Snowtown.

Captain John Ellis leased the land where Snowtown now stands from the early 1840s. His Bumbunga and Barunga runs made him wealthy. He built a large 8 room stone house on Barunga Run in the Hummock Ranges. The Hundred of Boucaut (named after a state Premier) was proclaimed in 1867 and land sold in 1872 and 1875. The town of Snowtown was established in 1878 being named after Mr. Thomas Snow, the secretary of the Governor of the day, Sir William Jervois. The town site was selected to be at the end of the railway being built from Kadina through Bute and Barunga Gap. The railway line reached Snowtown in 1879 providing a great stimulus to development. A flour mill was built almost immediately in Snowtown. The railway meant passengers could travel to Adelaide via Kadina and Port Wakefield. The town’s role as a transport hub was further strengthened when the railway was extended across the plains to the east, through the small settlement of Condowie to the newly created town of Brinkworth. This line was completed in 1894. Next the town of Snowtown got a direct broad gauge connection north to Redhill and south to Bowmans and Adelaide in 1925.

Given the transport links into Snowtown it grew quickly with the usual buildings of a government town – police station, post office, and school. The community erected an institute which opened in 1881 and the churches were all quickly built- the Bible Christian in 1879, the Anglican in 1880, the first Catholic 1882, the first Methodist in 1909, and another community facility, the hospital was built in 1902. (The Lutherans of Snowtown worshiped at Condowie where a Lutheran Church had been built in 1878. A Lutheran Church was not built in Snowtown until 1966). Local businessmen established general stores, the flour mill, a saddler, a hotel, a bakery, a boot maker, and an agricultural implement foundry. City firms established the banks. One more recent bank reached national infamy for being the site of gruesome murders. The population is now around 400. Like many SA towns it has a Goyder designed plan of a town grid, surrounded by parklands, and beyond that suburban lands. Some of the government buildings like the school, the hospital and public facilities like the oval are in the so called parklands belt. The town centre is surrounded by North, South, East and West Terraces. A railway reserve runs through the middle of the town centre.

Snowtown has reliable and reasonable rainfall except in severe drought years. The agriculture of the area was further boosted after World War One when the last part of the Barr Smith Barunga Run was resumed by the state government. This covered all of the hilly parts of the ranges. Returning soldiers were given soldier settler blocks along the top of the ranges. Now these areas are the site of a major wind farm operation. Also after World War One the rail service improved with the opening of the broad gauge line from Redhill via Bowmans to Salisbury and Adelaide. Snowtown then had a direct rail service to Adelaide.

Once this line was completed all the way to Port Pirie in 1937 the interstate trains to Perth started using this route. Snowtown then had several trains daily to and from Adelaide, as well as a daily rail car service to Moonta and to Brinkworth. This rail car service to Moonta and to Brinkworth ceased in 1968. Passenger trains to Port Pirie ceased in the early 1980s after the SA government sold South Australian Railways to the Commonwealth Railways. They rationalised services by stopping all passenger services. Rail freight services had already almost ceased once the SA government passed an act in 1963 removing the necessity for freight to be carried by rail if a rail line existed in a town.

One of the last death knolls for Snowtown as a busy town (but a blessing to many residents) was the opening of the Highway One bypass in 1976. Prior to that time all transport and traffic passed through the middle of the town. More recently the town has become a wind power generator. A New Zealand Company, Trust Power set up the wind farm in 2008. Stage one consists of 47 turbines. When all stages are finished there will be 150 turbines along the Barunga Ranges.

In 1976 a local farmer named Brackstone declared his four hectare property independent of Australia and named it the Province of Bumbunga. This move was in response to the Governor General’s sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. The province issued its own stamps up to 1987 and then Brackstone returned to live in the United Kingdom in 1999.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also known as the "Toy Train", is a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge railway that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal, India. Built between 1879 and 1881, the railway is about 78 kilometres) long. Its elevation level varies from about 100 metres at New Jalpaiguri to about 2,200 metres at Darjeeling. Four modern diesel locomotives handle most of the scheduled services; however the daily Kurseong-Darjeeling return service and the daily tourist trains from Darjeeling to Ghum (India's highest railway station) are handled by the vintage British-built B Class steam locomotives. The railway, along with the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Kalka-Shimla Railway, is listed as the Mountain Railways of India World Heritage Site. The headquarters of the railway is in the town of Kurseong. Operations between Siliguri and Kurseong have been temporarily suspended since 2010 following a Landslide at Tindharia.

HISTORY

A broad gauge railway connected Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Siliguri in 1878. Siliguri, at the base of the Himalayas, was connected to Darjeeling by a cart road (the present day Hill Cart Road) on which "Tonga services" (carriage services) were available. Franklin Prestage, an agent of Eastern Bengal Railway Company approached the government with a proposal of laying a steam tramway from Siliguri to Darjeeling. The proposal was accepted in 1879 following the positive report of a committee formed by Sir Ashley Eden, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. Construction started the same year.

Gillanders Arbuthnot & Co. constructed the railway. The stretch from Siliguri to Kurseong was opened on 23 August 1880, while the official opening of the line up to Darjeeling was on 4 July 1881. Several engineering adjustments were made later in order to ease the gradient of the rails. Despite natural calamities, such as an earthquake in 1897 and a major cyclone in 1899, the DHR continued to improve with new extension lines being built in response to growing passenger and freight traffic. However, the DHR started to face competition from bus services that started operating over the Hill Cart Road, offering a shorter journey time. During World War II, the DHR played a vital role transporting military personnel and supplies to the numerous camps around Ghum and Darjeeling.

After the independence of India, the DHR was absorbed into Indian Railways and became a part of the Northeast Frontier Railway zone in 1958. In 1962, the line was realigned at Siliguri and extended by nearly 6 km to New Jalpaiguri (NJP) to meet the new broad gauge line there. DHR remained closed for 18 months during the hostile period of Gorkhaland Movement in 1988-89.

The line closed in 2011 due to a 6.8 Magnitude earthquake. The line is currently loss-making and in 2015, Rajah Banerjee, a local tea estate owner, has called for privatisation to encourage investment, which was fiercely resisted by unions.

WORLD HERITAGE SITE

DHR was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1999, only the second railway to have this honour bestowed upon it, the first one being Semmering Railway of Austria in 1998. To be nominated as World Heritage site on the World Heritage List, the particular site or property needs to fulfill a certain set of criteria, which are expressed in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and its corresponding Operational Guidelines. The site must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria. The protection, management, authenticity and integrity of properties are also important considerations.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

The DHR is justified by the following criteria:

Criterion ii The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is an outstanding example of the influence of an innovative transportation system on the social and economic development of a multi-cultural region, which was to serve as a model for similar developments in many parts of the world.

Criterion iv The development of railways in the 19th century had a profound influence on social and economic developments in many parts of the world. This process is illustrated in an exceptional and seminal fashion by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGITY

Since 1881, the original route has been retained in a remarkable condition. Only minimal interventions of an evolutionary nature, such as the reduction of loops, have been carried out. Most of the original steam locomotives are still in use. Like Tea and the Ghurka culture, the DHR has become not only an essential feature of the landscape but also an enduring part of the identity of Darjeeling.

MANAGEMENT AND LEGAL STATUS

The DHR and all its movable and immovable assets, including the authentic railway stations, the line, and the track vehicles, belong to the Government of India entrusted to the Ministry of Railways. The Northeast Frontier Railway documented all the elements of the DHR in a comprehensive register. Apart from that, it handles the day-to-day maintenance and management. But moreover, several programs, divisions and departments of the Indian Railways are responsible for operating, maintaining and repairing the DHR. This includes technical as well as non-technical work. In principle, the only two legal protection mechanisms that apply to the conservation of the DHR are the provisions of the 1989 Railway Act and that it is a public property which is state-owned and therefore protected

THE ROUTE

The railway line basically follows the Hill Cart Road which is partially the same as National Highway 55. Usually, the track is simply on the road side. In case of landslides both track and road might be affected. As long parts of the road are flanked with buildings, the railway line often rather resembles urban tramway tracks than an overland line.

To warn residents and car drivers about the approaching train, engines are equipped with very loud horns that even drown horns of Indian trucks and buses. Trains honk almost without pause.

LOOPS AND Z-REVERSE

One of the main difficulties faced by the DHR was the steepness of the climb. Features called loops and Z-Reverses were designed as an integral part of the system at different points along the route to achieve a comfortable gradient for the stretches in between them. When the train moves forwards, reverses and then moves forward again, climbing a slope each time while doing so, it gains height along the side of the hill.

LOCOMOTIVES

CURRENT

STEAM

All the steam locomotives currently in use on the railway are of the "B" Class, a design built by Sharp, Stewart and Company and later the North British Locomotive Company, between 1889 and 1925. A total of 34 were built, but by 2005 only 12 remained on the railway and in use (or under repair).

In 2002, No. 787 was rebuilt with oil firing. This was originally installed to work on the same principle as that used on Nilgiri Mountain Railway No.37395. A diesel-powered generator was fitted to operate the oil burner and an electrically-driven feed pump, and a diesel-powered compressor was fitted to power the braking system. Additionally, the locomotive was fitted with a feedwater heater. The overall result was a dramatic change in the appearance of the locomotive. However, the trials of the locomotive were disappointing and it never entered regular service. In early 2011, it was in Tindharia Works awaiting reconversion to coal-firing.

In March 2001, No.794 was transferred to the Matheran Hill Railway to allow a "Joy Train" (steam-hauled tourist train) to be operated on that railway. It did not, however, enter service there until May 2002.

DIESEL

Four diesel locomotives are in use: Nos. 601-2, 604 and 605 of the NDM6 class transferred from the Matheran Hill Railway.

Past

In 1910 the railway purchased the third Garratt locomotive built, a D Class 0-4-0+0-4-0.

Only one DHR steam locomotive has been taken out of India, No.778 (originally No.19). After many years out of use at the Hesston Steam Railway, it was sold to an enthusiast in the UK and restored to working order. It is now based on a private railway (The Beeches Light Railway) in Oxfordshire but has run on the Ffestiniog Railway, the Launceston Steam Railway and the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway has long been viewed with affection and enthusiasm by travellers to the region and the Earl of Ronaldshay gave the following description of a journey in the early 1920s:

"Siliguri is palpably a place of meeting... The discovery that here the metre gauge system ends and the two foot gauge of the Darjeeling-Himalayan railway begins, confirms what all these things hint at... One steps into a railway carriage which might easily be mistaken for a toy, and the whimsical idea seizes hold of one that one has accidentally stumbled into Lilliput. With a noisy fuss out of all proportion to its size the engine gives a jerk - and starts... No special mechanical device such as a rack is employed - unless, indeed, one can so describe the squat and stolid hill-man who sits perched over the forward buffers of the engine and scatters sand on the rails when the wheels of the engine lose their grip of the metals and race, with the noise of a giant spring running down when the control has been removed. Sometimes we cross our own track after completing the circuit of a cone, at others we zigzag backwards and forwards; but always we climb at a steady gradient - so steady that if one embarks in a trolley at Ghum, the highest point on the line, the initial push supplies all the energy necessary to carry one to the bottom."

The trip up to Darjeeling on railway has changed little since that time, and continues to delight travellers and rail enthusiasts, so much so that it has its own preservation and support group, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society.

Several films have portrayed the railway. Especially popular was the song Mere sapno ki rani from the film Aradhana where the protagonist Rajesh Khanna tries to woo heroine Sharmila Tagore who was riding in the train. Other notable films include Barfi!, Parineeta and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. The Darjeeling Limited, a film directed by Wes Anderson, features a trip by three brothers on a fictional long-distance train based loosely on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

TELEVISION

The BBC made a series of three documentaries dealing with Indian Hill Railways, shown in February 2010. The first film covers the Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway, the second the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the third the Kalka-Shimla Railway. The films were directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly and produced by Gerry Troyna. The series won the UK Royal Television Society Award in June 2010. Wes Anderson's film The Darjeeling Limited also showcases three brothers riding the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

WIKIPEDIA

New Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Disney Edition. Buzz replaces General Veers.

"My lord, I've reached the main power generators. The shield will be down in moments, you may start your landing."

Based on this image.

Edda Ferd, PSV – Hybrid Platform Supply Vessel

The Edda Ferd is a platform supply vessel used to support oil rig operations in the North Sea.

A new build, the Østensjø Edda Ferd has been designed with a focus on quality, safety and efficiency. This is the first integration of a Corvus Energy ESS and Siemens’ BlueDrive PlusC propulsion system.

Name: Edda Ferd

Type: 92.6 m Platform Supply Vessel (PSV)

Duty: North Sea Offshore Drilling Platform Service & Support

Pack: 40 x 6.5kWh

Capacity: 260kWh

Bus Voltage : 888VDC

Partners: Østensjø Rederi, Siemens, Corvus Energy

Edda Ferd, PSV is based in Haugesund, Norway operating in the North Sea.

General

Operator:Østensjø Rederi AS

Built:2013

Builder:Astilleros Gondan. Spain

Yard no.:444

Call sign:LAZO7

Flag:NIS

Port of Registry:Haugesund

IMO no.:9625504

MMSI No.:259161000

Classification:DnV +1A1, SF, E0, OFFSHORE SERVICE VESSEL+, SUPPLY, DK(+), DYNPOS-AUTR, HL(2.8), LFL*, CLEAN DESIGN, NAUT-OSV(A), COMF-V3-C2, OIL REC, DEICE

Safety regulations:NMA, Trade Worldwide within GMDSS A3, Solas 1974/1978, International Convention on Load Lines, Pollution Prevention - MARPOL 1973/1978, INLS Certificate

Dimensions

Length o.a.:92,6 m

Length b.p.:82,2 m

Breadth mld.:20,6 m

Depth mld.:9,0 m

Draft max.:7,2 m

Air draft:32,46m

Tonnage - Deadweight

Deadweight:5122 t

Gross tonnage:4870 GT

Net tonnage:1462 NT

Deck loading capacities

Cargo deck:1038 m2

Deck equipment

Anchor chain:2 x 11 shacles.

Anchor Windlass / Mooring Winch:15,5 tons.

Mooring winch:Forward: 2 x 16 tons Aft: 2 x 10 tons

Deck cranes:Port: 1 x MacGregor SWL1,5 t@ 8m / Starboard: 1 x MacGregor SWL 3,0 t @ 10m

Tugger winches:2 x 15 tons.

Propulsion

General:Battery Hybrid Power Station and 2 x VSP each 2700 kW. 2 x AC asynchronous water-cooled motors each 2700 kW.

Main engines:2 x MAK 6M25C a` 2000kW - 2 x MAK 9M25C a`3000 kW

Fuel type:MDO /MGO

Auxiliaries / Electrical power

Generators:2 x Simens generator 2222 kW / 2 x Simens generator 3333 kW

Emergency generator:Caterpillar Emergency generator 158 kW

Speed / Consumption

Max speed / Consumption:abt. 16,0 knots

Main propellers

Maker:Voith Schneider propellers

Type:2 x 2700 KW

Thrusters

Bow thrusters:2 x 1400 kW FP , electric driven low noise tunnel thrusters. Plus 1 x 800 kW RIM tunnel thruster

Bridge / Manoeuvering

Bridge controls:5 control stands. (forward, 2 x aft, starboard, port)

Loading / Discharging:Simens IAS. Remote monitoring of all tanks including loading/discharging operations and start/stop of all pumps.

Dynamic positioning system

Type:Kongsberg K-Pos.

Approval / Class:DNV DYNPOS-AUTR. IMO Class 2

Reference systems:DPS 112, DPS 132, CyScan, Mini-Radascan

Sensors:3 x Gyro, 3 x Motion Reference Unit, 2 x Wind sensor

ERN number:99,99,99,99

Liquid tank capacities

Marine Gas Oil:1100 m3 included 2 chemical and 4 special prod. tanks connected to fuel system.

POT water:1000 m3

Drill Water/Ballast:2280 m3

Mud:Mud/Brine system 513 m3. Special product system 370 m3. Total 883 m3.

Brine:Brine/mud system 513 m3. Special product system 702 m3. Total 1215 m3

Base oil:Total 702 m3. When using combined tanks.

Methanol:Total 440 m3. When using combined tanks.

Special products LFL/LFL*:720 m3

Drill Cuttings:720 m3

Liquid discharge

Fuel Oil pumps:2 x 150 m3/h- 9 bar

Brine pumps:2 x 100 m3/h – 22.5 bar.

Liquid Mud pumps:2 x 100 m3/h – 24 bar.

Specal products pumps:2 x 100 m3/h – 9 bar.

Drill water pumps:1 x 250 m3/h – 9 bar.

Drill cutting pumps:4 x 40 m3/h – 9 bar.

Fresh water pumps:1 x 250 m3/h – 9 bar.

Methanol pumps:2 x 75 m3/h – 9 bar .

Slop system:1 x 20 m3/h

Tank washing system:1 x 30 m3/h

Discharge piping:5"

Bulk tank capasities

Bulk Cement Tanks:4 tanks. Total capacity: 260 m3

Bulk Discharge:2 x 100 t/hr

Navigation equipment

Radar:1 x Furuno FCR-2827 S /ARPA - 1 x Furuno FAR-2837 S / ARPA

Electronic Chart System:2 x TECDIS

Compass:3 x Simrad Gyro GC 80

Autopilot:Simrad AP-70

Echo Sounder:Furuno FE-700

Navtex:Furuno NX-700A

DGPS:Furuno GP-150

AIS:Furuno FA-150

Voyage data recorder:Furuno VR-3000

LRIT:Sailor 6130 LRIT

Log:Furuno DS-80

Communication equipment

General:GMDSS installation in accordance with IMO regulations for vessels operating within Sea Area A3

GMDSS Radio MF/HF Transceivers & DSC:1 x Furuno FS-1575

VHF:2 x GMDSS Furuno FM-8900 / 3 x GMDSS Jotron TR-20 portable / 3 x Sailor 6248

GMDSS EPIRB:1 x Jotron 40 S Mk2 - 1 x Jotron 45 S Mk2

GMDSS SART:2 x Kannad SARTII

UHF:6 x Motorola GM-360 - 6 x Motorola GP-340 ATEX

Sattelite system:1 x Inmarsat / 1 x Iridium

Accommodation

Total no. berths:38 x Beds

Total no. of cabins:27 x Cabins

Single cabins:16 x Single cabins

Double cabins:11 x Double cabins

Office:2 x Offices

Hospital:1 x Hospital

Ventilation/A-C for accommodation:High pressure single-pipe fully redundant ventilation system. Full heating/AC throughout the accommodation

Other:Messroom, Dayrooms, Conferenceroom, Gymnasium,Galley,Dry Provitions,Freezing room, Wardrobes.

Lifesaving / rescue

Approved lifesaving appliances for:40 persons

Liferafts:6 x 25 persons

Rescue/MOB boat:Alusafe 770 Mk2 - Twin installation.

Fire-fighting/foam:Water/Foam pump/ monitors covering cargo deck area

Dutch Barge 22M 1912

Extra Details

LyingSouth Devon

Fuel capacity:200.0 Ltr (44.0 G) Total - 1 Tanks

Water capacity:800.0 Ltr (176.0 G) Total - 1 Tanks

Mechanical

Engine1 X Diesel 355hp

Engine make and modelDoosan L126TI 11.1 Liter (2006)

Engine HoursNot Recorded

Engine Cooled: Indirect

Steering: Wheel

Drive: Shaft

Prop(s): 3 Blade Bronze

Fuel consumption (approx): Not Recorded

Cruising speed (approx): 8 Knots

Max speed (approx): 12 Knots

Dimensions

LOA: 22.00m

Beam: 4.26m

Draft Max: 1.78m

Displacement: 110,000kg (242,550.0lbs)

Storage: On Mooring

Electrical Systems

12 volt battery, 2 batteries charged by: engine, solar panels, shore power, generator

Construction

Construction: Steel

Underwater profile: Other

Finish: 2 Pack Finish

Flat Bottomed hull with concrete ballast and double plated in 6mm steel plate

Water Blasted Hull and 2 Pack Primer and Antifouled Jan 2016

New Anodes Jan 2016

Holding Tank not plumbed

Currently 1 Day tank for fuel

Accommodation

Total # of berths: 5

No. of double berths: 2

No. of single berths: 1

Cabin(s): 3

Handbasin: 1

Heads: 1 Heads (Electric)

not really Vinalhaven, but Hurricane Island was not an option given by the mapping app. In the distance the lights from the three wind-power generators.

人力與風力？

這是我喜歡的作品之一，大船穿過嘉義東石鄉與外傘頂洲中間的蚵田​後，海面豁然開朗，顏色也變回大海應有的藍色，前方雲林縣海邊的​風機在晴空下顯得很亮眼！

Day 9 of the journey of "Si mangavang" boat 2011.

抵達雲林麥寮工業港，蘭嶼大船航行第九天：7/07 星期四，大船從嘉義布袋港出發，到雲林麥寮工業港 (航程約50公里)。

to view all my photos about Si mangavang 2011 蘭嶼大船拜訪台灣.

Mailiao township, Yunlin county, Taiwan

2011/7/7

d19866L

Catching some spring sunshine 66 204 stands on no.2 up reception line in the increasingly unkempt Falkland Yard. Once the hub for the Ayrshire Coalfield train operations the location has fallen on hard times in recent years with first the diesel depot closing then the traincrew depot following it into history. However the yard does cling on in DB Schenker ownership and traffic has been picking up again caused by changes in the world energy market.

The fact that United States power generators have switched big time to burning shale gas which is readily available in North America has forced the US coal market to slash prices so UK power generators have been able to buy coal much cheaper than UK producers can dig it out the ground and more importantly import gas from Europe or North Africa. This means the prospect of many more coal trains for 2013 with Hunterston playing a big part in the upsurge as it can take the largest bulk carriers from North America.

66 204 is working 4S90 08.35 coal empties from Carlisle Kingmoor Yard to New Cumnock Crowbandsgate Coal Terminal. It is booked to recess here between 11.15 and 12.07 for pathing requirements relating to the single line from Newton Junction to Mauchline Junction.

“The façade of Sydney’s Customs House at Circular Quay plays host to the fantastical wonders of ‘Sydney’s Hidden Stories’, where a blue-tongue lizard leads visitors through haunting landscapes of warty witches and wizards, gnomes and cocky cockatoos.

“The lizard is an adventurous protagonist and participants journey with him to marvel at tree-people and fairies, along the way dodging sneaky snakes and battling the cockatoos to finally discover a secret time-travel doorway back to a gnome’s hidden garden.

“At the end of the journey the lizard invites participants to his elaborately detailed and invitingly obscure self-sustainable home. He has a green roof, complete with veggie garden, wind turbine and solar panels; a pedal-powered generator; and a garage with ready-and-waiting snail transportation. There are many other intriguing rooms that fit nicely into the façade of the Customs House, trailing down into roots that show the underground insects that lie below.

“So many wonders, so many hidden stories, to entertain and delight all those who visit. And remember, Customs House actually is the home to the City of Sydney’s main public library….

“Step onto the New Reality Viewing Platform and use Huawei’s latest smartphones and tablets for an amazing augmented reality experience at Customs House.

“Projection Technology and Mapping Design By TDC.”

Microscale NCS base, complete with anti-meteorite defence laser turret, landing strip with warehousing, elevated monorail, power generator and all sorts of goodies.

The tan baseplates are supposed to recall the sand-coloured terrain always shown on the original CS sets' box art, and also because I don't have baseplates in light bluish grey.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also known as the "Toy Train", is a 610 mm narrow gauge railway that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal, India. Built between 1879 and 1881, the railway is about 78 kilometres long. Its elevation level varies from about 100 metres at New Jalpaiguri to about 2,200 metres at Darjeeling. Four modern diesel locomotives handle most of the scheduled services; however the daily Kurseong-Darjeeling return service and the daily tourist trains from Darjeeling to Ghum (India's highest railway station) are handled by the vintage British-built B Class steam locomotives. The railway, along with the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Kalka-Shimla Railway, is listed as the Mountain Railways of India World Heritage Site. The headquarters of the railway is in the town of Kurseong. Operations between Siliguri and Kurseong have been temporarily suspended since 2010 following a Landslide at Tindharia.

HISTORY

A broad gauge railway connected Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Siliguri in 1878. Siliguri, at the base of the Himalayas, was connected to Darjeeling by a cart road (the present day Hill Cart Road) on which "Tonga services" (carriage services) were available. Franklin Prestage, an agent of Eastern Bengal Railway Company approached the government with a proposal of laying a steam tramway from Siliguri to Darjeeling. The proposal was accepted in 1879 following the positive report of a committee formed by Sir Ashley Eden, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. Construction started the same year.

Gillanders Arbuthnot & Co. constructed the railway. The stretch from Siliguri to Kurseong was opened on 23 August 1880, while the official opening of the line up to Darjeeling was on 4 July 1881. Several engineering adjustments were made later in order to ease the gradient of the rails. Despite natural calamities, such as an earthquake in 1897 and a major cyclone in 1899, the DHR continued to improve with new extension lines being built in response to growing passenger and freight traffic. However, the DHR started to face competition from bus services that started operating over the Hill Cart Road, offering a shorter journey time. During World War II, the DHR played a vital role transporting military personnel and supplies to the numerous camps around Ghum and Darjeeling.

After the independence of India, the DHR was absorbed into Indian Railways and became a part of the Northeast Frontier Railway zone in 1958. In 1962, the line was realigned at Siliguri and extended by nearly 6 km to New Jalpaiguri (NJP) to meet the new broad gauge line there. DHR remained closed for 18 months during the hostile period of Gorkhaland Movement in 1988-89.

The line closed in 2011 due to a 6.8 Magnitude earthquake. The line is currently loss-making and in 2015, Rajah Banerjee, a local tea estate owner, has called for privatisation to encourage investment, which was fiercely resisted by unions.

WORLD HERITAGE SITE

DHR was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1999, only the second railway to have this honour bestowed upon it, the first one being Semmering Railway of Austria in 1998. To be nominated as World Heritage site on the World Heritage List, the particular site or property needs to fulfill a certain set of criteria, which are expressed in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and its corresponding Operational Guidelines. The site must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria. The protection, management, authenticity and integrity of properties are also important considerations.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

The DHR is justified by the following criteria:

Criterion II - The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is an outstanding example of the influence of an innovative transportation system on the social and economic development of a multi-cultural region, which was to serve as a model for similar developments in many parts of the world.

Criterion IV - The development of railways in the 19th century had a profound influence on social and economic developments in many parts of the world. This process is illustrated in an exceptional and seminal fashion by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY

Since 1881, the original route has been retained in a remarkable condition. Only minimal interventions of an evolutionary nature, such as the reduction of loops, have been carried out. Most of the original steam locomotives are still in use. Like Tea and the Ghurka culture, the DHR has become not only an essential feature of the landscape but also an enduring part of the identity of Darjeeling.

MANAGEMENT AND LEGAL STATUS

The DHR and all its movable and immovable assets, including the authentic railway stations, the line, and the track vehicles, belong to the Government of India entrusted to the Ministry of Railways. The Northeast Frontier Railway documented all the elements of the DHR in a comprehensive register. Apart from that, it handles the day-to-day maintenance and management. But moreover, several programs, divisions and departments of the Indian Railways are responsible for operating, maintaining and repairing the DHR. This includes technical as well as non-technical work. In principle, the only two legal protection mechanisms that apply to the conservation of the DHR are the provisions of the 1989 Railway Act and that it is a public property which is state-owned and therefore protected.

THE ROUTE

The railway line basically follows the Hill Cart Road which is partially the same as National Highway 55. Usually, the track is simply on the road side. In case of landslides both track and road might be affected. As long parts of the road are flanked with buildings, the railway line often rather resembles urban tramway tracks than an overland line.

To warn residents and car drivers about the approaching train, engines are equipped with very loud horns that even drown horns of Indian trucks and buses. Trains honk almost without pause.

Loops and Z-Reverses (or "zig-zag"s)

One of the main difficulties faced by the DHR was the steepness of the climb. Features called loops and Z-Reverses were designed as an integral part of the system at different points along the route to achieve a comfortable gradient for the stretches in between them. When the train moves forwards, reverses and then moves forward again, climbing a slope each time while doing so, it gains height along the side of the hill.

STATIONS

NEW JALPAIGURI JUNCTION (NJP)

New Jalpaiguri is the railway station which was extended to the south in 1964 to meet the new broad gauge to Assam. Where the two met, New Jalpaiguri was created.

SILIGURI TOWN STATION

Siliguri Town was original southern terminus of the line.

SIIGURI JUNCTION

Siliguri Junction became a major station only when a new metre-gauge line was built to Assam in the early 1950s

SUKNA STATION

This station marks the change in the landscape from the flat plains to the wooded lower slopes of the mountains. The gradient of the railway changes dramatically.

LOOP 1 (now removed)

Loop No.1 was in the woods above Sukna. It was removed after flood damage in 1991. The site is now lost in the forest.

RANGTONG STATION

A short distance above Rangtong there is a water tank. This was a better position for the tank than in the station, both in terms of water supply and distance between other water tanks.

LOOP 2 (now removed)

When Loop 2 was removed in 1942, again following flood damage, a new reverse, No.1, was added, creating the longest reverse run.

REVERSE 1

LOOP 3

Loop No.3 is at Chunbatti. This is now the lowest loop.

REVERSE 2 & 3

Reverses No.2 & 3 are between Chunbatti and Tindharia.

TINDHARIA STATION

This is a major station on the line as below the station is the workshops. There is also an office for the engineers and a large locomotive shed, all on a separate site.

Immediately above the station are three sidings; these were used to inspect the carriage while the locomotive was changed, before the train continued towards Darjeeling.

LOOP 4

Agony Point is the name given to loop No.4. It comes from the shape of the loop which comes to an apex which is the tightest curve on the line.

GAYABARI

REVERSE 6

Reverse No.6 is the last reverse on the climb.

MAHANADI STATION

KURSEONG STATION

There is a shed here and a few sidings adjacent to the main line, but the station proper is a dead end. Up trains must reverse out of the station (across a busy road junction) before they can continue on their climb. It is said that the station was built this way so that the train could enter a secure yard and stay there while the passengers left the train for refreshments.

Above Kurseong station, the railway runs through the bazaar. Trains skirt the front of shops and market stalls on this busy stretch of road.

SONADA STATION

Sonada is a small station which serves town of sonada on Darjeeling Himalayan railway. It is on Siliguri - Darjeeling national highway (NH 55).

JOREBUNGALOW STATION

This is a small location near Darjeeling and a railway station on Darjeeling Himalayan railway. Jorebungalow was store point for tea to Calcutta. This is a strategical place to connect Darjeeling to rest of the country.

GHUM STATION

Ghum, summit of the line and highest station in India. Now includes a museum on the first floor of the station building with larger exhibits in the old goods yard. Once this was the railway station at highest altitude overall and is the highest altitude station for narrow gauge railway.

BATASIA LOOP

The loop is 5 kilometres from Darjeeling, below Ghum. There is also a memorial to the Gorkha soldiers of the Indian Army who sacrificed their lives after the Indian Independence in 1947. From the Batasia Loop one can get a panoramic view of Darjeeling town with the Kanchenjunga and other snowy mountains in the back-drop.

DARJEELING STATION

The farthest reach of the line was to Darjeeling Bazaar, a goods-only line and now lost under the road surface and small buildings.

LOCOMOTIVES

CURRENT

STEAM

All the steam locomotives currently in use on the railway are of the "B" Class, a design built by Sharp, Stewart and Company and later the North British Locomotive Company, between 1889 and 1925. A total of 34 were built, but by 2005 only 12 remained on the railway and in use (or under repair).

In 2002, No. 787 was rebuilt with oil firing. This was originally installed to work on the same principle as that used on Nilgiri Mountain Railway No.37395. A diesel-powered generator was fitted to operate the oil burner and an electrically-driven feed pump, and a diesel-powered compressor was fitted to power the braking system. Additionally, the locomotive was fitted with a feedwater heater. The overall result was a dramatic change in the appearance of the locomotive. However, the trials of the locomotive were disappointing and it never entered regular service. In early 2011, it was in Tindharia Works awaiting reconversion to coal-firing.

In March 2001, No.794 was transferred to the Matheran Hill Railway to allow a "Joy Train" (steam-hauled tourist train) to be operated on that railway. It did not, however, enter service there until May 2002.

DIESEL

Four diesel locomotives are in use: Nos. 601-2, 604 and 605 of the NDM6 class transferred from the Matheran Hill Railway.

PAST

In 1910 the railway purchased the third Garratt locomotive built, a D Class 0-4-0+0-4-0.

Only one DHR steam locomotive has been taken out of India, No.778 (originally No.19). After many years out of use at the Hesston Steam Railway, it was sold to an enthusiast in the UK and restored to working order. It is now based on a private railway (The Beeches Light Railway) in Oxfordshire but has run on the Ffestiniog Railway, the Launceston Steam Railway and the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway has long been viewed with affection and enthusiasm by travellers to the region and the Earl of Ronaldshay gave the following description of a journey in the early 1920s:

"Siliguri is palpably a place of meeting . . The discovery that here the metre gauge system ends and the two foot gauge of the Darjeeling-Himalayan railway begins, confirms what all these things hint at... One steps into a railway carriage which might easily be mistaken for a toy, and the whimsical idea seizes hold of one that one has accidentally stumbled into Lilliput. With a noisy fuss out of all proportion to its size the engine gives a jerk - and starts... No special mechanical device such as a rack is employed - unless, indeed, one can so describe the squat and stolid hill-man who sits perched over the forward buffers of the engine and scatters sand on the rails when the wheels of the engine lose their grip of the metals and race, with the noise of a giant spring running down when the control has been removed.

Sometimes we cross our own track after completing the circuit of a cone, at others we zigzag backwards and forwards; but always we climb at a steady gradient - so steady that if one embarks in a trolley at Ghum, the highest point on the line, the initial push supplies all the energy necessary to carry one to the bottom."

The trip up to Darjeeling on railway has changed little since that time, and continues to delight travellers and rail enthusiasts, so much so that it has its own preservation and support group, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society.

Several films have portrayed the railway. Especially popular was the song Mere sapno ki rani from the film Aradhana where the protagonist Rajesh Khanna tries to woo heroine Sharmila Tagore who was riding in the train. Other notable films include Barfi!, Parineeta and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. The Darjeeling Limited, a film directed by Wes Anderson, features a trip by three brothers on a fictional long-distance train based very loosely on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

TELEVISION

The BBC made a series of three documentaries dealing with Indian Hill Railways, shown in February 2010. The first film covers the Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway, the second the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the third the Kalka-Shimla Railway. The films were directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly and produced by Gerry Troyna. The series won the UK Royal Television Society Award in June 2010. Wes Anderson's film The Darjeeling Limited also showcases three brothers riding the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

WIKIPEDIA

Piction ID: 86217775--Electrical Power Generator Equipment, Photo 5-- -Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---- Digitization of this image made possible by a grant from NEH: NEH and the San Diego Air and Space Museum

This little alien is going to fix a malfunctioning power generator. It's probably those pesky zooblesnorfs again...

This is largest wind farm in Tamil Nadu, along the Pollachi-Pazhani Highway. Electricity generated from this farm determines the power position of Tamil Nadu as it contribute a major share to the total energy requirement.

The place is Anthiyur, near Udumalpet, Tamil Nadu.

WInd farm, Southern Minnesota.

Southern Minnesota is home to thousands of wind powered generators.

I love the landscape of this mountain because of blue sky, grassland, and plus many wind generators there. Over half of nearby Gangneung City's electricity consumption comes from this power generators. Quite environmental-friendly and ecological.

Actually, this is Asia's largest green pasture on a plateau. This ancient and vast meadow is where milking cows feed. The view from the plateau is remarkable as well. If you go up to Daegwallyeong Observatory early in the morning, you can witness the spectacular sunrise from the East Sea beyond the peaks of Mt. Odaesan.

Location: San 1-107, Hoenggye 2-ri, Doam-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do

Union Pacific 1943(SD70AH) 'Spirit of the Union Pacific' and 8003(AC45CCTE) Leading a 21 Car Officer Special for Bush Funeral Train Eastbound on the Omaha Main of the UP KC Metro Sub seen here from the Market Street Crossing North of Woodswether Road in the West Bottoms in Kansas City, Kansas.

