#Southern Railway Jobs

[freegovtjobalertdaily]

RRC Chennai Recruitment 2023 Southern Railway Jobs

RRC Chennai Recruitment 2023 Southern Railway Jobs

RRC Chennai Recruitment 2023: Southern Railway, Railway Recruitment Cell Chennai has Published Job News For Sports Quota. Applications are invited online from eligible sportspersons in the prescribed format from Indian Citizens, for recruitment to Posts in Level-2 to Level-5 in the 7th CPC Pay Matrix on Southern Railway, against Sports Quota through Open Advertisement scheme for the year 2022-23…

[tamilan-employment]

Southern Railway Recruitment 2024

Southern Railway Apprenticeship Training Recruitment 2024 Online Applications are invited from interested candidates for engagement of  Apprentices for imparting training under the Apprentices Act, 1961 in the designated trades at various Divisions / Workshops / Units in the jurisdiction of Southern Railway for 2438 Slots. (Southern Railway Recruitment 2024) Candidates residing in the following…

[tnsfrbc]

🚆🚆Apply now (Southern Railway Recruitment 2023 )! For more details check description👇 Organization Name: Southern Railway Notification No: P.266/I/CN/JTA Dt.:24.09.2023 Job Category: Central Govt Jobs Employment Type: Contract Basis Duration: The contract engagement will be for a maximum period of one year or period decided by Railway Administration. Total No of Vacancies: 14 Junior Technical Associate (JTA) Posts Place of Posting: Chennai Starting Date: 25.09.2023 Last Date: 09.10.2023 Apply Mode: Online Official Website: https://sr.indianrailways.gov.in/

[jobtamizhan]

Southern Railway Recruitment 2023 790 Assistant Loco Pilot Posts

Southern Railway Recruitment 2023 Assistant Loco Pilot Posts | Southern Railway Assistant Loco Pilot Vacancy 2023 | Southern Railway Official Invited Online Application For The Recruitment 790 – Assistant Loco Pilot, Technician, JE Posts Released. The Online Application Will Be Available in the Official Website @ https://sr.indianrailways.gov.in/ From 30/07/2023 to 30/08/2023 Southern Railway…

[psychotrenny]

While there is a great deal of similarity between Israel and Apartheid South Africa (down to the very close ties these countries shared), their strategies to delay inevitable collapse have turned out very different especially in terms of foreign policy. Like the South African government spent its last decade or so under Apartheid pursuing what Botha called his "Total Strategy", using every possible lever of influence to force the Frontline States into subservience; keeping them economically dependent on South Africa and politically acquiescent to Apartheid.

Military force was used for sure, but the only large scale deployments were the occupations of Namibia and southern Angola. Otherwise direct military action was restricted to commando raids, focused mainly on destroying infrastructure and carrying out political assassinations. South Africa instead preferred to act through local proxies, supporting (and often creating) various reactionary terrorist movements (i.e. UNITA in Angola, RENAMO in Mozambique, LLA in Lesotho) so that the destabilising effect of constant warfare would inhibit economic development, prevent unfriendly governments from taking any real action against apartheid and allow the offer of reduced terrorist support to be a bargaining chip in negotiations.

Economically South Africa used its control over transport infrastructure and large job market as both carrot and stick, rewarding compliant governments with better access to goods and increased migrant labour quotas (for many countries a vital source of income) while punishing disobedient nations with transport disruptions and reduced access to South African jobs. The specific mix of Military and Economic strategies would be tailored to suit the particular country at a particular time; for example South Africa's pressure on Angola was almost entirely military due to the lack of economic links between the two, while Swaziland's complete dependency made economics the primary South African approach. These different forms of pressure were also applied so as to compliment each other i.e. commandos and terrorist proxies would attack alternate railways and ports to ensure goods had to be transported through South Africa.

This was mainly done to extract political concessions. By 1980 the complete overthrow of unfriendly regimes was mostly off the table, so instead efforts were focused on changing the behaviour of the groups already in power. South Africa's main obsession was with the ANC boogeyman, constantly asking their neighbours to kick out ANC training camps and diplomatic ataches and forbid movement of ANC guerillas through their territory. However all manner of other demands were also made; economic integration, military access, opposition or at least neutrality towards UN sanctions etc. These were all attempts to drag the Frontline States back into South African dependency and under De Facto white Imperial rule; effectively undoing independence

In any case, as brutal as this "Total Strategy" was, it's a far cry from Israel's current approach which more resembles a genocidal temper tantrum. This is even in contrast to earlier Israeli strategies of coming to terms with neighbouring states and collaborationist movements; using Lebanon as an example they've gone from employing Christians Reactionaries as proxies to clumsily provoking the whole nation. There are structural reasons for this of course. South Africa needed it's black majority, both "at home" and in the neighboring states, as a reserve of cheap labour to extract cheap natural resources and buy globally uncompetitive manufactured goods. Indeed, the false independence of the "Bantustan" project was an attempt to remove South African citizenship from their entire black population and legally turn them all into migrant labourers. South Africa also has a much longer history as an independent Settler project, and while they recieved significant amounts of support from The West (especially the USA and doubly so under the more reactionary Presidents i.e. Ronald Reagan) this very much had its limitations; South Africa obviously couldn't wage a regional war of extermination even if wanted to. Meanwhile Israel's policy towards indigenous people is increasingly exterministic and there is no interest in maintaining their population; they even import migrant labourers from as far as Thailand to deny local Arabs. The country has also spent it's an entire existence as more or less a glorified NATO military base; they have more reason to favour a policy of genocidal war while hoping the US saves them from the consequences.

The point is that there are limits to how far you can take comparisons between South Africa and Israel. For all their similarities as Apartheid Settler States, were still different countries that occupied different contexts and so there are considerable socio-political differences between them that shouldn't just be ignored. You can't blandly use South African history to predict the course of Israel, or worse project current events in Israel onto a distorted version of South Africa's past. You won't develop a useful understanding of the world if you stick to broad assumptions and truisms; you need to actually investigate

[karl-jensen]

Railway Series Rebecca

This illustration on how a Railway Series Rebecca would look like was created back in 21 August 2023, soon to be one year old.

This is how Rebecca would look like if she was a character in the Railway Series. I also added in a different origin story and how she became a Resident of Sodor:

Rebecca's real name was Exmoor. She didn't like it, but her driver would call her Rebecca after his dead sister who died in The Blitz during the Second World War.

She would often pull boat trains that connect England, France and the Netherlands. Perhaps her most favorite train would be the Golden Arrow which connects England and France.

Because of her job, she would try to speak French to try and impress the French visitors who rode the train. She learned how to speak it from her driver who married a French Woman after the war.

Her wheels would often slip as a result of design faults. She even caught fire (and survived) after her restoration due to said errors.

She was purchased by Sir Charles Topham Hatt in the 1970's and was restored to working condition. She even had her old Southern Railway paint scheme and her old number and was renamed to "Rebecca Simpson" in memory of her driver's sister.

I wanted to make Rebecca as realistic as possible and add in the many features and quirks that her basis had. The thought of her speaking a foreign language would make her more interesting since the Southern Railway had boat trains linking to France and the Netherlands.

I originally posted this drawing on Reddit in the Thomas the Tank Engine subreddit, so I'd like to post this here as well.

[whencyclopedia]

The Impact of the British Industrial Revolution

The consequences of the British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) were many, varied, and long-lasting. Working life in rural and urban settings was changed forever by the inventions of new machines, the spread of factories, and the decline of traditional occupations. Developments in transportation and communications meant life in the post-industrial world was more exciting and faster, with people more connected than ever before. Consumer goods became more affordable to more people, and there were more jobs for a booming population. The price to pay for progress was often a working life that was noisy, repetitive, and dangerous, while cities grew to become overcrowded, polluted, and crime-ridden.

The impact of the Industrial Revolution included:

Many new machines were invented that could do things much faster than previously or could perform entirely new tasks.

Steam power was cheaper, more reliable, and faster than more traditional power sources.

Large factories were established, creating jobs and a boom in cotton textile production, in particular.

Large engineering projects became possible like iron bridges and viaducts.

Traditional industries like hand weaving and businesses connected to stagecoaches went into terminal decline.

The cost of food and consumer goods was reduced as items were mass-produced and transportation costs decreased.

Better tools became available for manufacturers and farmers.

The coal, iron, and steel industries boomed to provide fuel and raw materials for machines to work.

The canal system was expanded but then declined.

Urbanisation accelerated as labour became concentrated around factories in towns and cities.

Cheap train travel became a possibility for all.

Demand for skilled labour, especially in textiles, decreased.

Demand for unskilled labour to operate machines and work on the railways increased.

The use of child and women labour increased.

Worker safety declined and was not reversed until the 1830s.

Trade unions were formed to protect workers' rights.

The success of mechanisation led to other countries experiencing their own industrial revolutions.

Coal Mining

Mining of tin and coal has a long history in Britain, but the arrival of the Industrial Revolution saw unprecedented activity underground to find the fuel to feed the steam-powered machines that came to dominate industry and transport. The steam-powered pump was invented to drain mines in 1712. This allowed deeper mining and so greatly increased coal production. The Watt steam engine, patented in 1769, allowed steam power to be harnessed for almost anything, and as the steam engines ran on coal, so the mining industry boomed as mechanisation swept across industries of all kinds. This phenomenon only increased with the spread of the railways from 1825 and the increase in steam-powered ships from the 1840s. Coal gas, meanwhile, was used for lighting homes and streets from 1812, and as a source of heat for private homes and cookers. Coke, that is burnt coal, was used as a fuel in the iron and steel industries, and so the demand for coal kept on growing as the Industrial Revolution rolled on.

There were four principal coal mining areas: South Wales, southern Scotland, Lancashire, and Northumberland. To get the coal to where it was needed, Britain's canal system was significantly expanded as transportation by canal was 50% cheaper than using roads. By 1830, "England and Wales had 3,876 miles in 1760" (Horn, 17). Britain produced annually just 2.5 to 3 million tons of coal in 1700, but by 1900, this figure had rocketed to 224 million tons.

Continue reading...

[20th-century-railroading]

Disco Stripes

New Jersey Transit EMD E8A 4334 (ex-Southern Railway) sits forlornly out back of the Elizabethport shop. It's wearing an odd white paint job with classic NJT "disco stripes".

Elizabethport, New Jersey November 1983

[scotianostra]

On October 14th 1881 tragedy struck the fishing town of Eyemouth when 189 men lost their lives in dozens of boats were lost in a storm.

Fishermen and always have done one of the most dangerous job, even nowadays.

Scotland is famous for its frequently wet and windy weather. It lies in the path of eastward-moving Atlantic depressions which bring wind and clouds throughout the year, and is frequently hit by windstorms during the autumn and winter.

A severe storm struck the southern coast of Scotland on 14th October 1881, leading to the Eyemouth fishing disaster or ‘Black Friday’ as some locals call it. The Edinburgh Evening News reported the storm on Saturday 15th October:

A storm of extraordinary violence set in on Thursday night and raged for the greater part of yesterday all over the country, causing great destruction to property and loss of life. All telegraphic communication between Scotland and the Metropolis was broken down by the wreckage of the wires and in several parts of the country similar isolation has occurred. Hundreds of magnificent trees have been torn to pieces or uprooted and cast across the roads, rendering traffic impracticable. From all parts of the country floods and serious agricultural havoc are reported. Railway traffic, in consequence of the destruction of signal posts and wires, was carried on with difficulty and the drivers of express trains report that they could scarcely maintain their footing on the engines. Snow lies deep in the north and the lower ranges of the Grampians have also received a coating of snow.

Fishing was an essential part of the local economy in Eyemouth: the men went fishing and the women supported them by baiting the lines and repairing nets. The sudden windstorm in October 1881 blew up while the fishing boats were out at sea and caused the deaths of 189 fishermen, of whom 129 were from Eyemouth itself. Many of the fishing boats capsized; others were wrecked on the rocky coastline. There was an occasional miraculous story of survival against all the odds: the fishing boat, the Ariel Gazell, arrived back in Eyemouth harbour two days after the storm, having survived, but largely the stories were of death, destruction and loss.

The lives lost in this natural disaster are commemorated by a tapestry in Eyemouth Museum and a series of memorials along the coastline in the communities it affected.

Memorials to the 1881 fishing disaster are positioned along the Berwickshire coast. Scottish-born sculptor Jill Watson is responsible for the ones with the harrowing figures.....

[tamilan-employment]

Southern Railway Recruitment 2023 - Apply for 14 JTA Posts

Southern Railway Junior Technical Associate (JTA) Recruitment 2023 Online Applications are invited from interested candidates for engagement of JUNIOR TECHNICAL ASSOCIATE (JTA) 0n Contract basis from Open market in Civil Engineering Department in Southern Railway, Construction Organization, Chennai. Applications Complete in all respects should be submitted Only through ” Online” of the closing…

[the-rewritten-railway-au]

"It's Just a Little Derailment!"

May 1930

The Adventure Begins (2015)

Word Count: 579

Thomas derails in the yard.

~

By the time the sun fully rose, Thomas was the last one sleeping in, loudly snoring. The other engines didn’t mind it. Besides, they were used to Gordon’s snoring and James’ muttering. A little more noise wouldn’t hurt. The tank engine struggled to sleep in his new home the night before and fell asleep hours after Edward did.

Said engine was accompanied by James, and the pair poked their smokeboxes—“like curious dogs,” their crews often joke —into the sheds. The latter stuck around for amusement, only to be annoyed instead.

“Thomas!” whispered Edward as the tank engine’s crew struggled to keep his fire going. “Thomas, get up!”

Heterochromatic eyes rolled at the bronze-eyed engine's attempts. “With that voice, you’re just pulling him into deep sleep!”

“I rather no’ wake him up wit’ a start!”

“Well, I'm not sticking around any further!”

“Whit ur ye-?”

The black tender engine blasted his whistle. The shrill pierced Edward’s smokebox, startled the crews, and shook Thomas awake. “Bloody hell, James!” scolded the khaki tank engine.

“Bloody hell, yourself!” retorted James, scoffing at Edward's glare. “You didn't think your muttering would actually wake him up, did you?”

“Naw, but-”

“And don’t you have a train to pull?”

“Aye-!”

“Then you should be grateful!”

“I am!” Edward internally winced at his own volume. Raising his voice? Who did he think he was? “I am.” Much better. “I just wish ye could've given a warnin’.”

“To you?”

…Maybe. “Naw.”

“Excuse me!” Thomas piped up. Maybe that whistle was a good wake-up call as he couldn't feel sleepiness in his system. “I can't get out if you’re in the way!”

Bronze eyes widened. “Och, dear- Sorry!” As quickly and carefully as Edward could, he backed away and switched tracks. “Is thon-?”

“I’m running late!” The khaki tank engine bolted out of his berth.

“Thomas-!” Edward braced himself, knowing he didn't have enough time to move out of the way. He squeezed his eyes shut, but the feeling of crushed buffers never came.

With a peek, Edward was surprised to see Thomas mere inches away from him, derailed.

“No"s spilled from the E2, who tried getting back on the rails. He jerked back, jostling his crew in his cab like a wild bull, who tried to calm him down. To other engines, it was a small derailment. Nothing to fret about. But to him? Oh, god, they’ll find out how defective he was. And when they do, they'll send him packing to the Southern Railway, and who knows what they’ll do to him.

The Southern Railway sold him off to this small railway, quicker than any sale he’s ever seen or heard about. He wasn't oblivious. His siblings weren't either. They were very aware of their poor performance. They failed to do their intended job because of how they were built, and they couldn't change that.

