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Maidstone East Railway Station
Maidstone East is one of three railway stations in the town of Maidstone, in Kent, England, but currently the only one with a regular all-day direct service to London. The station is on the Maidstone line, from , and is served by trains operated by Southeastern. History Maidstone East was opened as ''Maidstone'' by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) on 1 June 1874, as the terminus of the line from Otford. The location of the station was determined by local geography, as the ground from the River Medway west of the station rises sharply to the east. Consequently, it was built on a restricted site across from a high-level bridge over the river, immediately before entering the Week Street tunnel. On 1 July 1884, the line was extended eastwards to . In 1899, following the merger of the LCDR with the South Eastern Railway (SER) which operated the Medway Valley line, the station was given its current name to distinguish it from the SER's identically named station whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maidstone
Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it with Rochester, Kent, Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river carried much of the town's trade as the centre of the agricultural county of Kent, which is known as the Garden of England. There is evidence of settlement in the area dating back before the Stone Age. The town, part of the borough of Maidstone, had an approximate population of 100,000 in 2019. Since World War II, the town's economy has shifted from heavy industry towards light industry and services. Toponymy Anglo-Saxon period of English history, Saxon charters dating back to show the first recorded instances of the town's name, ''de maeides stana'' and ''maegdan stane'', possibly meaning ''stone of the maidens'' or ''stone of the people''. The latt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grist Mill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for mill (grinding), grinding. History Early history The Greek geographer Strabo reported in his ''Geography'' that a water-powered grain-mill existed near the palace of king Mithradates VI Eupator at Cabira, Asia Minor, before 71 BC. The early mills had horizontal paddle wheels, an arrangement which later became known as the "Norse wheel", as many were found in Scandinavia. The paddle wheel was attached to a shaft which was, in turn, attached to the centre of the millstone called the "runner stone". The turning force produced by the water on the paddles was transferred directly to the runner stone, causing it to grind against a stationary "Mill machinery#Watermill machinery, bed", a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Transport with no shareholders, which reinvests its income in the railways. Network Rail's main customers are the private train operating company, train operating companies (TOCs), responsible for passenger transport, and freight operating company, freight operating companies (FOCs), who provide train services on the infrastructure that the company owns and maintains. Since 1 September 2014, Network Rail has been classified as a "public sector body". To cope with history of rail transport in Great Britain 1995 to date, rapidly increasing passenger numbers, () Network Rail has been undertaking a £38 billion History of rail transport in Great Britain 1995 to date#Timelin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maidstone West Railway Station
Maidstone West railway station is one of three railway stations which serve the town of Maidstone, in Kent, England. It is on the Medway Valley Line, from London Charing Cross via and situated between and . The station and all trains serving it are operated by Southeastern. History Due largely to opposition from the town's merchants, and the fear expressed by the then Mayor that "Maidstone will be ruined as a commercial town",J M Russell:''The History of Maidstone'' published by John Hallewell Publications, 1978 (reprint of 1st Ed. 1881) the town was bypassed when the South Eastern Main Line opened by the South Eastern Railway (SER) in 1842. The line ran approximately eight miles to the south, with the nearest station being at ''Maidstone Road'' (later renamed ''Paddock Wood''). On 25 September 1844, a branch line was opened from Paddock Wood to Maidstone West. This was extended further up the Medway Valley to the North Kent Line at Strood on 18 June 1856. The main stati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maidstone Barracks Railway Station
Maidstone Barracks railway station is one of three railway stations which serve the town of Maidstone in Kent, England. Originally opened as Barracks station, it is named after the nearby Invicta Park Barracks and lies on the Medway Valley Line, from London Charing Cross via between and . The station and all trains serving it are operated by Southeastern. The station has been unstaffed since September 1989 and the booking office on the -bound platform was subsequently demolished. A PERTIS (permit to travel) passenger-operated self-service ticket machine was installed on the Strood-bound platform in 2007–08. Services All services at Maidstone Barracks are operated by Southeastern using EMUs. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 2 tph to * 2 tph to via A small number of morning, mid afternoon and late evening trains continue beyond Paddock Wood to . On Sundays, the service is reduced to hourly in each direction. See also *Maidstone East railwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bay Platform