Video: youtu.be/CZ8r0m5Zkz0

Car List:

Kenefick UPP 119 Business Car

Walter Dean UPP 9005 Dome Lounge

City of Denver UPP 5011 Diner Lounge

Portola UPP 1610 Deluxe Sleeper

Overland UPP 302 Diner Lounge

Harriman UPP 9004 Dome Lounge

Lone Star UPP 101 Business Car

Council Bluffs UPP 5769 Baggage Recreation Car

City of San Francisco UPP 9009 Dome Lounge

City of Portland UPP 8008 Dome Diner

UPP 2066 Power/Generator Car

Feather River UPP 114 Business Car

Little Rock UPP 315 Crew Sleeper

City of Los Angeles UPP 4808 Diner

Omaha UPP 200 Deluxe Sleeper

Green River UPP 1602 Deluxe Sleeper

Lake Forest UPP 412 Deluxe Sleeper

Lake Bluff UPP 413 Deluxe Sleeper

Powder River UPP 1605 Deluxe Sleeper

Columbia River UPP 314 Crew Sleeper

UPP 207 Power/Generator Car

Train: PCBFW1-02

Photo Taken: 12-2-18 at 12:35 pm

Picture ID# 2802

Power generator

Iconic, robust, practical. This is my 3rd version of the iconic ship that has graced the screens, tv shows and in print. I took a step back from my first version and reworked the entire model.

Red 5, Luke's main ship. Stickers from the UCS model and custom ones were used. I may add more later, but that may be for the Gray model version.

Many other x-wing designs have come since my 2016 model as well as new LEGO parts that helped shape this ship.

Like my original design this model features a durable internal structure and frame that allows you to hold the ship in front of the cockpit.

I also included internal components like my previous model to help define the various parts shown in the X-Wing cross sections. Life support, compressors, coils, power converters, power generator, flight computer, repulsorlift, hydraulic lines, communications antenna, sensor computer, primary sensor array, and a functional cargo bay.

The Landing gear was another story. Since my model is a display one I wanted to not have a working rear landing gear until LEGO develops more curved slopes that would help shape the engines. Instead, I used a similar design from my previous model to swap out for landing mode or flight mode. The front landing gear fits snug into the ship.

I am particularly proud that my cockpit design from version 1 found its way back into my latest model with slight modifications to allow the side panels to properly stay together.

Custom parts are used here. I Cut a few curved windows to make the Laser magnetic flashback suppressors. I also cut a ribbed flexible hose to fit inside the cockpit. I took a flat 2x2 tile and drilled a hole inside it to slide the technoic axle through. LEGO currently has a 2x2 round tile with a hole, but I needed a square one.

Brickarms has great monoclips and u-clips that work great for smaller ideas, such as my joystick or holding parts inside the cylinders.

The stand design is great, but I think it would work better if I swap out some parts and have several technique axles run through it and into the x-wing.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also known as the "Toy Train", is a 610 mm narrow gauge railway that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal, India. Built between 1879 and 1881, the railway is about 78 kilometres long. Its elevation level varies from about 100 metres at New Jalpaiguri to about 2,200 metres at Darjeeling. Four modern diesel locomotives handle most of the scheduled services; however the daily Kurseong-Darjeeling return service and the daily tourist trains from Darjeeling to Ghum (India's highest railway station) are handled by the vintage British-built B Class steam locomotives. The railway, along with the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Kalka-Shimla Railway, is listed as the Mountain Railways of India World Heritage Site. The headquarters of the railway is in the town of Kurseong. Operations between Siliguri and Kurseong have been temporarily suspended since 2010 following a Landslide at Tindharia.

HISTORY

A broad gauge railway connected Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Siliguri in 1878. Siliguri, at the base of the Himalayas, was connected to Darjeeling by a cart road (the present day Hill Cart Road) on which "Tonga services" (carriage services) were available. Franklin Prestage, an agent of Eastern Bengal Railway Company approached the government with a proposal of laying a steam tramway from Siliguri to Darjeeling. The proposal was accepted in 1879 following the positive report of a committee formed by Sir Ashley Eden, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. Construction started the same year.

Gillanders Arbuthnot & Co. constructed the railway. The stretch from Siliguri to Kurseong was opened on 23 August 1880, while the official opening of the line up to Darjeeling was on 4 July 1881. Several engineering adjustments were made later in order to ease the gradient of the rails. Despite natural calamities, such as an earthquake in 1897 and a major cyclone in 1899, the DHR continued to improve with new extension lines being built in response to growing passenger and freight traffic. However, the DHR started to face competition from bus services that started operating over the Hill Cart Road, offering a shorter journey time. During World War II, the DHR played a vital role transporting military personnel and supplies to the numerous camps around Ghum and Darjeeling.

After the independence of India, the DHR was absorbed into Indian Railways and became a part of the Northeast Frontier Railway zone in 1958. In 1962, the line was realigned at Siliguri and extended by nearly 6 km to New Jalpaiguri (NJP) to meet the new broad gauge line there. DHR remained closed for 18 months during the hostile period of Gorkhaland Movement in 1988-89.

The line closed in 2011 due to a 6.8 Magnitude earthquake. The line is currently loss-making and in 2015, Rajah Banerjee, a local tea estate owner, has called for privatisation to encourage investment, which was fiercely resisted by unions.

WORLD HERITAGE SITE

DHR was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1999, only the second railway to have this honour bestowed upon it, the first one being Semmering Railway of Austria in 1998. To be nominated as World Heritage site on the World Heritage List, the particular site or property needs to fulfill a certain set of criteria, which are expressed in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and its corresponding Operational Guidelines. The site must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria. The protection, management, authenticity and integrity of properties are also important considerations.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

The DHR is justified by the following criteria:

Criterion II - The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is an outstanding example of the influence of an innovative transportation system on the social and economic development of a multi-cultural region, which was to serve as a model for similar developments in many parts of the world.

Criterion IV - The development of railways in the 19th century had a profound influence on social and economic developments in many parts of the world. This process is illustrated in an exceptional and seminal fashion by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY

Since 1881, the original route has been retained in a remarkable condition. Only minimal interventions of an evolutionary nature, such as the reduction of loops, have been carried out. Most of the original steam locomotives are still in use. Like Tea and the Ghurka culture, the DHR has become not only an essential feature of the landscape but also an enduring part of the identity of Darjeeling.

MANAGEMENT AND LEGAL STATUS

The DHR and all its movable and immovable assets, including the authentic railway stations, the line, and the track vehicles, belong to the Government of India entrusted to the Ministry of Railways. The Northeast Frontier Railway documented all the elements of the DHR in a comprehensive register. Apart from that, it handles the day-to-day maintenance and management. But moreover, several programs, divisions and departments of the Indian Railways are responsible for operating, maintaining and repairing the DHR. This includes technical as well as non-technical work. In principle, the only two legal protection mechanisms that apply to the conservation of the DHR are the provisions of the 1989 Railway Act and that it is a public property which is state-owned and therefore protected.

THE ROUTE

The railway line basically follows the Hill Cart Road which is partially the same as National Highway 55. Usually, the track is simply on the road side. In case of landslides both track and road might be affected. As long parts of the road are flanked with buildings, the railway line often rather resembles urban tramway tracks than an overland line.

To warn residents and car drivers about the approaching train, engines are equipped with very loud horns that even drown horns of Indian trucks and buses. Trains honk almost without pause.

Loops and Z-Reverses (or "zig-zag"s)

One of the main difficulties faced by the DHR was the steepness of the climb. Features called loops and Z-Reverses were designed as an integral part of the system at different points along the route to achieve a comfortable gradient for the stretches in between them. When the train moves forwards, reverses and then moves forward again, climbing a slope each time while doing so, it gains height along the side of the hill.

STATIONS

NEW JALPAIGURI JUNCTION (NJP)

New Jalpaiguri is the railway station which was extended to the south in 1964 to meet the new broad gauge to Assam. Where the two met, New Jalpaiguri was created.

SILIGURI TOWN STATION

Siliguri Town was original southern terminus of the line.

SIIGURI JUNCTION

Siliguri Junction became a major station only when a new metre-gauge line was built to Assam in the early 1950s

SUKNA STATION

This station marks the change in the landscape from the flat plains to the wooded lower slopes of the mountains. The gradient of the railway changes dramatically.

LOOP 1 (now removed)

Loop No.1 was in the woods above Sukna. It was removed after flood damage in 1991. The site is now lost in the forest.

RANGTONG STATION

A short distance above Rangtong there is a water tank. This was a better position for the tank than in the station, both in terms of water supply and distance between other water tanks.

LOOP 2 (now removed)

When Loop 2 was removed in 1942, again following flood damage, a new reverse, No.1, was added, creating the longest reverse run.

REVERSE 1

LOOP 3

Loop No.3 is at Chunbatti. This is now the lowest loop.

REVERSE 2 & 3

Reverses No.2 & 3 are between Chunbatti and Tindharia.

TINDHARIA STATION

This is a major station on the line as below the station is the workshops. There is also an office for the engineers and a large locomotive shed, all on a separate site.

Immediately above the station are three sidings; these were used to inspect the carriage while the locomotive was changed, before the train continued towards Darjeeling.

LOOP 4

Agony Point is the name given to loop No.4. It comes from the shape of the loop which comes to an apex which is the tightest curve on the line.

GAYABARI

REVERSE 6

Reverse No.6 is the last reverse on the climb.

MAHANADI STATION

KURSEONG STATION

There is a shed here and a few sidings adjacent to the main line, but the station proper is a dead end. Up trains must reverse out of the station (across a busy road junction) before they can continue on their climb. It is said that the station was built this way so that the train could enter a secure yard and stay there while the passengers left the train for refreshments.

Above Kurseong station, the railway runs through the bazaar. Trains skirt the front of shops and market stalls on this busy stretch of road.

SONADA STATION

Sonada is a small station which serves town of sonada on Darjeeling Himalayan railway. It is on Siliguri - Darjeeling national highway (NH 55).

JOREBUNGALOW STATION

This is a small location near Darjeeling and a railway station on Darjeeling Himalayan railway. Jorebungalow was store point for tea to Calcutta. This is a strategical place to connect Darjeeling to rest of the country.

GHUM STATION

Ghum, summit of the line and highest station in India. Now includes a museum on the first floor of the station building with larger exhibits in the old goods yard. Once this was the railway station at highest altitude overall and is the highest altitude station for narrow gauge railway.

BATASIA LOOP

The loop is 5 kilometres from Darjeeling, below Ghum. There is also a memorial to the Gorkha soldiers of the Indian Army who sacrificed their lives after the Indian Independence in 1947. From the Batasia Loop one can get a panoramic view of Darjeeling town with the Kanchenjunga and other snowy mountains in the back-drop.

DARJEELING STATION

The farthest reach of the line was to Darjeeling Bazaar, a goods-only line and now lost under the road surface and small buildings.

LOCOMOTIVES

CURRENT

STEAM

All the steam locomotives currently in use on the railway are of the "B" Class, a design built by Sharp, Stewart and Company and later the North British Locomotive Company, between 1889 and 1925. A total of 34 were built, but by 2005 only 12 remained on the railway and in use (or under repair).

In 2002, No. 787 was rebuilt with oil firing. This was originally installed to work on the same principle as that used on Nilgiri Mountain Railway No.37395. A diesel-powered generator was fitted to operate the oil burner and an electrically-driven feed pump, and a diesel-powered compressor was fitted to power the braking system. Additionally, the locomotive was fitted with a feedwater heater. The overall result was a dramatic change in the appearance of the locomotive. However, the trials of the locomotive were disappointing and it never entered regular service. In early 2011, it was in Tindharia Works awaiting reconversion to coal-firing.

In March 2001, No.794 was transferred to the Matheran Hill Railway to allow a "Joy Train" (steam-hauled tourist train) to be operated on that railway. It did not, however, enter service there until May 2002.

DIESEL

Four diesel locomotives are in use: Nos. 601-2, 604 and 605 of the NDM6 class transferred from the Matheran Hill Railway.

PAST

In 1910 the railway purchased the third Garratt locomotive built, a D Class 0-4-0+0-4-0.

