1.
National Rail
–
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
–
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.
Watford
–
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated 17 miles northwest of central London and inside the circumference of the M25 motorway. It is not to be confused with Watford, Northamptonshire which is 55 miles to the north, the town developed on the River Colne on land belonging to St Albans Abbey until the 16th century. During the 12th century a charter was granted allowing a market, the town grew modestly, assisted by travellers passing through to Berkhamsted Castle and the royal palace at Kings Langley. A big house was built at Cassiobury in the 16th century and this was partly rebuilt in the 17th century and another substantial house was built nearby at The Grove. Two brewers Benskins and Sedgwicks flourished in the town until their closure in the late 20th century, Hertfordshire County Council designates Watford, along with Stevenage, to be its major sub-regional centre. Several head offices are based in Watford, both the 2006 World Golf Championship and the 2013 Bilderberg Conference took place at The Grove. Watford was created as a district under the Local Government Act 1894. The borough had 90,301 inhabitants at the time of the 2011 census, the borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District. Watford Borough Council is the authority with the Mayor of Watford as its head, one of only 18 directly elected mayors in England. Dorothy Thornhill has been the mayor since the elected system was set up in May 2002 and is both the first Liberal Democrat and the first female directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. Watford elects one Member of Parliament for the Watford constituency, prior to the establishment of this constituency in 1885 the area was part of the three-seat constituency of Hertfordshire. There is evidence of some limited prehistoric occupation around the Watford area, with a few Celtic and Roman finds, watfords High Street follows the line of this route on the northern side of the ford. The town was located on the first dry ground above the edges of the River Colne. The name Watford may have arisen from the Old English for waet, or wath, St Albans Abbey claimed rights to the manor of Cashio, which included Watford, dating from a grant by King Offa in AD793. The name Watford is first mentioned in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 1007, where Watforda is one of the marking the boundary of Oxanhaege. It is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, when area was part of St Albans Abbeys manor of cashio. In the 12th century the Abbey was granted a charter allowing it to hold a market here, the town grew modestly, assisted by travellers passing through to Berkhamsted Castle and the royal palace at Kings Langley. A big house was built at Cassiobury in the 16th century and this was partly rebuilt in the 17th century and another substantial house was built nearby at The Grove
4.
Network Rail
–
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
5.
Tramlink
–
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
6.
World Geodetic System
–
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
7.
Geographic coordinate system
–
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
8.
Hertfordshire
–
Hertfordshire is a county in southern England, bordered by Bedfordshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Buckinghamshire to the west and Greater London to the south. For government statistical purposes, it is placed in the East of England region, in 2013, the county had a population of 1,140,700 living in an area of 634 square miles. Four towns have between 50,000 and 100,000 residents, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford and St Albans. Hertford, once the market town for the medieval agricultural county derives its name from a hart. Elevations are high for the region in the north and west and these reach over 240m in the western projection around Tring which is in the Chilterns. The countys borders are approximately the watersheds of the Colne and Lea, hertfordshires undeveloped land is mainly agricultural and much is protected by green belt. The countys landmarks span many centuries, ranging from the Six Hills in the new town of Stevenage built by local inhabitants during the Roman period, Leavesden filmed much of the UK-based $7.7 Bn box office Harry Potter film series and has the countrys studio tour. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill and his martyrs cross of a yellow saltire on a blue background is reflected in the flag and coat of arms of Hertfordshire. Hertfordshire is well-served with motorways and railways, providing access to London. The largest sector of the economy of the county is in services, Hertfordshire was the area assigned to a fortress constructed at Hertford under the rule of Edward the Elder in 913. Hertford is derived from the Anglo-Saxon heort ford, meaning deer crossing, the name Hertfordshire is first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011. Deer feature in many county emblems, there is evidence of humans living in Hertfordshire from the Mesolithic period. It was first farmed during the Neolithic period and permanent habitation appeared at the beginning of the Bronze Age and this was followed by tribes settling in the area during the Iron Age. 293 the first recorded British martyrdom is believed to have taken place. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill. His martyrs cross of a saltire on a blue background is reflected in the flag. He is the Patron Saint of Hertfordshire, with the departure of the Roman Legions in the early 5th century, the now unprotected territory was invaded and colonised by the Anglo-Saxons. By the 6th century the majority of the county was part of the East Saxon kingdom
9.
West Coast Main Line
–
The West Coast Main Line is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. It is one of the busiest mixed-traffic railway routes in Europe, carrying a mixture of intercity rail, regional rail, the core route of the WCML runs from London to Glasgow, with branches diverging to Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, totalling a route mileage of 700 miles. Services from London to North Wales and Edinburgh also run via the WCML and it is one of the busiest freight routes in Europe, carrying 40% of all UK rail freight traffic. The line is the rail freight corridor linking the European mainland through London and South East England to the West Midlands. The line has been declared a strategic European route and designated a priority Trans-European Networks route, other traffic is limited to 110 mph. The route between Rugby and Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stafford was the main line until the Trent Valley Line was built in 1847. A further branch at Carstairs links Edinburgh to the WCML, providing a connection between the WCML and the East Coast Main Line. This legacy means the WCML has limitations as a main line, with lower maximum speeds than the East Coast Main Line route. The WCML was not originally conceived as a trunk route. After the completion of the successful Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, and so this is how the early stages of the WCML evolved. The first stretch of what is now the WCML was the Grand Junction Railway connecting Liverpool and Manchester to Birmingham, via Crewe, Stafford, the following year the London and Birmingham Railway was completed, connecting to the capital via Coventry, Rugby and the Watford Gap. Three other sections, the North Union Railway, the Lancaster and Preston Junction Railway, another important section, the North Staffordshire Railway, which opened its route in 1848 from Macclesfield to Stafford and Colwich via Stoke-on-Trent also remained independent. Poor relations between the LNWR and the NSR meant that trains did not run until 1867. The route to Scotland was marketed by the LNWR as The Premier Line, because the cross-border trains ran over the LNWR and Caledonian Railway, through trains consisted of jointly owned West Coast Joint Stock to simplify operations. The first direct London to Glasgow trains in the 1850s took 12.5 hours to complete the 400-mile journey, the final sections of what is now the WCML were put in place over the following decades by the LNWR. To expand capacity, the line between London and Rugby was widened to four tracks in the 1870s, as part of this work, a new line, the Northampton Loop was built, opening in 1881, connecting Northampton before rejoining the main line at Rugby. The route came under the control of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway on 1 January 1923 when railway companies were grouped, the LMS competed fiercely with the rival LNERs East Coast Main Line for London to Scotland traffic. As part of the 1955 modernisation plan, the line was modernised and electrified in stages between 1959 and 1974, the first stretch to be electrified was Crewe to Manchester, completed on 12 September 1960
10.
Euston railway station
–
Euston railway station is a central London railway terminus located on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus of the West Coast Main Line to Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh. The line is the busiest intercity passenger route in Britain and the gateway from London to the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales. The main line station is connected to Euston tube station and is near to Euston Square tube station on the London Underground and it is one of 19 stations in the country that are managed by Network Rail. Euston is the sixth-busiest station in Britain, virgin Trains provides high-speed intercity services, London Midland also operates local commuter and regional services as well as long-distance services. Euston is also the terminus of the suburban Watford DC Line operated by London Overground. It was the first intercity railway station to be built in London, as the terminus of the London, the original 1837 station was demolished and rebuilt in the 1960s. Euston is proposed to be the London terminus of the future High Speed 2 route and it is a short walk from Kings Cross, the southern terminus of the East Coast Main Line, and St Pancras for Midland Main Line and Eurostar services. These stations and Euston are all in Travelcard Zone 1, Euston was the first intercity railway station in London, opened on 20 July 1837 as the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway. The building was demolished in the 1960s and replaced with the present building in the modern style. The site was chosen in the early 1830s by George and Robert Stephenson, the area was mostly farmland at the edge of the expanding city. The station was named after Euston Hall in Suffolk, the home of the Dukes of Grafton. Objections by local farmers meant that, when the Act authorising construction of the line was passed in 1833 and these objections were overcome, and in 1835 an Act authorised construction of the station, which then went ahead. It was designed by the classically trained architect Philip Hardwick with a 200 ft -long trainshed by structural engineer Charles Fox and it had two platforms, one for departures and one for arrivals. Also by Hardwick was a 72 ft -high Doric propylaeum, the largest ever built, erected at the entrance as a portico, the station grew rapidly as traffic increased. It was greatly expanded with the opening in 1849 of the Great Hall and it was 126 ft long,61 ft wide and 64 ft high, with a coffered ceiling and a sweeping double flight of stairs leading to offices at its northern end. Architectural sculptor John Thomas contributed eight allegorical statues representing the cities served by the line. The station stood on Drummond Street, further back from Euston Road than the front of the complex, Drummond Street now terminates at the side of the station
11.
Abbey Line
–
The Abbey line, also called the St Albans Abbey branch line, is a railway line from Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey. The 6. 5-mile route passes through town and countryside in the county of Hertfordshire, just outside the boundaries of the Oyster Card and London fare zones. Its northern terminus in St Albans Abbey is located in the south of the city, the Abbey line is a semi-rural line and, due to its single-track operation, service frequencies are limited. The service is referred to locally as the Abbey Flyer. The line was opened by the London and North Western Railway on 5 May 1858 and was the first railway to reach St Albans, originally there were two intermediate stations, Bricket Wood Park Street In 1910 a station at Callowland opened, now Watford North. In 1924 the terminus at St Albans became St Albans Abbey to distinguish it from the Midland Railway main line station at St Albans City, the LNWR station was also served by a branch of the Great Northern Railway from Hatfield. A sixth station was added at Garston in 1966 and a seventh at How Wood in 1988, the line was built in its current form, a branch from Watford to St. Albans. However, the line was at times connected to two other lines, One, the Hatfield and St Albans Railway, opened in 1865 from St. Albans Abbey station to the East Coast main line at Hatfield. Mostly a local route, the construction of the Midland main line ensured that it never became popular with the market of passengers to London. It closed to passengers in 1951, part of a cutback of minor routes after the war, the whole route closed to goods in 1964, though a short stub at the Hatfield end lasted until 1968. During construction of the Midland main line in the 1860s, a branch was laid from near How Wood to the Midland route to carry building materials. Never used by services, Ordnance Survey maps indicate it closed between 1883 and 1898 although the embankment and some bridge abutments remain very visible. As part of a plan in the 1980s, British Rail examined reopening this, with the aim of diverting the branch to the City station. Passenger services are operated by London Midland, stations on the branch are unstaffed and tickets must be bought on the train, except at St Albans Abbey and Watford North which have a ticket machine, and Watford Junction which is staffed. If starting your journey at Watford Junction, in compliance with National Rail conditions of carriage, the Abbey line is part of the Network Rail Strategic Route 18, SRS18.10 and is classified as a Rural line. The line is single track and is electrified at 25 kV AC using overhead line equipment and it has a loading gauge of W6 and a line speed of between 40 and 75 mph. The service is operated using EMUs, a Class 319 EMU is in regular use, with services formerly operated by Class 321 and Class 313 units before that. Rarely a Class 150 DMU has been substituted, London Midland recently acquired the Class 319 trains to replace the Class 321 units acquired by Abellio ScotRail to operate on Glasgows suburban rail network
12.
