Humphry Davy invented the carbon arc lamp in 1802 upon discovering that electricity could produce a light arc with carbon electrodes. However, it was not used to any extent until a practical means of generating electricity was developed. Carbon arc lamps were started by making contact between two electrodes, which were then separated to within a narrow gap. Because the carbon burned away, the gap had to be constantly readjusted, several mechanisms were developed to regulate the arc
34.
Acton Town tube station
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Acton Town is a London Underground station in the south-west corner of Acton, west London, in the London Borough of Ealing, close to the border with the London Borough of Hounslow. The station is served by the District and Piccadilly lines and is in Travelcard Zone 3, Acton Town station was opened as Mill Hill Park on 1 July 1879 by the District Railway. It remained as a terminus until on 1 May 1883 and 23 June 1903 the DR opened two branches from Acton Town to Hounslow Town and Park Royal & Twyford Abbey respectively, on 4 July 1932 the Piccadilly line was extended to Acton Town. District line services to both the Hounslow and Uxbridge branches were withdrawn completely on 9 and 10 October 1964 after which operations were provided by the Piccadilly line alone, the original brick-built station was built in 1879 and in February 1910 the station building was reconstructed. On 1 March 1910 the station was given its present name, in 1931 and 1932 the station was rebuilt again in preparation for transferring the Uxbridge branch service from the District line to the Piccadilly line. The new station was designed by Charles Holden in a modern European geometric style using brick, reinforced concrete, the station is at the junction of Gunnersbury Lane and Bollo Lane. To the south-west of the station is the former Acton Works, central overhaul and it is now home to the London Transport Museums reserve collection of rail and road vehicles. The museum depot is opened to the public on a number of weekends throughout the year, to the north of the station is the District lines Ealing Common Depot. Frank Pick House is near the station, on Gunnersbury Lane and it is named after Frank Pick, the London Passenger Transport Boards chief executive. It is home to one of the departments of the London Underground. Acton Town station was opened as Mill Hill Park on 1 July 1879 by the District Railway on its extension from Turnham Green to Ealing Broadway. On 1 May 1883 the DR opened a branch from Acton Town to the now defunct Hounslow Town station, the existing deep tube lines, had always been electrically powered. Services on the Hounslow branch and to Central London were electrified on 13 June 1905 and 1 July 1905 respectively, on 13 June 1905, a passenger service began on the short branch to South Acton. A short fifth platform for the single car train of the South Acton branch was provided to the north of the island platform. At first the service ran to Hounslow West and to Uxbridge, the South Acton branch was closed on 28 February 1959 due to low usage, its platform at Acton Town has not been removed and is still visible. The platform is hidden behind advertising hoardings and not obvious to the casual observer, much of the branch remains including a bridge support on the south side of Bollo Lane. In the picture, the area behind the hoarding in the background is the location of the branch platform which was only ever very short. On 4 July 1932, the Piccadilly line was extended west from its terminus at Hammersmith
35.
Electric locomotive
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An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or fuel cell. Electricity is used to smoke and take advantage of the high efficiency of electric motors. One advantage of electrification is the lack of pollution from the locomotives, electrification results in higher performance, lower maintenance costs and lower energy costs. Power plants, even if they burn fossil fuels, are far cleaner than mobile sources such as locomotive engines, the power can come from clean or renewable sources, including geothermal power, hydroelectric power, nuclear power, solar power and wind turbines. Electric locomotives are quiet compared to locomotives since there is no engine and exhaust noise. The lack of reciprocating parts means electric locomotives are easier on the track, Electric locomotives are ideal for commuter rail service with frequent stops. They are used on high-speed lines, such as ICE in Germany, Acela in the U. S. Shinkansen in Japan, China Railway High-speed in China, Electric locomotives are used on freight routes with consistently high traffic volumes, or in areas with advanced rail networks. Electric locomotives benefit from the efficiency of electric motors, often above 90%. Additional efficiency can be gained from regenerative braking, which allows energy to be recovered during braking to put power back on the line. Newer electric locomotives use AC motor-inverter drive systems provide for regenerative braking. The chief disadvantage of electrification is the cost for infrastructure, overhead lines or third rail, substations, public policy in the U. S. interferes with electrification, higher property taxes are imposed on privately owned rail facilities if they are electrified. In Europe and elsewhere, railway networks are considered part of the transport infrastructure, just like roads, highways and waterways. Operators of the rolling stock pay fees according to rail use and this makes possible the large investments required for the technically and, in the long-term, also economically advantageous electrification. Because railroad infrastructure is owned in the U. S. railroads are unwilling to make the necessary investments for electrification. The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen and it was powered by galvanic cells. Davidson later built a locomotive named Galvani, exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The seven-ton vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors, with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a cylinder on each axle. It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour for a distance of one and it was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use
36.
