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Merry-go-round Train
A merry-go-round train, often abbreviated to MGR, is a Unit train, block train of Hopper car, hopper wagons which both loads and unloads its cargo while moving. In the United Kingdom, they are most commonly coal trains delivering to power stations. These trains were introduced in the 1960s, and were one of the few innovations of the Beeching cuts, along with investment from the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) and the NCB (National Coal Board) into new power stations and loading facilities. History and description West Burton Power Station was used as a testing ground for the MGR system but the first power station to receive its coal by MGR was Cockenzie Power Station, Cockenzie in Scotland in 1966. It was estimated at the time that the 80 MGR hoppers needed to feed Cockenzie would replace up to 1,500 conventional wagons. A 1.2 GW power station, such as Cockenzie, receives up to 3 million tons of coal a year, whereas a larger 2 GW plant, like West Burton ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penmanshiel Tunnel (coal Train On New Alignment)
Penmanshiel Tunnel is a now-disused railway tunnel near Grantshouse, Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders region of Scotland. It was formerly part of the East Coast Main Line between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Dunbar. The tunnel was constructed between 1845 and 1846 by contractors Ross and Mitchell, to a design by John Miller (engineer), John Miller, who was the engineer to the North British Railway. Upon completion, the tunnel was inspected by the inspector-general of railways, Charles Pasley, Major-General Charles Pasley, on behalf of the Board of Trade. The tunnel was long, and carried two running lines in a single bore. During its 134-year existence, the tunnel was the location of two incidents investigated by HM Railway Inspectorate. The first was in 1949, when a serious fire destroyed two carriages of a south-bound express from Edinburgh. Seven passengers were injured, but there were no deaths. The second incident occurred on 17 March 1979 when, during improvement works, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station
Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station owned and operated by Uniper at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, England. Commissioned in 1968 by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB), the station had a capacity of 2,000 MW. It was the last remaining operational coal-fired power station in the UK, and closed on 30 September 2024, marking the end of coal-powered electricity generation in the United Kingdom. The power station occupies a prominent position next to the A453 road, close to junction 24 of the M1 motorway, the River Trent and the Midland Main Line (adjacent to East Midlands Parkway railway station) and dominates the skyline for many miles around with its eight cooling towers and tall chimney. History The public inquiry for the station took place at County Hall, Nottinghamshire from 8 January 1963. It was approved by the government on 29 August 1963. Construction The construction of the power station began i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railfreight
Railfreight was a sector of British Rail responsible for all freight operations on the British network. The division was created in 1982 when BR sought to assign particular stock and management to the evolving requirements of freight traffic. History Railfreight existed as a single unit from 1982 until 1987 as the rail freight division of British Rail. In 1987 BRs freight operations were further divided according to the type of train operated and material carried: the Trainload Freight division and its sub-sectors handled unit trains of coal, metal, aggregates, oil or petroleum, LPG, petro-chemicals, and construction materials; while Railfreight Distribution handled intermodal, non-unit train work and channel tunnel freight. Activities which were not assigned to one of the new ''Trainload Freight'' or ''Railfreight Distribution'' sub-sectors were then continued under the Railfreight General banner. Railfreight General was dissolved in 1989, its limited responsibilities bei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freightliner Group
Freightliner Group is a rail freight and logistics company headquartered in the United Kingdom. It is owned by Brookfield Corporation, Brookfield, a Canadian investment management company and GIC (sovereign wealth fund), GIC, a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund. It was originally created after the Transport Act 1968 as Freightliner Limited, a British government-owned company. From its onset, Freightliner was focused on the haulage of international traffic, thus came to centre its activities around Britain's sea ports, often building new multimodal freight depots adjacent to such locations to better capture this business. During the late 1970s, it was reorganised under British Rail, and became a part of its Railfreight Distribution subsidiary during the late 1980s. Work to expand the loading gauge on routes such as the East Coast Main Line were undertaken, allowing trains hauling larger containers to be routes, were conducted around this time. Numerous domestic depots previously ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GB Railfreight