St Albans
–
St Albans /sənt ˈɔːlbənz/, /seɪn. / is a city in Hertfordshire, England, and the major urban area in the City and District of St Albans. It lies east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, about 19 miles north-northwest of London,8 miles southwest of Welwyn Garden City and 11 miles south-southeast of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman road of Watling Street for travellers heading north and it is a historic market town and is now a dormitory town within the London commuter belt and the Greater London Built-up Area. St Albans takes its name from the first British saint, Alban, Alban met a Christian priest fleeing from his persecutors and sheltered him in his house, where he became so impressed with the priests piety that he converted to Christianity. When the authorities searched Albans house, he put on the priests cloak, consequently, he was sentenced to endure the punishments that were to be inflicted upon the priest, unless he renounced Christianity. Alban refused and was taken for execution, in later legends, his head rolled downhill after execution and a well sprang up where it stopped. The name Verulamium is Celtic, meaning settlement over or by the marsh, the town was on Prae Hill,2 km to the west of modern St Albans, now covered by the village of St. Michaels, Verulamium Park and the Gorhambury Estate. It is believed that the capital was moved to the site by Tasciovanus. Cunobelinus may have constructed Beech Bottom Dyke, an earthwork near the settlement whose significance is uncertain. It grew steadily, by the early 3rd century, it covered an area of about 125 acres, behind a deep ditch and wall. Verulamium contained a forum, basilica and a theatre, much of which were damaged during two fires, one in 155 and the other in around 250, one of the few extant Roman inscriptions in Britain is found on the remnants of the forum. The town was rebuilt in stone rather than timber at least twice over the next 150 years, occupation by the Romans ended between 400 and 450. St Alban was probably buried outside the city walls in a Roman cemetery near the present Cathedral and his hillside grave became a place of pilgrimage. Recent investigation has uncovered a basilica there, indicating the oldest continuous site of Christian worship in Great Britain, in 429 Germanus of Auxerre visited the church and subsequently promoted the cult of St Alban. More remains under the agricultural land which have never been excavated were for a while seriously threatened by deep ploughing. After the Roman withdrawal the town, became the centre of the territory or regio of the Anglo-Saxon Waeclingas tribe, St Albans Abbey and the associated Anglo-Saxon settlement were founded on the hill outside the Roman city where it was believed St Alban was buried. An archaeological excavation in 1978, directed by Martin Biddle, failed to find Roman remains on the site of the chapter house. The medieval town grew on the hill to the east of Wæclingacaester where the Benedictine Abbey of St Albans was founded by Ulsinus in 793, there is some evidence that the original site was higher up the hill than the present building, which was begun in 1077
13.
Watford DC line
–
The Watford DC line is a commuter railway line from London Euston to Watford Junction. Services on the line are operated by London Overground, the line runs beside the West Coast Main Line for most of its length. The London Underground Bakerloo line shares the track of the line from Queens Park to Harrow & Wealdstone, the London Overground rolling stock used on the line is Class 378 Capitalstar. The DC in the title refers to the fact that the line is electrified using direct current and this was done in the early twentieth century with conductor rails, hence its name in contrast to the more modern overhead alternating current system on the adjacent WCML. Prior to 1912, at time the entire route was finally electrified. The line opened with conventional semaphore signalling mechanically operated from signal boxes at each station, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway introduced an automatic electric signalling system in the early 1930s over most of the route and some signal boxes were abolished. A similar system was used for a shorter period between Bromley-by-Bow and Upminster now part of the District line. Signal boxes remaining in use in the early 1970s included, Kilburn High Road Queens Park No.3 Willesden New Station Stonebridge Power House Harrow No. In the early 1980s manual control of signalling was needed for a few months after dragging gear on a train destroyed many electric train-stops which were of a design almost confined to this line. By this time the signal boxes at Stonebridge Power House and Kilburn High Road had been abolished, emergency crossovers at other locations were controlled by ground frames enclosed in structures the size of a garden shed. In 1988 the LMS system was replaced by a standard system controlled from a new signal box, Willesden Suburban. The new system had solid state interlocking, but far fewer signals, in the early 1960s there were headways of less than 2 minutes between Harrow & Wealdstone and Willesden Junction stations, the section of line used by nearly all services. In the early 2000s Willesden Suburban was closed and control passed to Wembley Main Line Signalling Centre, the original electrification was on a fourth rail system, similar to that now used by London Underground, which allowed LER trains to use the new line. Power was supplied from the railways own power station at Stonebridge Park until the 1960s when it was closed, in the late 1950s, the original electric multiple units built for the line were replaced by new Class 501 rolling stock. These were in turn displaced in the mid 1980s by Class 313 units, the line is now operated by London Overground Class 378 Capitalstar units. The line is electrified using the standard compromise voltage of 660 volts. This falls comfortably within the lower permanent voltage limit for the Capitalstar stock, a consequence of converting to third rail with the fourth rail provided only for LU use was that both planned and emergency use of the line by other 3-rail-capable trains was possible. The construction of a curve to link Rickmansworth to the Euston main line was planned, a new line would have then run south to Wembley, then passed under the main line and run on the east side to Euston, terminating in a loop
14.
Clapham Junction railway station
–
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
15.
East Croydon railway station
–
East Croydon is a railway station and tram stop in Croydon, England, and is in Travelcard Zone 5. It is 10.35 miles south of London Bridge and it is the largest and busiest station in Croydon. It is one of the busiest non-terminal stations in London and it is one of the busiest non-terminal through stations in the United Kingdom. It is one of three stations in the London Borough of Croydon with Croydon in their name, the others being West Croydon. A Tramlink tram stop is located immediately outside the station entrance. The population of Croydon increased 14-fold between the opening of the station in 1841 and 1921, as a result, the station has been enlarged and rebuilt on several occasions. On 12 July 1841 the London & Brighton Railway began passenger services through Croydon station on the Brighton Line from London Bridge to Haywards Heath. The station was designed by the architect David Mocatta, the station in the town since the London and Croydon Railway had opened its Croydon station in June 1839. After 1842 the station was administered by the L&BR and the South Eastern Railway. Fares from Croydon to London were common to two railways, in 1846 The L&BR and the L&CR amalgamated to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and the two stations were shortly renamed East Croydon and West Croydon to avoid confusion. The new platforms adjoined East Croydon but were treated by the LB&SCR as a station named New Croydon, with its own ticket office. This device enabled the railway to avoid breaking an agreement with the SER, the terminal platforms at New Croydon proved difficult to operate as there was limited space for locomotives to run round their trains. As a result, in 1863 the LB&SCR obtained Parliamentary authority to build an extension to a new terminus at South Croydon. In 1864, the LB&SCR obtained authorisation to construct a 0.5 miles long line into the town centre near Katharine Street. The line opened in 1868 but enjoyed success and closed in 1871. It was demolished and replaced by the town hall, by the late 1880s the station was again congested due to the growth of traffic on the main lines, the expansion of the suburban network in South London and the new line from Croydon to Oxted. As a result, the station was rebuilt and the tracks remodelled during 1894/5, at the same time the suburban lines were extended from South Croydon to Coulsdon North, where they joined the new Quarry line. In 1897–98, East Croydon and New Croydon were merged into a station with the three island platforms that remain
16.
West London Line
–
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
17.
Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden
–
Studios, Leavesden is an 80-hectare studio complex in Leavesden in Hertfordshire, in southeast England. Formerly known as Leavesden Film Studios and still colloquially known Leavesden Studios or simply Leavesden, it is a film and it is situated in Abbots Langley, near Watford, in southwest Hertfordshire. Studios, Leavesden is one of only a few places in the United Kingdom where large scale film productions can be made, following an over £110m refurbishment by Warner Bros. the studios are now one of the largest and most state-of-the-art secure filmmaking facilities in the world. Though the studios are owned by Warner Bros. all of the facilities are available to rent for any production. Since acquiring the site Warner Bros. has opened an attraction called Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter, which receives over 100,000 visitors a day all whilst the site maintains a studio space within the same complex. Leavesden Aerodrome was a British airfield created in 1940 by the de Havilland Aircraft Company & the Air Ministry in the village of Leavesden, between Watford and Abbots Langley, in Hertfordshire, construction began in 1940 after the outbreak of World War II. The de Havilland company, who were based in nearby Hatfield, space for the large scale hangars needed to produce the huge number of airplanes required was not available at de Havillands Hatfield Aerodrome. So the Ministry of Supply requisitioned this new site in Leavesden, which was an empty plot of land at the time from the Watford Corporation, the construction was enormously expensive so part of the site was leased to the London Aircraft Production Group & The Second Aircraft Group. Under Handley Page, another Hertfordshire-based airplane manufacturer contracted to the Air Ministry, as a result, by the end of the war Leavesden Airfield was, by volume, the largest factory in the world. The two planes were both critical successes for Britain during the conflict, as part of constructing the aircraft factory an airstrip was created, first so the planes could be tested and later to deliver the craft to their final destinations. The runway and control tower remain to this day, even after two major renovations, in an effort to preserve the sites history. The runway is now the road through the complex and the tower is currently an observation lounge. It was also used by small business aircraft as the field is close to both the M1 & M25 motorways. However, by the early 1990s, Britains manufacturing industry was in decline, unable to find a new owner, by 1994 Leavesden Aerodrome was left disused and all but abandoned. In 1994, Eon Productions James Bond film GoldenEye was to be the film in the series. Pinewood Studios, their home studio, was fully booked with other productions. Facing little time to find a space in which they could build the number of large scale sets required, the wide, tall and open aircraft hangars were uniquely well suited to conversion into film stages
18.