Steam locomotive
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A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its pulling power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning combustible material—usually coal, wood, the steam moves reciprocating pistons which are mechanically connected to the locomotives main wheels. Both fuel and water supplies are carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in wagons pulled behind, the first steam locomotive, made by Richard Trevithick, first operated on 21 February 1804, three years after the road locomotive he made in 1801. The first practical steam locomotive was built in 1812-13 by John Blenkinsop, Steam locomotives were first developed in Great Britain during the early 19th century and used for railway transport until the middle of the 20th century. From the early 1900s they were superseded by electric and diesel locomotives, with full conversions to electric. The majority of locomotives were retired from regular service by the 1980s, though several continue to run on tourist. The earliest railways employed horses to draw carts along railway tracks, in 1784, William Murdoch, a Scottish inventor, built a small-scale prototype of a steam road locomotive. An early working model of a rail locomotive was designed and constructed by steamboat pioneer John Fitch in the US during 1794. His steam locomotive used interior bladed wheels guided by rails or tracks, the model still exists at the Ohio Historical Society Museum in Columbus. The authenticity and date of this locomotive is disputed by some experts, accompanied by Andrew Vivian, it ran with mixed success. The design incorporated a number of important innovations that included using high-pressure steam which reduced the weight of the engine, Trevithick visited the Newcastle area in 1804 and had a ready audience of colliery owners and engineers. The visit was so successful that the railways in north-east England became the leading centre for experimentation. Trevithick continued his own steam propulsion experiments through another trio of locomotives, Four years later, the successful twin-cylinder locomotive Salamanca by Matthew Murray for the edge railed rack and pinion Middleton Railway debuted in 1812. Another well known early locomotive was Puffing Billy built 1813–14 by engineer William Hedley and it was intended to work on the Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne. This locomotive is the oldest preserved, and is on display in the Science Museum. George Stephenson built Locomotion No.1 for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, north-east England, in 1829, his son Robert built in Newcastle The Rocket which was entered in and won the Rainhill Trials. This success led to the company emerging as the pre-eminent builder of locomotives used on railways in the UK, US. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened a year later making exclusive use of power for passenger
37.
Railways Act 1921
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The provisions of the Act took effect from the start of 1923. The British railway system had been built up by more than 100 railway companies, large and small, and often, particularly locally, in competition with each other. The parallel railways of the East Midlands and the rivalry between the South Eastern Railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway at Hastings were two examples of local competition. During World War I the railways were under State control, which continued until 1921, the form of the Act was developed by former North Eastern Railway executive, the Minister of Transport, Eric Campbell Geddes. Geddes favoured privately owned regional monopolies through amalgamations, and suggested increased worker participation from pre-war levels, in his 9 March 1920 Cabinet paper Future Transport Policy, he proposed five English groups, a London passenger group, and separate single groupings for Scotland and Ireland. Geddes proposals became the 1920 white paper Outline of Proposals as to the Future Organisation of Transport Undertakings in Great Britain and this suggested the formation of six or seven regional companies, additionally it suggested worker participation on the board of directors of the company. The white paper was opposed by the Railway Companies Association and MPs representing railway companies interests, the move to greater worker participation was strongly opposed by the RCA, but supported by the Labour Party. Worker-directors were not included in the act, being replaced by agreed negotiating mechanisms. The regional groups initially proposed were five in England, and a Scottish regional group, Railways serving London were intended to form a separate regional group, but this amalgamation was delayed and took place in 1933. In 1921 the white paper Memorandum on Railways Bill, suggested four English regional groups, Scottish railway companies wished to be incorporated into British groupings, and the RCA proposed five British regional monopolies including the Scottish businesses. Part 1 of the act dealt with the terms and procedure of the amalgamations of railway companies, the constituents and subsidiaries of the four groups were set out in the first schedule of the act. Companies that had not formed a scheme by 1923 would be amalgamated under terms decided by a tribunal. The state control of the railways which began under war conditions during World War I were to continue under the Ministry of Transport Act 1919 for a two years. The Act took effect on 1 January 1923, on that date most of the mergers took place, some had taken place during the previous year. The February 1923 issue of The Railway Magazine dubbed the new companies as The Big Four of the New Railway Era, a number of joint lines remained outside the Big Four, continuing to be operated as jointly by successor companies. The London suburban railway companies, such as the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, later legislation under the London Passenger Transport Act 1933 amalgamated these and London area bus and tram operations into the London Passenger Transport Board. Other exempted railways were light railways authorised under the Light Railways Act 1896, and similar lines, although some such lines still chose to join the Groups
38.