Only one DHR steam locomotive has been taken out of India, No.778 (originally No.19). After many years out of use at the Hesston Steam Railway, it was sold to an enthusiast in the UK and restored to working order. It is now based on a private railway (The Beeches Light Railway) in Oxfordshire but has run on the Ffestiniog Railway, the Launceston Steam Railway and the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway has long been viewed with affection and enthusiasm by travellers to the region and the Earl of Ronaldshay gave the following description of a journey in the early 1920s:

"Siliguri is palpably a place of meeting . . The discovery that here the metre gauge system ends and the two foot gauge of the Darjeeling-Himalayan railway begins, confirms what all these things hint at... One steps into a railway carriage which might easily be mistaken for a toy, and the whimsical idea seizes hold of one that one has accidentally stumbled into Lilliput. With a noisy fuss out of all proportion to its size the engine gives a jerk - and starts... No special mechanical device such as a rack is employed - unless, indeed, one can so describe the squat and stolid hill-man who sits perched over the forward buffers of the engine and scatters sand on the rails when the wheels of the engine lose their grip of the metals and race, with the noise of a giant spring running down when the control has been removed.

Sometimes we cross our own track after completing the circuit of a cone, at others we zigzag backwards and forwards; but always we climb at a steady gradient - so steady that if one embarks in a trolley at Ghum, the highest point on the line, the initial push supplies all the energy necessary to carry one to the bottom."

The trip up to Darjeeling on railway has changed little since that time, and continues to delight travellers and rail enthusiasts, so much so that it has its own preservation and support group, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society.

Several films have portrayed the railway. Especially popular was the song Mere sapno ki rani from the film Aradhana where the protagonist Rajesh Khanna tries to woo heroine Sharmila Tagore who was riding in the train. Other notable films include Barfi!, Parineeta and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. The Darjeeling Limited, a film directed by Wes Anderson, features a trip by three brothers on a fictional long-distance train based very loosely on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

TELEVISION

The BBC made a series of three documentaries dealing with Indian Hill Railways, shown in February 2010. The first film covers the Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway, the second the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the third the Kalka-Shimla Railway. The films were directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly and produced by Gerry Troyna. The series won the UK Royal Television Society Award in June 2010. Wes Anderson's film The Darjeeling Limited also showcases three brothers riding the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

WIKIPEDIA

XD16A

I found myself on the Stanford campus last night with my son, and I asked him if he’d like to try to sneak into End Station III. His eyes lit up because he had heard my memories of my last visit, many moons ago, as a grad student:

… the incredibly bizarre "End Station 3" nestled underground in the engineering campus. It's a strange building with no windows and peculiar, yet fetching, warning signs ("no animal experiments in this area"). After going underground a bit, you find yourself on a metal gang plank overlook looking down into a cavernous football-field-sized room with 5-ton cranes overhead on rail tracks, and little people below. (flickr memories)

The entry door that I found propped open 20 years ago was locked and reinforced. I used my phone to email an old dorm mate from that era to see if he might still be inside (he has been continuously working on Gravity Probe B ever since I was a EE PhD neophyte with him) but alas he was out. We drove around the perimeter, checking the doors. And then my son spotted a student entering the building. Bingo. We were in.

It looks just like I remembered it, with a cornucopia of microwave pipes and wires (partially seen here on the bottom right). Last time, I entered on the top right. The three tunnels on the far “S” (south) side lead off to experimental bays, and must be the loci of sundry X-File activities. The building on the bottom left reminds me of the RF-shielded rooms we used at HP for microwave circuit testing.

The animal signs were no longer there, but they do have a new enormous diesel power generator in shiny black. (As an aside, when the new Bio-X building went in, the animal lab is located in the basement, and there are escape tunnels that run under the street and exit to unmarked doors in an underground parking garage.)

P.S. Josh posted some interesting background research and diagrams of End Station III in an earlier discussion.

Iconic, robust, practical. This is my 3rd version of the iconic ship that has graced the screens, tv shows and in print. I took a step back from my first version and reworked the entire model.

Red 5, Luke's main ship. Stickers from the UCS model and custom ones were used. I may add more later, but that may be for the Gray model version.

Many other x-wing designs have come since my 2016 model as well as new LEGO parts that helped shape this ship.

Like my original design this model features a durable internal structure and frame that allows you to hold the ship in front of the cockpit.

I also included internal components like my previous model to help define the various parts shown in the X-Wing cross sections. Life support, compressors, coils, power converters, power generator, flight computer, repulsorlift, hydraulic lines, communications antenna, sensor computer, primary sensor array, and a functional cargo bay.

The Landing gear was another story. Since my model is a display one I wanted to not have a working rear landing gear until LEGO develops more curved slopes that would help shape the engines. Instead, I used a similar design from my previous model to swap out for landing mode or flight mode. The front landing gear fits snug into the ship.

I am particularly proud that my cockpit design from version 1 found its way back into my latest model with slight modifications to allow the side panels to properly stay together.

Custom parts are used here. I Cut a few curved windows to make the Laser magnetic flashback suppressors. I also cut a ribbed flexible hose to fit inside the cockpit. I took a flat 2x2 tile and drilled a hole inside it to slide the technoic axle through. LEGO currently has a 2x2 round tile with a hole, but I needed a square one.

Brickarms has great monoclips and u-clips that work great for smaller ideas, such as my joystick or holding parts inside the cylinders.

The stand design is great, but I think it would work better if I swap out some parts and have several technique axles run through it and into the x-wing.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also known as the "Toy Train", is a 610 mm narrow gauge railway that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal, India. Built between 1879 and 1881, the railway is about 78 kilometres long. Its elevation level varies from about 100 metres at New Jalpaiguri to about 2,200 metres at Darjeeling. Four modern diesel locomotives handle most of the scheduled services; however the daily Kurseong-Darjeeling return service and the daily tourist trains from Darjeeling to Ghum (India's highest railway station) are handled by the vintage British-built B Class steam locomotives. The railway, along with the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Kalka-Shimla Railway, is listed as the Mountain Railways of India World Heritage Site. The headquarters of the railway is in the town of Kurseong. Operations between Siliguri and Kurseong have been temporarily suspended since 2010 following a Landslide at Tindharia.

HISTORY

A broad gauge railway connected Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Siliguri in 1878. Siliguri, at the base of the Himalayas, was connected to Darjeeling by a cart road (the present day Hill Cart Road) on which "Tonga services" (carriage services) were available. Franklin Prestage, an agent of Eastern Bengal Railway Company approached the government with a proposal of laying a steam tramway from Siliguri to Darjeeling. The proposal was accepted in 1879 following the positive report of a committee formed by Sir Ashley Eden, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. Construction started the same year.

Gillanders Arbuthnot & Co. constructed the railway. The stretch from Siliguri to Kurseong was opened on 23 August 1880, while the official opening of the line up to Darjeeling was on 4 July 1881. Several engineering adjustments were made later in order to ease the gradient of the rails. Despite natural calamities, such as an earthquake in 1897 and a major cyclone in 1899, the DHR continued to improve with new extension lines being built in response to growing passenger and freight traffic. However, the DHR started to face competition from bus services that started operating over the Hill Cart Road, offering a shorter journey time. During World War II, the DHR played a vital role transporting military personnel and supplies to the numerous camps around Ghum and Darjeeling.

After the independence of India, the DHR was absorbed into Indian Railways and became a part of the Northeast Frontier Railway zone in 1958. In 1962, the line was realigned at Siliguri and extended by nearly 6 km to New Jalpaiguri (NJP) to meet the new broad gauge line there. DHR remained closed for 18 months during the hostile period of Gorkhaland Movement in 1988-89.

The line closed in 2011 due to a 6.8 Magnitude earthquake. The line is currently loss-making and in 2015, Rajah Banerjee, a local tea estate owner, has called for privatisation to encourage investment, which was fiercely resisted by unions.

WORLD HERITAGE SITE

DHR was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1999, only the second railway to have this honour bestowed upon it, the first one being Semmering Railway of Austria in 1998. To be nominated as World Heritage site on the World Heritage List, the particular site or property needs to fulfill a certain set of criteria, which are expressed in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and its corresponding Operational Guidelines. The site must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria. The protection, management, authenticity and integrity of properties are also important considerations.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

The DHR is justified by the following criteria:

Criterion II - The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is an outstanding example of the influence of an innovative transportation system on the social and economic development of a multi-cultural region, which was to serve as a model for similar developments in many parts of the world.

Criterion IV - The development of railways in the 19th century had a profound influence on social and economic developments in many parts of the world. This process is illustrated in an exceptional and seminal fashion by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY

Since 1881, the original route has been retained in a remarkable condition. Only minimal interventions of an evolutionary nature, such as the reduction of loops, have been carried out. Most of the original steam locomotives are still in use. Like Tea and the Ghurka culture, the DHR has become not only an essential feature of the landscape but also an enduring part of the identity of Darjeeling.

MANAGEMENT AND LEGAL STATUS

The DHR and all its movable and immovable assets, including the authentic railway stations, the line, and the track vehicles, belong to the Government of India entrusted to the Ministry of Railways. The Northeast Frontier Railway documented all the elements of the DHR in a comprehensive register. Apart from that, it handles the day-to-day maintenance and management. But moreover, several programs, divisions and departments of the Indian Railways are responsible for operating, maintaining and repairing the DHR. This includes technical as well as non-technical work. In principle, the only two legal protection mechanisms that apply to the conservation of the DHR are the provisions of the 1989 Railway Act and that it is a public property which is state-owned and therefore protected.

THE ROUTE

The railway line basically follows the Hill Cart Road which is partially the same as National Highway 55. Usually, the track is simply on the road side. In case of landslides both track and road might be affected. As long parts of the road are flanked with buildings, the railway line often rather resembles urban tramway tracks than an overland line.

To warn residents and car drivers about the approaching train, engines are equipped with very loud horns that even drown horns of Indian trucks and buses. Trains honk almost without pause.

Loops and Z-Reverses (or "zig-zag"s)

One of the main difficulties faced by the DHR was the steepness of the climb. Features called loops and Z-Reverses were designed as an integral part of the system at different points along the route to achieve a comfortable gradient for the stretches in between them. When the train moves forwards, reverses and then moves forward again, climbing a slope each time while doing so, it gains height along the side of the hill.

STATIONS

NEW JALPAIGURI JUNCTION (NJP)

New Jalpaiguri is the railway station which was extended to the south in 1964 to meet the new broad gauge to Assam. Where the two met, New Jalpaiguri was created.

SILIGURI TOWN STATION

Siliguri Town was original southern terminus of the line.

SIIGURI JUNCTION

Siliguri Junction became a major station only when a new metre-gauge line was built to Assam in the early 1950s

SUKNA STATION

This station marks the change in the landscape from the flat plains to the wooded lower slopes of the mountains. The gradient of the railway changes dramatically.

LOOP 1 (now removed)

Loop No.1 was in the woods above Sukna. It was removed after flood damage in 1991. The site is now lost in the forest.

RANGTONG STATION

A short distance above Rangtong there is a water tank. This was a better position for the tank than in the station, both in terms of water supply and distance between other water tanks.

LOOP 2 (now removed)

When Loop 2 was removed in 1942, again following flood damage, a new reverse, No.1, was added, creating the longest reverse run.

REVERSE 1

LOOP 3

Loop No.3 is at Chunbatti. This is now the lowest loop.

REVERSE 2 & 3

Reverses No.2 & 3 are between Chunbatti and Tindharia.

TINDHARIA STATION

This is a major station on the line as below the station is the workshops. There is also an office for the engineers and a large locomotive shed, all on a separate site.

Immediately above the station are three sidings; these were used to inspect the carriage while the locomotive was changed, before the train continued towards Darjeeling.

LOOP 4

Agony Point is the name given to loop No.4. It comes from the shape of the loop which comes to an apex which is the tightest curve on the line.

GAYABARI

REVERSE 6

Reverse No.6 is the last reverse on the climb.

MAHANADI STATION

KURSEONG STATION

There is a shed here and a few sidings adjacent to the main line, but the station proper is a dead end. Up trains must reverse out of the station (across a busy road junction) before they can continue on their climb. It is said that the station was built this way so that the train could enter a secure yard and stay there while the passengers left the train for refreshments.

Above Kurseong station, the railway runs through the bazaar. Trains skirt the front of shops and market stalls on this busy stretch of road.

