GWR Railcars
In 1933, the Great Western Railway introduced the first of what was to become a successful series of diesel railcars, which survived in regular use into the 1960s, when they were replaced with the new British Rail "first generation" type diesel multiple units. Design Bodywork The original design featured streamlined bodywork, which was very much the fashion at the time. The rounded lines of the first examples built led to their nickname: "flying banana". The preserved W4W is an example of the original, rounded body shape. Later "razor edge" examples, such as No. 27 (pictured), had much more angular (and practical) bodywork, yet the nickname persisted for these too. Heating The interiors of railcars No. 1 to No. 18 were heated by using waste heat from the engine cooling water. This system proved unreliable in service due to issues with the thermostatic valves employed. Later vehicles from No. 19 onward abandoned this system due to its unreliability and because their revise ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Park Royal Vehicles
Park Royal Vehicles was one of Britain's leading coachbuilders and Bus manufacturing, bus manufacturers, based at Park Royal, Abbey Road, in west London. With origins dating back to 1889, the company also had a Leeds-based subsidiary, Charles H. Roe. Labour problems and slowness of production led to its closure in 1980.Ron Phillips. ''A History of the Leyland Bus'', Crowood Press, Ramsbury 2015. History Park Royal Coach Works Limited was registered as a private company on 12 April 1930 for the purposes of building and dealing in carriages, vehicles and conveyances of all kinds. It was a leading manufacturer of single and double-deck bus, omnibuses and trolley buses. During World War II, Park Royal produced large quantities of vehicle bodies for the Ministry of Supply, the Air Ministry and the Ministry of Aircraft Production. It also was involved in aircraft construction. After the war, it returned to producing composite and metal frame public service bodies for customers such ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Straight-six Engine
A straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balance, resulting in fewer vibrations than other designs of six or fewer cylinders. Until the mid-20th century, the straight-six layout was the most common design for engines with six cylinders. However, V6 engines gradually became more common in the 1970s and by the 2000s, V6 engines had replaced straight-six engines in most light automotive applications. Characteristics In terms of packaging, straight-six engines are almost always narrower than a V6 engine or V8 engine, but longer than straight-four engines, V6s, and most V8s. Compared to V-configuration engines with similar power and displacement, the straight configuration has fewer injectors, a single head, and a single exhaust manifold, all contributing to better reliability and perfor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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GWR Streamlined Railcar, 1934 (Our Generation, 1938)
GWR may refer to: Transport * Great Western Railway, British railway company 1833–1947 * Great Western Railway (train operating company), British railway company (1996–) * Great Western Main Line, a railway line in the UK * Great Western Railway (other), other railway companies and routes with the name * Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, an English heritage railway * Aura Airlines (ICAO airline code: GWR), a Spanish airline * Gwinner–Roger Melroe Field (FAA airport code: GWR), Sargent County, North Dakota, USA Media * GWR Group, a defunct British commercial radio company, merged into GCap Media in 2005 **GWR FM (Bristol & Bath) ** GWR FM Wiltshire * GWR Records, a British record label * ''Graswurzelrevolution'', a German anarcho-pacifist magazine * Guinness World Records Other uses * Geographically weighted regression * Gwere language (ISO 639 language code: gwr) * Llygad Gŵr Llygad Gŵr (fl. 1268 or 1258 – c. 1293,) was a Welsh-language poet in the court o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Windsor & Eton Central Railway Station
Windsor & Eton Central station is one of two terminal stations serving the town of Windsor, Berkshire, England. It is situated on Thames Street, almost immediately opposite Castle Hill, the main public entrance to Windsor Castle. The station is the terminus of a branch line from operated by Great Western Railway. Originally named ''Windsor'', the station was renamed twice: first to ''Windsor & Eton'' on 1 June 1904; and then to ''Windsor & Eton Central'' on 26 September 1949. A significant portion of the station has been converted into a shopping complex named Windsor Royal Shopping; a ticket office and truncated platform remain for services on the Slough–Windsor & Eton line. The station is from Windsor's other station, Windsor & Eton Riverside, the terminus for services from . History Construction Windsor Station opened on 8 October 1849 on the completion of the branch line from Slough but only after considerable opposition from the leadership at Eton College, whi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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London Paddington
Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London railway station and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the main line station dates from 1854 and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. As of the 2023–24 Office of Rail & Road Statistics, it is the second busiest station in the United Kingdom, after London Liverpool Street, with 66.9 million entries and exits. Paddington is the London terminus of the Great Western Main Line; passenger services are primarily operated by Great Western Railway, which provides commuter and regional passenger services to west London and the Thames Valley region, as well as long-distance intercity services to South West England and South Wales. The station is the eastern terminus for Heathrow Express. Elizabeth line services run through Paddington westwards to Re ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Inch Of Mercury
