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Marden Rail Crash
The Marden rail crash occurred on 4 January 1969 near Marden, Kent, United Kingdom, when a passenger train ran into the rear of a parcels train, having passed two signals at danger. Four people were killed and 11 were injured. One person was awarded the British Empire Medal for his part in the aftermath of the collision. Background On the evening of 4 January 1969, the weather in the Paddock Wood and Marden area was foggy, with visibility as low as in places. There were three trains involved in the sequence of events leading up to the accident. Another factor in the accident was the failure of a track circuit in the area. The first train was a special rail train comprising five "salmon" wagons loaded with lengths of continuous welded rail, two brake vans and a seven-wagon fitted head (a rake of wagons fitted with vacuum brakes), which had departed from Down Siding West at 20:12. This was some two hours later than scheduled because the driver had had to collect the fitt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central European Time
Central European Time (CET) is a standard time which is 1 hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The time offset from UTC can be written as UTC+01:00. It is used in most parts of Europe and in a few North African countries. CET is also known as Middle European Time (MET, German: MEZ) and by colloquial names such as Amsterdam Time, Berlin Time, Brussels Time, Madrid Time, Paris Time, Rome Time, Warsaw Time or even Romance Standard Time (RST). The 15th meridian east is the central axis for UTC+01:00 in the world system of time zones. As of 2011, all member states of the European Union observe summer time (daylight saving time), from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. States within the CET area switch to Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+02:00) for the summer. In Africa, UTC+01:00 is called West Africa Time (WAT), where it is used by several countries, year round. Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia also refer to it as ''Central E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashford International Railway Station
Ashford International railway station is a National Rail station in Ashford, Kent, England. It connects several railway lines, including High Speed 1 and the South Eastern Main Line. Services are operated by Southeastern and Southern. The station opened in 1842 as Ashford by the South Eastern Railway (SER) as a temporary terminus of the line from London to Dover via Croydon. Connections to Folkestone, Canterbury and Hastings opened within ten years. It was renamed Ashford (Kent) in 1923. There have been two significant rebuilds; in the 1960s for the South Eastern Main Line electrification, and to accommodate international services in the 1990s. The station was renamed as Ashford International in 1996. International services were reduced following the completion of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and the opening of in 2007, but were partially restored before being suspended indefinitely in 2020. Domestic services along High Speed 1 to St Pancras have been running since 2009. L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matfield
Matfield is a small village, part of the civil parish of Brenchley and Matfield, in the Tunbridge Wells borough of Kent, England. Matfield was awarded the title of Kent Village of the Year in 2010. Buildings and amenities St Luke's Church is a Grade II listed building. Matfield currently has a butcher's and grocery store. Following the closure of The Wheel Wright's Arms in 2017, the village now only has two pubs, The Star and a gastropub, The Poet at Matfield, which was formerly known as the Standing's Cross. This unusual name lasted for over 150 years from the earliest days of the pub. It was so named as, in the 1840s, John Standing ran an alehouse in his cottage and served his customers homebrew from barrels in his front room. However, he had problems with his cellar which flooded whenever it rained. So, he sold his house and moved across the road into a bakery – converting it into Matfield’s new alehouse. The pub was creatively named to celebrate this event, hence ‘S ... [...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 32 miles (51 km) 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, 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 ca. 975 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cranbrook, Kent
Cranbrook is a town in the civil parish of Cranbrook and Sissinghurst, in the Weald of Kent in South East England. It lies roughly half-way between Maidstone and Hastings, about southeast of central London. The smaller settlements of Sissinghurst, Swattenden, Colliers Green and Hartley lie within the civil parish. The population of the parish was 6,717 in 2011. History The place name Cranbrook derives from Old English ''cran bric'', meaning Crane Marsh, marshy ground frequented by cranes (although more probably herons). Spelling of the place name has evolved over the centuries from ''Cranebroca'' (c. 1100); by 1226 it was recorded as ''Cranebroc'', then Cranebrok. By 1610 the name had become Cranbrooke, which evolved into the current spelling. There is evidence of early activity here in the Roman period at the former Little Farningham Farm where a substantial iron working site was investigated in the 1950s,in 2000 the site was the subject of a Kent Archaeological Soci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southborough, Kent
Southborough is a town and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. It lies immediately to the north of the town of Tunbridge Wells and includes the district of High Brooms, with the A26 road passing through it. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 11,124. The town is within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Origin of name After the Norman Conquest, the area came within the domain of Tonbridge Castle, one of 4 boroughs to do so. This was the South Borough. Governance Southborough separated from Tonbridge in 1871 when its own board of health was formed . In 1894, it was recreated to become an urban district, with its own elected council to manage its affairs. It retained that title until 1974, when under local government reorganisation it became a civil parish. By historical accident, however, Southborough had a Town Council, which it has retained. Southborough Town Council consists of 18 members, from the three town ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medway Towns