SONADA STATION

Sonada is a small station which serves town of sonada on Darjeeling Himalayan railway. It is on Siliguri - Darjeeling national highway (NH 55).

JOREBUNGALOW STATION

This is a small location near Darjeeling and a railway station on Darjeeling Himalayan railway. Jorebungalow was store point for tea to Calcutta. This is a strategical place to connect Darjeeling to rest of the country.

GHUM STATION

Ghum, summit of the line and highest station in India. Now includes a museum on the first floor of the station building with larger exhibits in the old goods yard. Once this was the railway station at highest altitude overall and is the highest altitude station for narrow gauge railway.

BATASIA LOOP

The loop is 5 kilometres from Darjeeling, below Ghum. There is also a memorial to the Gorkha soldiers of the Indian Army who sacrificed their lives after the Indian Independence in 1947. From the Batasia Loop one can get a panoramic view of Darjeeling town with the Kanchenjunga and other snowy mountains in the back-drop.

DARJEELING STATION

The farthest reach of the line was to Darjeeling Bazaar, a goods-only line and now lost under the road surface and small buildings.

LOCOMOTIVES

CURRENT

STEAM

All the steam locomotives currently in use on the railway are of the "B" Class, a design built by Sharp, Stewart and Company and later the North British Locomotive Company, between 1889 and 1925. A total of 34 were built, but by 2005 only 12 remained on the railway and in use (or under repair).

In 2002, No. 787 was rebuilt with oil firing. This was originally installed to work on the same principle as that used on Nilgiri Mountain Railway No.37395. A diesel-powered generator was fitted to operate the oil burner and an electrically-driven feed pump, and a diesel-powered compressor was fitted to power the braking system. Additionally, the locomotive was fitted with a feedwater heater. The overall result was a dramatic change in the appearance of the locomotive. However, the trials of the locomotive were disappointing and it never entered regular service. In early 2011, it was in Tindharia Works awaiting reconversion to coal-firing.

In March 2001, No.794 was transferred to the Matheran Hill Railway to allow a "Joy Train" (steam-hauled tourist train) to be operated on that railway. It did not, however, enter service there until May 2002.

DIESEL

Four diesel locomotives are in use: Nos. 601-2, 604 and 605 of the NDM6 class transferred from the Matheran Hill Railway.

PAST

In 1910 the railway purchased the third Garratt locomotive built, a D Class 0-4-0+0-4-0.

Only one DHR steam locomotive has been taken out of India, No.778 (originally No.19). After many years out of use at the Hesston Steam Railway, it was sold to an enthusiast in the UK and restored to working order. It is now based on a private railway (The Beeches Light Railway) in Oxfordshire but has run on the Ffestiniog Railway, the Launceston Steam Railway and the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway has long been viewed with affection and enthusiasm by travellers to the region and the Earl of Ronaldshay gave the following description of a journey in the early 1920s:

"Siliguri is palpably a place of meeting . . The discovery that here the metre gauge system ends and the two foot gauge of the Darjeeling-Himalayan railway begins, confirms what all these things hint at... One steps into a railway carriage which might easily be mistaken for a toy, and the whimsical idea seizes hold of one that one has accidentally stumbled into Lilliput. With a noisy fuss out of all proportion to its size the engine gives a jerk - and starts... No special mechanical device such as a rack is employed - unless, indeed, one can so describe the squat and stolid hill-man who sits perched over the forward buffers of the engine and scatters sand on the rails when the wheels of the engine lose their grip of the metals and race, with the noise of a giant spring running down when the control has been removed.

Sometimes we cross our own track after completing the circuit of a cone, at others we zigzag backwards and forwards; but always we climb at a steady gradient - so steady that if one embarks in a trolley at Ghum, the highest point on the line, the initial push supplies all the energy necessary to carry one to the bottom."

The trip up to Darjeeling on railway has changed little since that time, and continues to delight travellers and rail enthusiasts, so much so that it has its own preservation and support group, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society.

Several films have portrayed the railway. Especially popular was the song Mere sapno ki rani from the film Aradhana where the protagonist Rajesh Khanna tries to woo heroine Sharmila Tagore who was riding in the train. Other notable films include Barfi!, Parineeta and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. The Darjeeling Limited, a film directed by Wes Anderson, features a trip by three brothers on a fictional long-distance train based very loosely on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

TELEVISION

The BBC made a series of three documentaries dealing with Indian Hill Railways, shown in February 2010. The first film covers the Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway, the second the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the third the Kalka-Shimla Railway. The films were directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly and produced by Gerry Troyna. The series won the UK Royal Television Society Award in June 2010. Wes Anderson's film The Darjeeling Limited also showcases three brothers riding the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

WIKIPEDIA

The old generator was built in 1925 and supplied power to a couple of farms in the area. Operated until 1973. The generator was rebuilt in 2002. Probably time for another rebuild.

International Military - Technical Forum "ARMY-2017" on August 25, 2017. Live demonstration of Russian Armed Forces equipment at the Alabino Range near Patriot Park outside Moscow. BAZ-69092-021. This truck is produced by the Bryansk Automobile Plant (BAZ). It si used as a towing vehicle for the 5157A power generator and the 63T6A power converter for the S-400 missile system.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also known as the "Toy Train", is a 610 mm narrow gauge railway that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal, India. Built between 1879 and 1881, the railway is about 78 kilometres long. Its elevation level varies from about 100 metres at New Jalpaiguri to about 2,200 metres at Darjeeling. Four modern diesel locomotives handle most of the scheduled services; however the daily Kurseong-Darjeeling return service and the daily tourist trains from Darjeeling to Ghum (India's highest railway station) are handled by the vintage British-built B Class steam locomotives. The railway, along with the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Kalka-Shimla Railway, is listed as the Mountain Railways of India World Heritage Site. The headquarters of the railway is in the town of Kurseong. Operations between Siliguri and Kurseong have been temporarily suspended since 2010 following a Landslide at Tindharia.

HISTORY

A broad gauge railway connected Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Siliguri in 1878. Siliguri, at the base of the Himalayas, was connected to Darjeeling by a cart road (the present day Hill Cart Road) on which "Tonga services" (carriage services) were available. Franklin Prestage, an agent of Eastern Bengal Railway Company approached the government with a proposal of laying a steam tramway from Siliguri to Darjeeling. The proposal was accepted in 1879 following the positive report of a committee formed by Sir Ashley Eden, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. Construction started the same year.

Gillanders Arbuthnot & Co. constructed the railway. The stretch from Siliguri to Kurseong was opened on 23 August 1880, while the official opening of the line up to Darjeeling was on 4 July 1881. Several engineering adjustments were made later in order to ease the gradient of the rails. Despite natural calamities, such as an earthquake in 1897 and a major cyclone in 1899, the DHR continued to improve with new extension lines being built in response to growing passenger and freight traffic. However, the DHR started to face competition from bus services that started operating over the Hill Cart Road, offering a shorter journey time. During World War II, the DHR played a vital role transporting military personnel and supplies to the numerous camps around Ghum and Darjeeling.

After the independence of India, the DHR was absorbed into Indian Railways and became a part of the Northeast Frontier Railway zone in 1958. In 1962, the line was realigned at Siliguri and extended by nearly 6 km to New Jalpaiguri (NJP) to meet the new broad gauge line there. DHR remained closed for 18 months during the hostile period of Gorkhaland Movement in 1988-89.

The line closed in 2011 due to a 6.8 Magnitude earthquake. The line is currently loss-making and in 2015, Rajah Banerjee, a local tea estate owner, has called for privatisation to encourage investment, which was fiercely resisted by unions.

WORLD HERITAGE SITE

DHR was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1999, only the second railway to have this honour bestowed upon it, the first one being Semmering Railway of Austria in 1998. To be nominated as World Heritage site on the World Heritage List, the particular site or property needs to fulfill a certain set of criteria, which are expressed in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and its corresponding Operational Guidelines. The site must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria. The protection, management, authenticity and integrity of properties are also important considerations.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

The DHR is justified by the following criteria:

Criterion II - The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is an outstanding example of the influence of an innovative transportation system on the social and economic development of a multi-cultural region, which was to serve as a model for similar developments in many parts of the world.

Criterion IV - The development of railways in the 19th century had a profound influence on social and economic developments in many parts of the world. This process is illustrated in an exceptional and seminal fashion by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY

Since 1881, the original route has been retained in a remarkable condition. Only minimal interventions of an evolutionary nature, such as the reduction of loops, have been carried out. Most of the original steam locomotives are still in use. Like Tea and the Ghurka culture, the DHR has become not only an essential feature of the landscape but also an enduring part of the identity of Darjeeling.

MANAGEMENT AND LEGAL STATUS

The DHR and all its movable and immovable assets, including the authentic railway stations, the line, and the track vehicles, belong to the Government of India entrusted to the Ministry of Railways. The Northeast Frontier Railway documented all the elements of the DHR in a comprehensive register. Apart from that, it handles the day-to-day maintenance and management. But moreover, several programs, divisions and departments of the Indian Railways are responsible for operating, maintaining and repairing the DHR. This includes technical as well as non-technical work. In principle, the only two legal protection mechanisms that apply to the conservation of the DHR are the provisions of the 1989 Railway Act and that it is a public property which is state-owned and therefore protected.

THE ROUTE

The railway line basically follows the Hill Cart Road which is partially the same as National Highway 55. Usually, the track is simply on the road side. In case of landslides both track and road might be affected. As long parts of the road are flanked with buildings, the railway line often rather resembles urban tramway tracks than an overland line.

To warn residents and car drivers about the approaching train, engines are equipped with very loud horns that even drown horns of Indian trucks and buses. Trains honk almost without pause.

Loops and Z-Reverses (or "zig-zag"s)

One of the main difficulties faced by the DHR was the steepness of the climb. Features called loops and Z-Reverses were designed as an integral part of the system at different points along the route to achieve a comfortable gradient for the stretches in between them. When the train moves forwards, reverses and then moves forward again, climbing a slope each time while doing so, it gains height along the side of the hill.

STATIONS

NEW JALPAIGURI JUNCTION (NJP)

New Jalpaiguri is the railway station which was extended to the south in 1964 to meet the new broad gauge to Assam. Where the two met, New Jalpaiguri was created.

SILIGURI TOWN STATION

Siliguri Town was original southern terminus of the line.

SIIGURI JUNCTION

Siliguri Junction became a major station only when a new metre-gauge line was built to Assam in the early 1950s

SUKNA STATION

This station marks the change in the landscape from the flat plains to the wooded lower slopes of the mountains. The gradient of the railway changes dramatically.

LOOP 1 (now removed)

Loop No.1 was in the woods above Sukna. It was removed after flood damage in 1991. The site is now lost in the forest.

RANGTONG STATION

A short distance above Rangtong there is a water tank. This was a better position for the tank than in the station, both in terms of water supply and distance between other water tanks.

LOOP 2 (now removed)

When Loop 2 was removed in 1942, again following flood damage, a new reverse, No.1, was added, creating the longest reverse run.

REVERSE 1

LOOP 3

Loop No.3 is at Chunbatti. This is now the lowest loop.

REVERSE 2 & 3

Reverses No.2 & 3 are between Chunbatti and Tindharia.

TINDHARIA STATION

This is a major station on the line as below the station is the workshops. There is also an office for the engineers and a large locomotive shed, all on a separate site.

Immediately above the station are three sidings; these were used to inspect the carriage while the locomotive was changed, before the train continued towards Darjeeling.

LOOP 4

Agony Point is the name given to loop No.4. It comes from the shape of the loop which comes to an apex which is the tightest curve on the line.

GAYABARI

REVERSE 6

Reverse No.6 is the last reverse on the climb.

MAHANADI STATION

KURSEONG STATION

There is a shed here and a few sidings adjacent to the main line, but the station proper is a dead end. Up trains must reverse out of the station (across a busy road junction) before they can continue on their climb. It is said that the station was built this way so that the train could enter a secure yard and stay there while the passengers left the train for refreshments.

Above Kurseong station, the railway runs through the bazaar. Trains skirt the front of shops and market stalls on this busy stretch of road.

SONADA STATION

Sonada is a small station which serves town of sonada on Darjeeling Himalayan railway. It is on Siliguri - Darjeeling national highway (NH 55).