London and Birmingham Railway
–
This is about the 19th century railway company. For the 21st century train operating company, see London Midland, the London and Birmingham Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway. The 112-mile railway line which the company opened in 1838 between London and Birmingham was the first intercity line to be built into London and it is now the southern section of the West Coast Main Line. The line was engineered by Robert Stephenson and it started at Euston Station in London, went north-north-west to Rugby, where it turned west to Coventry and on to Birmingham. It terminated at Curzon Street Station, which it shared with the Grand Junction Railway, soon afterwards a rival company was formed by Francis Giles whose line would have been through the Watford Gap and Coventry. Neither company obtained backing for its scheme, and in late 1830 the two decided to merge. The new company appointed Robert Stephenson chief engineer, and he chose the route through Coventry, the prospectus for the London and Birmingham Railway offered the following inducements to potential investors, The company was created with an initial capitalisation of £5,500,000. Much of the funds came from Lancashire, where great profits were being made in the cotton industries. The construction of the line was the subject of opposition by landowners. Turbulent public meetings were held in West Hertfordshire towns to protest against the project, the anatomist Sir Astley Cooper was also in attendance, intent on preventing the new railway from cutting across his Gadebridge Estate. The L&BR Companys first application for an Act of Parliament to construct the line was rejected in 1832, due to pressure from landowners and road, the railway route proposals through Hertfordshire were modified and in May 1833 a second act was approved and the line received the royal assent. Construction began in November of that year, in particular, he suggested that the effort to build the Great Pyramid of Giza amounted to the lifting of 15,733,000,000 cubic feet of stone by 1 foot. The railway, excluding a string of tasks – drainage, ballasting. The pyramid involved, he says, the effort of 300,000 men or 100,000 for twenty years, the railway involved 20,000 men for five years. The line had been planned to open at the time as the Grand Junction Railway which entered Birmingham from the north. However great difficulty in constructing the Kilsby Tunnel in Northamptonshire delayed the opening, the first part of the line between Euston Station and Boxmoor opened on 20 July 1837. The line was fully opened on 17 September 1838 with the first passenger train from London to Birmingham arriving that day. The first London to Birmingham trains took 5 1⁄2 hours to complete the 112 1⁄2 mile journey, the railway opened from Euston on 20 July 1837, the stationary engines and rope haulage did not commence until 27 September, and handled all trains from 14 October 1837
19.
Hemel Hempstead railway station
–
Hemel Hempstead railway station is on the West Coast Main Line, on the western edge of the town of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. The station is 24 1⁄2 miles north-west of London Euston on the West Coast Main Line, Hemel Hempstead is managed by London Midland and all train services are operated by London Midland and Southern. One of two stations now serving the town, the other being Apsley, this one is in an area called Boxmoor. Both were built when Hemel Hempstead was still small, before it was designated a New Town in 1946, bus services run from there to the town centre. Also in the vicinity of the station are two pubs and the Grand Union Canal, about 110 yd away, there are four full-length through platforms and one disused south-facing bay. Hemel Hempstead station was opened by the London and Birmingham Railway on 20 July 1837, the decision to locate the station 1 mile outside Hemel Hemsptead town centre was a result of the opposition faced by the L&BR during construction of the line. In order to obtain Parliamentary approval, the L&BR was forced to choose a route which was less favourable to Hemel Hempstead. In 1846 the L&BR was taken over by the London and North Western Railway, in 1912 the LNWR renamed the station Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead. The line was opened in 1877 by the Midland Railway and extended to transport coal to Duckhall gasworks, close to Boxmoor. Only occasional freight trains ran this far, passenger trains terminated in the centre at Heath Park Halt. Passenger services ceased on the Nickey Line in 1947 although it remained in use as a goods line and it was only in the last months of the Nickey Lines operations that a rail link was built at Boxmoor. Hemel Hempstead had been designated as a New Town and the town centre redevelopment plans included the demolition of the Nickey Line. In order to maintain a service to the gasworks, a link was built in 1959 connecting the Nickey Line to the West Coast Main Line via sidings at Boxmoor. This link was for trains only and no passenger service was ever provided, but it only remained in operation for six months, the gasworks shut down. The following year the railway viaduct over Marlowes in the centre was demolished. The nearby crossover at Bourne End was the site of an accident on 30 September 1945. The coaches rolled down an embankment, and forty-three lives were lost. The Nickey Line at Boxmoor Hemel Hempstead is served by frequent trains on the West Coast Main Line between London Euston-Tring and Milton Keynes operated by London Midland, there are additional direct services between London Euston - Leighton Buzzard, Bletchley and Rugby
20.
Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
–
Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and of Hanover as spouse of William IV of the United Kingdom. Adelaide was the daughter of George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, is named after her. Adelaide was born on 13 August 1792 at Meiningen, Thuringia and her father was George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, and her mother was Luise Eleonore, daughter of Prince Christian of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Saxe-Meiningen was a state, covering about 423 square miles. It was the most liberal German state and, unlike its neighbours, permitted a free press, by the end of 1811, King George III was mad and, although still King in name, his heir-apparent and eldest son George was Prince Regent. On 6 November 1817 the Prince Regents only daughter, Princess Charlotte, wife of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Princess Charlotte was second in line to the throne, had she outlived her father and grandfather, she would have become Queen. With her death, the King was left with twelve children, the Prince Regent was estranged from his wife, who was forty-nine years-old, thus there was little likelihood that he would have any further legitimate children. To secure the line of succession, Prince William, Duke of Clarence, William already had ten children by the popular actress Dorothea Jordan, but, being illegitimate, they were debarred from the succession. Considerable allowances were likely to be voted by Parliament to any Royal Duke who married, the allowance proposed was slashed by Parliament, and the outraged Duke considered calling off the marriage. However, Adelaide seemed the ideal candidate, amiable, home-loving, the arrangement was settled and William wrote to his eldest son, She is doomed, poor dear innocent young creature, to be my wife. They had only met for the first time about a week earlier, neither William nor Adelaide had been married before, and William was twenty-seven years her senior. Despite these unromantic circumstances, the couple settled amicably in Hanover, Adelaide improved Williams behaviour, he drank less, swore less and became more tactful. Observers thought them parsimonious, and their simple, even boring. William eventually accepted the reduced increase in his allowance voted by Parliament, on the Continent, Adelaide became pregnant, but in her seventh month of pregnancy, she caught pleurisy and gave birth prematurely on 27 March 1819 during the illness. Her daughter, Charlotte, lived only a few hours and she became pregnant again, and a second daughter, Elizabeth, was born on 10 December 1820. Elizabeth seemed strong but died less than three months old on 4 March 1821 of inflammation in the Bowels, ultimately, William and Adelaide had no surviving children. Twin boys were stillborn on 8 April 1822, and a possible brief pregnancy may have occurred within the same year, Princess Victoria of Kent came to be acknowledged as Williams heiress presumptive, as Adelaide had no further pregnancies. While there were rumours of pregnancies well into Williams reign, they seem to have been without basis, at the time of their marriage, William was not heir-presumptive to the throne, but became so when his brother Frederick, Duke of York, died childless in 1827
21.
Cassiobury House
–
Cassiobury House was a country house in Cassiobury Park, Watford, England. It was notable for being the seat of the Earls of Essex. Originally a Tudor building, dating from 1546 for Sir Richard Morrison, it was remodelled in the 17th and 19th centuries. The surrounding Cassiobury Park was turned into the public open space for Watford. St Albans Abbey claimed rights to the manor of Cashio, which included Watford, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1539, Watford was divided from Cashio, and Henry made himself lord of the manor of Cassiobury. In 1546 he granted the manor to Sir Richard Morrison, who started to build Cassiobury House in the extensive gardens, the estate grounds were much larger than they are today, reaching as far as North Watford and southwards almost to Moor Park. After the death of his father in 1556, Sir Charles Morrison continued building and completed the mansion, which had 56 rooms, a gallery, stables, a dairy. Sir Charles was succeeded by his son, also called Charles Morrison, in 1627 Sir Charles Morrisons daughter, Elizabeth, married Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham and the estate passed into the Capel family. The Capels were settled at Little Hadham in Hertfordshire, but after the marriage they became associated with Cassiobury. Cassiobury had been sequestrated by Parliament, Arthur Capells widow Lady Elizabeth Capell successfully petitioned Parliament for Cassiobury to be returned to her on. After Capells execution, his son Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex, following the Restoration of the Monarchy, the younger Arthur Capell rose to become Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the reign of Charles II. He moved the Capell family seat from Hadham to Cassiobury, commissioning a lavish reconstruction of his fathers Tudor mansion from the architect Hugh May. The new house was built c. 1677–80 and laid out on an H ground-plan, popular during that period, incorporating the original north-west wing. As he had already done at Windsor Castle, May teamed up with the wood carver of the day, Grinling Gibbons, the staircase was built of oak wood, with the balustrade and decorations and executed in pine and ash. The park and gardens were laid out by Moses Cook who devised woodland walks and avenues, later, the gardeners George London and Charles Bridgeman also worked at Cassiobury. Between 1672 and 1720 an avenue of 296 lime trees was planted, remnants of this can still be seen today. The building of Little Cassiobury also dates from this period and still exists in Hempstead Road, the Grand Union Canal dates from the late eighteenth century. The 4th Earl was one of the noblemen on the board of the canal company, the 5th Earl of Essex arrived at Cassiobury in 1799 and commissioned James Wyatt to add a Gothic exterior and an orangery
22.