Thomas couldn't change that.

So when Edward buffered up to him and pushed him back, Thomas was shocked. The voices of Mr. Perkins and Archie guiding Edward came to him, the pair having climbed off at some point. “What-?”

“Thare ye go!” cheered the blue tender engine. “Back oan the rails! Come oan, ye two. We've got work tae dae!”

Stumped, Thomas didn't catch onto James’ muttering as he distantly followed Edward. The smaller tender engine pushed him back on the rails with ease. It was practically a nudge.

Was it really that simple? pondered the large tank engine as his crew opened his regulator and released his brakes. With a slow start, Thomas rolled down the tracks onto the Main Line.

~

Notes

This was supposed to be part of another part but I felt like there would've been too much going on in that part, so I cut it down to just this scene. SO here we are. A short one at that! Not including TGR 2x5 Roleswap, this is my shortest fic by far.

I didn't consider this a rewrite until I remembered the scene where Henry is trying to wake Thomas up so yeah-

I like both newbieTAB!Thomas and RWS/ClassicEra!Thomas, so I combined both for Thomas' introduction arc.

Rewriting this from scratch actually helped, as well as finding out that music does not help (I rewrote it in between class 💀 I had time to kill so why not, pft-)

Hope you enjoyed! Comments + reblogs are appreciated :]

[southeastasianists]

Jo is the holder of a newly minted degree in English literature from one of the top universities in Laos. But the 22-year-old, who graduated only weeks ago, says he already feels "hopeless".

Confronted with a barren job market, the Vientiane resident holds no hope of finding work at home, and instead aims to become a cleaner or a fruit picker in Australia. His aspirations are low, but they reflect a hushed disenchantment spreading among his peers; the result of a severe and sustained economic downturn that has ravaged Laos for the past two years.

"Every person in this generation doesn't believe in the government. They want to leave Laos, they don't believe anything the government says," he tells the BBC. "Most of my friends have the same thoughts, but we only talk about it privately. If you say bad things about them in public, I don't know what will happen."

The economic crisis has been caused by a rash programme of government borrowing used to finance Chinese-backed infrastructure projects which has begun to unravel. The crisis shows little sign of easing, with public debt spiralling to unsustainable levels, resulting in government budget cuts, sky-high inflation and record-breaking currency depreciation, leaving many living on the brink in one of South East Asia's poorest countries.

Faced with a dire economic situation, and with the April shooting of activist Anousa "Jack" Luangsuphom underscoring the brutal lengths authorities in the one-party state will go to silence calls for reform, a generation of young Laotians increasingly see their future abroad.

"[Young people] aren't even thinking about change, it's a feeling of how am I going to get out of this country - I'm stuck here, there's no future for me," said Emilie Pradichit, a Lao-French international human rights lawyer and the founder of human rights group Manushya Foundation.

"If you see your country becoming a colony of China, you see a government that is totally corrupt, and you cannot speak up because if you do you might be killed - would you want to stay?"

The 'debt trap'

A sparsely populated, landlocked country of 7.5 million people, Laos is one of the region's poorest and least developed nations. In a bid to transform the largely agrarian society, the past decade has seen the government take on major infrastructure projects, mostly financed by historic ally and neighbour China - itself on a lending spree since 2013 as part of its global infrastructure investment programme, the Belt and Road initiative (BRI).

Laos has built dozens of foreign-financed dams to transform itself into the "battery of South East Asia" as a major exporter of electricity to the region. But oversupply has turned many dams unproductive, and the state electricity company sits in $5bn (£4.1bn) debt. Lacking funds, Laos handed a majority Chinese-owned company a 25-year concession to manage large parts of its power grid in 2021, including control over exports.

Also among the debt-laden megaprojects is the Lao-China railway, connecting Vientiane to southern China. It opened in December 2021 at a cost of $5.9bn (£4.85bn), but saddled the Lao government with $1.9bn in debt. Beijing says the railway has created an "economic corridor", but the numbers just don't add up for some economists, not least because Chinese state-owned companies hold a 70% stake.