Southern Railway (UK)
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The Southern Railway, sometimes shortened to Southern, was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts, the construction of what was to become the Southern Railway began in 1838 with the opening of the London and Southampton Railway, which was renamed the London & South Western Railway. The railway was noted for its use of public relations. At 2,186 miles, the Southern Railway was the smallest of the Big Four railway companies and, unlike the others and it created what was at that time the worlds largest electrified main line railway system and the first electrified InterCity route. The Southern Railway operated a number of named trains, including the Brighton Belle, the Bournemouth Belle, the Golden Arrow. The West Country services were dominated by summer holiday traffic and included named trains such as the Atlantic Coast Express. The companys best-known livery was highly distinctive, locomotives and carriages were painted in a bright Malachite green above plain black frames, with bold, the Southern Railway was nationalised in 1948, becoming the Southern Region of British Railways. These companies were amalgamated, together several small independently operated lines and non-working companies, to form the Southern Railway in 1923. The first main line railway in southern England was the London and Southampton Railway and it was quickly followed by the London and Brighton Railway, and the South Eastern Railway in February 1844. The LSWR branched out to destinations including Portsmouth, Salisbury and later Exeter and it grew to be the largest of the four constituent companies. The LBSCR was a smaller railway than its LSWR neighbour, serving the port of Newhaven and several holiday resorts on the south coast. It had been almost bankrupt in 1867, but during the last twenty-five years of its existence it had been well-managed and it had begun to electrify routes around London from 1909 to compete with the new electric trams that were taking away some of its traffic. Finally, the SECR had been created after years of wasteful, both companies had been unpopular with the travelling public and operated poorly maintained vehicles and infrastructure. Nevertheless, real progress had made in rectifying this during the period 1899–1922. The formation of the Southern Railway was rooted in the outbreak of the First World War, many members of staff joined the armed forces and it was not possible to build and maintain equipment at peacetime levels. The resultant amalgamation of the four south coast railways to form the Southern Railway meant that several duplicate routes, the LSWR had most influence on the new company, although genuine attempts were made to integrate the services and staff after 1923. In addition to its operations, the Southern Railway inherited several important port and harbour facilities along the south coast, including Southampton, Newhaven. It also ran services to the harbours at Portsmouth, Dover and these had come into being for handling ocean-going and cross-channel passenger traffic and the size of the railway-owned installations reflected the prosperity that the industry generated
39.