Robert Peel
–
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, FRS, PC, a British statesman and member of the Conservative Party, served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and twice as Home Secretary. He is regarded as the father of modern British policing and as one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party and he entered the House of Commons in 1809 under the tutelage of his father and of Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. Peel was widely seen as a star in the Conservative Party and served in various junior ministerial offices, becoming Chief Secretary for Ireland. He cut tariffs to stimulate trade, to replace the lost revenue he pushed through a 3% income tax and he played a central role in making free trade a reality and set up a modern banking system. In 1830 the Whigs finally returned to power and Peel became a member of the Opposition for the first time, Peel then issued the Tamworth Manifesto, laying down the principles upon which the modern British Conservative Party is based. His first ministry was a minority government, dependent on Whig support, after only four months, his government collapsed and he served as Leader of the Opposition during the second government of the Viscount Melbourne. Peel declined to head another minority government in May 1839, prompting a political crisis and he finally became Prime Minister again after the 1841 general election. His second government ruled for five years - its major legislation included the Mines and Collieries Act 1842, the Income Tax Act 1842, the Factories Act 1844, Peels government was weakened by anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment following the controversial Maynooth Grant of 1845. After the outbreak of the Great Irish Potato Famine, his decision to join with Whigs, Peel remained an influential backbench MP and leader of the Peelite faction until his death in 1850. Peel often started from a traditional Tory position in opposition to a measure, then reversed his stance, Peel, a Conservative, achieved repeal with the support of the Whigs in Parliament, overcoming the opposition of most of his own party. Many critics accordingly saw him as a traitor to the Tory cause, or as a Liberal wolf in sheeps clothing, taylor says, Peel was in the first rank of 19th century statesman. He carried Catholic Emancipation, he repealed the Corn Laws, he created the modern Conservative Party on the ruins of the old Toryism. Peel was born at Chamber Hall, Bury, Lancashire, to the industrialist and parliamentarian Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet and his father was one of the richest textile manufacturers of the early Industrial Revolution. Peel was educated briefly at Bury Grammar School, at Hipperholme Grammar School, then at Harrow School and finally Christ Church, Oxford and he was a law student at Lincolns Inn in 1809 before entering Parliament. Peel saw part-time military service as a Captain in the Manchester Regiment of Militia in 1808, Peel entered politics in 1809 at the age of 21, as MP for the Irish rotten borough of Cashel, Tipperary. With a scant 24 electors on the rolls, he was elected unopposed and his sponsor for the election was the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, with whom Peels political career would be entwined for the next 25 years. Peel made his speech at the start of the 1810 session. His speech was a sensation, famously described by the Speaker, Charles Abbot, as chief secretary in Dublin in 1813, he proposed the setting up of a specialist police force, later called peelers
23.
Windsor Castle
–
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is notable for its association with the English and later British royal family. The original castle was built in the 11th century after the Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror, since the time of Henry I, it has been used by the reigning monarch and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe. Inside the castle walls is the 15th-century St Georges Chapel, considered by the historian John Martin Robinson to be one of the achievements of English Perpendicular Gothic design. Gradually replaced with stone fortifications, the castle withstood a siege during the First Barons War at the start of the 13th century. Edwards core design lasted through the Tudor period, during which Henry VIII and Elizabeth I made increasing use of the castle as a royal court and centre for diplomatic entertainment. Windsor Castle survived the period of the English Civil War, when it was used as a military headquarters for Parliamentary forces. At the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II rebuilt much of Windsor Castle with the help of the architect Hugh May, Queen Victoria made a few minor changes to the castle, which became the centre for royal entertainment for much of her reign. Windsor Castle was used as a refuge for the family during the Luftwaffe bombing campaigns of the Second World War. It is a popular tourist attraction, a venue for hosting state visits, today, more than 500 people live and work in Windsor Castle, making it the largest inhabited castle in the world. Windsor Castle occupies 13 acres, and combines the features of a fortification, a palace, the present-day castle was created during a sequence of phased building projects, culminating in the reconstruction work after a fire in 1992. It is in essence a Georgian and Victorian design based on a medieval structure, since the 14th century, architecture at the castle has attempted to produce a contemporary reinterpretation of older fashions and traditions, repeatedly imitating outmoded or even antiquated styles. Although there has some criticism, the castles architecture and history lends it a place amongst the greatest European palaces. At the heart of Windsor Castle is the Middle Ward, a formed around the motte or artificial hill in the centre of the ward. The motte is 50 feet high and is made from chalk originally excavated from the surrounding ditch, the Round Tower is in reality far from cylindrical, due to the shape and structure of the motte beneath it. The western entrance to the Middle Ward is now open, the eastern exit from the ward is guarded by the Norman Gatehouse. Wyatville redesigned the exterior of the gatehouse, and the interior was later converted in the 19th century for residential use. The Upper Ward of Windsor Castle comprises a number of major buildings enclosed by the bailey wall
24.
Tamworth railway station
–
Tamworth is a split-level railway station which serves the town of Tamworth in Staffordshire, England. It is located where the Cross Country Route passes over the Trent Valley section of the West Coast Main Line, in the United Kingdom, the joint station didnt acquire the High Level and Low Level names until 1924. Since it was expected that local trains would call, the platforms were on loops. At that time there was a north to west curve linking the, by then, since it was the crossing of two major lines – one Bristol to Newcastle, the other Euston to Aberdeen – it was important for the Royal Mail transferring upwards of 2000 bags every night. A north to east curve was built very early on by the Trent Valley Railway and the Birmingham & Derby Junction railway, and track was laid on it. It was certainly lifted by the turn of the century, the track left the Trent Valley line and climbed on an embankment until it crossed the River Anker via a bridge, then entered a cutting until reaching the Midland line. The south-east corner, where the lines crossed, was at time a vacant field. A housing estate now occupies that spot, there was a large water tower and pumping station at the east end of the low level, pumping water from the River Anker below. On 14 September 1870, a train was diverted into a siding due to a signalmans error. It crashed through the buffers and ended up in the River Anker, London Midland operates a regular Monday to Sunday semi-fast hourly service between London and Crewe via Stoke-on-Trent which calls at Tamworth. This service uses Class 350 multiple units, some peak services start or terminate at Northampton. Virgin Trains provide additional services during the hours and weekends. Eastbound, there are,1 train per day from Lancaster to London,2 trains per day from Liverpool Lime Street to London,1 train per day from Manchester Piccadilly to London, all Virgin Trains services are operated by Class 390 Pendolinos. On the Cross Country Route all trains are served by CrossCountry and operated by Class 170, 220s, 221s, on Sundays this is reduced to 1 train per hour to Nottingham and 1 train per 2 hours to Glasgow. Peak-time services are extended to Penzance, on Sundays the hourly service to Birmingham does not operate. There is also a number of trains between Newcastle and Reading or Southampton Central which stop at Tamworth. Dudley Port railway station, which also had 2 levels until the 1960s, retford railway station, on 2 levels since the 1960s. Lichfield Trent Valley railway station Smethwick Galton Bridge railway station, on 2 levels, shotton railway station Train times and station information for Tamworth railway station from National Rail
25.
Watford and Rickmansworth Railway
–
The Watford and Rickmansworth Railway Company was a short-lived company that ran services between Watford and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England. It was incorporated in 1860 and the line opened in 1862, one branch was closed in 1952, and the remaining line was gradually run down and eventually closed in 1996. A scheme is now underway to re-open one of the branches as part of a London Underground extension, in July 1860, Lord Ebury obtained powers to construct a 4.5 mile single track line between Watford and Rickmansworth which opened in October 1862. It was nicknamed Ebury Line after the companys founder and first chairman. The Rickmansworth terminus was located opposite the church to the south of the town where interchange sidings were provided with the nearby Grand Union Canal, the line had two other stations at Watford Junction and Watford High Street and its depot was situated on Wiggenhall Road in Watford. The GWR offered to put up £20,000 towards the project and in 1863, the GWR later withdrew its offer of funding and the scheme foundered. Lord Eburys ambition to link Watford and Uxbridge was never realised, the construction of the railway was dogged with financial problems and a further Act of Parliament had to be passed in 1863 to authorise the issue of further shares to the value of £30,000. The initial daily service consisted of five each way from Rickmansworth to Watford. The line was worked from the outset by the London and North Western Railway, for the first 19 years, the LNWR operated services and paid the W&RR 50% of the gross earnings of the line. The railway was never successful and the Official Receiver was called in only four years after opening. Despite all attempts to make Lord Eburys railway into a success, the company faced bankruptcy and in 1881 it was absorbed by its operations partner. In the early 20th century, suburban railway competition was on the increase, although the Metropolitan did not reach the town of Watford until 1925, the LNWR was keen to act against emerging competition and in 1908 began work on a new branch line to Croxley Green. The extension involved the construction of a bridge over the Grand Junction Canal. Passenger services on the new route commenced on 15 June 1912, the semi-rural location of the Croxley Green terminus gave added credence to the LNWRs slogan Live in the Country. In March 1913 Croxley Green station was burned down, it was suspected that the fire had been started deliberately by Suffragettes and these services were supplemented by LNWR trains from Broad Street during peak periods and steam trains from Euston. The Croxley Green branch was electrified on 30 October 1922, with Rickmansworth following in September 1927 as part of the LNWRs New Line Project, the stock was finally withdrawn in 1939 with the introduction of emergency war timetables and replaced with main line size electric stock. Notwithstanding the introduction of services, the Rickmansworth branch suffered in the face of the more direct services to London provided by the Metropolitan. Traffic was also eroded by the increased bus competition and private car ownership, today the track has been removed and the platforms and station buildings have been demolished
26.
Rickmansworth (Church Street) railway station
–
Rickmansworth railway station was a London and North Western Railway station in the town of Rickmansworth in west Hertfordshire, UK. Opened in 1862, it was the terminus of a 7. 2-kilometre branch line used to run from Watford. The station closed to passengers in 1952, although the continued to be used as a goods line for some years after that. Church Street station has since been demolished, a separate Rickmansworth station exists today about 0.7 kilometres north-west the site of Church Street station. It was opened 25 years after Church Street station and continues to both the London Underground Metropolitan line and the London to Aylesbury Line of Chiltern Railways. The station was the terminus of the Watford and Rickmansworth Railway and it opened on 1 October 1862. The line ran from Watford Junction to Rickmansworth with many small freight branches, lord Eburys plan was to extend this short branch line further south and to open a new railway route to Uxbridge Vine Street on the Great Western Railways Uxbridge branch. However, the GWR withdrew its funding for the scheme and line was never extended, the line failed to operate at a profit, the W&RR ran into financial difficulties, and eventually the operation was taken over by the London and North Western Railway in 1881. The station was renamed from Rickmansworth to Rickmansworth on 25 September 1950, today, the track has been removed and the platforms and station buildings have been demolished. The former site of Church Street station is now occupied by social housing, the old track bed of the line to Watford is now the Ebury Way rail trail. Subterranea Britannica - Details and pictures of Rickmansworth
27.