Inch of mercury (inHg, ″Hg, or in) is a non- SI unit of measurement for pressure. It is used for barometric pressure in weather reports, refrigeration and aviation in the United States. It is the pressure exerted by a column of mercury in height at the standard acceleration of gravity. Conversion to metric units depends on the density of mercury, and hence its temperature; typical conversion factors are: In older literature, an "inch of mercury" is based on the height of a column of mercury at .Barry N. Taylor, ''Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI),'' 1995, NIST Special Publication 811, Appendix /ref> :1 inHg60 °F = In Imperial units: 1 inHg60 °F = 0.489 771 Pounds per square inch, psi, or 2.041 771 inHg60 °F = 1 psi. Applications Aircraft and automobiles Aircraft altimeters measure the relative pressure difference between the lower ambient pressure at altitude and a calibrated reading on the grou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vacuum Pump
A vacuum pump is a type of pump device that draws gas particles from a sealed volume in order to leave behind a partial vacuum. The first vacuum pump was invented in 1650 by Otto von Guericke, and was preceded by the suction pump, which dates to antiquity. History Early pumps The predecessor to the vacuum pump was the suction pump. Dual-action suction pumps were found in the city of Pompeii. Arabic engineer Al-Jazari later described dual-action suction pumps as part of water-raising machines in the 13th century. He also said that a suction pump was used in siphons to discharge Greek fire. The suction pump later appeared in medieval Europe from the 15th century. Donald Routledge Hill (1996), ''A History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times'', Routledge, pp. 143 & 150-2 Donald Routledge Hill, "Mechanical Engineering in the Medieval Near East", ''Scientific American'', May 1991, pp. 64-69 (cf. Donald Routledge HillMechanical Engineering By the 17th century, water ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brake Shoe
A railway brake is a type of brake used on the cars of railway trains to enable deceleration, control acceleration (downhill) or to keep them immobile when parked. While the basic principle is similar to that on road vehicle usage, operational features are more complex because of the need to control multiple linked carriages and to be effective on vehicles left without a prime mover. Clasp brakes are one type of brakes historically used on trains. Early developments In the earliest days of railways, braking technology was primitive. The first trains had brakes operative on the locomotive tender and on vehicles in the train, where "porters" or, in the United States brakemen, travelling for the purpose on those vehicles operated the brakes. Some railways fitted a special deep-noted brake whistle to locomotives to indicate to the porters the necessity to apply the brakes. All the brakes at this stage of development were applied by operation of a screw and linkage to brake bloc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Drum Brake
A drum brake is a brake that uses friction caused by a set of Brake shoe, shoes or Brake pad, pads that press outward against a rotating bowl-shaped part called a brake drum. The term ''drum brake'' usually means a brake in which shoes press on the Brake lining, inner surface of the drum. When shoes press on the outside of the drum, it is usually called a ''Railway brake, clasp brake''. Where the drum is pinched between two shoes, similar to a conventional disc brake, it is sometimes called a ''pinch drum brake'', though such brakes are relatively rare. A related type called a band brake uses a flexible belt or "band" wrapping around the outside of a drum. History The modern automobile drum brake was first used in a car made by Wilhelm Maybach, Maybach in 1900, although the principle was only later patented in 1902 by Louis Renault (industrialist), Louis Renault. He used woven asbestos lining for the drum brake lining, as no alternative material dissipated heat more effectivel ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brake Shoe
A railway brake is a type of brake used on the cars of railway trains to enable deceleration, control acceleration (downhill) or to keep them immobile when parked. While the basic principle is similar to that on road vehicle usage, operational features are more complex because of the need to control multiple linked carriages and to be effective on vehicles left without a prime mover. Clasp brakes are one type of brakes historically used on trains. Early developments In the earliest days of railways, braking technology was primitive. The first trains had brakes operative on the locomotive tender and on vehicles in the train, where "porters" or, in the United States brakemen, travelling for the purpose on those vehicles operated the brakes. Some railways fitted a special deep-noted brake whistle to locomotives to indicate to the porters the necessity to apply the brakes. All the brakes at this stage of development were applied by operation of a screw and linkage to brake bloc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vacuum Brake
The vacuum brake is a brake, braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became almost universal in British train equipment and in countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum brakes also enjoyed a brief period of adoption in the United States, primarily on narrow-gauge railroads. Their limitations caused them to be progressively superseded by Railway air brake, compressed air systems starting in the United Kingdom from the 1970s onward. The vacuum brake system is now obsolete; it is not in large-scale usage anywhere in the world, other than in South Africa, largely supplanted by railway air brake, air brakes. Introduction In the earliest days of railways, trains were slowed or stopped by the application of manually applied brakes on the locomotive and in brake vehicles through the train, and later by steam power brakes on locomotives. This was clearly unsatisfactory, given the slow and unreliable response ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cardan Shaft
Cardan may refer to: * Gerolamo Cardano or Jerome Cardan (1501–1576), Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer, and gambler * Cornelius Castoriadis (1922–1997), Greek-French philosopher who used the pseudonym Paul Cardan * Cardan, Gironde, a commune of the Gironde ''département'', in France See also * Cardan angle, a type of angle used to describe the orientation of a rigid body with respect to a fixed coordinate system * Cardan grille, a method of writing secret messages using a grid * Cardan joint, or universal joint, a joint in a rigid rod that allows the rod to "bend" in any direction * Cardan shaft, or drive shaft, a vehicle component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation * Cardan suspension or gimbal, a pivoted support that allows the rotation of an object about a single axis * Carden (other) {{disambig ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |