Glossary

Key phrases used within the website

Rainhill Trials

An important competition in the early days of steam locomotive railways, run in October 1829 in Rainhill, Lancashire (now Merseyside) for the nearly completed Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

George Jackson Churchward - (January 31, 1857 – December 19, 1933)

Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1922.

Charles Collett - (10 September 1871 - 5 April 1952)

Chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1922 to 1941. He designed (amongst others) the GWR's 4-6-0 Castle and King Class express passenger locomotives.

Arthur Peppercorn - (29 January 1889 - 3 March 1951)

The last Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Railway.

Sir Nigel Gresley - (19 June 1876 – 5 April 1941)

One of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers, who rose to become Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). He was the designer of some of the most famous steam locomotives in Britain, including the LNER Class A1 and LNER Class A4 4-6-2 Pacific engines.

Oliver Bulleid - (19 September 1882 - 25 April 1970)

A British railway and mechanical engineer best known as the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the Southern Railway between 1937 and the 1948 nationalisation, developing many well-known locomotives.

William Stanier - (27 May 1876 - 27 September 1965)

Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.

Great Western Region

A British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Stockton & Darlington Railways

Opened in 1825, was 26 miles (40 km) long, and was built between Witton Park and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, and to several collieries near Shildon in north-eastern England. The line was initially built to connect inland coal mines to Stockton, where coal was to be loaded onto sea-going boats.

HSTs - High Speed Train

The name of the British Rail 125 class dual power car diesel train capable of 125mph running.

Robert Stephenson - (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859)

An English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son.

West Coast Main Line

The busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, and the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. It provides fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and southern Scotland. Since the route was upgraded in recent years, large stretches of it have trains running at 125 mph (200 km/h), so it may be classed as a high-speed line.

Western Region

A region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound-up at the end of 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex-Great Western Railway lines, minus certain lines west of Birmingham, which were transferred to the London Midland Region in 1963 and with the addition of all former Southern Railway routes west of Exeter, which were subsequently rationalised.

East Coast Main Line

A 393-mile (632 km) long[2] electrified high-speed railway[3] link between London, Peterborough, Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds, York, Darlington, Newcastle and Edinburgh. It is classed as a High Speed railway line because it meets the necessary speed criteria of 125 mph (200 km/h).

Southern Region

A region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound-up at the end of 1992. The region covered south London, southern England and the south coast, including the busy commuter belt areas of Kent, Sussex and Surrey. The region was largely based upon the former Southern Railway area.

English Electric

A British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers. Its activities would expand to include railway locomotives and traction equipment, steam turbines, consumer electronics, guided missiles, aircraft and computers.

Co-Co

Is a code for a locomotive wheel arrangement with two six-wheeled bogies with all axles powered, with a separate motor per axle.

Bo-bo

A locomotive with two independent four-wheeled bogies with all axles powered by individual traction motors.