Whyte notation
The Whyte notation for classifying steam locomotives by wheel arrangement was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte, came into use in the early twentieth century following a December 1900 editorial in American Engineer and Railroad Journal. The notation counts the number of leading wheels the number of driving wheels, the number of trailing wheels, numbers being separated by dashes. Other classification schemes, like UIC classification and the French and Swiss systems for steam locomotives, count axles rather than wheels. In the notation a locomotive with two leading axles in front three driving axles and one trailing axle is classified as 4-6-2, is known as a Pacific. Articulated locomotives such as Garratts, which are two locomotives joined by a common boiler, have a + between the arrangements of each engine, thus a "double Pacific" type Garratt is a 4-6-2+2-6-4. For Garratt locomotives the + sign is used when there are no intermediate unpowered wheels, e.g. the LMS Garratt 2-6-0+0-6-2. This is because the two engine units are more than just power bogies.
They are complete engines, carrying fuel and water tanks. The + sign represents the bridge that links the two engines. Simpler articulated types such as Mallets have a jointed frame under a common boiler where there are no unpowered wheels between the sets of powered wheels; the forward frame is free to swing, whereas the rear frame is rigid with the boiler. Thus a Union Pacific Big Boy is a 4-8-8-4; this numbering system is shared by duplex locomotives, which have powered wheel sets sharing a rigid frame. No suffix means a tender locomotive. T indicates a tank locomotive: in European practice, this is sometimes extended to indicate the type of tank locomotive: T means side tank, PT pannier tank, ST saddle tank, WT well tank. T+T means a tank locomotive that has a tender. In Europe, the suffix R can signify rack or reversible, the latter being Bi-cabine locomotives used in France; the suffix F indicates a fireless locomotive. This locomotive has no tender. Other suffixes have been used, including ng for narrow-gauge and CA or ca for compressed air.
In Britain, small diesel and petrol locomotives are classified in the same way as steam locomotives, e.g. 0-4-0, 0-6-0, 0-8-0. This may be followed by D for diesel or P for petrol, another letter describing the transmission: E for electric, H hydraulic, M mechanical. Thus, 0-6-0DE denotes a six-wheel diesel locomotive with electric transmission. Where the axles are coupled by chains or shafts or are individually driven, the terms 4w, 6w or 8w are used. Thus, 4wPE indicates a four-wheel petrol locomotive with electric transmission. For large diesel locomotives the UIC classification is used; the main limitation of Whyte Notation is that it does not cover non-standard types such as Shay locomotives, which use geared trucks rather than driving wheels. The most used system in Europe outside the United Kingdom is UIC classification, based on German practice, which can define the exact layout of a locomotive. In American practice, most wheel arrangements in common use were given names, sometimes from the name of the first such locomotive built.
For example, the 2-2-0 type arrangement is named Planet, after the 1830 locomotive on which it was first used. The most common wheel arrangements are listed below. In the diagrams, the front of the locomotive is to the left. AAR wheel arrangement Swiss locomotive and railcar classification UIC classification Wheel arrangement Boylan, Richard. "American Steam Locomotive Wheel Arrangements". SteamLocomotive.com. Retrieved 2008-02-08. Media related to Whyte notation at Wikimedia Commons
Track gauge
In rail transport, track gauge or track gage is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a rail network must have running gear, compatible with the track gauge, in the earliest days of railways the selection of a proposed railway's gauge was a key issue; as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still used as a descriptor of a route or network. In some places there is a distinction between the nominal gauge and the actual gauge, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, this device is referred to as a track gauge; the terms structure gauge and loading gauge, both used, have little connection with track gauge. Both refer to two-dimensional cross-section profiles, surrounding the track and vehicles running on it; the structure gauge specifies the outline into which altered structures must not encroach.
The loading gauge is the corresponding envelope within which rail vehicles and their loads must be contained. If an exceptional load or a new type of vehicle is being assessed to run, it is required to conform to the route's loading gauge. Conformance ensures. In the earliest days of railways, single wagons were manhandled on timber rails always in connection with mineral extraction, within a mine or quarry leading from it. Guidance was not at first provided except by human muscle power, but a number of methods of guiding the wagons were employed; the spacing between the rails had to be compatible with that of the wagon wheels. The timber rails wore rapidly. In some localities, the plates were made L-shaped, with the vertical part of the L guiding the wheels; as the guidance of the wagons was improved, short strings of wagons could be connected and pulled by horses, the track could be extended from the immediate vicinity of the mine or quarry to a navigable waterway. The wagons were built to a consistent pattern and the track would be made to suit the wagons: the gauge was more critical.
The Penydarren Tramroad of 1802 in South Wales, a plateway, spaced these at 4 ft 4 in over the outside of the upstands. The Penydarren Tramroad carried the first journey by a locomotive, in 1804, it was successful for the locomotive, but unsuccessful for the track: the plates were not strong enough to carry its weight. A considerable progressive step was made. Edge rails required a close match between rail spacing and the configuration of the wheelsets, the importance of the gauge was reinforced. Railways were still seen as local concerns: there was no appreciation of a future connection to other lines, selection of the track gauge was still a pragmatic decision based on local requirements and prejudices, determined by existing local designs of vehicles. Thus, the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway in the West of Scotland used 4 ft 6 in; the Arbroath and Forfar Railway opened in 1838 with a gauge of 5 ft 6 in, the Ulster Railway of 1839 used 6 ft 2 in Locomotives were being developed in the first decades of the 19th century.
His designs were so successful that they became the standard, when the Stockton and Darlington Railway was opened in 1825, it used his locomotives, with the same gauge as the Killingworth line, 4 ft 8 in. The Stockton and Darlington line was immensely successful, when the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first intercity line, was built, it used the same gauge, it was hugely successful, the gauge, became the automatic choice: "standard gauge". The Liverpool and Manchester was followed by other trunk railways, with the Grand Junction Railway and the London and Birmingham Railway forming a huge critical mass of standard gauge; when Bristol promoters planned a line from London, they employed the innovative engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He decided on a wider gauge, to give greater stability, the Great Western Railway adopted a gauge of 7 ft eased to 7 ft 1⁄4 in; this became known as broad gauge. The Great Western Railway was successful and was expanded and through friendly associated companies, widening the scope of broad gauge.
At the same time, other parts of Britain built railways to standard gauge, British technology was exported to European countries and parts of North America using standard gauge. Britain polarised into two areas: those that used standard gauge. In this context, standard gauge was referred to as "narrow gauge" to indicate the contrast; some smaller concerns selected other non-standard gauges: the Eastern Counties Railway adopted 5 ft. Most of them converted to standard gauge at an early date, but the GWR's broad gauge continued to grow; the larger railway companies wished to expand geographically, large areas were considered to be under their control. When a new
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Great Stour at the south edge of the North Downs, about 61 miles southeast of central London and 15.3 miles northwest of Folkestone by road. In the 2011 census, it had a population of 74,204; the name comes from the Old English æscet. It has been a market town since the Middle Ages, a regular market continues to be held. St Mary's Church in Ashford has been a local landmark since the 13th century, expanded in the 15th. Today, the church functions in a dual role as a centre for entertainment. Ashford has two grammar schools; the town has been a communications hub and has stood at the centre of five railway lines since the 19th century. The arrival of the railways contributed to the town's growth. With the opening of the international passenger station it is now a European communications centre, with new lines running between London and the Channel Tunnel; the M20 motorway links Ashford to those two destinations for road traffic.
Ashford has been marked as a place for expansion since the 1960s and appeared on several Government plans for growth. Changes have included the County Square shopping centre, the redevelopment of the Templer Barracks at Repton Park, the award-winning Ashford Designer Outlet. In the 1970s, a controversial ring road scheme and construction of the multi-storey Charter House building destroyed significant parts of the old town, though some areas were spared and preserved. There has been evidence of human habitation around Ashford since the Iron Age, with a barrow on what is now Barrow Hill dating back to 1500 BC. Two axes from the Lower Paleolithic period have been found near Ashford. During the construction of the Park Farm estate in the late 1990s, excavation in the area revealed tools from the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic period dating back to the 7th millennium BC. A number of other Mesolithic tools were discovered during construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link through Ashford. During Roman Britain, iron ore was mined in the Weald and transported to Ashford where two ironworks processed the ore into a workable metal.