Watford High Street railway station
–
Watford High Street is a railway station in Watford, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. It is served by the Watford DC Line on the London Overground network, the station was opened by the Watford and Rickmansworth Railway on 1 October 1862, with services running from Watford Junction to Rickmansworth. In 1912 a branch was opened to Croxley Green, the line came under the ownership of London and North Western Railway, which was absorbed into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923, following the grouping of Britains railway companies. After nationalisation in 1948, the Watford DC Line was run by British Rail, over the years, most of these services were gradually withdrawn. The Rickmansworth branch was a poorly used service and passenger services were terminated by BR in 1952, Croxley Green services continued as Parliamentary trains until the line closed fully in 1996. In 1982 London Regional Transport cut back the Bakerloo line to run only as far north as Stonebridge Park, after the withdrawal of the Croxley, Bakerloo and Broad Street routes, the only remaining service running from Watford High Street was British Rails Watford DC Line to Euston. Following the privatisation of British Rail the franchise for the Watford DC Line was taken over by National Express Group who ran the line under its Silverlink Metro name, Watford High Street station is located in the Lower High Street in Watford town centre. Various other shopping parks are close to the station, including a large Tesco Extra, Waterfields Shopping Park. To the east of the line is the site of Benskins Brewery. The brewery was rail-served by sidings until 1956, all services to this station are operated by London Overground. It is on the Watford DC Line of the network and receives trains every 20 minutes Monday to Saturday daytimes, in evenings and on Sundays there is a half-hourly service in each direction. The station is served by Non London Bus Routes 8,306, 306B, 306C,398,602, W19 and W20, other services to alternate destinations operate from Watford town centre bus stops, which are a short distance from the station. The new route, expected to open in 2020, will provide two new Underground stations at Ascot Road and Vicarage Road. As a result of the diversion of the line, the original Watford tube station close to passengers. Historical photographs of Watford High Street LNWR station, archived from the original on 2013-08-11. Train times and station information for Watford High Street railway station from National Rail
28.
London and North Western Railway
–
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the world, the company was formed on 16 July 1846 by the amalgamation of the Grand Junction Railway, London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. This move was prompted in part by the Great Western Railways plans for a railway north from Oxford to Birmingham, the company initially had a network of approximately 350 miles, connecting London with Birmingham, Crewe, Chester, Liverpool and Manchester. The headquarters were at Euston railway station, as traffic increased it was greatly expanded with the opening in 1849 of the Great Hall, designed by Philip Charles Hardwick in classical style. It was 126 ft long,61 ft wide and 64 ft high, the station stood on Drummond Street. Further expansion resulted in two platforms in the 1870s, and four more in the 1890s, bringing the total to 15. The LNWR described itself as the Premier Line, as the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom, it collected a greater revenue than any other railway company of its era. With the Grand Union Railway acquisition of the North Union Railway in 1846, in 1858 they merged with the Chester and Holyhead Railway and became responsible for the lucrative Irish Mail trains via the North Wales Main Line to Holyhead and handled the Irish Mail. On 1 February 1859 the company launched the limited mail service, the Postmaster General was always willing to allow a fourth coach provided the increased weight did not cause time to be lost in running. The train was timed to leave Euston at 20.30 and operated until the GPO instituted its own post train, wholly of Post Office vehicles, on 1 October 1873 the first sleeping carriage ran between Euston and Glasgow, attached to the limited mail. It ran three nights a week in each direction, on 1 February 1874 a second carriage was provided and the service ran every night. In 1860 the company pioneered the use of the water trough designed by John Ramsbottom and it was introduced on a section of level track at Mochdre, between Llandudno Junction and Colwyn Bay. At the core of the LNWR system was the main line network connecting London Euston with the cities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. This route is known as the West Coast Main Line. The LNWR also had a line connecting Liverpool and Manchester with Leeds. At its peak just before World War I, it ran a route mileage of more than 1,500 miles, in 1913 the company achieved a total revenue of £17,219,060 with working expenses of £11,322,164. With this, the LNWR achieved a route mileage of 2,707.88 miles, the LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish railway when the railways of Great Britain were merged in the grouping of 1923. Ex-LNWR lines formed the core of the LMSs Western Division, nationalisation followed in 1948, with the English and Welsh lines of the LMS becoming the London Midland Region of British Railways
29.
Croxley Green
–
Croxley Green is a large suburb of Rickmansworth and a civil parish in England with a population recorded at the 2011 Census of 12,562. Located on the A412 between Watford to the north–east, and Rickmansworth to the south–west in Hertfordshire, it is approximately 20 miles north–west of London, Croxley Green has a large village green surrounded by old buildings, including the Croxley Green Windmill. There is extensive building of housing stock from the 1930s foillowing the Metropolitan Railway, the Green houses the Revels on The Green, an annual village fair which includes a traditional maypole dance, which used to be illustrated on the road signs on entering the village. The revels were featured in Metro-land, the 1973 television documentary by John Betjeman, the annual Mummers play, St. George & The Dragon, is played out during the Christmas period at a number of village hostelries. Since 2006 the Parish Council have organised a display on The Green for New Years Eve. Croxley Mill was built in 1830 adjacent to the Grand Union Canal by the paper manufacturer John Dickinson and it survives today converted to residential accommodation. Croxley Common Moor to the south of the village, OS grid reference TQ083949 was designated as an SSSI in 1986, the village signs were replaced in February 2008 with a scene of All Saints Church and The Green. Train services are provided by the Watford branch of the London Underground Metropolitan line from Croxley station. The journey is 40 –45 minutes to Baker Street,60 minutes to Aldgate in the City of London, the Croxley Rail Link is a railway engineering project. The diversion requires the construction of a viaduct over the Grand Union Canal, River Gade, barbara Woodhouse the dog trainer presented Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way on television in the 1980s and lived at Campions from the 1940s to the 1980s. Fred Housego, the 1980 BBC Mastermind winner, and sometime London black cab driver, Ron Tarr, a British actor, best known for playing the part of Big Ron in EastEnders, lived in Durrants Drive. In a report about Tarrs death in the Daily Mirror, journalist Chris Hughes stated the character had a cult following, Croxley Green has a Residents Association and a Parish Council. There are local organisations dedicated to pastimes and leisure, the Croxley Green Society run the Revels. There are varying clubs including the camera, needlecraft, wine, vineyard, bicycle, jazz, Croxley Green Parish Council Croxley Green Residents Association Website Croxley Green Website Croxley Revels Croxley Great Barn
30.
Bakerloo line
–
The Bakerloo line /ˌbeɪkərˈluː/ is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in Central London, via the West End, the line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are below ground. It was so named because it serves Baker Street and Waterloo, North of Queens Park, the line shares tracks with London Overgrounds Watford DC Line and runs parallel to the West Coast Main Line. It is the ninth busiest line on the network, carrying over 111 million passengers annually, for a detailed history of the line, see Baker Street and Waterloo Railway. The route had its origins in the projects of the pneumatic 1865 Waterloo and Whitehall Railway. It was extended to Elephant & Castle five months later, on 5 August, the contraction of the name to Bakerloo rapidly caught on, and the official name was changed to match in July 1906. As a result, work on the line was stopped for a few months and did not resume until Charles Yerkes and UERL stepped in, in 1915 the line was extended to Queens Park, where it joined the LNWRs Euston-Watford DC line to Watford Junction. Bakerloo services to Watford Junction were reduced in the 1960s and cut back in 1982 to Stonebridge Park, services as far as Harrow & Wealdstone were gradually restored from 1984, and in 1989 the present all-day service was instituted. By the mid-1930s, the Metropolitan line was suffering from congestion caused by the capacity of its tracks between Baker Street and Finchley Road stations. The Bakerloo line took over the Metropolitan lines service to Stanmore on 20 November 1939, a projected extension as far as Camberwell was shown on a 1949 edition of the Underground map but no further work was done. The train describers at Warwick Avenue station showed Camberwell as a destination until the 1990s, one oddity is that, almost from its opening until 1917, the Bakerloo operated with the polarity of the conductor rails reversed, the outside rail negative and the centre rail positive. This came about because the Bakerloo shared a power source with the District Railway, on the Bakerloo, the outside conductor rail tended to leak to the tunnel wall, whereas on the District Railway, the centre rail shared a similar problem. The solution was to reverse the polarity on the Bakerloo line, in 1917, the two lines were separated when the LNWR began its New Line service between Euston and Watford Junction, which the Bakerloo would share north of Queens Park. As a result, normal operation was restored, the line celebrated its centenary on 10 March 2006, when various events were organised on the line. This was in conjunction with the reorganisation of a number of north London railways under London Overground, under a former London Plan it was projected that by 2026 the Bakerloo line would be re-extended from Harrow & Wealdstone to Watford Junction, restoring the pre-1982 service. The railway line from Queens Park to Watford Junction, currently shared with London Overground, the 1949 extension to Camberwell proposal was resurrected in 2006 when the then London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, suggested that an extension was being considered within 20 years. However, there are no firm commitments to this extension and it remains at the proposal stage, tfLs Transport T2025 - Transport Vision for a growing world city investment programme identifies the ambition to separate the present Northern line into two self-contained lines by 2025. In this scenario, an extension to the Bakerloo line would no longer be required, in its July 2011 London & South East Route Utilisation Strategy, Network Rail recommended extending the Bakerloo line from Elephant & Castle to Lewisham and then taking over the Hayes Line
31.
Broad Street railway station (London)
–
Broad Street was a major terminal station in the City of London, adjacent to Liverpool Street station. It was opened in 1865 as the terminus of the North London Railway network of suburban services. It closed in 1986 following years of diminishing passenger usage, the extension of the North London Railway to Broad Street was authorised by the North London Railway Act of 22 July 1861. A goods station was situated next to the station opening to traffic on 18 May 1868. It was built on a deck and a lift was provided to move wagons down to warehouses below, the deck was not strong enough to carry locomotives, so shunting was done by rope and capstan. A fourth approach line was added in 1874, a platform in 1891. At its peak, Broad Street was the third-busiest station in London, at the start of the 20th century, more than one train per minute arrived or departed Broad Street during rush hour, with over 27 million passengers in 1902. The Great Northern Railway also used Broad Street as a supplement to its Kings Cross terminal some miles to the west. In the early years of the 20th century, the North London Line suffered a loss in passengers and, especially, revenue, owing to the expansion of the bus, tram. For example, from 1900 to 1905, passengers dropped by 4 per cent and 13.4 per cent, by 1913, numbers had dropped to 44.6 per cent compared to 1900, the patronage of Broad Street station declined accordingly. This was not helped by the fact that, on 8 September 1915, at the terminus, only the western five lines were ever electrified. The station was badly damaged during the Second World War and was never fully repaired. Local services to Poplar were withdrawn on 14 May 1944 and never reinstated, the main station building was closed in 1956, with passengers being directed to a new concourse-level building at the platform entrance to buy tickets. By 1960, only 41 trains carrying 6,400 passengers arrived at Broad Street in the three morning peak hours, the line and station were earmarked for closure under the Beeching cuts of 1963, but local opposition persuaded the government to give it a reprieve. However, the station was run down and the level of service was steadily reduced. In 1976, peak hour services to the Eastern Region via the Canonbury Spur were withdrawn with the opening of the Northern City Line, the station was now very dilapidated, with vegetation growing between disused platforms. By 1985,6,000 passengers per week were using Broad Street station and 300 arrived daily in the morning peak, from 13 May 1985, the service to Richmond was diverted away from Broad Street, leaving the peak hour Watford Junction services. It was agreed that Broad Street would be closed, with trains diverted to Liverpool Street once a new connecting chord was built from the North London Line
32.