"I'm sure people are happy to travel very quickly across Laos, but it's not justified at the cost that was agreed to," economist Jayant Menon, a senior fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, says of the railway.

All of this has added to Laos' ballooning debt, which is now ninth highest globally as a share of its GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund. Around half of that is owed to China, and Laos is now having to borrow more from lenders in the country just to stay afloat.

"Laos is so heavily indebted to China that their negotiating position is compromised," he said. "It's having to borrow just to service the debt. That's the definition of a debt trap."

The Lao government could not be reached for comment. But Mr Menon emphasised that Laos has repeatedly rejected other international lenders in favour of Beijing, perhaps because of a belief within the government that China "will not let another socialist country fail". He added that Beijing was also cautious about letting another BRI country default on its debt after Sri Lanka.

The only thing currently preventing that outcome are repeated Chinese debt deferment agreements - the conditions of which remain highly opaque. This has raised concerns over Beijing's growing sway over Laos. When asked if Laos is at risk of becoming a vassal state, Mr Menon said "that ship has sailed".

He said that the "macro-instability" caused by "massive debt accumulation" has also caused the decline of the Lao currency, the kip, which continues to depreciate to record lows against the US dollar. This has led to a decades-high rise in prices, and nowhere is this being felt more acutely than among ordinary Laotians.

'If I don't fight, I'll die'

"'I have never experienced anything like this year," says Phonxay, a frail looking woman in her 60s, selling household staples at a food market in Vientiane. She said her customers are buying less because "prices go up day to day", adding that August was the most expensive month yet. Her family has had to adapt to survive.

"My family needs to eat more cheaply than ever before. We eat half of what we used to eat," Phonxay says. "But I'll fight until the end. If I don't, I'll die."

But it's young Lao, their futures mortgaged off for the benefit of infrastructure projects offering them few tangible opportunities, that will bear the brunt of the economic crisis for years to come.

"Lao is very good to travel, but not good to live in," says Sen, a 19-year-old working as a receptionist in a hotel in Luang Prabang in northern Laos.

The city is bustling once again, with its Unesco World Heritage Old Quarter of pristine French colonial-era buildings filled with tourists. But Sen says times remain tough: "For normal people like me it's very hard. It's just better than living as a homeless person in India, and maybe just better than North Korea. I'm serious, we're just trying to survive."

He earns just $125 per month at his hotel job, but he doesn't see any point in going to university or applying for government jobs as he'd have to "pay lots of money" to corrupt officials to get anywhere as he has no family connections.

"At the moment, almost every Lao student like myself doesn't want to go to university," he says. "They study Japanese or Korean and then apply to work in factories or farming in those countries."

It's this "sense of discouragement among Lao youth… that needs urgent attention," says Catherine Phuong, the deputy resident representative at the UN Development Programme in Laos. She pointed to the "staggering" NEET (not in education, employment or training) rate of 38.7% among 18-to-24-year olds - by far the highest in South East Asia.

"We're especially concerned in Laos that with the debt situation we are seeing reduced investment in the social sector, including health and education," she told the BBC. "I'm sure you can imagine the impact that will have on this generation, not just in the coming years, but in the next 10 to 20 years."

But with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, which has ruled the country since 1975, intolerant of dissenting voices, young people have had to turn to social media to air their grievances.

It was in March 2022, as inflation and the cost of living began rising, that Anousa "Jack" Luangsuphom created Kub Kluen Duay Keyboard or "The Power of the Keyboard", one of a growing number of social commentary Facebook pages critical of authorities.

The 25-year-old was drawing tens of thousands of followers when he was attacked at a cafe in Vientiane on April 29. CCTV footage shows a masked man firing a bullet into Jack's face and chest. A police statement days later blamed a business dispute or lover's quarrel. Jack survived the attack, but for his followers, the culprit was obvious.

