Civilisation/Transport
Air
Flyer I flew on 17 December 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Piloted by Orville Wright. Wilbur had made the first attempt
Louis Bleriot’s 1909 cross-channel flight ended in Northfall Meadow, Dover, winning the prize of £1000 offered by the Daily Mail
First flight across Mediterranean made by Roland Garros in 1913
Lord Brabazon became the first person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom and was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate number 1; his car also bore the number-plate FLY 1
First scheduled air service was from Hounslow Heath to Paris, 1919
Aeroflot was founded in 1923
The first aerial circumnavigation of the world was conducted in 1924 by a team of aviators of the United States Army Air Service, the precursor of the United States Air Force. The trip took 175 days, covering over 44,000 kilometres without crossing the equator into the southern hemisphere. Plane was a Douglas World Cruiser seaplane
Richard Byrd made the first flight to the North Pole in 1926, and the South Pole in 1929
First solo flight round the world (7 days 19 hours) was made by Wiley Post in 1933, in the Winnie Mae
On a round-the-world trip with aviator Wiley Post, Will Rogers died when their small airplane crashed near Barrow, Alaska Territory in 1935
Imperial Airways operated from 1924 to 1939 and serving parts of Europe but especially the Empire routes to South Africa, India and the Far East
Croydon Aerodrome opened in 1920. Croydon was the first airport in the world to introduce air traffic control in 1921
Imperial Airways flew from Croydon to Paris in 1924. Mr Pilkington – first commercial air passenger, to Paris. First class service known as ‘Silver Wing’. Service from London to South Africa started in 1932. Short Empire Flying Boats flew from Southampton
Delta Air Lines was created as Huff Daland Dusters, Incorporated, an aerial crop dusting operation, in 1924 in Macon, Georgia
Charles Lindbergh made the first nonstop transatlantic flight in Spirit of St Louis in 1927. Lindbergh took off in the Spirit from Roosevelt Airfield, Garden City (Long Island) and landed 33 hours, 30 minutes later at Aéroport Le Bourget in Paris. The Spirit was built by Ryan Airlines in San Diego. Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize. Charles Lindbergh became a consultant for PanAm
Graf Zeppelin – first airship to travel round the world, in 1929
R101 departed from Cardington in 1930 for its intended destination of Karachi. Among the 12 passengers was Lord Thomson, Secretary of State for Air. Crashed near Beauvais in France
Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic in a Lockheed Vega 5B in 1932
Amelia Earhart was the first female transatlantic passenger
Amy Johnson flew solo to Australia in 1930 in the plane Jason
Aer Lingus was founded in 1936
Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter. Introduced in 1944
Following the Gloster Meteor, the de Havilland Vampire was the second jet fighter to enter service with the RAF
Albatross was a German WWI warplane
RJ Mitchell won the Schneider Trophy in a Supermarine plane
Bomb sight invented by Carl Norden
A member of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, Alan Cobham became famous as a pioneer of long distance aviation. After the war he became a test pilot for the de Havilland aircraft company,
Hawker Hurricane was designed by Sydney Camm
Junkers Ju87 dive-bomber was known as the Stuka
Mosquito was the DeHaviland DH98. Known as ‘The Wooden Wonder’
Gypsy, Tiger Moth were manufactured by de Havilland
Supermarine Seafire was a naval version of the Supermarine Spitfire specially adapted for operation from aircraft carriers
Vickers Wellington was a twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the 1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson
Barnes Wallis designed fuselage of Wellington Bomber
Wellington was popularly known as the Wimpy by service personnel, after J. Wellington Wimpy from the Popeye cartoons
Hawker Tempest shot down V1s. Improved derivative of the Hawker Typhoon
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a World War II American fighter aircraft
Flying Porcupine was the German name for the Sunderland flying boat. Designed by Short Brothers for the RAF
Dornier DO-17 was known as ‘the flying pencil’
Short Stirling was the first four-engined British heavy bomber of the Second World War
Handley Page Halifax was one of the four-engined heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War
Mitsubishi A6M Zero was a World War II Japan fighter plane
Heinkel He 178 was the world's first aircraft to fly under turbojet power, and the first practical jet plane
Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947 in a Bell X-1 known as Glamorous Glennis
Boeing 377, also called the Stratocruiser, was a large long range airliner which was developed from the C-97 Stratofreighter, a military derivative of the B-29 Superfortress used for troop transport. The Stratocruiser's first flight was in 1947. The aircraft was powered by four piston engines, driving tractor propellers
The Hughes H-4 Hercules was designed and built by the Hughes Aircraft company. The aircraft made its first and only flight on 2 November 1947. Built from wood due to wartime raw material restrictions on the use of aluminium, it was nicknamed the ‘Spruce Goose’
De Havilland Comet was the first jet airliner. Flew from London to Johannesburg in 18 hours in 1949. Early Comet models suffered from catastrophic metal fatigue, causing a string of well-publicized accidents in 1954. It was discovered that the stresses around pressure cabin apertures were considerably higher than had been anticipated, especially around sharp-cornered cut-outs, such as windows. As a result, all future jet airliners would feature windows with rounded corners, the curve eliminating a stress concentration
English Electric Canberra bomber – first flew in 1949. First jet bomber and first plane sold to US
Lucky Lady II is a United States Air Force B-50 Superfortress that became the first airplane to circle the world nonstop, when it made the journey in 1949, assisted by refueling the plane in flight
Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire was a turbojet engine produced in 1950s
Dassault Mirage III is a supersonic fighter aircraft designed in France by Dassault Aviation during the 1950s
V bombers were the Vickers Valiant (first flew 1951, entered service 1955), Avro Vulcan (first flew 1952, in service 1956) and Handley Page Victor (first flew 1952, in service 1958). The V Bomber force reached its peak in 1964, with 50 Valiants, 70 Vulcans and 39 Victors in service. Usage of all V bombers ended in 1982
Viscount was a medium-range turboprop airliner introduced in 1953 by Vickers-Armstrong, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world
Fairy Delta – first plane to reach 1000 mph, piloted by Peter Twiss, in 1956
Hawker P.1127 and the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGA.1 were the experimental and development aircraft that led to the Hawker Siddeley Harrier
Design of the Hawker P.1127 began in 1957 by Sydney Camm, Ralph Hooper of Hawker Aviation and Stanley Hooker of the Bristol Engine Company. Rather than using rotors or a direct jet thrust the P.1127 had an innovative vectored thrust turbofan engine and the first vertical take-off was in 1960
British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 was a cancelled Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed by BAC for the Royal Air Force
MiG was founded by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich
MiG-21 introduced in 1959. Over 11,000 planes produced
Bristol Brabazon was a propellor-driven airliner. The prototype was completed and flown in 1949, only to prove a commercial failure when airlines felt the airliner was too large and expensive to be useful
Bristol Britannia was a medium-to-long-range airliner built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1952 to fly across the British Empire. Known as the ‘whispering giant’
Lockheed Constellation was a propeller-driven airliner built by Lockheed between 1943 and 1958
Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military applications
Vickers VC10 was designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd, and first flown in 1962
British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Hunting Aircraft in 1960
Boeing 707 was manufactured from 1958 to 1979. Developed as Boeing's first jet airliner
English Electric Lightning made its first flight in 1954. Britain’s first supersonic fighter. Retired by RAF in 1988
BAC Jet Provost was a jet-powered trainer aircraft used by the Royal Air Force from 1955 to 1993
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy has been operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) since 1969 and is one of the largest military aircraft in the world
Hawker Siddeley Nimrod has been the Royal Air Force's primary maritime patrol bomber since the early 1970s, when it replaced the Avro Shackleton. The RAF uses two variants: the R1 variant in a reconnaissance and electronic intelligence gathering capacity (ELINT), and the MR2 variant in the Maritime Reconnaissance role
B17 – Flying Fortress
B24 bomber – Liberator
B29 bomber – Superfortress
B52 bomber – Stratofortress
F102 was the first interceptor (supersonic) plane
Stealth bomber – Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit
Stealth fighter – Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk
Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star was the first operational jet fighter used by the United States Army Air Forces, and saw extensive combat in Korea with the United States Air Force as the F-80
F-15 Eagle is an all-weather tactical fighter designed by McDonnell Douglas / Boeing
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
The F-35 Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engine, stealth capable military strike fighter, a multi-role aircraft that can perform tactical bombing, and air-to-air combat. The F-35 descended from the X-35 of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program
Mosquito, Moth, and Venom were planes made by deHavilland
X-43A plane holds speed record of Mach 7 in an unpiloted, scramjet engine
Mach 6.7 is the highest speed achieved by a human, in a Bell X-15
First Concorde flight was on 2 March1969. First commercial flight was on 21 January 1976. 20 planes built. Fatal crash in Paris, July 2000, killing 113 people
Concorde powered by four Rolls Royce Olympus engines
14 production Concordes. Last flight in 2003
Barbara Harmer was the first female Concorde pilot
Tupolev 144 made its first test flight in 1968. Crashed at Paris air show in 1973
Boeing 787 Dreamliner is an American mid-sized, wide-body, twin engine jet airliner, and is the first major airliner to use composite material for most of its construction
Laker Airways Skytrain was inaugurated between London Gatwick and New York JFK on 26 September 1977, flying DC-10s
Laker Airways planned to link its Gatwick–Los Angeles Skytrain with the proposed Gatwick–Hong Kong Skytrain across the Pacific via Honolulu and Tokyo to create the first daily round-the-world through service by a British airline in both directions. This was to be marketed under the trademark Globetrain
Laker Airways went bankrupt in 1982
Top Gun fighter pilot school is at Miramar, near San Diego
Caravelle was the first jet to have engines mounted at the rear of the fuselage
Bell X-1 known as ‘the orange beast’
Skyrocket was the first plane to reach mach 2, piloted by Scott Crosfield
Blue Angels are the US equivalent of Red Arrows. Fly F/A-18 Hornets
Lockheed U-2, nicknamed ‘Dragon Lady’, is a single-engine, very high-altitude surveillance aircraft flown by the United States Air Force. It can fly at 70000 feet
Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used by the United States Air Force and Navy and the German Air Force as a surveillance aircraft
Sukhoi is a major Russian aircraft manufacturer famous for its fighters
Boeing 747 Large Cargo Freighter (LCF) or Dreamlifter is a wide-body cargo aircraft and the world's longest cargo loader
Antonov An-225 is a strategic airlift cargo aircraft, designed by the Antonov Design Bureau in the 1980s. It is the world's heaviest aircraft
BAE Systems Mantis is a British demonstrator programme for Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) technology. It is the world's first unmanned autonomous aircraft
Terrafugia Transition is a light sport, roadable aircraft under development by Terrafugia since 2006
Embraer is a Brazilian aerospace conglomerate that produces commercial, military, and executive aircraft
Predator, MQ-9 Reaper are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), i.e. drones
British Aerospace was formed as a statutory corporation in 1977 as a result of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act. This called for the nationalisation and merger of the British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and Scottish Aviation
McDonnell Douglas built Harrier under license
Southwest Airlines is the world's largest low-cost carrier, headquartered in Dallas. Southwest is the largest operator of the Boeing 737 worldwide with over 550 in service
EasyJet only flies Airbus aircraft
Ryanair operates over 300 Boeing 737–800 aircraft
Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is a tiltrotor aircraft with both a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft
Interrupter gear (also known as synchronization gear) – used to enable a machine gun to fire through an aircraft's propeller without the bullets striking the propeller. Developed by Anthony Fokker
Scramjet – Supersonic combustion ramjet
Ramjet – a jet engine that propels aircraft by igniting fuel mixed with air taken and compressed by the engine in a fashion that produces greater exhaust than intake velocity
British Airways was established as an airline on 31 March 1974 by the dissolution of British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA)
British Caledonian weas taken over by British Airways in 1988
International airplane markings. B – China, C – Canada, D – Germany, F – France, G – United Kingdom, I – Italy, N – USA, P – North Korea, Z – Zimbabwe
Specific impulse – a way to describe the efficiency of rocket and jet engines. It represents the impulse (change in momentum) per unit of propellant
Cobra was the first helicopter gunship
Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of the same name, built by Westland Helicopters. The aircraft differs considerably from the American version, with Rolls-Royce Gnome engines
The Gossamer Albatross was a human-powered aircraft built by American aeronautical engineer Dr. Paul B. MacCready's AeroVironment. In 1979 it completed a successful crossing of the English Channel to win the second Kremer prize. It was piloted by Bryan Allen
Solar Challenger – first solar-powered cross-channel flight, 1981. Designed by Paul MacCready, piloted by Steve Ptacek
First balloon flight in 1783. Passengers were a sheep, a duck and a rooster
Marie Thible was the first woman to fly, in a balloon in 1784
Cloud hopper balloon has no basket
Roziere balloon is a type of hybrid balloon that has separate chambers for a non-heated lifting gas (such as hydrogen or helium) as well as a heated lifting gas (as used in a hot air balloon)
Blanchard and Jeffries crossed the English Channel in a balloon in 1785
In 1960 Joe Kittinger took a helium balloon (Excelsior III) to the edge of space and parachuted back to earth
Double Eagle II, piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman, became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1978 in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours 6 minutes after leaving Presque Isle, Maine
Leo Dickinson flew over Everest in a balloon in 1991
Between 1995 and 1998 Richard Branson, Per Lindstrand and Steve Fossett made attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon. In late 1998 they made a record-breaking flight from Morocco to Hawaii but were unable to complete a global flight before Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in Breitling Orbiter 3 in March 1999
Road
The first speed limit was introduced in Britain in 1865. The limit was 2 mph in town and 4 mph in the country
First traffic lights were installed outside Houses of Parliament in 1868
Britain’s first automatic traffic lights were erected in Piccadilly Circus in 1926
Tax disc introduced in 1921
A speed limit of 30 mph in urban areas was re-introduced by the Road Traffic Act 1934 and speedometers were made compulsory in 1937
The first parking meter in Britain went up in Grosvenor Square, near the US Embassy in London, in 1958
70mph speed limit introduced in 1965
First bus lane was in Wandsworth in 1977
Front seat belts became compulsory in UK in 1983
Rear seat belts became compulsory in UK in 1991
Wheel clamping introduced in London in 1986
London to Brighton Veteran Car Run was first run in 1896. It was a celebration of the recently passed Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 which removed the requirement to have an escort with a red flag in front of the car
RAC was founded as the "Associate Section" of the Royal Automobile Club in 1901
The Automobile Association (The AA) was founded in 1905 to help motorists avoid police speed traps
Green Flag was formed in 1971 (as the National Breakdown Recovery Club). It is part of the Direct Line Group
The first caliper-type automobile disc brake was patented by Frederick Lanchester in his Birmingham factory in 1902 and used successfully on Lanchester cars
The Swallow Sidecar Company changed its name to Jaguar in 1922
Rolls Royce figurehead is known as Spirit of Ecstasy. Designed by Charles Robinson Sykes. The model for the emblem was Eleanor Thornton
Veteran car – pre 1905
Vintage car – built between 1918 and 1930
Classic cars – built between 1925 and 1948
Q – Registration used when there is a doubt over the age of a vehicle
V – Registration plate of Vatican City
Rolls Royce Silver Ghost was produced from 1906 to 1926
Lord Montagu is head of National Motor Museum
Porsche badge includes Coat of arms of Stuttgart
Richard Noble was holder of the land speed record between 1983 and 1997
Andy Green is the current holder of the World Land speed record, and the first person to break the sound barrier on land. In 1997 in ThrustSSC he beat the previous record in Black Rock Desert, USA, reaching a speed of 714 mph. On 15 October 1997, 50 years and 1 day after the sound barrier was broken in aerial flight by Chuck Yeager, Green reached 763 mph, the first supersonic record
Andy Green is now working with Richard Noble again on their new record attempt to break the 1,000 miles per hour mark with Bloodhound SSC
The Gatso speed camera was invented by Maurice Gatsonides, a former Dutch rally
and racing driver. Introduced in 1992
Lamborghini is owned by Audi, which is owned by Volkswagen
National Motorcycle Museum is in Solihull
Phoenix Group paid BMW £10 for MG Rover – John Towers, Nick Stephenson, John Edwards and Peter Beale. Kevin Howe became the fifth member
The Pontiac brand was introduced by General Motors in 1926 as the 'companion' marque to GM's Oakland Motor Car line. The Pontiac name was first used in 1906 by the Pontiac Spring & Wagon Works and linked to Chief Pontiac who led an unsuccessful uprising against the British
Black cabs are made by London Taxis International, based in Coventry
Henry Ford set a land speed record in 1904 in his own car
Gianni became president of Fiat in 1966. Fiat is now part of fiat Chrysler Automobiles
Ford Bronco was an SUV produced from 1966 through 1996
Maserati was established in 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by Fiat since 1993
Opel cars have a lightning bolt symbol. Founded in 1863 by Adam Opel
Griffin symbol is on the Vauxhall badge
D750 – form for a driving license
V5C – log book
VT20 – MOT certificate
VT30 – MOT failure form
Car horns banned between 11:30 pm and 7am
Lotus logo has ACBC – Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman
GM has invested $1 billion in the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid whose technology will arrive in the UK in the Vauxhall Ampera, a green version of the Astra
Tesla Roadster is an all-electric sports car produced by the electric car firm Tesla Motors
The first generation Range Rover, the Range Rover Classic was produced between 1970 and 1996
Fiat 500 was known as the Topolino
Jowett Javelin was produced from 1947 to 1953 by Jowett Cars Ltd of Idle, near Bradford
Giovanni Michelotti designed models for Triumph such as the Herald, Spitfire, GT6, TR4, 2000, 1300, Stag, and Dolomite
Isetta was one of the most successful microcars produced in the post-World War II years. Although the project originated in Italy, it was built in a number of different countries, including Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Because of its egg shape and bubble-like windows, it became known as a bubble car
Ariel Atom is a high performance sports car made by the Ariel Motor Company based in Somerset
Terrafugia Transition is the first road-legal flying car
Ford Model T was the first car to achieve one million, five million, and ten million units sold. Produced from 1908 to 1927
Volkswagen Beetle was the first car to achieve twenty million units sold. First produced in 1938
In 1997 the Toyota Corolla became the best selling nameplate in the world, with over 40 million units sold by 2013
Sinclair C5 was powered by a washing-machine motor. Launched in 1985
AMG is a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz car company specializing in high-performance luxury cars
Land Rover was launched by Rover in 1948
Active or adaptive suspension is an automotive technology that controls the vertical movement of the wheels with an onboard system rather than the movement being determined entirely by the road surface
The first sedan car was the 1899 Renault Voiturette Type B
Motor Show moved to NEC in 1978
DeLorean Motor Company (DMC) was formed in 1975. It is remembered for the one model it produced – the distinctive stainless steel DeLorean DMC-12 sports car featuring gull-wing doors – and for its brief and turbulent history, ending in receivership and bankruptcy in 1982
Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert designed many of the road signs in the UK