Harrow & Wealdstone station
–
Harrow & Wealdstone is a interchange station in Wealdstone in the London Borough of Harrow, Greater London. It is served by London Overground, London Midland, Southern, the station is located between The Bridge, Wealdstone, and Sandridge Close, Harrow with entrances leading to both. The Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash of 1952, killing 112 people and it remains Britains worst peacetime rail disaster. The station was opened by the London and Birmingham Railway as Harrow on 20 July 1837 in what was then rural Middlesex. At the time the station was built, the area was fields, Wealdstone was a collection of houses at the north end of what is now Wealdstone High Street, about 1 mile north of the station. On 18 December 1890, a branch line was opened by the London & North Western Railway to Stanmore to the north-east of the main line. In 1932 an intermediate halt was constructed as Belmont to serve the residential areas locally. The train was known affectionately as the Belmont Rattler, by the end of the 19th century Wealdstone had developed in size and the station was given its current name on 1 May 1897 to reflect more accurately its location. On 16 April 1917, Bakerloo line services were extended from Willesden Junction to Watford Junction running on the newly electrified local tracks and calling at Harrow & Wealdstone from that date. On 15 September 1952, the service to Stanmore - by then renamed Stanmore Village to avoid confusion with the Metropolitan Railways station opened in 1934 - was withdrawn. Freight traffic continued sporadically until about 1965, on 5 October 1964, all services on the branch line to Belmont were withdrawn as part of the cuts of the Beeching Axe. On 24 September 1982, Bakerloo line services to Harrow & Wealdstone ended when services north of Stonebridge Park were ended, however the closure was short-lived, and the Bakerloo line to Harrow & Wealdstone was reinstated on 4 June 1984 with the station acting as the terminus. On 7 August 1838 Thomas Port was fatally injured when he fell from a train and was run over about 1.25 miles south of the station, in 1870, a mail train was in a rear-end collision with a freight train. Seconds later a northbound express hauled by two locomotives collided with the wreckage causing further injury and demolished one span of the footbridge, a memorial plaque was placed above the main entrance on the eastern side of the station to mark the 50th anniversary in 2002. Under this scheme, all Crossrail trains would continue west of Paddington and they would serve Heathrow Airport, stations to Maidenhead and Reading, and stations to Milton Keynes Central. The extension would relieve pressure from London Underground and London Euston station while also increasing connectivity. Conditions to the extension are that any extra services would not affect the service pattern for confirmed routes. From 13 December 2009 As of December 2015 the typical Monday-Saturday service is, 2tph to Tring 1tph to Milton Keynes Central
33.
Oyster card
–
The Oyster card is a form of electronic ticket used on public transport in Greater London in the United Kingdom. A standard Oyster card is a blue credit-card-sized stored-value contactless smartcard that can hold single tickets, period tickets and travel permits, passengers touch it on an electronic reader when entering and leaving the transport system in order to validate it or deduct funds. Cards may be topped-up by recurring payment authority, by purchase, at credit card terminals or by cash. The card is designed to reduce the number of transactions at ticket offices, usage is encouraged by offering substantially cheaper fares than with cash though the acceptance of cash is being phased out. On London buses, cash is no longer accepted, the card was first issued to the public in July 2003 with a limited range of features and there continues to be a phased introduction of further functions. By June 2012, over 43 million Oyster cards had been issued, as part of TfLs Future Ticketing Programme the Oyster card platform is due to be replaced or supplemented by contactless payment card systems such as contactless credit and debit cards. The first stage of this was completed in June 2015, the £100 million contract was signed in 1998 for a term of 17 years until 2015 at a total cost of £1.1 billion. In August 2008, TfL decided to exercise an option in the contract to terminate it in 2010. This followed a number of technical failures, TfL stated that the contractual break was to reduce costs, not connected to the system failures. In November 2008 a new contract was announced between TfL and Cubic and EDS for two of the original shareholders to run the system from 2010 until 2013. The Oyster name was agreed on after a period of research managed by TranSys. Two other names were considered and Oyster was chosen as an approach that was not directly linked to transport. Other proposed names were Pulse and Gem, the intellectual property rights to the Oyster brand originally belonged to TranSys. The Oyster card has a claimed proximity range of about 80 mm, the card operates as a RFID system and is compatible with ISO/IEC14443 types A and B. Oyster readers can read other types of cards including Cubic Transportation Systems Go cards. From its inception until January 2010, Oyster cards were based on NXP/Philips MIFARE Classic 1k chips provided by Giesecke & Devrient, Gemalto, all new Oyster cards have used MIFARE DESFire EV1 chips since December 2009. From February 2010, MIFARE Classic-based Oyster cards were no longer issued, MIFARE DESFire cards are now widely used as transport smartcards. MIFARE Classic chips, on which the original Oyster card was based, are hard-wired logic smartcards, the MIFARE DESFire chips used on the new Oyster card are CPUs with much more sophisticated security features and more complex computation power
34.
Southern (Govia Thameslink Railway)
–
Southern is the brand name used by the Govia Thameslink Railway train operating company on the Southern routes of the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise. In July 2015, the franchisee was subsumed into GTR, but the existing Southern and Gatwick Express brand identities were retained alongside those of Thameslink and it also provides services between Milton Keynes and Croydon via the West London Line. It also operates services from Brighton to Ashford, Brighton to Seaford, Brighton to Southampton, following the end of British Rail, Connex South Central was awarded the Network SouthCentral franchise by the Director of Passenger Rail Franchising. Operations began on 26 May 1996, in March 2000, the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority announced its intention to relet the franchise from May 2003 with Connex and Govia the shortlisted bidders. In October 2000 the SSRA announced that Govia had been awarded the franchise, Govia negotiated a deal with Connex to buy out the remainder of its franchise, this was completed in August 2001. Govia trading as SouthCentral took over operations on 26 August 2001, in May 2004 the franchise was rebranded as Southern in a recall of the pre-nationalisation Southern Railway, using a green roundel logo with Southern in yellow in a green bar. In April 2007 the Department for Transport announced that the Gatwick Express franchise was to be incorporated into the main South Central franchise. This was part of a plan to increase capacity on the Brighton Main Line, involving the extension of services from Gatwick to Brighton. This doubled the number of London to Brighton express trains during those periods, in December 2008, Southern took over the services on the Redhill to Tonbridge Line from Southeastern. However, such a transfer never took place and the DfT put out the franchise for tender. In August 2008 the DfT shortlisted Govia, National Express, NedRail, in June 2009 the DfT announced that Govia had retained the franchise, to start on 20 September 2009. In March 2012 the Department for Transport announced that Abellio, FirstGroup, Govia, MTR and Stagecoach had been shortlisted for the new Thameslink, Southern, the Invitation to Tender was to be issued in October 2012, with the successful bidder announced in spring 2013. However, in the wake of the collapse of the InterCity West Coast refranchising process, in December 2012, Southerns London Victoria to London Bridge via Denmark Hill service ceased, being partially replaced by London Overgrounds new Clapham Junction to Dalston Junction service. However the Southern brand was retained, Southern was criticised for major changes to its timetables in December 2007 and December 2008. In December 2007, Southern changed the arrangement for the splitting of services to and from London Victoria on the Arun Valley Line, in December 2008 further timetable changes included the introduction of the extended Gatwick Express services. However, reliability and timekeeping on some of the new services were considered poor, on 22 January 2009, Southern responded to some of these criticisms. During 2009 these services have recorded improved timekeeping and criticisms have since subsided, the new timetable also led to unhappiness due to the difference in speed and frequency of service between East Coastway services and those on the Brighton Main Line. Further changes to the timetable were made in December 2010, the first timetable change to many of the requirements of the new franchise
35.
London Midland
–
London Midland is a train operating company in England, owned by Govia, operating the West Midlands franchise. London Midland operate local services in the West Midlands and surrounding areas through their City sub-brand, additionally, services on the Stourbridge Town Branch Line operated by Pre Metro Operations are branded as the London Midland Stourbridge Shuttle. The franchise was due to expire in September 2015, this was extended to March 2016. London Midlands services are divided between four groups of routes, London Euston Routes, Birmingham Regional, West Midlands Local, London Euston Routes includes train services between London Euston and Birmingham New Street or Crewe, as well as services which only use a small section of the route. Birmingham Regional includes longer-distance, semi-fast services between Birmingham New Street and Hereford, Shrewsbury or Liverpool Lime Street, West Midlands Local includes stopping services through Birmingham to nearby settlements such as Lichfield and Kidderminster. Branch Lines includes services which operate on lines that are essentially separate from the rest of the network. London Midland operates several parliamentary train stations, where only a handful of trains a day call and these include, Bordesley,1 train per week on a Saturday, from Whitlocks End to Great Malvern, plus football specials. Polesworth,1 train per day from Northampton to Crewe, London Midland also operates stations where it operates no services. These stations are served by CrossCountry, which does not manage any stations. Traffic on the route was low, but growing, and there was a campaign to keep the service. The service was an option with the new West Midlands franchise, but the Department for Transport decided not to provide funding from December 2008. There is only one morning train on Saturdays from Wolverhampton to Walsall. London Midland advised that passengers should use National Express West Midlands buses instead and this service was withdrawn in December 2009 because of low passenger use. However, since the December 2009 timetable changes, London Midland still does run a once a week from Birmingham New Street to Gloucester. In October 2010 London Midland applied to the Office of Rail Regulation to run a new hourly Birmingham to Preston service from 2016 by diverting every other Birmingham to Liverpool train. The Euston to Crewe service would then be extended to Liverpool to maintain a service between Crewe and Liverpool by 2016 as well. This was rejected by the Office of Rail Regulation, London Midland also sought to run additional evening and Sunday trains between Euston and Crewe, to satisfy what the company says is unmet demand. From April 2012 London Midland began operating an hourly Euston to Crewe service on Sundays, in order to win a contract extension, London Midland has agreed to put on extra services, resulting in an extra 6,600 seats per week
36.
