NA62 text

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TRAINS BY <name key="NAEMAN ABERCROMBIE">

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CONTENTS.

Title Page	(0)
Contents	(1)
Introduction	(2)
British Railway Companies	(3)
Railway Gauges	(4)
Signal Boxes	(5-6)
Tickets and Timetables	(7-11)
Stephenson's Rocket	(12-14)
American 4-4-0	(15)
Stirling Single	(16-17)
Crampton Locomotive	(18)
Tank Engine	(19-20)
Heavy Freight	(21)
Pacific Engines	(22)
Rack Locomotives	(23)
Electro-Diesel	(24)
Le Shuttle	(25)
Mail Trains	(26)
Royal Trains	(27)
York Railway Museum	(28-52)
Castlefields Science & Industry Museum, Manchester	(53-62)
East Lancashire Railway	(53-69)
Preserved Railways	(70-87)
Questionnaire	(88-98)
Postcards Of Locomotives	(99-104)
Tramways And Miniature Railways	(105-110)
Photographs Of Resources Used	(111-115)
Letters And Replies	(116-120)
Hornby Trains	(121-124)
Famous Railway Pioneers	(125)
Bibliography	(126)

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Introduction.

The first railways were built in Babylonian times dating back to around about 2245 BC. They were literally stone grooves in the ground where carts were pulled by horse, donkey etc. with a gauge (that is the distance between the 2 rails) of 1.5m. Remains of a track can still be seen between Athens and Piraeus that also were stone grooves in the ground. They were first invented in Greece for <reg>widespread</reg> movement of things in wagons. The first recognisable railway was in Germany and was used for the mines, we know this because a window in the Minster of Freiburg-im-Breisgau depicts a miner pushing a box on wheels along a track and this dates back to 1350.

The first illustrations of an early mine is in a book published by Johan Haselberger of Reichenau in lower Austria in about 1519 with a title starting Der Ursprung gemeynner Berckrecht wie die lange Zeit von den Alten erhalten worde … It shows <sic>some one </sic> pushing a truck on a railway made of wood. A Flemish painting, dated 1544, entitled <reg>Les</reg> Travaux de la mine, on a wooden panel of 106.7 cm X 55.9 cm (42 X 22 inches). It was discovered in about 1940 it shows a miner pushing a 4 wheeled truck.

Many people think that the first proper railway was Stephenson's Rocket built in 1829. However a 2 mile (3KL) long railroad made of baulks of timber, ran from a coal-pit at Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham. Huntingdon Beaumont built it between October 1603 and October 1604.

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British Railway Companies.

At one time there were as many as 1000 different railway companies in Great Britain, most of these were built by <reg>business</reg> men to link two or more towns. Each company had its own Act of <reg>Parliament</reg> seal of <reg>Incorporation</reg> and board of directors. By 1921 there were only 19 main line companies, 20 smaller companies and 150 small rail concerns. The best managed quickly <reg>absorbed</reg> many of the smaller companies and 4 main companies emerged. These were Great Western Railway (GWR), London, Midland and <reg>Scottish</reg> Railway (LMS), London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), and Southern Railway (SR) the rest being known as Independents.

The Great Western Railway Company was started on the thirty first of August eighteen thirty five to link Bristol and London. The company expanded and took in lots of other companies. BY 1918 it covered 6,743 miles of track. By 1921 it had taken over 200 smaller companies.

The London, <reg>Midland</reg> and Scottish Railway was made up of a variety of railway companies including Furness, Highland, Midland, London & North Western, and <reg>Glasgow</reg> & South Western railways. It was formed in 1923. It covered towns and cities from the South coast right up to Scotland.

The London & North Eastern Railway was formed in 1921. It covered 6,590 miles of track. Companies included in LNER included North Eastern Railway, North British Railways, Great Central Railway, Great Eastern Railway, Great Northern Railway, Great North of Scotland Railway and others. It covered areas such as Elgin and Mallaig and Wrexham to London and parts of the North East Lincolnshire and East Anglia.

Southern Railway was formed in 1st January 1923 as an amalgamation of the London and South Western Railway, London Brighton and South Coast Railway, London Chatham and Dover Railway and South Eastern Railway. This company covered mainly Hampshire and Kent but also Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.

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Railway <reg>Gauges</reg>.

Railway companies built their railways <sic>with in a haphazard way</sic>. Eventually, larger systems meant that different companies joined up. These large companies were London & North <reg>Western</reg> Railway, The Great Western and the South Western Railway company. The Great Western had an engineer called Isambard Kingdom Brunel designing its railway tracks.

All the railway companies wanted to be the best. Brunel thought that trains were safer and more comfortable if they used broad <reg>gauge</reg> rails. These rails were seven feet and a quarter inch apart and were wider than those used by the other companies. They used <reg>rails</reg> that were four feet eight and a half inches apart. Everyone wanted the trains to use the same gauge. Parliament had to sort out the problem. Parliament passed the Gauge Act which said that all tracks had to be four feet, eight and a half inches wide.

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Signal Boxes.

Before there were signal boxes for the railways policemen used to use hand signals <NOTE desc="no punctuation"> there was <reg>one</reg> signal for danger another for caution and another for line clear. Below are some pictures of <sic>police men</sic> doing some of the signals.

