RAILWAYS

Crashes

In 1873 The Times newspaper had a regular column that was entitled Friday's Railway Accidents.

The Clapham Rail Crash

The Clapham Rail Crash occurred on 12 December 1988. Three trains were involved. 35 people were killed and 132 injured. British Railways swiftly ascribed the accident to a redundant wire in a signal box that had been left live by electricians who were updating the signalling system. As a result, a green light had briefly turned red.

The High Court judge Sir Anthony Hidden (1936-2016) took evidence in 1989. He declined requests commuter groups and the Labour Party to extend his inquiry to the limits that had been placed upon British Rail's investment or to overcrowding on commuter trains. His report made 93 recommendations, 71 of which were addressed to British Railways. BR was stated to have had poor management, poor supervision and bad workmanship.

Automatic Train Protection (A.T.P.) technology was introduced in only a limited manner. The Ladbroke Grove rail crash killed 31 people and injured 523. Subsequently, a Train Protection & Warning Systems became standard across the Railtrack network.

An inquest jury had returned a verdict of unlawful killing with regard to the Clapham Crash. However, no criminal charges were brought subsequently. This was a factor in the drafting of the Corporate Slaughter and Corporate Homicide Act of 2007.

The Docklands Light Railway

The Docklands Light Railway operates a light rail system in eastern and south-eastern London under a franchise that is issued by Transport for London. In 1987 the initial service was launched between Tower Gateway and Island Gardens and between Island Gardens and Stratford. The network has expanded since then.

Website: https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/dlr

Europe

Following the 1751 Treaty of Amiens there were proposals for a Channel tunnel.

In the 1930s the 27^th Earl of Crawford & Balcarres declared that a fixed rail link to Europe would result in the importing of German homosexuality and French nudity.

In 2007 the first Paris-to-St Pancras train journey was made. Construction of the track had started a decade earlier.

Ghost Train

A train that is run during cold weather to provide facilities, such as the track, do not become inoperable due to meteorological conditions.

Industrial Policy

It has been argued that the key juncture at which Britain and America varied from one another in their industrial policies was in the 19^thC when it came to how the two states responded to the growth of the railways. The Americans intervened to protect the market rather than the individual entrepreneur, whereas the British opted to act the other way around. This led to the development of the United Kingdom industrial policy of production quotas, price fixing, and subsidies which were factors in the nation's industrial decline during the 20^thC relative to the United States.

Old Nicknames

The Great Western Railway's nickname the Great Way Round; the London Chatham & Dover Railway's was the Lose em, Smash em & Turnover, and the Midland & Great Northern's was Muddle & Go Nowhere.

Overground

The Overground's infrastructure was created in the 19^thC by several different companies.

The East & West India Docks and Birmingham Railway ran from Camden Town to Poplar. In 1853 the venture's name was changed to the North London Railway. In 1865 a spur was built from Dalston Junction to Broad Street.

In 2024 Transport for London announced that it was conferring names on the different portions of London Underground. The new monikers were intended to recall aspects of the metropolis's history, as well as celebrate its present diversity. The Liberty recalls one of London's liberties. The Lioness runs through Wembley and was a tribute The England Women s soccer team. The Mildmay in reference to the Mildmay Mission Hospital, which played a leading role in shaping the U.K. s response to A.I.D.S.. The Suffragette ends in Barking, which the home of Annie Huggett, the last surviving suffragette. The Weaver was a reference to Spitalfields's silk industry. The Windrush was a reference to those West Indians who arrived in the 1950s.

Some of lines already had informal names. The Lioness had been known the Harlequin in reference to the presence of Harlesden and Queen's Park stations along its length. The Suffragette had been called the Goblin from Gospel Oak and Barking.

Website: https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/london-overground

The Search for Blandings

Colonel Cobb was prompted to create his work after the P.G. Wodehouse scholar Richard Usborne had enquired of him whether it might be possible to use the information about the trains that existed in the Blandings novels in order to ascertain where the fictional castle was. In 2008 the University of Cambridge awarded the old engineer and cartographer a Ph.D. for the atlas. At the time, he was the oldest person to have had the degree conferred upon him.

Socio-Economic Impact

The development of a rail changed ordinary life in a series of ways: fish and chips, professional football, newspapers becoming national, and seaside holidays.

Sport

European societies possessed folk sporting traditions. Medieval British monarchs were inclined to try to ban them because of the anti-social behaviour that was often associated with them.

The development of the railway system meant that it became practical for sportsmen to compete with other individuals and teams who were not in their immediate vicinity. This acted as a spur for the codification of sports so that competitors were playing by the same rules as one another. As a result, British Victorians created numerous sports

Steam

The last steam service closed in 1967. It ran between Kensington Olympia and Clapham Junction

Richard Trevithick

In his native Cornwall Richard Trevithick was exposed to the steam engines that were used to pump water out of tin mines. In 1799 he became the first person to make a high-pressure steam engine function. Two years later he built a steam road locomotive. In 1808 he demonstrated a railway locomotive on a track in Bloomsbury.

See Also: TUNNELS The Thames Tunnel

Up

The term going up to London derived from the up line being the one that trains travel along in order to head towards London. (As an expression of fact, this viewpoint is not altogether true. Much of central London is only a few feet above sea level.)

Wrong Kind of

In 1991 British Rail complained that it was unable to provide some services because the wrong kind of snow had fallen. The train operator had been anticipating a slushy kind of snow rather than the powdery variety that had actually fallen. As a result, the engines filters had become clogged.

There went on to be a number of variations on the wrong kind of theme - including thaws, leaves, and llamas.

See Also: ANIMALS Foxes, Alpacas; WEATHER

David Backhouse 2024