Peel P50 is a three-wheeled microcar originally manufactured from 1962 to 1965 by the Peel Engineering Company on the Isle of Man. It currently holds the record for the smallest automobile to go into production
Pagani Huayra is an Italian mid-engined sports car produced by Pagani. Succeeding the company's previous offering, the Zonda, it will cost €849,000
Morris Minor debuted at the Earls Court Motor Show in1948. Designed by Alec Issigonis, more than 1.3 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1972
Lotus-Ford Twin Cam is an engine developed for the 1962 Lotus Elan
Pininfarina coachbuilding company was founded by Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina
Hindustan Ambassador has been in production since 1958 and is based on the Morris Oxford
Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd was established in 1985
Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd started in 1986. Produces more cars in UK than any other manufacturer
Toyota Manufacturing UK was established in 1989 in Derby
Ivan Hirst was a British Army officer and engineer who was instrumental in reviving Volkswagen from a single factory in Wolfsburg into a major postwar automotive manufacturer
Standard Vanguard was produced by the Standard Motor Company in Coventry from 1947 to 1963
Golf Mk1 was sold as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico in 1974
Austin miniMetro was launched in 1980. It was re-badged as the Rover 100 series in 1995
Porsche 911 introduced in 1963
Manumatic refers to an automatic transmission that allows convenient driver control of gear selection, e.g. Porsche Tiptronic gearbox
Lamborghini headquarters are located in Sant'Agata Bolognese
Proton and Perodua cars are from Malaysia
The Wartburg 353 was sold as the Wartburg Knight in several countries
In a reciprocating piston engine, the connecting rod connects the piston to the crank or crankshaft
Seat belts were invented by George Cayley. Nils Bohlin, the Swedish engineer and inventor responsible for the three-point lap and shoulder seatbelt, installed seat belts in Volvo cars
First three-point seat belt introduced by Volvo in 1959
BMC formed by a merger of Austin and Morris
In the UK a moped must have an engine capacity not greater than 50 cc and a maximum design speed of no more than 45 km/h (28 mph)
Brough Motorcycles were made by William E. Brough in Nottingham from 1908 to 1926
Vincent Motorcycles was a British manufacturer of motorcycles from 1928 to 1955. Their 1948 Black Shadow was at the time the world's fastest production motorcycle
Honda Fireblade – a family of sport motorcycles manufactured by Honda since 1992
Fuel cell buses run on hydrogen
Routemaster bus was developed during the years 1947 to 1956 by a team directed by A. A.M. Durrant and Colin Curtis, with vehicle styling by Douglas Scott
New Bus for London (Routemaster) built by Wrightbus in Northern Ireland
Rail
Puffing Billy built by William Hedley in 1813, for use at Wylam colliery
In September 1825 the works at Forth Street, Newcastle completed the first locomotive for the new railway: originally named Active, it was soon renamed Locomotion. It was followed by Hope, Diligence and Black Diamond. The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on 27 September 1825. Driven by George Stephenson, Locomotion hauled an 80-ton load of coal and flour nine miles in two hours
Rocket reached 29 mph at Rainhill Trails in 1829, winning the £500 prize
Novelty, Cycloped, Perseverance, Sans Pareil were the other engines at Rainhill Trials
Rocket was the only locomotive to complete the Rainhill Trials
Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) was the world's first twin-track inter-city passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and ticketed. Trains were hauled by steam locomotives between the two towns. Chat Moss threatened the completion of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, until George Stephenson succeeded in constructing a railway line through it; his solution was to ‘float’ the line on a wood and stone foundation
The opening ceremony of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), on 15 September 1830 was marred by the death of William Huskisson, the Member of Parliament for Liverpool, who was struck and killed by Rocket
Planet was a steam locomotive built in 1830 by Robert Stephenson and Company for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It was the first locomotive to employ inside cylinders
Great Western Railway was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835, and ran its first trains three years later. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel who chose a broad gauge of 7 ft 0+1⁄4 in
Standard gauge (also named the Stephenson gauge after George Stephenson, or Normal gauge) is a widely-used rail gauge. Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge. The distance between the inside edges of the rails of standard gauge track is 1.435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Ffestiniog Railway line was constructed between 1833 and 1836 to transport slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog to the coastal town of Porthmadog, where it was loaded onto ships. It is the oldest independent railway company in the world
In 1833 Robert Stephenson was given the post of Chief Engineer for the London and Birmingham Railway
Birmingham Curzon Street railway station was used by scheduled passenger trains between 1838 and 1854
Edmondson railway ticket was a system for recording the payment of railway fares and accounting for the revenue raised, introduced in the 1840s
George Hudson was known as “The Railway King”
Railway Mania reached its zenith in 1846, when 272 Acts of Parliament were passed, setting up new railway companies, and the proposed routes totaled 9500 miles of new railway
Dee Bridge disaster was in1847. The bridge was designed by Robert Stephenson
Daniel Gooch was first Chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1837 to 1864 and Chairman from 1865 to 1889. He designed the GWR Firefly Class of 2-2-2 express passenger locomotives introduced in 1840
WH Smith took advantage of the railway boom by opening newsstands on railway stations, starting with Euston in 1848
Railway developed to Holyhead in 1850 to cut time to get mail to Ireland after Act of Union in 1801
St Pancras station was designed by WH Barlow, built by the Midland Railway, and opened in 1868
Pullman restaurant cars were introduced in UK in 1879
Tay Bridge disaster was in 1879. 75 people were killed. Designed by Thomas Bouch. Disaster caused by weaknesses in cast iron in strong winds
Orient Express ran from 1883 to 2009 and is not to be confused with the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express train service, which continues to run. Orient Express blown up in Hungary in 1931
Armagh rail disaster was in 1889. 80 people were killed
Snowdon Mountain Railway (SMR) is a narrow gauge rack and pinion mountain railway, opened in 1896. The SMR is the only public rack and pinion railway in the United Kingdom
Volk's Electric Railway is the oldest operating electric railway in the world. It is a narrow gauge railway that runs along a length of the seafront of Brighton. It was built by Magnus Volk, the first section being completed in 1883
George Churchward was Chief mechanical engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1902 to 1922