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
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The London, Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, the resulting company was an unwieldy construction, with numerous interests other than railway operation. Besides being the worlds largest transport organisation, it was also the largest commercial enterprise in the British Empire, the LMS also claimed to be the largest joint stock organisation in the world. In 1938, the LMS operated 6,870 miles of railway, under the Transport Act 1947, along with the other members of the Big Four British railway companies, the LMS was nationalised on 1 January 1948, becoming part of the state-owned British Railways. The LMS was the largest of the Big Four railway companies serving routes in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the LMS operated services in and around London, the Midlands, the North West of England, Mid/North Wales and Scotland. The company also operated a network of lines in Northern Ireland. The LMS operated a number of lines jointly with the main railway companies. Most of these were situated at or near the boundaries between two or more of the companies, but there were notable examples which extended beyond this hinterland zone. Together with the London and North Eastern Railway, the LMS ran the former Midland, exceeding 183 miles, this was the largest jointly-operated network in Great Britain in terms of route mileage, and extended from Peterborough to the East Anglian coast. The M&GN was wholly incorporated into the LNER in 1936, the LMS also operated a significant joint network with the Southern Railway, in the shape of the former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. This network connected Bath and Bournemouth, and wound its way through territory nominally allocated to a railway company. Through the former Midland Railway holdings, the LMS, together with the Great Northern Railway, the SR and the LMS were mainly overlapping on the West London Line. The London to Birmingham corridor was fiercely contested with the LMS running expresses over its West Coast Main Line via Rugby, the LMS was also the only one of the Big Four companies to operate rail services in Northern Ireland, serving most major settlements in the region. On 1 July 1903, the Midland Railway took over the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, in 1912, the Midland Railway purchased the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway which operated between London Fenchurch Street and Shoeburyness, with a loop serving Tilbury. This part of the later came under the control of the LNER, although this particular route. This arrangement did however provide a choice for residents of Southend, the LMS was the minority partner in the Cheshire Lines Committee. In Ireland there were three railways, Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway 26.5 miles Northern Counties Committee 265, for all railways see List of constituents of the LMS. Generally, the Midland prevailed, with the adoption of many Midland practices such as the livery of Crimson Lake for passenger locomotives, notable was the continuation of the Midland Railways small-engine policy
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British Rail
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British Railways, which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies and lasted until the privatisation of British Rail. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, the period of nationalisation saw sweeping changes in the national railway network. A process of dieselisation and electrification took place, and by 1968 steam locomotion had been replaced by diesel and electric traction. Passengers replaced freight as the source of business, and one-third of the network was closed by the Beeching Axe of the 1960s in an effort to reduce rail subsidies. On privatisation, responsibility for track, signalling and stations was transferred to Railtrack, the British Rail double arrow logo is formed of two interlocked arrows showing the direction of travel on a double track railway and was nicknamed the arrow of indecision. The rail transport system in Great Britain developed during the 19th century, during World War I the railways were under state control, which continued until 1921. Complete nationalisation had been considered, and the Railways Act 1921 is sometimes considered as a precursor to that, nationalisation was subsequently carried out after World War II, under the Transport Act 1947. This Act made provision for the nationalisation of the network, as part of a policy of nationalising public services by Clement Attlees Labour Government. British Railways came into existence as the name of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission on 1 January 1948 when it took over the assets of the Big Four. There were also joint railways between the Big Four and a few railways to consider. Excluded from nationalisation were industrial lines like the Oxfordshire Ironstone Railway, the London Underground – publicly owned since 1933 – was also nationalised, becoming the London Transport Executive of the British Transport Commission. The Bicester Military Railway was already run by the government, the electric Liverpool Overhead Railway was also excluded from nationalisation. The Railway Executive was conscious that some lines on the network were unprofitable and hard to justify socially, however, the general financial position of BR became gradually poorer, until an operating loss was recorded in 1955. The Executive itself had abolished in 1953 by the Conservative government. Other changes to the British Transport Commission at the time included the return of road haulage to the private sector. British Railways was divided into regions which were based on the areas the former Big Four operated in, later. Western Region of British Railways, former Great Western Railway lines, London Midland Region of British Railways, former London Midland and Scottish Railway lines in England
41.