GB Railfreight (GBRf) is a rail freight company in the United Kingdom. As of 2022, it is owned by the global investment company Infracapital, itself a subsidiary of M&G plc, a UK investment group. GB Railfreight was established in April 1999 as the rail freight operating subsidiary of the train operating company GB Railways. It was granted an operator's licence in June 2000, and started running Intermodal container trains in February 2002; the haulage of other freight traffic commenced later that year. GBRf acquired numerous Class 66 locomotives to haul its trains; another early type would be the Class 20 and Class 73 locomotives. In August 2003, GBRf, via its parent company GB Railways, was acquired by FirstGroup; it was later rebranded as ''First GBRf''. In 2005, it began running services for Royal Mail and Metronet; two years later, First GBRf ran its first coal trains. In 2009, it was granted a passenger license, after which it operated such services under contract to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DB Cargo UK
DB Cargo UK (formerly DB Schenker Rail UK and English, Welsh & Scottish Railway) is a British rail freight company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Doncaster, England. The company was established by Wisconsin Central Ltd., Wisconsin Central in early 1995 as ''North & South Railways'', successfully acquiring and merging five of the six freight companies that were sold during the privatisation of British Rail.The sixth rail freight company created during privatisation, Freightliner Group, Freightliner, was privatised through a management buyout. On 25 April 1996, the English, Welsh & Scottish EWS brand was revealed and implemented over successive months. By the end of March 1997, it controlled 90% of the UK rail freight market, operated a fleet of 900 locomotives and 19,000 wagons, and had 7,000 employees. During the late 1990s, EWS invested heavily into rolling stock renewal, procuring a large number of British Rail Class 66 diesel locomotives. EWS reduced staff number ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TOPS
Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) is a computer system for managing railway locomotives and rolling stock, known for many years of use in the United Kingdom. TOPS was originally developed between the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), Stanford University and IBM as a replacement for paper-based systems for managing rail logistics. A jointly-owned consultancy company, ''TOPS On-Line Inc.'', was established in 1960 with the goal of implementing TOPS, as well as selling it to third parties. Development was protracted, requiring around 660 man-years of effort to produce a releasable build. During mid-1968, the first phase of the system was introduced on the SP, and quickly proved its advantages over the traditional methods practiced prior to its availability. In addition to SP, TOPS was widely adopted throughout North America and beyond. While it was at one point in widespread use across many of the United States railroads, the system has been perhaps most prominently use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Air Brake
A railway air brake is a railway brake power braking system with compressed air as the operating medium. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on April 13, 1869. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was subsequently organized to manufacture and sell Westinghouse's invention. In various forms, it has been nearly universally adopted. The Westinghouse system uses air pressure to charge air reservoirs (tanks) on each car. Full air pressure causes each car to release the brakes. A subsequent reduction or loss of air pressure causes each car to apply its brakes, using the compressed air stored in its reservoirs. Overview Straight air brake In the air brake's simplest form, referred to as a ''straight air system'', compressed air is directed to a ''brake cylinder'', causing its piston to apply force to mechanical linkage, which linkage is conventionally referred to as the ''brake rigging'' (see illu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, it became an independent statutory corporation in January 1963, when it was formally renamed the British Railways Board. British Railways was formed on 1 January 1948 as a result of the Transport Act 1947, which nationalised the Big Four British railway companies along with some other (but not all) smaller railways. Profitability of the railways became a pressing concern during the 1950s, leading to multiple efforts to bolster performance, including some line closures. The 1955 Modernisation Plan formally directed a process of dieselisation and electrification to take place; accordingly, steam locomotives had been entirely replaced by diesel and electric traction (except for the narrow-gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway tourist lin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Of Immingham
The Port of Immingham, also known as Immingham Dock, is a major port on the east coast of England, located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary in the town of Immingham, Lincolnshire. In 2019, the Port of Grimsby & Immingham was the largest port in the United Kingdom by tonnage with 54.1 million tonnes of cargo passing through that year. The port was established by the Humber Commercial Railway and Dock Company in association with the Great Central Railway; the dock company incorporated and the works permitted by the Humber Commercial Railway and Dock Act 1901 ( 1 Edw. 7. c. ccii). Construction of the dock started in 1906 and was completed by 1912. The original main purpose of the dock was export of coal. In the second half of the 20th century the port was considerably expanded beyond its locked dock, and east and west jetties; with the addition of several deep water jetties for bulk cargos: this included the Immingham Oil Terminal (1969, expanded 1994) for oil importation to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