City of Truro was designed by George Churchward and built at the GWR Swindon Works in 1903. It was reputedly the first steam locomotive in Europe to travel in excess of 100 mph, and is believed to have reached a speed of 102.3 mph whilst hauling the ‘Ocean Mails’ special from Plymouth to London Paddington in 1904
Britain’s first national rail strike in 1911 was part of ‘The Great Unrest’ a huge upsurge of worker militancy between 1910–14, which created the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR), the first industrial union in 1913 and the ‘Triple Alliance’ of miners, dockers and railworkers
In 1911, the railway strike in Llanelli was brutally suppressed by the police, and two men were shot dead by troops of the Worcester Regiment
The LNER Class A3 Pacific locomotive number 4472 Flying Scotsman was built in 1923 for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Doncaster Works to a design of Sir Nigel Gresley. First steam locomotive to be officially authenticated at reaching 100 mph, on 30 November 1934
The Fleche d’Or (Golden Arrow) was introduced in 1926 as an all-first-class Pullman service between Paris and Calais
Number 4468 Mallard is a London and North Eastern Railway Class A4 Pacific steam locomotive designed by Nigel Gresley and built at Doncaster in 1938
Mallard is the holder of the world speed record for steam locomotives at 126 mph. The record was achieved in1938 on the slight downward grade of Stoke Bank south of Grantham on the East Coast Main Line
The GWR was the only company to keep its identity through the Railways Act 1921, which amalgamated it with the remaining independent railways within its territory, and it was finally wound up at the end of 1947 when it was nationalized and became the Western Region of British Railways
Evening Star was the last steam locomotive to be built, in Swindon in 1960
British Railways, which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalization of the ‘Big Four’ British railway companies – Great Western Railway (GWR), London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), Southern Railway (SR)
Deltics were diesel locomotives used on the UK East Coast rail network in the 1960s and 1970s
1T57 'Fifteen Guinea Special' was the last main-line passenger train to be hauled by steam locomotive power on British Railways on 11 August 1968 before the introduction of a steam ban. It was a special rail tour excursion train organized for the occasion from Liverpool via Manchester to Carlisle and back
The Reshaping of British Railways, which was published in 1963 by Richard Beeching, recommended the closure of 2,363 stations and the complete withdrawal of services from 5,000 miles of railway, equivalent to 55% of all stations and 30% of route miles
Bullet train introduced in Japan in 1964
Advanced Passenger Train (APT) was an experimental tilting high speed train developed by British Rail during the 1970s and early 1980s
Peter Parker was chairman of the British Railways Board from 1976 to 1983
British Rail's 125 train, designed by Kenneth Grange, first came into service in 1976
Train crashes – Moorgate (1975), Gaisal in India (1999), ‘Sunset Limited’ LA to Miami crashed at Mobile (1993)
The ICE (InterCityExpress) accident near Eschede that happened in 1998 was a severe railway accident and the worst ever to involve a high-speed train, as well as the worst railway accident since modern Germany's foundation in 1949. Crash on Munich to Hamburg train. Hit a bridge. 101 passengers killed
Eurostar started in 1994
Whyte notation is a system of describing steam locomotive wheel arrangements –
4-4-2 wheel arrangement – Atlantic class (trains)
4-6-2 wheel arrangement – Pacific class (trains)
Japan and Germany have Maglev systems
OO gauge model railways are the most popular standard in the United Kingdom, being one of several 4mm scale standards (4 mm to the foot (305 mm), or 1:76.2)
Nigel Gresley built A4 Pacific locomotives with wedge-shaped fronts to lower wind resistance
Orient Express originally ran between Paris and Istanbul
Heathrow Express opened in 1998
Heathrow Connect follows the same route as the Heathrow Express service but serves intermediate stations on its route
Railtrack took control of the railway infrastructure in 1994 and was floated on the Stock Exchange in 1996. In 2002, after experiencing major financial difficulty, most of Railtrack's operations were transferred to the state-controlled non-profit company Network Rail
Eastern & Oriental Express runs between Bangkok and Singapore
A TGV test train set the record for the fastest wheeled train, reaching 574 km/h (357 mph) in 2007
AGV is an Alstom train intended as the successor to France’s TGV high-speed trains; the name stands for automotrice à grande vitesse, or ‘high-speed self-propelled carriage’
Hitachi Super Express trains will run on Great Western Main Line
ERTMS – European Rail Traffic Management System
European Train Control System (ETCS) is a signalling, control and train protection system designed to replace the many incompatible safety systems currently used by European railways, especially on high-speed lines
The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway is a 1 ft 3 in gauge light railway. Used by the military in World War II
The Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit railroad linking Manhattan, New York with New Jersey
Ribble Steam Railway is a standard gauge preserved railway. It was opened to the public in 2005, running along Preston Docks
The North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) carries more passengers than any other heritage railway in the UK and may be the busiest steam heritage line in the world, carrying around 350,000 passengers in 2009. The 18-mile railway is the second-longest standard gauge heritage line in the United Kingdom and runs across the North York Moors from Pickering to Grosmont
At 22 miles, the West Somerset Railway is the longest privately owned passenger rail line in the country
Ribblehead Viaduct is the longest viaduct on the Settle to Carlisle Railway
Esk Valley Line is the railway line from Middlesbrough to Whitby
Blue train runs between Pretoria and Cape Town
60163 Tornado is a main-line steam locomotive built in Darlington. Completed in 2008, Tornado was the first such locomotive built in the United Kingdom since Evening Star, the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, in 1960
Tornado was built by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust. Tornado was conceived as an evolution of the LNER Peppercorn Class A1 class
Alta Velocidad Espanola (AVE) is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company
TAZARA Railway links the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam with the town of Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia's copper belt.TAZARA was financed and executed by the People's Republic of China
Ada and Phyllis – first pair of Crossrail tunnel boring machines (TBM)
Victoria and Elizabeth – second pair of Crossrail tunnel boring machines
Mary and Sophia – third pair of Crossrail tunnel boring machines
Crossrail line is 118 km in length and due to open in 2018
A new station partly on the site of Curzon Street[ is proposed as the Birmingham terminus for the High Speed 2 railway line
Wuppertal Schwebebahn or Wuppertal Floating Tram is a suspension railway in Wuppertal, Germany. It is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world. Designed by Eugen Langen
Glacier Express is an express train connecting railway stations of the two major mountain resorts of St. Moritz and Zermatt in the Swiss Alps
The Ghan is a passenger train operating between Adelaide, Alice Springs, and Darwin