Medway is a unitary authority district and conurbation in Kent, South East England. It had a population of 278,016 in 2019. The unitary authority was formed in 1998 when Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with the Borough of Gillingham to form Medway Towns. It is now a unitary authority area run by Medway Council, independent of Kent County Council but still part of the ceremonial county of Kent. Medway is one of the boroughs included in the Thames Gateway development scheme. It is also the home of Universities at Medway, a tri-partite collaboration of the University of Greenwich, the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University on a single campus in Chatham, together with the University for the Creative Arts, which has a campus in Rochester. Geography Because of its strategic location by the major crossing of the River Medway, it has made a wide and significant contribution to Kent, and to England, dating back thousands of years, as evident in the siting of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Great Stour at the southern or scarp edge of the North Downs, about southeast of central London and northwest of Folkestone by road. In the 2011 census, it had a population of 74,204. The name comes from the Old English ''æscet'', indicating a ford near a clump of ash trees. It has been a market town since the Middle Ages, and a regular market continues to be held. St Mary's Parish Church has been a local landmark since the 13th century, and expanded in the 15th. Today, the church functions in a dual role as a centre for worship and entertainment. The arrival of the railways from the mid 19th century onwards, created a significant source of employment contributing to the town's growth as a rail hub at the centre of five distinct railway lines. The high speed rail line ( HS1 High Speed 1) between London and the Channel Tunnel passes through Ashford's International Railway Station thus linking the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fire Appliance
A firefighting apparatus describes any vehicle that has been customized for use during firefighting operations. These vehicles are highly customized depending on their needs and the duty they will be performing. These duties can include firefighting and emergency medical services. History An early device used to squirt water onto a fire is a ''squirt'' or ''fire syringe''. Hand squirts and hand pumps are noted before Ctesibius of Alexandria invented the first fire pump circa the 2nd century B.C., and an example of a force-pump possibly used for a fire-engine is mentioned by Heron of Alexandria. The fire pump was reinvented in Europe during the 16th century, reportedly used in Augsburg in 1518 and Nuremberg in 1657. A book of 1655 inventions mentions a steam engine (called a ''fire engine'') pump used to "raise a column of water 40 feet []", but there was no mention of whether it was portable. Colonial laws in America required each house to have a bucket of water on the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambulance
An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to medical emergencies by emergency medical services (EMS). For this purpose, they are generally equipped with flashing warning lights and sirens. They can rapidly transport paramedics and other first responders to the scene, carry equipment for administering emergency care and transport patients to hospital or other definitive care. Most ambulances use a design based on vans or pickup trucks. Others take the form of motorcycles, buses, limousines, aircraft and boats. Generally, vehicles count as an ambulance if they can transport patients. However, it varies by jurisdiction as to whether a non-emergency patient transport vehicle (also called an ambulette) is counted as an ambulance. These vehicles are not usually (although there are ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Block Code
The railway block signalling bell code is a system of bell sounds used in Great Britain to communicate between manually operated Signal Boxes in implementing the railway block system. (The bell system is not used in modern power signal boxes, other than to any older adjacent signalboxes.) Each such signal box has a bell circuit to the boxes on either side of it along the line. The equipment consists of a plunger or tapper (rather like a Morse key) which when pressed, rings a single-stroke bell in a neighbouring box. That box similarly has a tapper for communicating back, so boxes have keys each of which rings the bell in a neighbouring box. The bells sound different tones, so that the signalman can tell them apart by ear. Examples Although codes varied from region to region, the following shows a few selected standard UK bell codes: "BR Regulations for Train Signalling 1st Oct 1960" Typical use These would be used as follows (assuming a simple exchange between two si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catch Points
Catch points and trap points are types of turnout which act as railway safety devices. Both work by guiding railway carriages and trucks from a dangerous route onto a separate, safer track. Catch points are used to derail vehicles which are out of control (known as ''runaways'') on steep slopes. Trap points are used to protect main railway lines from unauthorised vehicles moving onto them from sidings or branch lines. Either of these track arrangements may lead the vehicles into a sand drag or safety siding, track arrangements which are used to safely stop them after they have left the main tracks. A derail is another device used for the same purposes as catch and trap points. Trap points ''Trap points'' are found at the exit from a siding or where a secondary track joins a main line. A facing turnout is used to prevent any unauthorised movement that may otherwise obstruct the main line. The trap points also prevent any damage that may be done by a vehicle pass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