DANGER

CAUTION

LINE CLEAR

As the train network grew so did the technology <NOTE desc="no punctuation"> they went from hand signals to mechanical things like <reg>levers</reg> to control things like a candle with a red and green filter red for stop and green to go. The picture below is a picture is of me setting the stop and go filter at York.

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Then they went on to smaller levers and other gadgets to control things like on this picture showing the inside of a signal box on the East Lancashire Railway.

One of the gadgets they have in all signal boxes now is the screen which flashes up to show where the trains are. This old fashioned signal box compared to <reg>today's</reg> is not very common for a signal box today. If you look at the picture you can see that the fuses for it are extremely big compared to a fuse for a socket, car, and even a house or a bus. There is a drawing of a modern signal box below.

The illustration below is a modern signal box. It has very expensive equipment in it and <NOTE desc="word/s missing?"> very accurate as well. The new equipment is easier and no <sic> way </sic> near as energy and time consuming meaning you could change a signal with a flick of a switch.

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Railway Timetables And Tickets.

In 1750 it took ten days to travel from London to Edinburgh by stagecoach. However a train could travel this distance in two days. By 1850 this journey took only 18 hours, by 1855 only 14 hours and by 1937 only 6 hours. Today the average journey time is only 4 <reg>hours</reg> 30 minutes!

When trains first ran there was no way of controlling the numbers of passengers trying to get on them. They could not run at set times. A bell was rung 5 minutes before the train was due to leave. Later guards <sic>has</sic> a whistle to blow to tell people when the train was ready to leave.

There weren't any printed tickets at first and people had to book with the booking clerk who wrote out paper tickets and had a seating plan. The first commuter tickets were used in 1842, when a man wanting to make six trips in one week was allowed one third off the normal cost of the journeys.

By 1836 twelve trains ran each way every day from Manchester to Liverpool. Trains were eight first or second class. Four of these daily trips were first class. A third class service was <sic>in</sic> introduced in 1840. Trains only travelled at about 17 miles per hour for safety reasons. First class journeys took less time than second class ones. It took 80 minutes to travel from Manchester to Liverpool as a first class passenger.

The first timetables were lists of departure times from each terminus. Passengers who got on the train part way along the route had to work out their own times for departure. When a timetable was published there was no guarantee that the train would run on time.

As more and more people wanted to travel by train, it took too long to write out all the tickets by hand. A pre-printed cardboard ticket was invented by Charles Edmondson of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. The ticket clerk could use a manually operated date stamping machine to date stamp the tickets. All the tickets were numbered in a series from a rack. Each station office had a stock of pre printed tickets for the most popular journeys. People travelling to unusual destinations could have their tickets hand written. Soon all the other railway companies used cardboard tickets. They were known as "Edmondson tickets". Each class of ticket was printed in a different coloured card.

Regular passenger services were advertised in local newspapers. Special <reg>cheap</reg> day trips were also advertised this way. As services became more complicated, each railway company advertised train times with posters stuck on the station walls. Smaller versions were printed and given out to people. In 1838 George Bradshaw made the first national railway timetable. It was called the Bradshaw Guide. It was published until 1961. Today the railway networks produce their own small timetables for different routes and regions. I have included some timetables in a plastic wallet. Railway stations <reg>rely</reg> on using computerised timetables as well as books. There is even a talking railway timetable which people can telephone to find out train times.

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These are examples of modern day <sic>time tables</sic> and tickets.

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These are examples of modern day <sic>time tables</sic> and tickets.

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These are examples of modern day <sic>time tables</sic> and tickets.

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These are examples of modern day <sic>time tables</sic> and tickets.

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Stephenson's Rocket.

Robert Stephenson's Original Rocket was made in 1829. It won the Rainfall Trials for the best steam locomotive. 5 locomotives entered the trails that were from Liverpool to Manchester station. That was 70 miles or 112km, but only three locomotives turned up. The first one had boiler problems and the second de-railed. Then it was Stephenson's Rocket's turn. It raced around the track no problem at all reaching speeds of 15 miles an hour.

It ran on short iron rails with stone supports. Stephenson also developed grips for the rails called chairs and the rails actually do what the name says. The rails sit in the chairs. The Rocket and other steam trains had fire boxes and a water barrel. The heat from the boiler makes the water turn into steam which drives the piston back and forth using a system of valves to control the flow of the steam. This in turn drove a system of connected rods and cranks so turning the wheels either backwards or forwards.

The original Rocket weighed seven and a half tone. Of this, the engine weighed four and a half tons. The diameter of the driving wheel is 4 feet 8.5 inches, with two cylinders that at 17" long and 8" in diameter. Also the pressure of the boiler is 50 lbs per square inch and it goes up to a maximum speed of 30 miles an hour.

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American 4-4-0.

The railway was vital to the development of North America. The most common locomotive was the 4-4-0. By 1870 85% of all locomotives used in America were of this type. They had distinctive chimneys which were shaped like a balloon. These chimneys were designed to catch sparks from the wood that they burned for fuel. The 4-4-0 was also used in other countries, but because they were so popular in America, they were known as "Americans".

The railways in America were not usually fenced off even when they ran through large towns and cities. In order to warn people that they were coming, a large headlight was fixed to the front. American trains were also fitted with a large cowcatcher so that <sic>any thing</sic> on the tracks could easily be pushed out of the train's way. In 1835 a law was passed in Massachusetts State which required all trains to be fitted with warning bells. Many American railroads had sharp curves. American designers made a four-wheeled truck or bogie which was able to swivel from side to side. This meant that the engines could safely move along the twisted tracks and bends.

