|
HF Stephens
Colonel Holman Fred Stephens (31 October 1868 – 23 October 1931) was a British light railway civil engineer and manager. He was engaged in engineering and building, and later managing, 16 light railways in England and Wales. Biography Stephens was the son of Frederic George Stephens, Pre-Raphaelite artist and art critic, and his wife the artist Rebecca Clara (née Dalton). He was named after his father's friend and former tutor, the painter Holman Hunt, although the two later fell out. He was a great nephew of the naturalist, explorer and biologist, Charles Darwin. Stephens was apprenticed in the workshops of the Metropolitan Railway in 1881. He was an assistant engineer during the building of the Cranbrook and Paddock Wood Railway, which opened in 1892. In 1894 he became an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, which allowed him to design and build railways in his own right. He immediately set about his lifetime's project of operating light railways for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Light Railway
A light railway is a Rail transport, railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more Grade (slope), steep gradients and Minimum railway curve radius, tight curves to reduce civil engineering costs. These lighter standards allow lower costs of operation, at the price of lower vehicle capacity. Narrow gauge The precise meaning of the term "light railway" varies by geography and context. In countries where a single standard gauge is dominant, the term light railway does not imply a narrow gauge railway. Most narrow gauge railways operate as light railways, but not all light railways need be narrow gauge. After Charles Easton Spooner, Spooner's development of steam haulage for narrow gauge railways, the prevailing view was that the gauge should be tailored according to the traffic: "The nearer the machine is apportioned to the work it has to do the cheaper will that work be done." From the 1890s, it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 5. c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an act of Parliament enacted by the British government, and was intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four large companies, dubbed the " Big Four". The system of the "Big Four" lasted until the nationalization of the railways in 1947. During World War I, the British government took control, although not ownership, of British railways. The intention was to reduce inefficient internal competition between railway companies, and retain some of the benefits which the country had derived from a government-controlled railway system during the war. The provisions of the act took effect from the start of 1923. History The British railway system had been built up by more than a hundred railway companies, large and small, and often, particularly locally, in competition with each other. The parallel railways of the East Midlands, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Eastern Railway (UK)
The South Eastern Railway (SER) was a railway company in south-eastern England from 1836 until 1922. The company was formed to construct a route from London to Dover. Branch lines were later opened to Tunbridge Wells, Hastings, Canterbury and other places in Kent. The absorbed or leased other railways, some older than itself, including the London and Greenwich Railway and the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway. Most of the company's routes were in Kent, eastern Sussex and the London suburbs, with a long cross-country route from in Surrey to Reading, Berkshire. Much of the company's early history saw attempts at expansion and feuding with its neighbours; the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) in the west and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) to the north-east. However, in 1899 the agreed with the to share operation of the two railways, work them as a single system (marketed as the South Eastern and Chatham Railway) and pool receipts: but it was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838 with the initial route completed between London and Bristol in 1841. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who chose a broad gauge of —later slightly widened to —but, from 1854, a series of Consolidation (business), amalgamations saw it also operate Standard gauge, standard-gauge trains; the last broad-gauge services were operated in 1892. The GWR was the only company to keep its identity through the Railways Act 1921, which amalgamated it with the remaining independent railways within its territory, and it was finally merged at the end of 1947 when it was Nationalization, nationalised and became the Western Region of British Railways. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burry Port And Gwendraeth Valley Railway
The Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway (BP&GVR) was a mineral railway company that constructed a railway line in Carmarthenshire, Wales, by conversion of a canal, to connect collieries and limestone pits to the sea at Kidwelly. It extended its network to include Burry Port, Trimsaran and a brickworks at Pwll, later extending to Sandy near Llanelli. For a time the company worked the separate Gwendraeth Valleys Railway (GVR). The was notable because of the very low height of some overbridges, a legacy of the canal conversion. It was completely dependent on the economy of the mineral industries it served and due to depression in them, it was for many years in administration. In the final years of the nineteenth century those industries developed considerably and the fortunes of the improved as well, paying 10% dividends for several years, before absorption by the Great Western Railway in 1922. For some time the line carried miners to their place of work, and their familie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashover Light Railway
The Ashover Light Railway was a narrow gauge railway in Derbyshire, England that connected Clay Cross and Ashover. It was built by the Clay Cross Company to transport minerals such as limestone, fluorite, barytes and gritstone to its works at Clay Cross and for transport around the country by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS. History George Stephenson surveyed the route for the North Midland Railway between Derby and Leeds in the 1830s. The route passed close to Ashover where Stephenson saw the potential for the development of a coal mine, colliery. He formed George Stephenson & Company in 1837 and built a colliery and coke ovens at Clay Cross which opened in 1840. The company passed to his son Robert Stephenson on George's death in 1848, and in 1852 he sold his shares, the business becoming the Clay Cross Company, which was at one time the largest independent employer in the UK. The company continued to develop its mining interests and in 1918 it purchased the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenterden Town Railway Station
Tenterden Town railway station is a heritage railway station on the Kent and East Sussex Railway in Tenterden, Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ..., England. When the railway line first opened in 1900, Rolvenden Station was known as "Tenterden". Its name was changed when the line extended north three years later and a station closer to Tenterden was constructed. The new ''Tenterden Town'' station opened on 16 March 1903. The line closed for regular passenger services on 4 January 1954 and all traffic in 1961. It reopened on 3 February 1974 under the aegis of the Tenterden Railway Company which bought the line between Tenterden and Bodiam. The station now houses the KESR's Carriage and Wagon works, and the Colonel Stephens Museum is located nearby. Services ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Territorial Army (United Kingdom)
The Army Reserve is the active-duty volunteer reserve force of the British Army. It is separate from the Regular Reserve (United Kingdom), Regular Reserve whose members are ex-Regular personnel who retain a statutory liability for service. Descended from the Territorial Force (1908 to 1921), the Army Reserve was known as the Territorial Army (TA) from 1921 to 1967 and again from 1979 to 2014, and the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve (TAVR) from 1967 to 1979. The force was created in 1908 by the Secretary of State for War, Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, Richard Haldane, when the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 combined the previously civilian-administered Volunteer Force, with the mounted Yeomanry (at the same time the Militia#United Kingdom, Militia was renamed the Special Reserve). Haldane planned a volunteer "Territorial Force", to provide a second line for the six divisions of the British Expeditionary Force (First World War), Expeditionary Force which h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in European theatre of World War I, Europe and the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, Middle East, as well as in parts of African theatre of World War I, Africa and the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I, Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of Artillery of World War I, artillery, machine guns, and Chemical weapons in World War I, chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of Tanks in World War I, tanks and Aviation in World War I, aircraft. World War I was one of the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated World War I casualties, 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ffestiniog Railway
The Ffestiniog Railway () is a heritage railway based on Narrow-gauge railway, narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia#Snowdonia National Park, Snowdonia National Park. The railway is roughly long and runs from the harbour at Porthmadog to the Slate industry in Wales, slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, travelling through forested and mountainous terrain. The line is single track throughout with four intermediate passing places. The first mile of the line out of Porthmadog runs atop an embankment called ''the Cob'', which is the Levee, dyke of the polder known as Traeth Mawr. The Festiniog Railway Company, which owns the railway, is the oldest surviving railway company in the world. It also owns the Welsh Highland Railway, which was re-opened fully in 2011. The two railways share the same track gauge and meet at Porthmadog station, with occasional trains working the entire route from Blaenau Ffestinio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