Brighton
–
Brighton /ˈbraɪtən/ is a seaside resort on the south coast of England. It is part of the county of East Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the dates back to the Bronze Age, Roman. The ancient settlement of Brighthelmstone was documented in the Domesday Book, Brighton began to attract more visitors following improved road transport to London and becoming a boarding point for boats travelling to France. The town also developed in popularity as a resort for sea bathing as a purported cure for illnesses. Brighton continued to grow as a centre of tourism following the arrival of the railways in 1841. Many of the attractions were built in the Victorian era, including the Grand Hotel, the West Pier. Brighton attracted 7.5 million day visitors in 2015/16 and 4.9 million overnight visitors, Brighton has also been called the UKs hippest city, and the happiest place to live in the UK. Brightons earliest name was Bristelmestune, recorded in the Domesday Book, although more than 40 variations have been documented, Brighthelmstone was the standard rendering between the 14th and 18th centuries. Brighton was originally a shortened form, first seen in 1660, it gradually supplanted the longer name. Brighthelmstone was the official name until 1810, though. The name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, most scholars believe that it derives from Beorthelm + tūn—the homestead of Beorthelm, a common Old English name associated with villages elsewhere in England. The tūn element is common in Sussex, especially on the coast, an alternative etymology taken from the Old English words for stony valley is sometimes given but has less acceptance. Brighthelm gives its name to, among other things, a church, the town was originally split in half by the Wellesbourne, a winterbourne which was culverted and buried in the 18th century. Poet Horace Smith called it The Queen of Watering Places, which is widely used. Novelist William Makepeace Thackeray referred to Doctor Brighton, calling the one of the best of Physicians. London-by-Sea is well-known, reflecting Brightons popularity with Londoners as a resort, a commuter dormitory. The Queen of Slaughtering Places, a pun on Smiths description, the mid 19th-century nickname School Town referred to the remarkable number of boarding, charity and church schools in the town at the time
37.
Gatwick Airport
–
Gatwick Airport is a major international airport in south-east England,29.5 miles south of Central London and 2.7 nautical miles north of Crawley. It is the second-busiest airport by passenger traffic in the United Kingdom. Gatwick is the eighth-busiest airport in Europe, Gatwick opened as an aerodrome in the late 1920s, and has been in use for commercial flights since 1933. The airport has two terminals, the North Terminal and the South Terminal, which areas of 98,000 m2 and 160,000 m2 respectively. It operates as a airport, using a main runway with a length of 3,316 m. A secondary runway is available but, due to its proximity to the main runway, in 2016,43.1 million passengers passed through the airport, a 7. 1% increase compared with 2015. The land on which Gatwick Airport stands was first developed as an aerodrome in the late 1920s, the Air Ministry approved commercial flights from the site in 1933, and the first terminal, The Beehive, was built in 1935. Scheduled air services from the new terminal began the following year, major development work at the airport took place during the 1950s. The airport buildings were designed by Yorke Rosenberg Mardall between 1955 and 1988, further rapid growth of charter flights at Gatwick was encouraged by the Ministry of Aviation, which instructed airlines to move regular charter flights from Heathrow. Following the takeover of BUA by Caledonian Airways at the beginning of the following decade, while continuing to dominate scheduled operations at Gatwick for most of the 1980s, BCal was also one of the airports major charter airlines until the end of the 1970s. Following the demise of Air Europe and Dan-Air in the early 1990s and these moves resulted in BA becoming Gatwicks dominant airline by the turn of the millennium. BAs subsequent decision to de-hub Gatwick provided the space for EasyJet to establish its biggest base at the airport, BAA Limited and its predecessors, BAA plc and the British Airports Authority, owned and operated Gatwick from 1 April 1966 to 2 December 2009. From 1978 to 2008, many flights to and from the United States used Gatwick because of restrictions on the use of Heathrow implemented in the Bermuda II agreement between the UK and the US. US Airways, Gatwicks last remaining US carrier, ended service from Gatwick on 30 March 2013 and this leaves Gatwick without a scheduled US airline for the first time in nearly 40 years. On 17 September 2008, BAA announced it would sell Gatwick after the Competition Commission published a report about BAAs market dominance in London, the sale was completed on 3 December. The sales were part of GIPs strategy to syndicate the equity portion of the acquisition by issuing bonds to refinance bank debt. Although this entails bringing additional investors into the airport, GIP aims to retain management control, the Californian state pension fund CalPERS acquired a 12. 7% stake in Gatwick Airport for about $155 million in June 2010. This transaction completed GIPs syndication process for the airport, reducing its stake to 42%, the airport is owned and operated by Gatwick Airport Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ivy Holdco Limited
38.
Motive power depot
–
Motive power depot, usually abbreviated to MPD, or railway depot is a term given to places where usually locomotives are housed when not being used, and also repaired and maintained. They were originally known as running sheds, engine sheds, or, for short, facilities are provided for refuelling and replenishing water, lubricating oil and grease and, for steam engines, disposal of the ash. There are often workshops for day to day repairs and maintenance, although locomotive building, mPDs in Britain are now often known as traction maintenance depots. The equivalent of such depots in German-speaking countries is the Bahnbetriebswerk or Bw which has similar functions, with major repairs and overhauls being carried out at Ausbesserungswerke. The number of these reduced drastically on the changeover from steam to diesel and electric traction and most modern Bw in Germany are specialised depots, engine sheds could be found in many towns and cities as well as in rural locations. They were built by the companies to provide accommodation for their locomotives that provided their local train services. Each engine shed would have an allocation of locomotives that would reflect the duties carried out by that depot, others, such as Kings Cross engine shed in London, predominantly provided locomotives for passenger workings. Nearly all depots at this time had a number of shunting locomotives, normally 0-4-0T or 0-6-0T tank engines, these would be allocated to shunt turns and could be found in goods yards, carriage sidings, goods depots and docks. Many large rail connected industrial sites also had engine sheds primarily using shunting locomotives and those in roundhouses could be inside or outside such as that at the East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Company Roundhouse, Rockhill, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, USA. There were six primary activities that took place at the sheds, when a steam engine arrived on shed it would drop its fire and the ash that had built up would be removed. Disposal of the ash was a job and carried out at quiet times although some bigger depots had facilities for disposing of ash more efficiently. Study of photographs from the era show it was not uncommon for piles of ash to be scattered around the depot site. After completing their last duty and arriving on shed locomotives would have a regular boiler washout to remove scale, improve efficiency, initially this job was done by hand and many depots had significant coal stacks on site. These would be constructed with the outer walls constructed of dry blocks much in the style of a dry stone wall with smaller pieces behind these. As technology advanced and the bigger sheds got busier this process became mechanised, the sheds were not clean places to work. The large London depot of Stratford had a dormitory and its occupants would “wake up with a layer of coal dust covering them. Another key requirement of the engine is a supply of water which is carried in the tenders or tanks of the engines. In Australia water was carried in water gins due to longer distances covered
39.
British Railways
–
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
40.
Brutalist architecture
–
Brutalist architecture is a movement in architecture that flourished from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, descending from the modernist architectural movement of the early 20th century. The term originates from the French word for raw in the used by Le Corbusier to describe his choice of material béton brut. British architectural critic Reyner Banham adapted the term into brutalism to identify the emerging style, there is often an emphasis on graphically expressing in the external elevations and in the whole-site architectural plan the main functions and people-flows of the buildings. Brutalism became popular for educational buildings, but was rare for corporate projects. Brutalism became favoured for government projects, high-rise housing. In one critical appraisal by Banham, Brutalism was posited not as a style, Brutalism as an architectural critical term was not always consistently used by critics, architects themselves usually avoided using it altogether. More recently, brutalism has become used in popular discourse to refer to buildings of the twentieth century that are large or unpopular – as a synonym for brutal. The term brutalism was originally coined by the Swedish architect Hans Asplund to describe Villa Göth in Uppsala, designed in 1949 by his contemporaries Bengt Edman and he originally used the Swedish-language term nybrutalism, which was picked up by a group of visiting English architects, including Michael Ventris. In England, the term was adopted by architects Alison. The best known proto Brutalist architecture is the work of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, in particular his 1952 Unité dHabitation, Brutalist buildings are usually formed with repeated modular elements forming masses representing specific functional zones, distinctly articulated and grouped together into a unified whole. Concrete is used for its raw and unpretentious honesty, contrasting dramatically with the refined and ornamented buildings constructed in the elite Beaux-Arts style. Surfaces of cast concrete are made to reveal the nature of its construction. Brutalist building materials include brick, glass, steel, rough-hewn stone. Another common theme in Brutalist designs is the exposure of the buildings functions—ranging from their structure, from another perspective, the design of the Hunstanton School included placing the facilitys water tank, normally a hidden service feature, in a prominent, visible tower. This style had a position in the architecture of European communist countries from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s. In Czechoslovakia brutalism was presented as an attempt to create a national, John Andrewss government and institutional structures in Australia also exhibit the style. In the United States Paul Rudolph and Ralph Rapson are both noted Brutalists, Walter Netsch is known for his Brutalist academic buildings. Marcel Breuer was known for his approach to the style
41.
Iveco
–
Iveco, an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian industrial vehicle manufacturing company based in Turin, Italy, and entirely controlled by CNH Industrial Group. The name Iveco first appeared in 1975 after a merger of Italian, French and its production plants are in Europe, Brazil, Russia, Australia, Africa, Argentina and China, and it has approximately 5,000 points of sales and service in over 160 countries. The worldwide output of the amounts to around 150,000 commercial vehicles with a turnover of about €10,000,000,000. Iveco was incorporated on 1 January 1975, with the merger of five different brands, Fiat Veicoli Industriali, OM, Lancia Veicoli Speciali, Unic and Magirus-Deutz. Following the merger, the newly founded Iveco began rationalizing its product range, manufacturing plants and sales network, while keeping the original brands. From 1975 to 1979, the Iveco range included 200 basic models and 600 versions spanning from 2.7 tons of GVW for a vehicle to over 40 tons for heavy vehicles. In 1977 the light to medium-weight Iveco Zeta range was introduced, integrating the Fiat-OM range with the Unic and Magirus lineups was completed by 1980. Iveco moved in to work on increasing productivity and engine development, in 1978 Iveco launched the first product in the range of light vehicles branded Iveco, the Daily. In 1980 Iveco built the first turbo engine for heavy industrial vehicles. Two new divisions were formed, bus diesel engines and firefighting vehicles. In 1984 Iveco launched the TurboStar, a heavy vehicle that became a best-seller in Italy. In 1985 Iveco made the first light engine with direct injection. From 1986, Iveco S. p. A. held a 52% stake in Iveco Ford Truck Ltd, Ford plants took over production and sales of the major vehicles in the Iveco range and continued production of the Ford Cargo. In the mid-1980s, Astra, which produces dumpers and construction vehicles in Piacenza. In 1989 the first diesel engine with EGR to reduce polluting emissions compatible with commercial vehicles was produced, in 1990, the group purchased 60% control of the Spanish industrial company ENASA, which owned the industrial vehicle builder Pegaso. In the 1990s, the EuroCargo, EuroTech, EuroTrakker and EuroStar vehicles represented a total facelift for the range. The EuroCargo and the EuroTech were named Truck of the Year in 1992 and 1993 respectively and, for the first time, in 1991, the English company Seddon Atkinson was purchased and brought its long heritage of special vehicles for the construction and refuse collection industries. That same year, the first TurboDaily assembly line was inaugurated at the Nanjing Motor Corporation in China, in 1992, Iveco took over the primary constructor of industrial vehicles in Australia to form Ital, originally called International Trucks Australia
42.
Stillage
–
A stillage is like a pallet or skid but with a cage or sides or some form of support specifically tailored to the material it is intended to carry. Some are designed to be stackable, stillages are mainly used to transport goods without the need to load and unload the product being carried, which saves time and decreases the chance of damage. An example is the use of stillages in the industry, where they are shaped like an upright A. A stillage is any device on which a cask of ale is placed for service, unlike kegs, which can be simply stood upright on the floor, casks are used lying on their sides. This allows the beer to run from the tap under gravity, the shive with the spile will then be the highest point on the cask. As the beer clears, the inside of the cask becomes coated with sediment and it is important that the stillage holds the cask absolutely still with no rocking or shaking, otherwise the sediment will be shaken into suspension and the beer will be cloudy. A stillage need not be complicated - anything that will support a cask will do, at temporary events, sturdy tables or frames made of scaffolding and planks might be used, with the casks placed on wooden wedges. At the other end of the scale, many pub cellars use specially-made steel racking, some pubs have brick or stone stillages, sometimes quite ancient, built into the wall of the cellar. As the cask empties, it needs to be tilted to obtain the last of the beer. With wooden wedges, moving the rear wedge forward will achieve this and this requires less effort from bar staff, and also helps beer quality - the lift is so smooth and gradual that there is no danger of stirring up the lees and making the beer cloudy
43.
Ford Motor Company
–
The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16,1903, the company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand and most luxury cars under the Lincoln brand. Ford also owns Brazilian SUV manufacturer, Troller, and Australian performance car manufacturer FPV, in the past, it has also produced tractors and automotive components. Ford owns an 8% stake in Aston Martin of the United Kingdom, and it also has a number of joint-ventures, one in China, one in Taiwan, one in Thailand, one in Turkey, and one in Russia. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is controlled by the Ford family, Fords former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover, acquired in 1989 and 2000 respectively, were sold to Tata Motors in March 2008. Ford owned the Swedish automaker Volvo from 1999 to 2010, in 2011, Ford discontinued the Mercury brand, under which it had marketed entry-level luxury cars in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East since 1938. During the financial crisis at the beginning of the 21st century, it was close to bankruptcy, Ford is the second-largest U. S. -based automaker and the fifth-largest in the world based on 2015 vehicle production. At the end of 2010, Ford was the fifth largest automaker in Europe, Ford is the eighth-ranked overall American-based company in the 2010 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues in 2009 of $118.3 billion. In 2008, Ford produced 5.532 million automobiles and employed about 213,000 employees at around 90 plants, the company went public in 1956 but the Ford family, through special Class B shares, still retain 40 percent voting rights. The Ford Motor Company was launched in a factory in 1903 with $28,000 in cash from twelve investors, most notably John. During its early years, the company produced just a few cars a day at its factory on Mack Avenue and later its factory on Piquette Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Groups of two or three men worked on car, assembling it from parts made mostly by supplier companies contracting for Ford. Henry Ford was 39 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company and it has been in continuous family control for over 100 years and is one of the largest family-controlled companies in the world. The first gasoline powered automobile had been created in 1885 by the German inventor Carl Benz, between 1903 and 1908, Ford produced the Models A, B, C, F, K, N, R, and S. Hundreds or a few thousand of most of these were sold per year, in 1908, Ford introduced the mass-produced Model T, which totalled millions sold over nearly 20 years. In 1927, Ford replaced the T with the Model A, Ford launched the first low-priced car with a V8 engine in 1932. In an attempt to compete with General Motors mid-priced Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Henry Ford purchased the Lincoln Motor Company in 1922, in order to compete with such brands as Cadillac and Packard for the luxury segment of the automobile market. The creation of a laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan in 1951, doing unfettered basic research
44.
Dagenham
–
Dagenham is a large suburb of east London, England. In the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, it is 11.5 miles east of Charing Cross and 9.5 miles east of the City of London. Historically in Essex, it was a village and remained mostly undeveloped until 1921. The population of the significantly increased in the 20th century, with the parish of Dagenham becoming an urban district in 1926. It has formed part of Greater London since 1965 and is a residential area, with some areas of declining industrial activity. The southern part of Dagenham, adjacent to the River Thames, Dagenham first appeared in a document in a charter of Barking Abbey dating from 666 AD. The name almost certainly originated with a farmstead, the ham or farm of a man called Daecca. In 1931 the Ford Motor Company relocated from Trafford Park in Manchester, to a plant in Dagenham, by the 1950s Ford had taken over Briggs at Dagenham and its other sites at Doncaster, Southampton, Croydon and Romford. At its peak the Dagenham plant had 4 million square feet of floor space, in 2005 Cummins went into a joint venture and offered $15 million to reinstate the factory. Ford and Cummins offered a good redundancy package, billed as one of the best in UK manufacturing and it is the location of the Dagenham wind turbines. Some 4,000 people now work at the Ford plant, the movie Made in Dagenham is a dramatisation of the 1968 Ford sewing machinists strike at the plant, when female workers walked out in protest against sexual discrimination and unequal pay. Sterling Ltd who were famous for manufacturing British Army weapons and Jaguar car parts were based in Dagenham until they went bankrupt in 1988. The May & Baker plant, owned and run by Sanofi-Aventis, occupies a 108-acre site in Rainham Road South and it was abandoned in 2013 when the company closed this plant. The council has decided how to use the vacant site and they will redevelop it with a new shopping centre, stores announced so far are a Sainsburys supermarket and a pub restaurant. More stores will be announced in the future, Dagenham was an ancient, and later civil, parish in the Becontree hundred of Essex. The Metropolitan Police District was extended in 1840 to include Dagenham, the parish formed part of the Romford Rural District from 1894. Dagenham Parish Council offices were located on Bull Street, separately, the London County Council proposed that its area of responsibility should be expanded beyond the County of London to cover the area. Instead, in 1926 the Dagenham parish was removed from the Romford Rural District, in 1938, in further recognition of its development, Dagenham became a municipal borough
45.
Gospel Oak railway station
–
Gospel Oak railway station is in the London Borough of Camden in north London. It is on the North London Line and is also the passenger terminus of the Gospel Oak to Barking Line. Passengers using Oyster cards are required to tap on interchange Oyster card readers when changing between the two lines, the station is in Travelcard Zone 2, and is managed by London Overground which runs all passenger trains at the station. The station opened in 1860 as Kentish Town on the Hampstead Junction Railway from Camden Road to Old Oak Common Junction south of Willesden Junction. It was renamed Gospel Oak in 1867 when a new station more appropriately named Kentish Town was opened about a mile south on the same line. From 1926 to 1981, the station was not an interchange, passenger trains left the Barking line at Tufnell Park. In 1981 that passenger service from Barking was diverted from Kentish Town to Gospel Oak with the terminal platform rebuilt on the side of the existing station. The North London Line through Gospel Oak was electrified on the fourth-rail 660 volt DC system in 1916 by the LNWR, in 1996, the line from Willesden through Gospel Oak to Camden was closed during conversion to 25kv AC overhead. The platforms are high above street level with stairs and two lifts, one serving westbound trains, and one serving eastbound trains and the Barking line. The North London Line has two platforms and the Barking line has a terminal platform north of which are two separate through freight tracks which join the NLL just west of the station. Oyster ticket barriers are in operation, until May 2011, there was a reduced service with no services on Sundays while the upgrade work continued. From 6 June until 23 September, services will be suspended east of South Tottenham on weekdays, weekend trains will be suspended throughout for the entire duration of the work and are not due to restart until June 2017. London Buses route C11 serves the station, the two brick skew arch bridges by which the trains cross Gordon House Road are shown in the cover photograph of the 1997 Gospel Oak EP by Irish singer Sinéad OConnor. Train times and station information for Gospel Oak railway station from National Rail
46.
Watford rail crash
–
Having applied the brakes it eventually stopped 203 m past the signal and was traversing the junction between the Down Slow line and the Up Fast line. One person was killed and sixty-nine were injured, including four members of the trains crew, the person who was killed was Ruth Holland, book review editor of the British Medical Journal. As a result of accident, the train driver was charged with manslaughter by the Crown Prosecution Service on 10 January 1997. On 11 March 1998, the driver was acquitted at Luton Crown Court, in its report, the Health and Safety Executive advised that there was insufficient evidence to justify legal proceedings against the other involved parties, namely Railtrack and Network SouthEast. The HSE and the ORR concluded in its incident report that there were a number of mitigating factors that contributed to the incident, the collision would have been avoided if the Automatic Train Protection system had been fitted to the train and track. The inappropriate positioning of a speed restriction sign as a result of imprecise wording in the Railway Signalling Standard which gave confusing information to the driver of the passenger train. The signal passed at danger had a shorter than normal safety margin known as an overlap intended to reduce risks from small misjudgements by train drivers or increased braking distances, list of British rail accidents Southall rail crash – SPAD accident in September 1997. Railway Accident at Watford ISBN 0-7176-1510-3
.jpg)
6.092 million[2]
0.537 million[2]
London transport portal
UK Railways portal
_p073_-_Viaduct_over_the_River_Colne_near_Watford.jpg)