From the <reg desc="uncertain">1840's</reg> <reg>onwards</reg>, most American <reg desc="uncertain">4-4-0's</reg> were fitted with an enclosed cab to provide the driver with shelter. British drivers did not like covered in cabs and asked for them to be removed! The General was one of the most famous 4-4-0’s. During the Civil War in America in 1862, the engine was captured and driven north for 140 Km. It ran out of fuel and was recaptured by some other soldiers who used it to chase another 4-4-0 called Texas. Eventually the General got so hot that all the brass parts on the engine melted.

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Stirling "Single"

The locomotive was designed by Patrick Stirling, the head designer of the great Northern Railway. It first shunted out of the company's factory in Doncaster in 1870. They were built between 1870 and 1893. 47 of the last class were built, the most famous of them being the number one. Stirling's were very attractive engines with bright green paint work and polished brass work. <reg>Their</reg> most noticeable <reg>feature</reg> being <reg>their</reg> huge 2.4 meter driving wheel. These driving <reg>wheels</reg> enabled the engines to reach high speeds. The Whyte notation for the Stirling is 4-2-2s.

In 1857 the first steel rails were laid at Derby Station. Iron rails would not have been strong enough to hold the heavy Stirling engines. The splashers on the early model were attractively slotted. Later models had them closed in. When the driver wished to stop the engine, he pulled a brake lever which created a vacuum in the brake pipe. This pushed the brake shoes on to the wheels and stopped the train.

Until 1882 passengers getting on a train, had to stay in the same compartment until it stopped. They could not move from one compartment to <reg>another</reg>. In 1882 carriages were built with a side corridor. At each end of the corridor was a toilet, strictly one for ladies at one end and one for men at the other.

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The picture on the previous page is one of the earliest examples of a Stirling Single engine 4-2-2- configuration. It is the Great Northern Railways no.1 built in 1870 and retired in 1907 having travelled 1,404,663 miles in its life and the first in a series of 53 built. It was an express passenger tender which travelled along the East coast. It is the oldest front bogie loco in Great Britain and had a driving wheel of 8 feet 1 inch diameter and could maintain a speed of some 75 <reg> miles per </reg> hour. Below is a pencil drawing of an early engine.

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Crampton Locomotives.

Crampton locomotives were named after the person <sic>which</sic> designed them in 1842, Mr Thomas Crampton, who lived between 1816 and 1888 went to Belgium to begin work on the steam trains that bear his name. The engines had their great driving wheel built behind the fire box. The boiler was mounted lower than normal so the lower centre of gravity made the locomotives run more smoothly.

Crampton No. 122 was built in France seven years later. The first express journey took five hours from Paris to Calais. 320 engines were built and mainly used in France and Germany. Cramptons were used in France for more than 40 years to pull light express trains.

Crampton engines had a 2-2-2-0 wheel arrangement. This means that there were two pairs of leading wheels, two large driving wheels, and no trailing wheels. Describing a locomotive in this way is called the Whyte notation.

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Tank Engine.

Tank engines were designed for pulling light trains a short distance. Tank engines carried their water and coal <reg>inside</reg> them. They were most popular in Britain. The super locomotive pulled trains in India. Just about all tank engines hold their water in tanks stuck on the side of them or hanging over the top of them. On later ones it looked a bit like a saddle bag they called them "saddle tanks".

8 special tanks were built in England to be used on the Bristol and Exeter line between 1853 and <sic>2854</sic>. The driving wheels on them were 2.7 meters (9 foot) in diameter - the biggest driving wheel that ever successfully <sic>use</sic> on a train. In 1907 large tank engines were built for England's Great Central Railway. They had a 3 cylinder 0-8-4 notation and were used for shunting freight wagons.

The London <reg>underground </reg> was opened in 1863 and the trains were pulled by 4-4-0 tank engines. The trains modified <reg>their</reg> exhaust steam <sic>in to</sic> liquid and put it back in the boiler to prevent the tunnels being flooded with steam.

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In 1945 a man called Reverend W. Awdry wrote a series of books about a tank engine called Thomas. These books are still very popular and tell stories about the adventures of Thomas and other types of engines. I have read lots of these books and had a video of the stories.

My first toy railway was a clockwork Thomas train set.

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Heavy Freight.

America developed very big engines to carry heavy goods and large passenger trains great distances. In 1926 Union Pacific made the 4-12-2 class. These engines were the largest three-cylinder non-articulated engines ever built.

Valve gears allow the valves which let the steam into and out of the cylinder to move at the same time as the pistons. The Holcroft/Gresley valve gear was fitted to the middle cylinder of the 4-12-2 engines. It was designed by Sir <reg>Nigel</reg> Gresley, a British engineer. A total of 88 of these enormous engines were built. Number 9000 was the first 4-12-2 engine built. It was tested on a track with a steep gradient. It ran faster and used less fuel than the articulated 2-8-8-0 engines.

The 4-12-2 engines had a device fitted to the front and rear driving wheels which allowed them to move from side to side. This device plus two bogies fitted with carrying wheels meant that the engines could go round sharp bends.

The 4-12-2, like most steam locomotives was fitted with a fireproof brick arch at the front of the firebox. This made the coals burn at their hottest and reduced the amount of smoke produced. By 1913, many of the large coal tenders had a steam coal push fitted. This made the fireman's job much easier.

Two different types of tender could be fitted to the 4-12-2's. The prototype 9000 had two sets of six wheels on separate bogies. Later 4-12-2 tenders had two four wheeled bogies. The larger one held 68,250 litres of water <sic>.</sic> and 21.42 tonnes of coal.

Big Boy was the largest Union Pacific engine ever built.

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Pacific Engines.

In 1902 the Missouri Pacific Railway built the first 4-6-2 locomotive. Sir Nigel Gresley built the first one in Britain in 1922 when he made the A1 for the Great Northern Railway, or the London and North-Eastern Railway as it later became. The third of these Pacific engines was called the Flying Scotsman. The A1, A3 and A4 Pacifics all became famous engines. The Flying Scotsman could travel non-stop from London to Edinburgh (633km). It did this by having an extra crew on board.

From 1910 firetube superheaters were fitted to most large locomotives. The temperature and volume of the steam were increased by superheating. This made the engine work more efficiently. Sir Nigel Gresley also make higher pressure boilers. These were fitted to the A3 Gresley Pacific engines.

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Rack Locomotives.

Early trains could not cope with steep slopes. In 1830 a pair of horizontal wheels were fitted to an engine. These wheels could grip a rail running along the middle of the track. This was Known as a Rack railway. The rack is the central rail which holds a toothed wheel (pinion) fitted to the underside of the engine.

In 1882 Roman Abt invented his famous rack rail system which is used by 70% of all rack railways. He used parallel toothed rails with the teeth of one rail opposite the gaps in the other and a pair of pinions with their teeth staggered to match. Pinion wheels are covered all round the edge in little <reg>grooves</reg> which catch into little <reg>grooves</reg> on the middle line of track the train literally distends up the track. This stops the engine sliding backwards. Some mountains have a railway <NOTE desc="no punctuation"> in this case a pinion railway is used to stop the train sliding all the way back down the side of the mountain or just down the side the mountain. On mountains that aren’t very steep the engine goes at the front of the train but on steep mountains the train goes on the <downhill<reg> side to stop the carriages running away with it's excellent brakes. Braking is very important on mountains so they are especially equipped with standard locomotive brakes, and a band brake on a drum which is carried on a shaft driving the pinion. The steel band around the drum is tightened by moving a hand wheel on the foot plate.

Mountain railway locomotives have angled boilers to prevent them from exploding. The passenger seats are set at angles and the bottoms of the carriages on mountain railways are angled to stop people facing down hill from falling off their seats.

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Last year I visited Snowdon <NOTE desc="no punctuation"> I went up in the train which happens to be a Rack locomotive But The train was only allowed to take us to Rocky Valley so we just walked down from there <NOTE desc="no punctuation"> there's a leaflet on it below.

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ELECTRO-DIESEL.

The first train to use electricity ran in 1842. 70 years later the first diesel engines ran. They were more efficient than steam engines. The class 73 electro-diesel first ran on British railways in 1972, though the first train to use diesel was a 1000 hp Klose-Sulzer unit in Germany but this only ran for a few months in 1912-1913. The first 'production' models were built by Sulzer in 1914 for the Prussian and Saxon State Railways in Switzerland.

The difference between diesel and electric trains is that diesel-electric trains use diesel engines to generate electricity and power motors that turn wheels; whereas electric trains run on electricity picked up from overhead cables or a third rail on the track. Electro diesels can generate their own electricity where no <reg>third</reg> rail is available. Electricity flows from the live rail to a transformer where it is converted to the right voltage for the locomotive to use. The current flows to traction motors which turn the wheels. Class 73s work on 675 volts fed from an outside third rail. A 600hp diesel engine generates the voltage on the locomotive where no outside electricity is available.

Class 73s are painted yellow at each end so that people working on the track can see them. Drivers and guards can talk to each other during train journeys by using an intercom system.

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Le Shuttle.

The channel tunnel opened in 1994 between Folkestone and Calais in France. Engineers from Britain and France designed a new train to travel 20 times a day to France and back to Britain carrying cars and lorries. The Shuttle is powered by electricity which it gets from an overhead wire via a pantograph which passes the power to a small transformer on the Shuttle and then to the main transformer, to convert the 25 kv of electricity to <reg>whatever</reg> level the engines need to produce the 7500 hp to drive the Shuttle to 145 km/h (90 mph). The Shuttle engine is 2.9m wide and 22m long and the total length with carriages is 750m. The driver has 4 main controls, the selector which controls direction, the power controller that controls the speed and 2 brake controls the main brake and an air brake.

The shuttle is driven by 2 engines one at each end of the train as the tunnel has some steep gradients the train has to negotiate. Also 2 engines are used for safety reasons so that if one has problems the other can still complete the journey. The shuttle also has three bogies a rear, a leading bogie and a bogie frame.

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Mail Trains.

This is a picture of a modern Mail train in the sidings at York station taken from the Lady Nan at the end of the short stretch of track it runs on.

Goods carriers.

Railways have been used to transport a wide variety of things like <reg>livestock</reg>, milk, <reg>meat</reg>, oil, cars, fuel and chemicals <reg>etc</reg>. The picture below shows a wide range of goods trains.