"I feel really bad that the government would shoot him, that they would try to control us like that," says Jo, the university student in Vientiane, who follows Jack's Facebook page. "Jack is the voice of Lao people, he said things that normal people are afraid to say."

But these calls for reform will only be ignored or suppressed, and few know this better than Shui-Meng Ng - the wife of disappeared Lao civil society advocate Sombath Somphone.

Sombath has not been seen since being detained by police in Vientiane in December 2012, a time when his influence was growing and there was hope of reform.

Speaking to the BBC from her craft shop in downtown Vientiane, the last place she saw her husband the day he was abducted, Shui-Meng said voices like Jack's and Sombath's are squashed because they grow "too big a following" at times when the "Lao political elite are facing difficulties".

"Every time something like [Jack's shooting] happens, you see this," she said, zipping her lips. "People go silent."

[cerenemuxse]

The engines as different basis (EoSR but built different) - 1

(Tender engines as tank engines, vice versa)

From No. 1 - 6 (Thomas, Edward, Emily, Henry, Gordon, James)

NWR 1 Thomas (formerly LBSCR 307, SR 2307)

Class: London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) Class C3 Horsham Goods

Previous Owners: London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway; Southern Railway; British Railways (Southern Region)

Built: August 1906

Real-life Withdrawal: May 1949 (never received a BR number)

Designer: Douglas Earle Marsh

Builder: Brighton Works

Bio:

Thomas is the first tender engine purchased by the NWR, after the withdrawals of the original NWR 1 - 6 (the last one being in 1925). The NWR had believed that they wouldn't need any tender engine power until the withdrawal of NWR 1 in 1925.

NWR 2 Edward (formerly W&SR 5)

Class: Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway (DW&WR) 52 class; North Western Railway (NWR) Class S-W52

Previous Owners: Wellsworth & Suddery Railway

Built: 1893

Real-life Withdrawal: n/a

Designer: William Wakefield

Builder: Sharp, Stewart and Company (Glasgow, Scotland)

Bio:

Edward was commissioned by the Wellsworth and Suddery Railway. His design was altered so that he could run on standard gauge rails. When the merger occured, he was passed down to the NWR, along with Emily, and the NWR attempted to rebuild him so he could handle the new jobs. This did not work out, resulting in Edward having poor steaming issues. He was swapped with Emily, working lighter and fewer jobs.

NWR 3 Emily (formerly GNR 1009 and W&SR 6)

Class: Great Northern Railway (GNR) Class H1 Stirling Tank; North Western Railway (NWR) Class S-S1 Stirling Tank

Basis (Inspiration): GNR Stirling Single A3, GNR G1, and B&ER 4-2-4 tank engines

Previous Owners: Great Northern Railway; Wellsworth and Suddery Railway

Built: 1882

Real-life Withdrawal: n/a

Designer: Patrick Stirling

Builder: Doncaster Works

Bio:

Emily is an experimental tank engine version of the GNR A1, A2, and A3 Stirling Singles, with a wheel config of 4-2-4T. While she did perform decently, she did not perform as they expected so she was withdrawn. The Wellsworth and Suddery Railway took interest in Emily. They purchased her from the GNR before she could be sold to a scrapyard. She worked welled on the W&SR, able to be passed down to the NWR in 1915, along with Edward. She ended up replacing Edward on the express passenger service when the latter's rebuilds proved to worsen his performance.

NWR 4 Henry

Class: North Eastern Railway (NER) Class F; North Western Railway (NWR) Class S-S5 (4-6-4T) Black Five Tank

Basis (Inspiration): NER Class D (pre-1935); LNER Class A2 (pre-1935); LMS Class 5MT Black Fives (post-1935); LMS 4MT 2-6-4T (two-cylinder) (post-1935)

Previous Owners: Unknown

Built: 1920

Real-life Withdrawal: n/a

Designer: Vincent Raven; Henry Stanier

Builder: Unknown

Bio:

Henry was built from stolen duplicates of Vincent Raven's plans of a 4-6-2T, which were derived from the NER Class D (4-4-4T). Unfortunately, these duplicate plans were the discarded designs due to uneven weights on the chassis and the use of a Schmidt boiler. He was under-powered and a hazard to operate. Sir Louis Topham Hatt I was swindled to buy Henry in 1922 when promised that Henry would be the next best thing for railways. This was when the NWR believed that they wouldn't need tender engines to run the railway. After the Flying Kipper crash, Henry was rebuilt into a new class of his own, the LMS Class 5MT Black Five Tank.