Archaeological studies have revealed the existence of a Roman town to the north of the current centre at the junction of Albert Road and Wall Road. The present town originates from an original settlement established in 893 AD by inhabitants escaping a Danish Viking raid, who were granted land by a Saxon Lord for their resistance; the name comes from the Old English æscet. At the time of the Domesday Book of 1086 it was still known by its original Saxon name of Essetesford; the manor was owned by Hugh de Montfort, Constable of England and companion of William the Conqueror, had a church, two mills and a value of 150 shillings at the time. One of the earliest houses in the area still in existence is Lake House at Eastwell Park to the north of the town, which contains the grave of Richard Plantagenet. Ashford's importance as an agricultural and market town grew in the 13th century, in 1243, King Henry III granted the town a charter to hold a market for livestock; the pottery industry expanded in the 13th and 14th centuries, with the main works based at what is now Potter's Corner, a few miles west of the town centre.
Evidence from examining waste suggests that production was on a large scale. The Kent Archaeological society have discovered sandy ware at this location dating from around 1125 – 1250. Jack Cade, who led the Cade's Rebellion against corrupt Royal officials in 1450, is believed to be from Ashford. In William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2, Cade is shown conversing with "Dick, the Butcher from Ashford". In the 16th and 17th centuries, Ashford became known for nonconformism. A local resident, John Brown, was executed for heresy in 1511, may have inspired the namesake of the song "John Brown's Body". Thomas Smythe acquired the manor of Ashford as dowry from Queen Elizabeth I in the mid-16th century, is buried in the parish church. Dr John Wallis, the internationally recognised mathematician and one of Isaac Newton's main tutors was born in Ashford in 1616, but moved to Tenterden in 1625 to avoid the plague, he was a promising student, subsequently graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. By the 1780s, local farmers had begun to hold informal market days, advertised the town's ideal location between London and the Kent Coast.
The market was held in the High Street until 1856, when local farmers and businessmen relocated to Elwick Road and formed a market company, the oldest surviving registered company in England and Wales. There is still a regular street market in the town, but the market company relocated outside Ashford town centre after part of the 19th-century site was demolished to make way for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, it is still used by around 5,000 farmers. The Army first established a presence in Ashford in 1797 when it built a garrison on Barrow Hill, storerooms along what is now Magazine Road; the military presence was scaled back during the 19th century, though the town was still considered strategically important in the event of an invasion. The Territorial Army established a presence in Ashford in 1910. During World War I, Ashford's importance as a transport hub and its location between the continent and London made it a target for aerial bombing. A bomb fell on the railway works on 25 March 1917, killing 61 people, while the town was a target in the Battle of Britain during World War II, including an attack on 15 September 1940.
During the latter war 94 civilians were
Vacuum brake
The vacuum brake is a braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became universal in British train equipment and in countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum brakes enjoyed a brief period of adoption in the United States on narrow-gauge railroads, its limitations caused it to be progressively superseded by compressed air systems starting in the United Kingdom from the 1970s onward. The vacuum brake system is now obsolete. In the earliest days of railways, trains were slowed or stopped by the application of manually applied brakes on the locomotive and in brake vehicles through the train, by steam power brakes on locomotives; this was unsatisfactory, given the slow and unreliable response times and limited braking power that could be exerted, but the existing technology did not offer an improvement. A chain braking system was developed, requiring a chain to be coupled throughout the train, but it was impossible to arrange equal braking effort along the entire train.
A major advance was the adoption of a vacuum braking system, in which flexible pipes were connected between all the vehicles of the train, brakes on each vehicle could be controlled from the locomotive. The earliest scheme was a simple vacuum brake, in which vacuum was created by operation of a valve on the locomotive. Vacuum, rather than compressed air, was preferred because steam locomotives can be fitted with ejectors; the simple vacuum system had the major defect that in the event of one of the hoses connecting the vehicles becoming displaced the vacuum brake on the entire train was useless. In response to this obvious defect, the automatic vacuum brake was subsequently developed, it was designed to apply if the train became divided or if a hose became displaced, but opposition on the grounds of cost, to the fitting of the automatic type of brake, meant that it took a serious accident at Armagh in 1889 before legislation compelled the adoption of the automatic system. In this accident at Armagh, a portion of a train was detached from the locomotive on a steep gradient and ran away, killing 80 people.