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Royal Trains & Carriages.

The Royal family have their own private trains and carriages. They do not travel on normal trains because of security reasons and they are not of as high a standard. Queen Victoria was the first reigning monarch to travel by train. She travelled from Slough to London in 1842. All the railway companies built carriages for the Royal family to use as they travelled about the country.

The picture below shows a carriage built for Queen Alexander and King Edward in 1902. The insides of the carriages were very fancy. Special engines were kept to pull the carriages.

Later carriages had armour plating to protect the Royal family. The latest Royal trains were built in 1977 and are still used by Royalty. York Railway Museum has the largest collection of royal trains in the world.

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York Railway Museum.

My family and I visited York Railway Museum in the half term and found out <reg>lots</reg> of helpful information for my project on trains. There are lots of things to see in the museum and in the great hall <reg>lots</reg> of trains facing inwards to a big <sic>turn table</sic> in the centre. They also have another section called <reg>Toys</reg> and Trains, which has trains and toy trains like it says in <reg>its</reg> name of all sorts and ages. The Great Hall has a train that has been cut away to show how the steam engine works and a former engineer gave a very interesting talk about how the steam drives the train and answered questions about that and other topics about trains in general. I answered a couple of his questions and after his talk I asked him to answer my questionnaire, which he did. The train he was talking about was a British Rail 4-6-2 passenger locomotive no 35029 Ellerman Lines which was built in 1949 and was withdrawn in 1966. We could see the boiler with the water pipes on top of the main chamber and the fire grate at the bottom which had to be kicked open using a pedal in the cab to shake out ash and clinker. The boiler had to reach a temperature of something like 800 degrees to work properly and it took about 8 hours for it to reach this from cold, then it would run for about 14 hours before it was allowed to cool and then be thoroughly cleaned out to make it last. The water in the pipes was heated and then super heated which makes it work more efficiently. The steam then went into a cylinder and the steam expands going into the cylinder and the energy released by this expansion pushes the piston back and then another valve is opened which lets the steam into the cylinder from the other side and pushes the piston back and the steam out. The piston is then connected to the driving wheels which make the train go forwards. Someone asked the engineer how the train went backwards and he said that in the <reg>driver's</reg> cab there was a drum which he turns and that moves a rod that then makes the valves work in the opposite order and so turns the wheels in the other direction.

This is not an easy task just turning the drum to make the wheel go backwards, you have to turn the drum at a certain point of the driving <reg desc="uncertain">wheel's</reg> turn to put an engine into reverse.

When you first enter the great hall you see an engine called the Rocket built by Robert Stephenson the most famous steam engine of the 18th century and to the left is a portion of the Shuttle as if it is coming out of a section of the Tunnel. Also there is a soft play area for young children, which had Brio train sets for them to play with as well as foam shapes to make trains in like a jigsaw puzzle. Dotted around the museum there are <reg>lots</reg> of little <reg>computers</reg>. There are some computers with games on for young children, like putting the mail bags in the carriages. Then there's Computer activities like quizzes for older children. They have a bit that's a replica of a mail sorting carriage and some signals.

The museum also houses a beautiful blue engine known as the Mallard which is a Pacific class locomotive and is famous not only for its shape but also because it set a world record in 1938 of a hundred and twenty six miles an hour on a test run between Grantham and Peterborough. I especially liked going over the wooden foot bridge so I could get a top view of the engine.

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Here are some more engines around the turntable in york museum, with replicas of old engines on the left and a <reg>diesel</reg> on the right.

The Mallard is one of the <reg>world's</reg> most famous trains, this picture shows it with a wooden bridge over it which meant that I could see the top of it as if it was going through a station. <reg>It is</reg> a 4-6-2 engine No.4468 of the LNER line and <reg>its</reg> claim to fame is that it set the world record of 126 mph on 3/7/1938 on a practice run.

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The museum also has a train that was one of the diggers for the channel tunnel still in the shape it was when they finished working, And next to it they have an extremely old little carriage. Near the entrance there are some little toy trains that zoom around their track all day. Then next to that there was an office for information and then next to that a little cinema for watching a train movie which is open all day. They also have a gallery above the cinema, office and toy trains which includes various items, from a Works <reg>Manager's</reg> office with dummies in which shows what it was like, to pictures and paintings of famous trains and a display of rail tickets from early times to the present and the ticket machines used to produce them. In the <reg>outside</reg> bit <sic> for </sic> the great hall there is a huge train wheel which looks about twice the size of me. There was also a fire train with a huge crane that could lift derailed trains.

In the south hall there are <reg>lots</reg> of different carriages and a few trains, They have some of the Royal carriages as well. In the yard is a different steam train to have a ride on every day not including the miniature train running every day but when I went the train had mechanical problems so it wasn't running. They also have a pond <sic>a</sic> the end of the miniature railway and miniature railway station and a barbecue and ice <reg>cream</reg> stall. We all had a ride on the Lady Nan which was very slow compared to <reg>today's</reg> trains and below is a picture of it.

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View of some of the trains around the <sic>turn table</sic> in the Great Hall.

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A picture of Deltic the first proper electric train with a model of the motor that drives it.

Bo-Bo class EMI built in 1951 one of the first Electric locos which ran between Manchester and Sheffield, it was converted to being powered by overhead cables in 1954 and retired in 1971.