In the United Kingdom and in Australia, a bay platform is a dead-end railway platform at a railway station that has through lines. It is normal for bay platforms to be shorter than their associated through platforms. They must have a buffer stop at one end for safety. Overview Bay and island platforms are so named because they resemble the eponymous geographic features. Examples of stations with bay platforms include Carlisle railway station, Ryde Pier Head railway station, Nottingham railway station (pictured), which has a bay platform inset into one of its platform islands; and the San Francisco International Airport (BART station), San Francisco International Airport BART Station which has three bay platforms, two of which are in use. Chicago's CTA O'Hare (CTA), O'Hare Airport Station features a bay platform with one track on the bay and a track on each side of the platform. Millennium Station in Chicago has several bay platforms for the South Shore Line and Metra. The H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A229 Road
The A229 is a major road running north–south through Kent from Rochester to Hawkhurst via Maidstone. It is a former Roman road that ran from Rochester to Hastings. The road is well known for Blue Bell Hill, which connects Rochester to Maidstone through the North Downs, and links the M2 and M20 motorways. A popular ghost story documents a driver picking up a phantom female hitch-hiker on the A229 outside the Lower Bell pub, who subsequently disappears inside the driver's car. Route The A229 is about long. The road passes through little in the way of built-up areas aside from the Medway Towns and Maidstone. It is principally a link between these two areas and the south coast around Hastings. The road begins in the Medway town of Rochester at the top of Star Hill forming a junction with the A2. It then climbs up through the built-up area of Rochester and Chatham, passing Troy Town and Rochester Airport and the M2 motorway before descending the scarp slope of the Nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Girder Bridge
A girder bridge is a bridge that uses girders as the means of supporting its deck. The two most common types of modern steel girder bridges are plate and box. The term "girder" is often used interchangeably with "beam" in reference to bridge design. However, some authors define beam bridges slightly differently from girder bridges. A girder may be made of concrete or steel. Many shorter bridges, especially in rural areas where they may be exposed to water overtopping and corrosion, utilize concrete box girder. The term "girder" is typically used to refer to a steel beam. In a beam or girder bridge, the beams themselves are the primary support for the deck, and are responsible for transferring the load down to the foundation. Material type, shape, and weight all affect how much weight a beam can hold. Due to the properties of the second moment of area, the height of a girder is the most significant factor to affect its load capacity. Longer spans, more traffic, or wider spacin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Truss Bridge
A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. There are several types of truss bridges, including some with simple designs that were among the first bridges designed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A truss bridge is economical to construct primarily because it uses materials efficiently. Design The nature of a truss allows the analysis of its structure using a few assumptions and the application of Newton's laws of motion according to the branch of physics known as statics. For purposes of analysis, trusses are assumed to be pin-jointed where the straight components meet, meaning that taken alone, every joint on the structure is functionally considered to be a flexible joint as opposed to a rigid joint with the strength to mainta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sorting Office
A sorting office or processing and distribution center (P&DC; name used by the United States Postal Service (USPS)) is any location where postal operators bring mail after collection for sorting into batches for delivery to the addressee, which may be a direct delivery or sent onwards to another regional or local sorting office, or to another postal administration. Most countries have many sorting offices; the USPS has about 275. Some small territories such as Tahiti have only one. Sorting vans were used at various times; the UK had sorting vans, or carriages, in their Travelling Post Offices but those services were terminated in 2004. while in the USA the Railway Mail Service used a Railway post office for sorting the mail. As of 2017, Germany has about 95–98 sorting offices across the country. The United Kingdom Royal Mail's Mount Pleasant Sorting Office was the world's largest sorting office at the beginning of the 20th century but is now only the largest one in London ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Mail
Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). Formed in 2001, the company used the name Consignia for a brief period but changed it soon afterwards. Prior to this date, Royal Mail and Parcelforce were (along with Post Office Counters Ltd) part of the Post Office, a UK state-owned enterprise the history of which is summarised below. Long before it came to be a company name, the 'Royal Mail' brand had been used by the General Post Office to identify its distribution network (which over the centuries included horse-drawn mail coaches, horse carts and hand carts, ships, trains, vans, motorcycle combinations and aircraft). The company provides mail collection and delivery services throughout the UK. Letters and parcels are deposited in post or parcel boxes, or are collected in bul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