JOREBUNGALOW STATION

This is a small location near Darjeeling and a railway station on Darjeeling Himalayan railway. Jorebungalow was store point for tea to Calcutta. This is a strategical place to connect Darjeeling to rest of the country.

GHUM STATION

Ghum, summit of the line and highest station in India. Now includes a museum on the first floor of the station building with larger exhibits in the old goods yard. Once this was the railway station at highest altitude overall and is the highest altitude station for narrow gauge railway.

BATASIA LOOP

The loop is 5 kilometres from Darjeeling, below Ghum. There is also a memorial to the Gorkha soldiers of the Indian Army who sacrificed their lives after the Indian Independence in 1947. From the Batasia Loop one can get a panoramic view of Darjeeling town with the Kanchenjunga and other snowy mountains in the back-drop.

DARJEELING STATION

The farthest reach of the line was to Darjeeling Bazaar, a goods-only line and now lost under the road surface and small buildings.

LOCOMOTIVES

CURRENT

STEAM

All the steam locomotives currently in use on the railway are of the "B" Class, a design built by Sharp, Stewart and Company and later the North British Locomotive Company, between 1889 and 1925. A total of 34 were built, but by 2005 only 12 remained on the railway and in use (or under repair).

In 2002, No. 787 was rebuilt with oil firing. This was originally installed to work on the same principle as that used on Nilgiri Mountain Railway No.37395. A diesel-powered generator was fitted to operate the oil burner and an electrically-driven feed pump, and a diesel-powered compressor was fitted to power the braking system. Additionally, the locomotive was fitted with a feedwater heater. The overall result was a dramatic change in the appearance of the locomotive. However, the trials of the locomotive were disappointing and it never entered regular service. In early 2011, it was in Tindharia Works awaiting reconversion to coal-firing.

In March 2001, No.794 was transferred to the Matheran Hill Railway to allow a "Joy Train" (steam-hauled tourist train) to be operated on that railway. It did not, however, enter service there until May 2002.

DIESEL

Four diesel locomotives are in use: Nos. 601-2, 604 and 605 of the NDM6 class transferred from the Matheran Hill Railway.

PAST

In 1910 the railway purchased the third Garratt locomotive built, a D Class 0-4-0+0-4-0.

Only one DHR steam locomotive has been taken out of India, No.778 (originally No.19). After many years out of use at the Hesston Steam Railway, it was sold to an enthusiast in the UK and restored to working order. It is now based on a private railway (The Beeches Light Railway) in Oxfordshire but has run on the Ffestiniog Railway, the Launceston Steam Railway and the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway has long been viewed with affection and enthusiasm by travellers to the region and the Earl of Ronaldshay gave the following description of a journey in the early 1920s:

"Siliguri is palpably a place of meeting . . The discovery that here the metre gauge system ends and the two foot gauge of the Darjeeling-Himalayan railway begins, confirms what all these things hint at... One steps into a railway carriage which might easily be mistaken for a toy, and the whimsical idea seizes hold of one that one has accidentally stumbled into Lilliput. With a noisy fuss out of all proportion to its size the engine gives a jerk - and starts... No special mechanical device such as a rack is employed - unless, indeed, one can so describe the squat and stolid hill-man who sits perched over the forward buffers of the engine and scatters sand on the rails when the wheels of the engine lose their grip of the metals and race, with the noise of a giant spring running down when the control has been removed.

Sometimes we cross our own track after completing the circuit of a cone, at others we zigzag backwards and forwards; but always we climb at a steady gradient - so steady that if one embarks in a trolley at Ghum, the highest point on the line, the initial push supplies all the energy necessary to carry one to the bottom."

The trip up to Darjeeling on railway has changed little since that time, and continues to delight travellers and rail enthusiasts, so much so that it has its own preservation and support group, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society.

Several films have portrayed the railway. Especially popular was the song Mere sapno ki rani from the film Aradhana where the protagonist Rajesh Khanna tries to woo heroine Sharmila Tagore who was riding in the train. Other notable films include Barfi!, Parineeta and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. The Darjeeling Limited, a film directed by Wes Anderson, features a trip by three brothers on a fictional long-distance train based very loosely on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

TELEVISION

The BBC made a series of three documentaries dealing with Indian Hill Railways, shown in February 2010. The first film covers the Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway, the second the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the third the Kalka-Shimla Railway. The films were directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly and produced by Gerry Troyna. The series won the UK Royal Television Society Award in June 2010. Wes Anderson's film The Darjeeling Limited also showcases three brothers riding the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.

WIKIPEDIA

Iconic, robust, practical. This is my 3rd version of the iconic ship that has graced the screens, tv shows and in print. I took a step back from my first version and reworked the entire model.

Red 5, Luke's main ship. Stickers from the UCS model and custom ones were used. I may add more later, but that may be for the Gray model version.

Many other x-wing designs have come since my 2016 model as well as new LEGO parts that helped shape this ship.

Like my original design this model features a durable internal structure and frame that allows you to hold the ship in front of the cockpit.

I also included internal components like my previous model to help define the various parts shown in the X-Wing cross sections. Life support, compressors, coils, power converters, power generator, flight computer, repulsorlift, hydraulic lines, communications antenna, sensor computer, primary sensor array, and a functional cargo bay.

The Landing gear was another story. Since my model is a display one I wanted to not have a working rear landing gear until LEGO develops more curved slopes that would help shape the engines. Instead, I used a similar design from my previous model to swap out for landing mode or flight mode. The front landing gear fits snug into the ship.

I am particularly proud that my cockpit design from version 1 found its way back into my latest model with slight modifications to allow the side panels to properly stay together.

Custom parts are used here. I Cut a few curved windows to make the Laser magnetic flashback suppressors. I also cut a ribbed flexible hose to fit inside the cockpit. I took a flat 2x2 tile and drilled a hole inside it to slide the technoic axle through. LEGO currently has a 2x2 round tile with a hole, but I needed a square one.

Brickarms has great monoclips and u-clips that work great for smaller ideas, such as my joystick or holding parts inside the cylinders.

The stand design is great, but I think it would work better if I swap out some parts and have several technique axles run through it and into the x-wing.

B2, very nice battery powered generator.

Dear santa, I promise to be good boy so bring me one or two of these for next x-mas, pleeeease....

International Military Technical Forum "ARMY-2017" on August 25, 2017. Live demonstration of Russian Armed Forces equipment at the Alabino Range near Patriot Park outside Moscow. BAZ-69092-021. This truck is produced by the Bryansk Automobile Plant (BAZ). It is used as a towing vehicle for the 5157A power generator and the 63T6A power converter for the S-400 missile system.

One of several ships that the huge wave dumped on land. Another was a ship that is a portable power generator. It had been rented to supplement Aceh’s power needs from somewhere else in the archipelago. When the tsunami hit the captain of the ship apparently tried to navigate or surf the wave. The crew managed to rescue a few people before the ship came to its final resting place on land in the middle of a village smack bang on the front porch of several houses. Now that village has all its electricity needs taken care of.

I have discovered one of the best feelings is a breeze in an upper floor of an abandonment. This view caught my eye because of the wind-powered generators outside the windows.

The brave rebels are standing their ground by the power generator, but one after the other gets hit.

A view of the dam at Tumbleton Lake situated at Cragside House at Rothbury in Northumberland. Cragside House was once the home of William Armstrong (1810-1900), an industrial magnate and founder of the Armstrong Whitworth armaments company. Today, Cragside House and its vast estate is under the care of the National Trust, being acquired for the nation in 1977 and opening to the public in 1979.

The dammed up lake is one of five high-ground man-made lakes created by Armstrong to create a sufficient head of water to generate an everlasting supply of electricity for the main house and other buildings on the estate. Cragside becoming the first hydroelectric power station in the World.

After falling several hundred feet, the force of the water from the lakes above is used to drive a turbine driven generator set situated in a stone built powerhouse further down stream.

To the right of the dam in this view is a 17-metre (56ft) long Archimedes Screw. These are normally used to lift water to a higher level, but in this case the 'screw' has been engineered to work in reverse to the normal principles of an Archimedes Screw, in doing so it produces electricity when driven by water.

Installed in 2014 as part of an upgrade to the existing hydro-power supply, this Archimedes Screw allows water to fall through it from the lakes above, the force of which pushes against the blades of the screw, turning it. The revolving screw in turn drives a generator via a gearbox mounted at the top of the assembly. The electricity generated from this device is capable of producing enough power to light all 350 lights in the house above. This additional water-powered generator can be brought into use at times of high demand.

I'm sitting at my campsite at the north end of the Silver Island Mountains, northeast of Wendover, Utah. The only road here---the Silver Island Mountains Backcountry Byway---is about 50 feet (15 m) in front of me. The calm scene conceals great disappointment--the wild setting was a huge let-down.

The first thing that bothered me about the site was the absence of an entrance station where I could pay a fee to spend the night. This robbed me of the joy of handing my money to a booth attendant or stuffing the cash into a clever self-pay envelope and dropping it into a cute metal tube. It also meant that I could not get a brochure about the area's scenic wonders. A sense of being cared about was missing.

To make matters worse, there were no roads winding through the grounds, so I was denied the pleasure of slowly cruising through the area, examining the possible campsites and picking one that looked inviting. That search invariably produces a scary anticipation about my ability to find a suitable space to camp. Today there was none of that.

Forced to adapt to these shortcomings, I found a barely suitable spot not far from the road. It was a gravelly patch of land large enough for my needs for the night. But parking the car was a chore because it was entirely "free-form"---no curbs, painted lines, or stretch of asphalt to show me where to position my motor vehicle. I crave the structure of such indicators. Not having any guidance for parking the car made me quite agitated.

Nevertheless, after several false moves and verbal expressions of exasperation, I got my car parked. The stresses I had endured suddenly abated, making me acutely aware of the need to answer the call of nature. I looked in vain for signs directing me to the restroom building or outhouse (the former is preferred; the latter tolerated). Not having a campground map was bad enough, but even worse was the utter lack of signage. Thus I had no idea where to go to relieve myself.

For quite a while I wandered around, looking for a private place to take care of business. Finding nothing appropriate and being unable to put up with any more delay, I stood behind a large rock outcropping and liberally sprayed the vegetation, hoping that it would promote growth. Though I felt an overwhelming sense of physical relief, I was in constant fear of being discovered by another camper and reported for urinating in an unapproved spot.

The lack of a restroom building meant I could forget about taking a nice warm shower to rid my body of the dirt and sweat that had built up from my two hours of driving without power steering! The feel of dirty, sweaty skin was most unpleasant. I used baby wipes to clean up---it was a crude way of addressing the problem but nothing to get excited about.

Hunger pangs suddenly became evident, so I stopped whining about a lack of showers and set about preparing dinner. This quickly led to the realization that my campsite lacked a picnic table! Where the heck was I supposed to sit and eat? (At that point I had a brief vision of standing in front of my car, using the hood as a table. This awful idea lowered my morale another notch.) But by sheer co-incidence, I had with me a folding chair, an ice chest, and some tote boxes. While grumbling about the situation I used that equipment to fashion an imitation picnic table. It was an awkward arrangement and certainly did not feel authentic. I almost spilled my dinner in my lap. Ants crawled over the ice chest, the sight of which almost caused me to throw up.

Here I should state for the record that using that camp chair in the wilds makes me uneasy. I am comfortable using it where there is a lack of animal life: parking lots, paved campsites, parking garages, and sidewalks. Those artificial surfaces are safe. But in the wild, there are all sorts of disgusting creatures swarming over the ground or lurking within it, all the while looking for something to bite or sting.

The chair is very low-slung, placing me within striking distance of spiders, snakes, scorpions, and huffalumps. Thus I spend as little time in the chair as possible to avoid such frightful indignities. The sting of a scorpion or the gentle bite of a rattlesnake both have the power to put a damper on anyone’s enjoyment of a road trip.

After dinner in camp I like to unwind by casually observing what's going on around me. The natural world and the social world are my avenues to relaxation. But here I was frustrated by the complete lack of activity of animals or humans. There was not a rustle, a chirp, a rattle, or a moo. Not a single lizard made an appearance. There wasn't even a dog's bark! (The aforementioned ants don't count because they are pests.)