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Me inside the cab of the Great Western Railways engine no. 1621, unfortunately I could not touch the controls but at least it gives you an idea of what it was like.

Evening Star engine no. 92220 a 2-10-0 heavy freight engine built in 1960 was the last main line train built by British Rail at Swindon, its 10 coupled drive wheels meant it had a more efficient haulage capacity at higher speeds.

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The photograph below shows an engine built in 1846 for Furness railways. It is a goods tender loco with inside cylinders which kept warmer and therefore used less fuel. These locos were built between 1830 and 1900. They were built by Bury, Curtis and Kennedy. This is loco No 3 in the 0-4-0 series. It was nicknamed "Coppernob" because it had a copper dome over the fire box at the end of the boiler. This loco used to pull loads of iron ore and slate from North Cumbria. It was last used in 1898.

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LNER Class A3 Pacific No. 4472 The Flying Scotsman on the Carnforth turntable, April 23rd 1977

SR Merchant Navy Class loco No.35028 'Clan Line' with golden arrow regalia awaits the start of the Rainhill procession 26th May 1980.

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Inside a Cab.

This is what it's like inside a cab of a train. This is part of a hands on exhibition at York science museum. Where my sister and I got in the cab part of a train which had a fake simulation running on a screen. It also had some <reg>levers</reg> you could play moving back <reg>and</reg> forth.

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The picture below shows the inside of a Great Western Railway <reg>engine's</reg> cab at the York museum.

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My visit to Castlefield.

During the holidays I visited Castlefield Science and Industry museum to look at the trains they have. There were quite a lot of trains for a museum which specialises in more than just one subject. I enjoyed looking at the Planet made by Stephenson which looks exactly like the Rocket but it says Planet on its plaque on the side of it. Here is a picture of the Planet below.

There <sic>was</sic> also lots of engines powered by steam set in the floor which I liked looking at. <reg>Another</reg> engine Called Novelty which they also have a replica of at the museum used to be one of the favourites of its time. It was designed in 1829 by John Ericsson and could travel at up to 30 miles per hour. It did not take part in the trials because <reg>its</reg> boiler blew up. There was also a replica of the second class carriages Known as "Blue Boxes. There <sic>was</sic> numerous complaints about them ie. Clothes burned by sparks low roofs <reg>etc</reg>.

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This is a photograph of Novelty which is a replica built at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester.

There are lots of trains both inside the main shed and in the sidings at the side of the shed, these outside ones take it in turn to pull some old carriages on a short stretch of track, also some carriages have been used as a cafe where you can sit down for a rest and have something to eat and drink.

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The original track <reg>outside</reg> ended at the station it was extended into the transit shed on the site <NOTE desc="no punctuation"> this was demolished in 1855 to make way for a freight shed to be able to unload railway wagons on to horse drawn carts. The carriage shed that is on the site could hold 20 carriages, it was open on one side and supported by iron columns. Originally there were shops and offices on the platform. Below is a photograph of the station as it now is. Also it became an important passenger station for ships going to Ireland and elsewhere.

The station was in operation between 1830 and 1972 and was used to export goods that had been produced in Manchester and were taken to Liverpool to be shipped all over the world. On the other side of the track is the 1830's warehouse <NOTE desc="no punctuation"> this is a 4 storey building but from the station side it only looks 2 storeys high as you can see on the next page. This is because the warehouse was designed so that trains could shunt wagons in through 6 large arched doors which had a turntable in front so that the engines could be turned around and the wagons left in the warehouse for unloading onto road wagons. Inside the warehouse jib cranes were used to move the goods to other floors above and gravity hoists to floors below, the goods being lowered to waiting horse drawn carts at true ground floor level which is 2 stories high.

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This is a picture of the warehouse which is the oldest passenger station and goods house in the world.

In the lower floor of the station is a reproduction of the ticket <reg>office as</reg> it would have been in its <reg>heyday</reg>.

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These next pictures are of a South African engine which is an articulated loco no. 2352 Class GL. It is a Beyer-Garret 4-8-2/2-8-4 and weighs 214 tons it was built by Beyer Peacock of Gorton <reg>Manchester in</reg> 1930 and was in service for 30+ years. The coal tender is at the front part of the engine and the water tender is at the rear. The drive wheels are huge almost 1.80m high.

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This next picture is of some early first class railway carriages, the design is very much like a stage coach which the trains replaced.

This engine is a Pakistan railway engine No. 3157 with 4-4-0 wheel configuration. It was built in 1911 and was a very early example of a super heater, it weighed 49 tons and ran on a 5 feet 6 inch gauge track. It was finally retired in 1982 and was shipped from Karachi.

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This Tank engine has been turned into a cross section to explain how a train works <NOTE desc="no punctuation"> there's one also at the York Railway Museum. There is a close up and a distance picture of it below.

Here is the close up you can see the dials very well on it.

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The Lord Ashfield engine no. 1989 built in 1930 by Andrew Barclay and Co. of Kilmarnock.

An early electric tender built for English Electric.