The train was fitted with the simple vacuum brake, useless on the disconnected portion of the train. It was clear that if the vehicles had been fitted with an automatic continuous brake, the accident would certainly not have happened, the public concern at the scale of the accident prompted legislation mandating the use of a continuous automatic brake on all passenger trains. In continental Europe, the vacuum brake was sometimes called the Hardy brake, after John George Hardy of the Vacuum Brake Co, 7 Hohenstaufengasse, Vienna. In its simplest form, the automatic vacuum brake consists of a continuous pipe—the train pipe—running throughout the length of the train. In normal running a partial vacuum is maintained in the train pipe, the brakes are released; when air is admitted to the train pipe, the air at atmospheric pressure acts against pistons in cylinders in each vehicle. A vacuum is sustained on the other face of the pistons. A mechanical linkage transmits this force to brake shoes; the fittings to achieve this are: a train pipe: a steel pipe running the length of each vehicle, with flexible vacuum hoses at each end of the vehicles, coupled between adjacent vehicles.
The brake cylinder is contained in a larger housing—this gives a reserve of vacuum as the piston operates. The cylinder rocks in operation to maintain alignment with the brake rigging cranks, so it is supported in trunnion bearings, the vacuum pipe connection to it is flexible; the piston in the brake cylinder has a flexible piston ring that allows air to pass from the upper part of the cylinder to the lower part if necessary. When the vehicles have been at rest, so that the brake is not charged, the brake pistons will have dropped to their lower position in the absence of a pressure differential; when a locomotive is coupled to the vehicles, the driver moves the brake control to the "release" position and air is exhausted from the train pipe, creating a partial vacuum. Air in the upper part of the brake cylinders is exhausted from the train pipe, through a non-return valve. If the driver now moves his
Robertsbridge
Robertsbridge is a village in the civil parish of Salehurst and Robertsbridge, the Rother district of East Sussex, England. It is 10 miles north of Hastings and 13 miles south-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells; the River Rother passes through the village. The village is thought to date back to 1176 when a Cistercian abbey was founded there by the Abbot, Robert de St Martin; when a market charter was granted in 1198 by Richard I to Robertsbridge it was the first recorded use of the name. The abbey was dissolved in 1538. At Robertsbridge is the Robertsbridge Codex, a music manuscript of the 14th century, it contains the earliest surviving music written for keyboard. Robertsbridge railway station is on the main railway line from Hastings to London, the A21 trunk road. Robertsbridge bypass opened in 1989. Robertsbridge Community College, a specialist mathematics and computer college, is the smallest such in the county of East Sussex; the local primary school is Salehurst Church of England Primary School.
Robertsbridge cultural organizations include Robertsbridge Arts Partnership (RAP], a Jazz Club and Robertsbridge Wine Club. Sports clubs include Robertsbridge RUFC, Robertsbridge Cricket Club. Robertsbridge has a bonfire society. Robertsbridge United Reformed Church, a Grade II-listed chapel built in 1881, stands on the High Street; the former Bethel Strict Baptist Chapel, built in 1842 and listed Grade II, is nearby. At Robertsbridge is the Bruderhof, a residential Anabaptist community known as Darvell, who number about 300, they run a publishing house called a manufacturing facility and school. Harry Andrews Heather Mills Malcolm Muggeridge The demographics above are drawn from the National Statistics Office, 2001 Census; as data is not available for Robertsbridge in isolation, the table includes the entire parish of Salehurst and Robertsbridge. As data for the table above is not available for Robertsbridge in isolation, it is drawn from the Salehurst Ward which covers a larger area including Salehurst and Bodiam.
Media related to Robertsbridge at Wikimedia CommonsSalehurst and Robertsbridge Parish Council The Official Robertsbridge Community College Website
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
The London and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, a large part of Surrey, it was bounded on its western side by the London and South Western Railway, which provided an alternative route to Portsmouth. On its eastern side the LB&SCR was bounded by the South Eastern Railway – one component of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway – which provided an alternative route to Bexhill, St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings; the LB&SCR had the most direct routes from London to the south coast seaside resorts of Brighton, Worthing and Bognor Regis, to the ports of Newhaven and Shoreham-by-Sea. It served the inland towns/cities of Chichester, East Grinstead and Lewes, jointly served Croydon, Tunbridge Wells and Guildford. At the London end was a complicated suburban and outer-suburban network of lines emanating from London Bridge and Victoria, shared interests in two cross-London lines.