NWR 5 Gordon

Class: Great Northern Railway (GNR) Class B1; North Western Railway (NWR) Class S-G1

Basis (Inspiration): GNR Gresley Class A1, GNR Gresley Class A3, and GNR Gresley Class N2

Previous Owners: Great Northern Railway

Built: 1920 - 1923

Real-life Withdrawal: n/a

Designer: Nigel Gresley

Builder: Doncaster Works

Bio:

Gordon is an experimental tank version of the GNR Gresley A1s, in hopes of surpassing the capabilities of the Gresley N2s. This did not work out but served as a basis for the LNER V1s. He was sold off to the NWR, replacing Emily on heavy passenger duty, which was the express service for the NWR.

NWR 6 James (formerly L&YR 506, LMS 11546)

Class: Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) Class 24; NWR Class S-A25

Previous Owners: L&YR, LNWR, LMS

Built: 1919

Real-life Withdrawal: 1959 (BR number would've been 51546)

Designer: John Audley Frederick Aspinall

Builder: Horwich Works

Bio:

James was bought as he was originally built in 1925. However, Sir Bertram Topham Hatt II ordered for James to be rebuilt into a 2-6-2T. This took well over a few months until they finally came up with a decent design. Unfortunately, James' great performance came at the cost of James' loosing his memories.

[surprisinglyokay]

Having recently read a fanfic in which Sherlock and John catch trains to various parts of southern England exclusively from London’s Waterloo station, even when this is not the usual/logical route, I’d like to share this for writers who might not be familiar with the whole business of trains in/to/from London.

Let’s start with the history of how and when rail services came to London. This article explains how and why we have so many terminal stations (short version: because when they were built, the railway companies were privately owned and all needed their own terminus in London).

The main terminal stations are Waterloo (south), Paddington (west), Euston (north-west), King’s Cross (north-east), St Pancras (East Midlands and Eurostar), Liverpool Street (east), Fenchurch Street (south-east) and Victoria (south). There are others (see the article linked above and my husband’s comment below).

As we know, within London and the suburbs, these termini are linked by the London Underground (aka The Tube) network. There is also the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) - a driverless system - and other overground rail services. Here is a map of it all from Transport of London (TfL). Baker Street is served by five tube lines: Bakerloo (brown), Metropolitan (maroon), Jubilee (silver), Circle (yellow), and Hammersmith & City (pink). It’s also only a five-minute walk from Marylebone (the nearest terminal) which itself is just behind the Landmark hotel, which we know as the exterior for The Restaurant Scene.

Aside: I think Sherlock is unlikely to catch a bus unless directly related to a case - they’re just too slow for him. But you can find bus maps and all kinds of other TfL mappy delights here.

If you have characters using public transport in the UK, your best bets for accurate research are:

Google Maps (in public transport mode)

National Rail (see the page footer for all the useful stuff)

Transport for London

All these also have apps available.

I’m happy to do Sherlockian Britpicking (my day job is copy-editing) if that’s helpful for you.

If you want to go the full Howard Shilcott, I still very much enjoy reading the rail enthusiasts’ forums posts about the myriad tube-related continuity errors in TEH. I’ll let you Google those for yourself. 😉

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Ran this past my husband (who is totally the full Howard Shilcott) and he made a few corrections (and a lot of faces!) before I posted: he wishes it to be known that he ‘remains unhappy about [my summary of] Fenchurch Street’ and thinks I should add Charing Cross to the list so people know how to get to Kent. So that’s all clear then. 😂