Samuel Morton Peto built the first railway in Canada, the Grand Trunk Railway
Argentina's two biggest railways were built by the British, for the export of refrigerated meat
Raurimu Spiral is a single-track railway spiral, starting with a horseshoe curve, overcoming a 139 m height difference, in the central North Island of New Zealand
For well over 100 years the Severn Tunnel from Bristol to Newport was the longest mainline railway tunnel within the UK, until the two major High Speed 1 tunnels (London East and West) were opened in 2007 as part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link
Lowestoft, Thurso, Londonderry, Penzance are the extremities of UK railway system
Waverley Line linked Edinburgh and Carlisle, and is being partially rebuilt
Saspan trains run from Moscow to St Petersburg. The design is part of the Siemens Velaro family
Thalys is a high-speed train network built around the line between Paris and Brussels
Gotthard Base Tunnel is a railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland expected to open in 2016. With a route length of 57 km, it will be the world's longest and deepest traffic tunnel and the first flat low-level route through the Alps
Turksib railway (Turkmenistan – Siberia) envisioned by Stalin, opened in 1929
Sea
Mary Rose sank in 1545, and was recovered in 1982. Displayed in the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth alongside HMS Victory and HMS Warrior
HMS Sovereign of the Seas was a 17th century British Royal Navy first-rate ship, later known as just Sovereign and then Royal Sovereign. It was built by Peter Pett
The warship Naseby was built by Peter Pett and launched at Woolwich dockyard in 1655 and originally named in honour of Oliver Cromwell's decisive 1645 victory over the Royalist forces during the English Civil Wars. With the Restoration she was renamed HMS Royal Charles, and served as the ship that brought king Charles II back to England in 1660, captained by Sir Edward Montagu
Cutty Sark was named after a witch in Robert Burns’s poem ‘Tam O’Shanter’. Cutty Sark means ‘short skirt’ in Scots dialect. Only tea clipper still in existence. Renamed to Ferraira, then to Maria do Amparo
Cutty Sark was designed by Hercules Linton and built in 1869 at Dumbarton by the firm of Scott & Linton, for Captain John ‘Jock’ ’White Hat’ Willis expressly to outsail the clipper Thermopylae
Cutty Sark was brought back to UK in 1922. The ship is in the care of the Cutty Sark Trust, whose president is the Duke of Edinburgh. Damaged in a fire in 2007
Cutty Sark is only one of three ships in London on the Core Collection of the National A ship-of-the-line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th century through the mid-19th century, to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear
Copper sheathing was the practice of protecting the under-water hull of a ship or boat through the use of copper plates affixed to the outside of the hull. It was pioneered and developed by the Royal Navy during the 18th century
Galleon – a large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries. Three or four masts
Brigantine – a vessel with two masts, only the forward of which is square rigged
Clipper – a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a square rig
Schooner – a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts. Schooners were first used by the Dutch in the 16th or 17th century, and further developed in North America from the early 18th century
Galleon – a large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries
Brigantine – a vessel with two masts, only the forward of which is square rigged
Historic Ships Register (the nautical equivalent of a Grade 1 Listed Building) – alongside HMS Belfast and SS Robin
SS Robin is the oldest complete steam coaster (a class of steamship that is licensed only for passage in coastal waters) in the world
Launched in 1821, Aaron Manby was the first steamship to be built of iron
Launched in 1839, the Honourable East India Company Nemesis was the first British ocean-going iron warship, and was used it to great effect in the First Opium War in China
Charlotte Dundas is regarded as the world's ‘first practical steamboat’, the first towing steamboat and the boat that demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships. Designed by William Symington. Launched in 1803
The Savannah –was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, in 1819
Demologos was the first steam-powered warship, and launched in 1814. Designed by Robert Fulton, it was later renamed Fulton
SS Great Western was the first wooden steamship to cross the Atlantic regularly. Launched in 1838
SS Great Britain was the first ocean-going ship to have an iron hull and a screw propeller. Launched in 1843. Scuttled in the Falklands, but refloated on a pontoon and towed back to Bristol in 1970
SS Great Eastern was launched in 1859. Laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable. She was broken up for scrap at Rock Ferry in 1889. SS Great Eastern was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers from England to Australia without refuelling
First ocean-going ironclad was La Glorie, constructed in France in 1859
Britain’s first ironclad was HMS Warrior in 1860
Admiral class battleships of the 1880’s – Collingwood, Anson, Camperdown, Howe, Rodney and Benbow
The RRS Discovery was the last wooden three-masted ship to be built in Britain, and was launched in1901. Her first mission was the British National Antarctic Expedition, carrying Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first, successful journey to the Antarctic, known as the Discovery Expedition. Discovery is now the centrepiece of Dundee's visitor attraction Discovery Point
Dreadnought was created by Jackie Fisher in 1905
The sixth HMS Dreadnought of the Royal Navy was a revolutionary battleship which entered service in 1906. So advanced was Dreadnought that her name became a generic term for modern battleships, whilst the ships she made obsolete became known as ‘pre-dreadnoughts’
HMHS (His Majesty’s Hospital Ship) Britannic (1914), the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line, sister ship of RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic, sank in 1916 after hitting a mine in the Aegean with the loss of 30 lives
Thomas Andrews was the shipbuilder in charge of the plans for the ocean liner RMS Titanic and was one of the 1517 people lost in the disaster. Built in Belfast. 70,000 tonnes
Titanic stopped at Cherbourg and Queenstown (Cobh)
SS Californian had warned the Titanic by radio of the pack ice that was the reason Californian had stopped for the night, but was rebuked by Titanic's senior wireless operator, Jack Phillips
RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Olympic served a long and illustrious career (1911 to 1935) and came to be known as ‘Old Reliable’
HMS Argus was the first ship to be used as an aircraft carrier (1918)
HMS Hermes was the first ship to be designed and built as an aircraft carrier (1925)
RMS Mauretania was known as the ‘grand old lady’ and held the Blue Riband from 1907 to 1929
SS Normandie entered service in 1935 as the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat; she is still the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built. US Navy renamed her USS Lafayette
Ark Royal (1937), Illustrious (1939) were aircraft carriers
RMS Queen Elizabeth was launched in 1938. Built by Cunard at Clydebank. Following a fire in Hong Kong in 1972, she was scrapped