The LB&SCR was formed by a merger of five companies in 1846, merged with the L&SWR, the SE&CR and several minor railway companies in southern England under the Railways Act 1921 to form the Southern Railway from 1 January 1923. The London and South Coast Railway was formed by Act of Parliament on 27 July 1846, through the amalgamation of a number of railway companies: The London and Croydon Railway, created in 1836 and opened in 1839; the London and Brighton Railway, created in 1837 and opened in 1841. The Brighton and Chichester Railway, created in 1844 and opened in stages between November 1845 and June 1846, with an extension to Havant under construction at the time of amalgamation; the Brighton Lewes and Hastings Railway, created in February 1844, opened in June 1846. The Croydon and Epsom Railway, created in July 1844, under construction at the time of amalgamation. Only the first two were independent operating railways: the Brighton and Chichester and the Brighton Lewes and Hastings had been purchased by the L&BR in 1845, the Croydon and Epsom was owned by the L&CR.)
The amalgamation was brought about, against the wishes of the Boards of Directors of the companies, by shareholders in the L&CR and L&BR who were dissatisfied with the early returns from their investments. The LB&SCR existed for 76 years until 31 December 1922, when it was wound up as a result of the Railways Act 1921 and merged with the London and South Western Railway and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway to form the Southern Railway. At the time of its creation the LB&SCR had around 170 route miles in existence or under construction, consisting of three main routes and a number of branches; the main line to Brighton from London Bridge opened in 1841. The sections between Corbett's Lane and London Bridge and between Croydon and Redhill were shared with the South Eastern Railway. There were two branch lines under construction at the time of the amalgamation: the Sutton & Mole Valley Lines from Croydon to Epsom, the Arun Valley Line from Three Bridges to Horsham; the West Sussex coast line originated with a branch line from Brighton to Shoreham, opened in 1840.
This was extended to Chichester by the time of the amalgamation, a further extension to Havant was under construction, with the ultimate aim of extending the line to Portsmouth. The East Sussex coast line from Brighton to Lewes and St Leonards-on-Sea, with running powers over the SER to Hastings, opened in 1846 one month before the amalgamation, with branches to Newhaven and Hailsham. A connecting spur from the Brighton main line at Keymer Junction near Haywards Heath to the Brighton-Lewes line was under construction at the time of amalgamation. A short line from New Cross to Deptford Wharf, proposed by the L&CR, was approved in July 1846, shortly before amalgamation, opened in July 1849; the use of this line for passengers would have contravened the negotiated agreement with the SER that the LB&SCR would not operate lines to the east of its main line, it was restricted to goods. A short branch from this line to the nearby Surrey Commercial Docks in Rotherhithe opened in July 1855; the main London terminus was the L&CR station at London Bridge, built by the London and Greenwich Railway in 1836, exchanged for the original L&CR station in 1842.
For the first few years of its existence, LB&SCR trains used the L&GR lines from Corbett’s Lane into London, but by 1849 the viaducts had been widened sufficiently for its own tracks. The LB&SCR inherited from the L&CR running powers to the smaller SER passenger terminus at Bricklayers Arms. Poorly sited for passengers, it was converted into a goods station; the LB&SCR owned two stations at Croydon East Croydon and West Croydon. The L&CR had been operated by the atmospheric principle between Croydon and Forest Hill, as the first phase of a scheme to use this mode of operation between London and Epsom. However, following a number of technical problems, the LB&SCR abandoned atmospheric operation in May 1847; this enabled it to build its own lines into London Bridge, have its own independent station there, by 1849. The history of the LB&SCR can be studied in five distinct periods; the LB&SCR was formed at the same time as the bursting of the railway mania investment bubble, so it found raising capital for expansion difficult during the first years of its operation, other than to complete those projects that were in hand.
The L&BR had experienced difficult relations with the SER where the companies shared facili
