Category: Other Transport

  • This is a follow up to other stuff on Wandsworth’s Young’s Ram brewery and the Surrey Iron Railway. Some further stuff related to the former waterway (known as McMurrays canal) which served the town and its brewery was found thus this post was created. Since there’s very little written on this canal, it seemed a…

  • Coventry Canal #2

    The Coventry Canal opened in 1769, that’s 250 years ago. Its architect, James Brindley, worked on the scheme for a few months before being sacked. It must be the only occasion which this most notable engineering genius was told he was no longer wanted. The first part of the canal from Bedworth into Coventry was…

  • Coventry Canal

    The Coventry Canal was one of the country’s earliest waterways to be opened following the success of the Bridgewater Canal. The section from Coventry to Atherstone was opened in 1769, and the rest of the canal followed as time went on eventually bringing it a total of 27 miles to Fradley junction (not forgetting the…

  • Southwold Railway

    The Southwold Railway – England’s premier three foot narrow gauge passenger railway! This week its ninety years since the last passenger trains ran. 2019 is also the 140th anniversary of the line’s opening. This somewhat quirky railway was in service for just fifty years, and remained moribund for several decades more. It has left a…

  • 2001: A Space Odyssey

    This Easter its fifty years since the classic space film, 2001: A Space Odyssey had its world premiere at the Lowe Theatre in Washington D.C. Despite being an American movie, 2001 was in fact one of a number of US films entirely made in Britain. Hence the credits: Made at MGM British Studios Ltd. Borehamwood,…

  • Louis-Dominique Girard’s Gliding Railway, in French known as the The Chemin de Fer Glissant (later it was called the Sliding Railway) was an unusual type of train whose origins began in the late 1860s as a test line in the ground of Girard’s home near Paris. It is said Girard developed his patent from somewhat earlier attempts to build a…