The Queen Elizabeth 2 was built by the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders in the John Brown Shipyard in Clydebank. Launched in 1967. Maiden voyage in 1969. Currently in Dubai
Queen Mary was launched in1934. Built by Cunard at Clydebank
Queen Mary was in service from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line. The ship was named after Queen Mary of Teck, the consort of King George V. Permanently berthed in Long Beach, California
Queen Mary carried a record 16,000 troops in a single voyage in World War II
Liberty Ships were designed by William Gibbs, and built by Henry Kaiser. Eighteen American shipyards built 2,751 Liberties between 1941 and 1945
Ark Royal was launched by the Queen in 1950
NS Lenin is a Soviet icebreaker launched in 1957, and is both the world's first nuclear powered surface ship and the first nuclear powered civilian vessel
SS Rotterdam, known as ‘The Grande Dame’, sailed from 1959 until her final retirement in 2000
SS Michelangelo was an Italian ocean liner built in 1965 for Italian Line by Ansaldo Shipyards, Genoa. She was one of the last ships to be built primarily for liner service across the North Atlantic. Her sister ship was the SS Raffaello
SS France was constructed by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard at Saint-Nazaire, France, and put into service in 1962. At the time of her construction she was the longest passenger ship ever built, a record that remained unchallenged until the construction of the 345 m RMS Queen Mary 2 in 2004. France was later purchased by Norwegian Cruise Line in 1979, renamed SS Norway and underwent significant modifications that better suited her for cruising duties. She was sold to be scrapped in 2006
SS United States is the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction, and retains in her retirement the Blue Riband
Nautilus was the first submarine to sail under the North Pole, in 1958
HMS Dreadnought was Britain’s first nuclear submarine, launched in 1960
Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth II (1967) were built at John Brown shipyard, on the River Clyde
HMS Invincible was launched in 1977 and is the seventh ship to carry the name. She saw action in the Falklands War when she was deployed with HMS Hermes, she took over as flagship of the British fleet when Hermes was sold to India
HMS Invincible should have been sold to Australia before the Falklands War
Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the coast of Brittany in 1978
Project 941 or Akula submarine (NATO reporting name: Typhoon) is a type of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine deployed by the Soviet Navy in the 1980s. The Typhoons are the largest class of submarine ever built
Marchioness sank in Thames after colliding with Bow Belle in 1989
USS Kentucky is a United States Navy Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine which has been in commission since 1991
The RMS Queen Mary 2 (QM2) is a Cunard Line ocean liner named after the earlier Cunard liner Queen Mary. At the time of her construction in 2003 by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique, the QM2 was the longest, widest and tallest passenger ship ever built, and at 148,528 gross tons, was also the largest. She lost that last distinction to Royal Caribbean International's 154,407 gross ton Freedom of the Seas in 2006, but QM2 remains the largest ocean liner (as opposed to cruise ship) ever built. QM2 has a bulbous bow. Architect – Steven Payne. Operated by Cunard. Red and black funnel. Built in Saint-Nazaire
USS Ronald Reagan is the largest aircraft carrier in the world. Nimitz class ship
USS Enterprise has eight nuclear reactors. First nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
When launched in 2006 Emma Maersk was the largest container ship ever built
The size of a container ship is defined throughout the world in terms of TEU capacity. The twenty-foot equivalent unit is based on the volume of a 20-foot-long intermodal container (standardized shipping container)
Canberra was used to ferry passengers to Australia for £10
Midget submarine is any submarine less than 150 tons
USS Phoenix became General Belgrano
At least five ships of the United States Navy have borne the name Yorktown, to commemorate the decisive Battle of Yorktown in the American Revolutionary War. The third Yorktown was an aircraft carrier sunk at the battle of Midway
A Supercarrier is a ship belonging to the largest class of aircraft carrier, and generally has a displacement greater than 75,000 tons
The Nimitz-class supercarriers are a line of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in service with the US Navy, and are the largest capital ships in the world
USS George H. W. Bush is the tenth Nimitz class supercarrier of the United States Navy. She is named for former President George H. W. Bush, who was a naval aviator during World War II. George H. W. Bush is to be the final Nimitz class aircraft carrier constructed; her successor will be Gerald R. Ford, the first of a new class
The Resolution-class submarine armed with the Polaris missile was the United Kingdom's primary nuclear deterrent from the late 1960s to 1994, when it was replaced by the Vanguard-class submarine carrying the Trident II
Trident uses four Vanguard-class submarines, carrying 16 Trident II D5 nuclear missiles
The Astute-class submarines are the next generation nuclear Fleet submarines of the Royal Navy. When completed, the boats will comprise the largest nuclear-powered attack submarines the service has fielded. The boats are being constructed by BAE Systems at Barrow-in-Furness. The ships are Astute (launched in 2007), Ambush (launched in 2011), Artful, Audacious, Anson, Agamemnon and Ajax
HMS Belfast is Europe’s largest surviving World War II warship
HMS Vanguard is Britain’s largest ever and last battleship
MS Beluga SkySails is the world's first commercial container cargo ship partially powered by a giant computer-controlled kite, called the SkySails system. It comprises a kite similar to a paraglider of up to 600 square metres in area
Freedom Class is a group of cruise ships for Royal Caribbean International. The first ship of the class, Freedom of the Seas, was the largest passenger ship in the world. Other ships – Liberty of the Seas and Independence of the Seas. Built at Aker Finnyards shipyard in Turku, Finland
MS Oasis of the Seas is an Oasis-class cruise ship in the fleet of Royal Caribbean International. The first of her class, she was joined by her sister ship Allure of the Seas in November 2010. Both vessels cruise the Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She set a new record of carrying over 6,000 passengers. The ship surpasses the Freedom-class cruise ships (also owned by Royal Caribbean) as the world's largest passenger vessel. Built by STX Europe (formerly Aker Yards)
Allure of the Seas is the largest passenger ship ever constructed (50mm longer than Oasis of the Seas)
Royal Princess and Regal Princess are the latest additions to the fleet owned by Princess Cruises, which is owned by Carnival Corporation
Carnival Corporation is the world's largest cruise ship operator, with revenue in 2013 of $15 billion
Cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship with a Ro-Pax (roll on/roll off passenger) ferry
New ferries are box-shaped to provide increased stability
Ulstein X-bow is a newly inverted bow designed to improve handling in rough sea and lower fuel consumption
