East Coast Greater Anglia Units, NR 950001,Bittern and more!
Latest compilation of various workings from the area just North of Peterborough. This week includes Network rail yellow 950001, two Greater Anglia DMU movements to Loughborough and Wolverton,a Southern EMU drag, Bittern heading to York with just its support coach, and then again returning South with the last day of The Great Britain 6 railtour. Also lots of 66 action, including two in DB red, several convoys including a GBRf 3 loco convoy with each loco carrying a different version of GBRf livery! As usual the Skyfall set makes an appearance (got to get it while you can) and also the Battle of Britain 91 too. Some wonderful stormy backdrops to some of the shots too. The closing movie sequence is not crystal clear, as it was taken virtually in the dark, but it does show off the lovely lighting on board the Great Britain train, and also we get to see two East Coast racehorses passing-Bittern form an era gone by, and an HST set from an era which, sadly, may also soon be over.
NG604 Introduction
Northern General Transport, Gateshead-built chassis. No. 604, reg CN6100, was the first production bus; type SE6 (as built with 3 axles, needed to get the maximum length of 30 ft for 44 seats).
Chassis designed and built by NGT themselves, thus model NGT SE6; body built by Short Bros, Rochester, Kent who built buses post WWI after seaplane orders slumped, until 1935 when seaplane orders increased. (They built the Short Sunderland seaplane for Coastal Command (hunting submarines and German warships, rescuing airmen from the sea) which developed into the 'empire flying boats', of the '30s & '40s).
604 was the first 'modern' single-deck bus to maximum dimensions with engine under the floor, driver control of the entrance and all seats facing forward. It was built for the fast Newcastle - South Shields bus service in competition with the railway. It used a compact American Hercules petrol engine and was successful.
Due to the difficulty with spares during the War, 604 was converted to 2 axles in 1941 (becoming type LSE4) and had to run under a Ministry permit as it was then technically illegal. Converted to AEC diesel engine 1943.
With pressure form the industry to increase bus dimensions, James Callaghan (then at the Transport Ministry) visited NGT to determine whether the operational experience with 604 would allow a change in regulations (to allow 30 ft long buses on 2 axles). NGT reported no problems (as 604 was the only 30ft 2-axle bus) and the regulations changed in 1950 (604's other claim to fame).
At 20 years old, 604 was withdrawn in 1954 but repainted and sent to the British Transport Commission Museum in Clapham, London. With the (disgraceful) closure of the BTC Museum by Barbara Castle MP to set up the National Railway (not Transport!) Museum, London Transport got all their exhibits back but the 'provincial' items just got dumped 604 was brought back to the north east of England for the nascent Beamish Museum. While under tow for recommissioning, the tow-bar broke and 604 crashed into the towing lorry. 604 was left in its damaged condition at Beamish Museum, awaiting restoration.
In 1999, Chris Moyes, then Chief Executive of the go Ahead Group, and I formed the 'Northern Omnibus Trust' to acquire, restore and keep for posterity the historically most important motor vehicle built in the north east of England.
Bob Kell
Contact via nebpt.co.uk
Surrey | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:02:15 1 Geography
00:04:53 2 Settlements
00:06:35 3 History
00:06:44 3.1 Ancient British and Roman periods
00:08:25 3.2 Formation of Surrey
00:11:41 3.2.1 Identified sub-kings of Surrey
00:12:05 3.3 West Saxon and English shire
00:16:53 3.3.1 Identified iealdormen/i of Surrey
00:17:17 3.4 Later Medieval Surrey
00:24:53 3.5 Early Modern Surrey
00:32:07 3.6 Modern history
00:39:38 4 Historic architecture and monuments
00:42:33 5 Literature
00:46:48 6 Arts and sciences
00:49:15 7 Popular music
00:51:01 8 Sport
00:54:49 8.1 Surrey football clubs
00:55:53 9 Local government
00:56:03 9.1 History
00:59:35 9.2 Today
01:00:08 10 Economy
01:01:23 11 Transport
01:01:32 11.1 Road
01:04:15 11.2 Rail
01:09:25 11.3 Long-distance national services
01:10:07 11.4 Air
01:10:51 12 Education
01:11:59 12.1 Higher education
01:12:26 13 Emergency services
01:12:43 14 Places of interest
01:15:19 15 In popular culture
01:18:29 16 See also
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SUMMARY
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Surrey ( SURR-ee) is a county in South East England which borders Kent to the east, West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west, Berkshire to the north-west, and Greater London to the north-east.
With about 1.2 million people, Surrey is the twelfth most populous English county, the third most populous home county, after Kent and Essex, and the third most populous in the South East, after Hampshire and Kent.
Guildford is popularly regarded as the county town, although Surrey County Council is based extraterritorially at Kingston upon Thames.
Surrey is divided into eleven districts: Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Guildford, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Tandridge, Waverley, and Woking.
The London boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth, and parts of Lewisham and Bromley were in Surrey until 1889, as were Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton and the part of Richmond upon Thames on the right bank of the River Thames until 1965, when they were absorbed into Greater London, and the county extended north of the Thames by the addition of Spelthorne, as a result of the dissolution of Middlesex.
Surrey is a wealthy county due to economic, aesthetic, conservation and logistical factors. It has the highest GDP per capita of any English county, some of the highest property values outside Inner London, and also the highest cost of living outside of the capital.
Surrey has the highest proportion of woodland of counties in England. It has large protected green spaces (such as the North Downs, Greensand Ridge and related Surrey Hills AONB and royal landscapes adjoin it — Windsor Great Park and Bushy Park near the River Thames). It has four horse racing courses, and golf courses including international competition venue Wentworth.
Surrey is close to Heathrow and Gatwick airports and the M25, M3 and M23 motorways and has frequent rail services to central London.