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EAST LANCASHIRE RAILWAY

East Lancashire Railway was opened in 1846 to link the Manchester and Bolton railways to the Radcliffe line, the line was a popular freight and passenger line and continued along Irwell Valley to Rawtenstall. In 1972 the last train ran along the Bury to Rawtenstall section that carried passengers, the East Lancashire railway preservation society restored and reopened the line in 1991. Trains now run between Bury and Rawtenstall pulled by steam or diesel engines. The old station buildings have been preserved and a model railway shop lies in an old railway carriage at the side of Bury station on an unused track. My family and I enjoyed our visit to The East Lancashire Railway at Bury. The information officer there was really helpful and gave me lots of information and leaflets for my project. He also <reg>showed</reg> me his six volumes on the history of this railway.

Here are some platform tickets From East Lancashire Railway.

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ELR

This is a picture of the platform at East Lancashire Railway <NOTE desc="no punctuation"> it is an operational steam and diesel railway.

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ELR

The picture below is a picture of a steam train arriving at the platform at the East Lancashire Railway in Bury.

The picture below is of the steam train when <reg>it's</reg> just arrived to let the passengers off and turn round for more passengers.

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ELR

When my family and I visited the East Lancashire Railway we saw from the platform we were standing on an old train in a working and maintenance siding, which looked to be being restored. The picture of it below shows you what a terrible state it is in. I'm not sure what type of train it actually is but I think it is an American 4-4-0 by the shape of the boiler and driver's cab at the back. To prevent more work having to be done to it, they have put a plastic sheet over it obviously to stop it getting any rustier than it already is

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ELR

The picture below is a picture of an old train at the East Lancashire Railway in Bury before the train was renovated. It had been left to rust for many years and was saved from scrap by the company. It took many hours and a lot of money to restore it to working order.

This picture below is of the Major Odney at Ramsbottom station which is part of the East Lancashire Railway.

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MAJOR PRESERVED RAILWAYS IN BRITAIN.

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MAJOR PRESERVED RAILWAYS.

STANDARD <reg>GAUGE</reg>

1 Bluebell Railway, Uckfield, Sussex 5 miles long.

2 Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway, Bo'ness, West Lothian 3.5 miles long.

3 Buckfastleigh & Totnes Steam Railway, Buckfastleigh, Devon 7 miles long.

4 East Lancashire Railway, Bury, Lancashire 4 miles long.

5 East Somerset Railway, Shepton Mallet, Somerset 2 miles long.

6 Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway, Gloucestershire 3 miles long.

7 Great Central Railway, Loughborough, Leicestershire 5.5 miles long.

8 Isle Of Wight Steam Railway, Ryde, Isle of Wight 1.5 miles long.

9 Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, Keighley, West Yorkshire 5 miles long.

10 Kent & East Sussex Railway, Tenterden, Kent 5 miles long.

11 Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway, Ulverston, Cumbria 3.5 miles long.

12 Llangollen Railway, Llangollen, Clwyd 2 miles long.

13 Mid-Hants Railway, Alresford, Hampshire 10.5 miles long.

14 Midland Railway Station, Ripley, Derbyshire 3.5 miles long.

15 Nene Valley Railway, Peterborough, Northants 7.5 miles long.

16 North Norfolk Railway, Sheringham, Norfolk 5.5 miles long.

17 North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Pickering, North Yorkshire 18 miles long.

18 Paignton & Dartmouth Steam Railway, Paignton, Devon 7 miles long.

19 Severn Valley Railway, Bewdley, Worcestershire 16 miles long.

20 Strathspey Railway, Inverness 5 miles long.

21 Swanage Railway, Swanage, Dorset 3 miles long.

22 West Somerset Railway, Minehead, Somerset 20 miles long.

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23 Yorkshire Dales Railway, Skipton, North Yorkshire 2 miles long.

NARROW <reg>GAUGE</reg>

24 Bala Lake Railway, Bala, Gwynnedd, 4.5 miles long.

25 Brecon Mountain Railway, Merthyr Tydfil, Mid-Glamorgan 2 miles long.

26 Fairbourne & Barmouth Steam Railway, Dolgellau, Gwynnedd 2.75 miles long.

27 Festiniog Railway, Porthmadog, Gwynnedd 13.5 miles long.

28 Isle Of Man Railway, Douglas, Isle Of man 15.25 miles long.

29 Launceston Steam Railway, Launceston, Cornwall 2 miles long.

30 Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire 2.75 miles long.

31 Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway, Ravenglass, Cumbria 7 miles long.

32 Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, Kent 13.75 <reg>miles long</reg>.

33 Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway, Sittingbourne, Kent 2 miles long.

34 Snowdon Mountain Railway, Llanberis, Gwynnedd 4.75 miles long.

35 Talyllyn Railway, Tywyn, Gwynnedd 7.5 miles long.

36 Vale Of Rheidol Railway, Aberystwyth, Dyfed 11.5 miles long.

37 Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway, Llanfair, Powys 8 miles long.

STEAM CENTRES.

38 Birmingham Railway Museum, Birmingham.

39 Bressingham Live Steam Museum, Diss, Norfolk.

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40 Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

41 Didcot Railway Centre, Didcot, Oxfordshire.

42 National Railway Museum, York.

43 Steamtown Railway Centre, Carnforth, Lancashire.

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My Questionnaire.

I have designed a questionnaire which I have asked people that I know are rail enthusiasts or people at the museums I visited to complete. On the next page is a blank copy of my questionnaire and following that the completed ones and here are the results. Of the 9 completed questionnaires all the people were male and all had become interested in trains at childhood and spanned 30-60+ years as an interest. Favourite make of train. 3 just said steam trains but the others named actual steam trains, so all liked steam trains the best.