Bow of USS New York built from steel from the wreckage of the Twin Towers
Cruiser – one of a class of fast warships of medium tonnage with a long cruising radius and less armor and firepower than a battleship
Frigate – a warship, usually of 4,000 to 9,000 displacement tons, that is smaller than a destroyer and used primarily for escort duty
Destroyer – a small fast lightly armored but heavily armed warship
Battleship – any one of a class of warships of the largest size, carrying the greatest number of weapons and clad with the heaviest armour
Union-Castle Line was a prominent British shipping line that operated a fleet of passenger liners and cargo ships between Europe and Africa from 1900 to 1977
Yankee, Delta – NATO classifications for Russian submarines
Rapid transit
The first underground railway operated in London in 1863
Steam locomotives were fully withdrawn from London Underground passenger services in 1961, when British Railways took over the operations of the Metropolitan line between Amersham and Aylesbury
The system serves 270 stations and has 402 km (250 miles) of track, 52% of which is above ground
District Line has the most stations
Finchley to Morden is the longest underground tunnel
District Line opened in 1868
First tunnel under the Thames in 1890
Waterloo and City Line opened in 1898
Jubilee Line was originally called Fleet Line. Only tube line to intersect with all the others
Victoria Line was the first fully-automated underground line, completed in 1968. Opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1969
Down Street is a disused station of the London Underground's Piccadilly line which closed in 1932. During World War II it was used as an air-raid shelter, notably by Winston Churchill and his War Cabinet
The tunnels between Aldwych and Holborn were used to store items from the British Museum, including the Elgin Marbles, during WWII
Aldwych was opened in 1907 with the name Strand, after the street on which it is located, and was the terminus and only station on the short Piccadilly line branch from Holborn. The station closed in 1994
In 1909, Harry Selfridge proposed a subway link from Bond Street station to his new Selfridges store to the west, and the renaming of the station as ‘Selfridges’
Mosaic on Tottenham Court Road tube station Northern line was designed by Eduardo Paolozzi
Arsenal was formerly known as Gillespie Road
Holborn was formerly known as British Museum station
Barbican was formerly known as Aldersgate Street
Mansion House, South Ealing are the only tube stations that contain all the vowels
St John’s Wood is the only tube station sharing no letters with ‘mackerel’
Central London Railway (CLR), also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground tube railway that opened in London in 1900. Today, the CLR's tunnels and stations form the central section of the London Underground's Central line
Tyne and Wear Metro has 60 stations. Opened in 1980. 47 miles of track
Glasgow Subway opened in 1896, and is the third-oldest underground metro system in the world after the London Underground and the Budapest Metro
Paris Metro opened in 1900, during the World Fair (Exposition Universelle). The network's sixteen lines are mostly underground and run to 214 km (133 mi) in length. There are 301 stations
Moscow Metro opened in 1935
SkyTrain is a Vancouver rapid transit railroad system. Uses linear induction motor-driven trains
The RER is a rapid transport system in France serving Paris and its suburbs. The RER is an integration of a modern city-centre subway and a pre-existing set of regional rail lines
Port Authority Trans-Hudson, commonly abbreviated as PATH, is a rapid transit railroad serving Newark, Harrison, Hoboken, and Jersey City in New Jersey, as well as lower and midtown Manhattan in New York City
Great Orme Tramway is Great Britain's only remaining cable operated street tramway
Metrolink is the Manchester tram system, opened in 1992
Tram service in Nottingham opened in 2004
Supertram is the tram system in Sheffield
Tramlink is a light rail/tram system in south London. It began operation in 2000 as Croydon Tramlink
Britain’s first electric tramway was at Birkenhead in 1860
The first regular electric tram service using pantographs or trolley poles, the Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, went into service in Berlin in 1881
A funicular, also known as a funicular railway, inclined railway, inclined plane, or cliff railway, is a type of self-contained cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles on rails moves them up and down a very steep slope, utilizing one ascending and one descending vehicle to counterbalance each other
The Niesenbahn in the Swiss Kandertal is the longest continuous-cable funicular in Europe
The most famous funicular in Naples was the Mount Vesuvius Funicular (1880–1944), the first railway track in the world built on an active volcano, and destroyed various times by Vesuvius eruptions
Cable cars are distinct from funiculars, where the cars are permanently attached to the cable, and cable railways, which are similar to funiculars, but where the rail vehicles are attached and detached manually
Andrew Smith Hallidie was the promoter of the Clay Street Hill Railroad in San Francisco in 1873. This was the world's first practical cable car system, and Hallidie is often therefore regarded as the inventor of the cable car and father of the present day San Francisco cable car system, although both claims are open to dispute
Lartigue Monorail system was developed by the French engineer Charles Lartigue. The most famous Lartigue railway was the Listowel and Ballybunion Railway in Ireland which opened in 1888
DUWK – amphibious trucks designed by Rod Stevens
First hovercraft was designated the SR-N1 (Saunders-Roe – Nautical One)
First regular hovercraft service was from Rhyl to Moreton, across the Dee estuary, in a Vickers VA-3 run by BEA in 1962
British Hovercraft Corporation was created when the Saunders Roe division of Westland Aircraft and Vickers Supermarine combined in1966 with the intention of creating viable commercial hovercraft. In 1984, the company name was changed to Westland Aerospace
Bluebird – various cars and boats used by Donald and Malcolm Campbell, named after a play by Maurice Maeterlinck
Bluebird K7 is a turbo jet-engined hydroplane with which Donald Campbell set seven world water speed records during the 1950s and 1960s. Campbell lost his life in K7 on 4 January 1967 whilst making a bid to raise the speed record to over 300 miles per hour on Coniston Water. Designed by Ken Norris. Leo Villa was the engineer
Bluebird-Proteus CN7 was a land speed record-breaking car, driven by Donald Campbell, built in 1960 and rebuilt in 1962. Record-breaking attempts at Bonneville and Lake Eyre
Channel Tunnel is 50km (31 miles) long
Ideas for a cross-Channel fixed link appeared as early as 1802
In the 1830s, Aimé Thomé de Gamond, a Frenchman, performed the first geological and hydrographical surveys on the Channel, between Calais and Dover
In 1881, the British railway entrepreneur Sir Edward Watkin and Alexandre Lavalley, a French Suez Canal contractor, were in the Anglo-French Submarine Railway Company that conducted exploratory work on both sides of the Channel
Construction work commenced on both sides of the Channel in 1974, a government-funded project using twin tunnels on either side of a service tunnel, with capability for car shuttle wagons. In 1975 the British government cancelled the project