Crossrail
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Crossrail is a 118-kilometre railway line under development in London and the home counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Essex. The project was approved in 2007 and construction began in 2009 on the central section and it has been described as one of Europes largest infrastructure construction projects. Its main feature is 21 km of new twin tunnels through central London and these tunnels will run from Paddington to Stratford and Canary Wharf in the east. Crossrail will be operated by MTR Corporation Ltd as a London Rail concession of Transport for London, in a similar manner to London Overground. The need for extra capacity along this corridor is such that the head of TfL, Sir Peter Hendy. New nine-carriage Class 345 trains will run at frequencies in the section of up to 24 trains per hour in each direction. The project that became Crossrail has origins in the 1943 County of London Plan and 1944 Greater London Plan by Patrick Abercrombie and these led to a specialist investigation by the Railway Committee, appointed in 1944 and reporting in 1946 and 1948. The term Crossrail emerged in the 1974 London Rail Study Report, although the idea was seen as imaginative, only a brief estimate of cost was given, £300 million. A feasibility study was recommended as a priority so that the practicability. It was also suggested that the alignment of the tunnels should be safeguarded while a decision was taken. The Central London Rail Study of 1989 proposed tunnels linking the rail network as the East–West Crossrail, City Crossrail. The City route was shown as a new connection across the City of London linking the Great Northern Route with London Bridge, the report also recommended a number of other schemes including a Thameslink Metro route enhancement, and the Chelsea–Hackney line. The cost of the east–west scheme including rolling stock was estimated at £885 million, in 1991 a private bill was submitted to Parliament for a scheme including a new underground line from Paddington to Liverpool Street. In 2001 Cross London Rail Links, a joint-venture between TfL and the DfT, was formed to develop and promote the Crossrail scheme, the proposal was rejected by Crossrail, and failed to receive the backing of the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, or the DfT. In February 2008 the Bill moved to the House of Lords, the Act gave CLRL the powers necessary to build the line. Construction began on 15 May 2009 when construction started, in September 2009 the project received £1 billion in funding. The money was lent to TfL by the European Investment Bank, the original planned schedule was that the first trains would run in 2017, but in 2010 the government delayed this to 2018 in order to save £1 billion. Crossrails central core section will utilise new east–west twin tunnels under central London, the tunnelled sections will be approximately 22 kilometres in length
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Kingston upon Thames
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Kingston upon Thames, also known as Kingston, is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned, Kingston is situated 10 miles southwest of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Kingston lies approximately 33 feet above sea level, Kingston was part of a large ancient parish in the county of Surrey and the town was an ancient borough, reformed in 1835. It has been the location of Surrey County Hall from 1893, most of the town centre is part of the KT1 postcode area, but some areas north of Kingston railway station have the postcode KT2 instead. The population of the town itself, comprising the four wards of Canbury, Grove, Norbiton, Kingston was called Cyninges tun in 838, Chingestune in 1086, Kingeston in 1164, Kyngeston super Tamisiam in 1321 and Kingestowne upon Thames in 1589. The name means the manor or estate from the Old English words cyning. It belonged to the king in Saxon times and was the earliest royal borough and it was first mentioned in 838 as the site of a meeting between King Egbert of Wessex and Ceolnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury. Kingston lay on the boundary between the ancient kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, until in the tenth century when King Athelstan united both to create the kingdom of England. Probably because of the symbolic location, several tenth-century kings were crowned in Kingston, Æthelstan in 925, Eadred in 946. Other kings who may have been crowned there are Edward the Elder in 902, Edmund in 939, Eadwig in 956, Edgar in about 960 and Edward the Martyr in 975. It was initially used as a block, but in 1850 it was moved to a more dignified place in the market before finally being moved to its current location in the grounds of the guildhall. Well known aviation personalities Sydney Camm, Harry Hawker and Tommy Sopwith were responsible for much of Kingstons achievements in aviation. British Aerospace finally closed its Lower Ham Road factory in 1992, part of the site was redeveloped for housing but the riverside part houses a community centre. The growth and development of Kingston Polytechnic and its transformation into Kingston University has made Kingston a university town, Kingston upon Thames formed an ancient parish in the Kingston hundred of Surrey. The parish of Kingston upon Thames covered an area including Hook, Kew, New Malden, Petersham, Richmond, Surbiton, Thames Ditton. The town of Kingston was granted a charter by King John in 1200, but the oldest one to survive is from 1208, other charters were issued by later kings, including Edward IVs charter that gave the town the status of a borough in 1481. The borough covered a smaller area than the ancient parish, although as new parishes were split off the borough. The borough was reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, becoming the Municipal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames and it had been known as a Royal borough through custom and the right to the title was confirmed by George V in 1927
7.60 million[3]
1.877 million[4]
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