How many different types of train gave mixed results from 8 ie. steam diesel and electric to 100's and all in the steam train directory.

Favourite steam train again varied, 3 liked The Flying Scotsman, the rest had different trains; but when asking them about it, all liked The Mallard as well.

Favourite diesel was a less liked question, as 5 of the 9 liked no diesels at all and the other 4 had different engines as their favourite diesels.

Favourite electric again 4 did not like electric trains and the other 5 had different favourites, two only liking the earliest electric trains.

Preservation societies are needed was unanimous, and the reason was much the same, that is to save steam trains and the skills to make them. Also people said that they are like living history or living museums.

Standardising the gauge of railways they all said was a good idea so that trains can travel anywhere without any difficulty.

The question about engineering feats again gave different results with 3 not answering, but of the replies 2 liked the Channel tunnel, 2 liked the Forth Bridge, one also liked the Severn tunnel as much as the Forth Bridge, 1 liked the London underground, 1 liked all of Brunel's designs, 1 liked the Liverpool and Manchester railway station, and 1 <reg>Trevithick's</reg> first engine.

This question stumped some, but the rest thought trains will be electric, probably solar powered and be very <reg>streamlined</reg>. The retired engineer at York museum thought that the stations would have miniature nuclear reactors to provide electricity to the track. Another man thought that the trains may be built of some very light weight material not yet invented but would be stronger than the materials used now so that the trains could go faster and be stronger too.

My survey shows that for most people their interest in trains began when they were children and enjoyed model railways. As adults they now have a passion for steam trains because of their character and the great variety means that they all have their own particular favourite one. Classics such as the Rocket and the Mallard were popular with everyone.

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Trains Questionnaire.

1. How long have you been interested in trains and/model trains?

2. What is your favourite make of train and why?

3. How many different types of train can you think of?

4. What is your favourite steam train?

5. What is your favourite diesel engine?

6. What is your favourite electric train?

7. Why are train preservation societies needed?

8. Do you think it was a good idea to standardise the gauge of rail roads and why to you think this?

9. Railways have been responsible for some amazing feats of engineering, what do you think was the greatest of these feats and why?

10.Trains have gone from steam power to diesel to electric, in the year 2097A.D. how do you think trains will be powered and what might they look like?

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Post cards of trains.

LMS Class 5MT Bo.5231 3rd (volunteer) Battalion The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters regiment in service on the GCR at Loughborough 6th June 1976

Borough of Thamesdown G.W.R.Museum Faringdon Road Swindon showing some <reg>engines in</reg> the main hall.

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MODEL TRAINS

The picture below shows my <reg>dad's</reg> model Sir Nigel Gresley with coal carriage. This model is motorised and works off mains electricity.

The picture above shows my <reg>dad's</reg> train with just a coal carriage but this picture below shows it with all the carriages. On the next page you can see the carriages individually and closer up.

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The following pictures show the passenger carriage and the goods wagons of my <reg>Dad's</reg> Hornby double O set in close up.

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These pictures show where I worked, what I worked on, the information sources that I used and me and my family gathering and reviewing information for this project.

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Copy Of Letter Sent To People.

25th April 1997.

Dear Sir.

I am ten years old and doing a project about trains and railways at school. I would be very grateful if you send me any information or leaflets that you have about trains and railways.

Thank you very much for your help.

Yours faithfully,

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Hornby.

<reg>Hornby</reg> is all one company but known as Meccano, Mechanics made easy, Hornby Trains, Hornby DublO, Tri-ang Railways, Tri-ang Hornby, Hornby Railways, Thomas The Tank Engine Friends, Tri-ang Scalextric, scalextric, SCALEXTRIC and SCALEXTRIC. I have listed some of the <sic> train makes Hornby </sic> below. There is a scale model of the <reg>Stephenson's</reg> Rocket one with a three and a half <reg>gauge</reg> and another with a 00 <reg>gauge</reg> in the shops in 1978. There is the APT model in the shops in 1980. Plus the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends in the shops in 1985, a modern inter city in the shops in the 1990s. The next trains listed are very old, Hornby Railways Mallard in the shops in 1979, Hornby DublO train sets Sir <reg>Nigel</reg> Gresley 1938, Hornby O <reg>Gauge</reg> sets, Hornby clock work engine, tender and GN wagon made in 1921, and finally one of the oldest just to show you how long they've been running a <reg>porter's</reg> barrow made in 1905. My dad also <reg>has</reg> a Hornby DublO and my granddad has an LNER 4-4-0 wheel configuration. Hornby were first established in 1901.

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Bibliography

The Story Of Railways (Ladybird) - Richard Bowood

All About The Coming Of Railways - Pam Robson

Look Inside Cross Sections Trains - Dorling Kindersley

National Railway Museum Guide, York - Neil Cossons

Railways Restored 94/95 - Alan Butcher

Steam - Great Trains & Railways - John Westwood

Encyclopaedia Of British Railway Companies - Christopher Awdry

Preserved Steam Railways Of Britain - Colin Garratt

The Train Now Departing (BBC Publications)

The Guinness Book Of Rail Facts & Feats - John Marshall

A Guide To The Steam Railways Of Great Britain - Rev. W. Awdry & Chris Cook

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