Nor were other campers present. I was forced to sit (or stand) there without the reassuring sounds of clanging pots, shouts of joy or anger, revving of engines, and the stimulating babbling of ill-mannered tourists. The only sounds were that of the breeze caressing the grass and occasional thunder from a distant storm. At one point I was relieved to heard the distant soft rumble of diesel-electric locomotives far to the north. Otherwise it was dead. Relaxation eluded me.

The cumulative stress of these campground disappointments had worn down my spirit. Getting some sleep seemed to be the only thing left to do, so I got ready for bed. This led to another terrible discovery: there was no place designated for pitching a tent. Being a strict follower of rules, I always pitch my tent in a campground's designated area, whether that is a tent pad or certain section of ground covered with well-mowed grass. Without such a place, what was I supposed to do? By this time I was annoyed and frustrated.

Without any instructions for the proper placement of my tent, I gave up in disgust and decided to sleep in my car---even though it reeked of unhygienic counter-culturalism. Setting up my bed inside the car was not without inconvenience but I persevered. To make room, I had to place some of my tote boxes on the hood of my car for the night. Once comfy in my sleeping bag I felt relief at last and thought "Home sweet home."

But my troubles were not behind me---I could not get to sleep. Something was missing and while I twisted and turned in bed I finally realized what it was: there was no soothing hum of a generator to lull me into dreamland. My campground routine involves a dependence on the gentle, relaxing sound of a nearby power generator to enable me to go to sleep. I do not own one so I am dependent on other campers---especially those using energy-hogging recreational vehicles---for this service. This night, though, my customary relaxant was missing. In fact, all sounds were missing. I was forced to endure a level of suffering that I would not wish on my worst enemy.

Somehow, in spite of the awful conditions, I managed to get to sleep in this godforsaken place. Before drifting off I resolved to make my stay as short as possible. The next morning I ate breakfast in a hurry (in my car), packed my gear, and backed my car onto the Byway. Then, in a gesture of vengeful defiance, I popped the clutch, spraying Byway gravel behind me, which created deep ruts in the road that I “forgot” to fill in. It was a gleeful end to my suffering. As I sped away toward civilization, a huge dust cloud was raised, alerting anyone in the area of my dissatisfaction.

It really is a let-down to have to camp in the middle of nowhere for free, all alone, with no services and no other traffic whatsoever, and with near-total silence. What a relief it was to return to asphalt pavement, motels, and the soothing sights and sounds of the city! The publishers of my campground guide will hear from me about this disaster of casual camping.

Joe Tripod, who held my camera for this photo, was unfazed by all my disappointments. He prefers to concentrate on the task at hand (steady support of my photographic apparatus).

Iconic, robust, practical. This is my 3rd version of the iconic ship that has graced the screens, tv shows and in print. I took a step back from my first version and reworked the entire model.

Red 5, Luke's main ship. Stickers from the UCS model and custom ones were used. I may add more later, but that may be for the Gray model version.

Many other x-wing designs have come since my 2016 model as well as new LEGO parts that helped shape this ship.

Like my original design this model features a durable internal structure and frame that allows you to hold the ship in front of the cockpit.

I also included internal components like my previous model to help define the various parts shown in the X-Wing cross sections. Life support, compressors, coils, power converters, power generator, flight computer, repulsorlift, hydraulic lines, communications antenna, sensor computer, primary sensor array, and a functional cargo bay.

The Landing gear was another story. Since my model is a display one I wanted to not have a working rear landing gear until LEGO develops more curved slopes that would help shape the engines. Instead, I used a similar design from my previous model to swap out for landing mode or flight mode. The front landing gear fits snug into the ship.

I am particularly proud that my cockpit design from version 1 found its way back into my latest model with slight modifications to allow the side panels to properly stay together.

Custom parts are used here. I Cut a few curved windows to make the Laser magnetic flashback suppressors. I also cut a ribbed flexible hose to fit inside the cockpit. I took a flat 2x2 tile and drilled a hole inside it to slide the technoic axle through. LEGO currently has a 2x2 round tile with a hole, but I needed a square one.

Brickarms has great monoclips and u-clips that work great for smaller ideas, such as my joystick or holding parts inside the cylinders.

The stand design is great, but I think it would work better if I swap out some parts and have several technique axles run through it and into the x-wing.

After selling his land in Robbinsville, Johnny Hyde moved to Rube Rogers' old farm and built Hyde's Mill in 1850. Since he was the first to employ the creek, his surname was applied, rendering Hyde's Creek.

Also on the same property are a water-powered generator (not pictured, right of frame) and a blacksmith's workshop (not pictured, left of frame).

Single shot.

Iconic, robust, practical. This is my 3rd version of the iconic ship that has graced the screens, tv shows and in print. I took a step back from my first version and reworked the entire model.

Red 5, Luke's main ship. Stickers from the UCS model and custom ones were used. I may add more later, but that may be for the Gray model version.

Many other x-wing designs have come since my 2016 model as well as new LEGO parts that helped shape this ship.

Like my original design this model features a durable internal structure and frame that allows you to hold the ship in front of the cockpit.

I also included internal components like my previous model to help define the various parts shown in the X-Wing cross sections. Life support, compressors, coils, power converters, power generator, flight computer, repulsorlift, hydraulic lines, communications antenna, sensor computer, primary sensor array, and a functional cargo bay.

The Landing gear was another story. Since my model is a display one I wanted to not have a working rear landing gear until LEGO develops more curved slopes that would help shape the engines. Instead, I used a similar design from my previous model to swap out for landing mode or flight mode. The front landing gear fits snug into the ship.

I am particularly proud that my cockpit design from version 1 found its way back into my latest model with slight modifications to allow the side panels to properly stay together.

Custom parts are used here. I Cut a few curved windows to make the Laser magnetic flashback suppressors. I also cut a ribbed flexible hose to fit inside the cockpit. I took a flat 2x2 tile and drilled a hole inside it to slide the technoic axle through. LEGO currently has a 2x2 round tile with a hole, but I needed a square one.

Brickarms has great monoclips and u-clips that work great for smaller ideas, such as my joystick or holding parts inside the cylinders.

The stand design is great, but I think it would work better if I swap out some parts and have several technique axles run through it and into the x-wing.

Command Sgt. Maj. John Sampa, command sergeant major of the Army National Guard, presents a video highlighting the 2020 and 2021 Army National Guard Best Warrior competitions during an award ceremony at the Herbert R. Temple Jr. Army National Guard Readiness Center, Arlington Hall Station, Virginia, on Aug. 16, 2021. Sampa, along with Army Maj. Gen. John Andonie, deputy director of the Army National Guard, recognize winners of the competitions. Army Sgt. William Lukens, a tactical power generator mechanic with the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 208th Area Support Medical Company, came away with top honors in the Soldier of the Year category for the 2021 competition. For the 2020 competition, Army Sgt. Daniel D'Ippolito, an infantryman with the Arizona Army National Guard’s Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 158th Infantry Regiment, and Staff Sgt. Mitchell Scofield, a cavalry scout and instructor at the Mississippi Army National Guard’s Regional Training Institute, were named Soldier and Noncommissioned Officer of the Year for the 2020 competition, respectively. (U.S. National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Erich B. Smith)

Union Pacific 4141(SD70ACe) 'George H. W. Bush' and 9096(SD70AH) Leading a 21 Car Officer Special returning from Bush Funeral Westbound on the Omaha Main of the UP KC Metro Sub seen here from the Market Street Crossing North of Woodswether Road in the West Bottoms in Kansas City, Kansas.

Video: youtu.be/jBRVGBoaLRY

Car List:

UPP 2066 Power/Generator Car

City of Portland UPP 8008 Dome Diner

City of San Francisco UPP 9009 Dome Lounge

Council Bluffs UPP 5769 Baggage Recreation Car

Lone Star UPP 101 Business Car

Harriman UPP 9004 Dome Lounge

Overland UPP 302 Diner Lounge

Portola UPP 1610 Deluxe Sleeper

City of Denver UPP 5011 Diner Lounge

Walter Dean UPP 9005 Dome Lounge

Kenefick UPP 119 Business Car

UPP 207 Power/Generator Car

Columbia River UPP 314 Crew Sleeper

Powder River UPP 1605 Deluxe Sleeper

Lake Bluff UPP 413 Deluxe Sleeper

Lake Forest UPP 412 Deluxe Sleeper

Green River UPP 1602 Deluxe Sleeper

Omaha UPP 200 Deluxe Sleeper

City of Los Angeles UPP 4808 Diner

Little Rock UPP 315 Crew Sleeper

Feather River UPP 114 Business Car

Train: PVMCB2-06

Photo Taken: 12-8-18 at 10:30 am

Picture ID# 3282

Rambler Six and V8

Your Rambler Six and the Rambler V8 tend to be more advanced sized cars that had been created and also advertised simply by American Power generators Company (AMC) by 1956 to be able to 1960.

Launched in 15 12 1955, this 1956 type 12 months Rambler Six ushered the “new...

i0.wp.com/www.autocars.asia/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Ra...

www.autocars.asia/rambler-six-and-v8/

70000 Britannia at Pooley Green Crossing

Tuesday 23 July 2024

© Copyright Steve Guess MMXXIV

Iconic, robust, practical. This is my 3rd version of the iconic ship that has graced the screens, tv shows and in print. I took a step back from my first version and reworked the entire model.

Red 5, Luke's main ship. Stickers from the UCS model and custom ones were used. I may add more later, but that may be for the Gray model version.

Many other x-wing designs have come since my 2016 model as well as new LEGO parts that helped shape this ship.

Like my original design this model features a durable internal structure and frame that allows you to hold the ship in front of the cockpit.

I also included internal components like my previous model to help define the various parts shown in the X-Wing cross sections. Life support, compressors, coils, power converters, power generator, flight computer, repulsorlift, hydraulic lines, communications antenna, sensor computer, primary sensor array, and a functional cargo bay.

The Landing gear was another story. Since my model is a display one I wanted to not have a working rear landing gear until LEGO develops more curved slopes that would help shape the engines. Instead, I used a similar design from my previous model to swap out for landing mode or flight mode. The front landing gear fits snug into the ship.

I am particularly proud that my cockpit design from version 1 found its way back into my latest model with slight modifications to allow the side panels to properly stay together.

Custom parts are used here. I Cut a few curved windows to make the Laser magnetic flashback suppressors. I also cut a ribbed flexible hose to fit inside the cockpit. I took a flat 2x2 tile and drilled a hole inside it to slide the technoic axle through. LEGO currently has a 2x2 round tile with a hole, but I needed a square one.

Brickarms has great monoclips and u-clips that work great for smaller ideas, such as my joystick or holding parts inside the cylinders.

The stand design is great, but I think it would work better if I swap out some parts and have several technique axles run through it and into the x-wing.

The site of the former RNAS Anthorn is now a Very Low Frequency (VLF) transmitter station, which is used for transmitting orders to submarines.

From 1st April 2007, the time signal, which has been broadcast from Rugby for many years, is now broadcast from the VT Communications site at Anthorn.

The time signal is generated by the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, Middlesex, and boasts an accuracy of one second.

The best known manifestation of the NPL time signal is the BBC’s “pips” but it is widely used in the transport and financial services sectors, among others. Banks use the signal to calculate to the last second how long they have held interest bearing balances, Network Rail uses it to help the trains run on time and for power generators the signal helps to coordinate switching output from one station to another.

The time signal is also used by speed cameras, and by digital set-top boxes.

Iconic, robust, practical. This is my 3rd version of the iconic ship that has graced the screens, tv shows and in print. I took a step back from my first version and reworked the entire model.

Red 5, Luke's main ship. Stickers from the UCS model and custom ones were used. I may add more later, but that may be for the Gray model version.

Many other x-wing designs have come since my 2016 model as well as new LEGO parts that helped shape this ship.

Like my original design this model features a durable internal structure and frame that allows you to hold the ship in front of the cockpit.

I also included internal components like my previous model to help define the various parts shown in the X-Wing cross sections. Life support, compressors, coils, power converters, power generator, flight computer, repulsorlift, hydraulic lines, communications antenna, sensor computer, primary sensor array, and a functional cargo bay.

The Landing gear was another story. Since my model is a display one I wanted to not have a working rear landing gear until LEGO develops more curved slopes that would help shape the engines. Instead, I used a similar design from my previous model to swap out for landing mode or flight mode. The front landing gear fits snug into the ship.

I am particularly proud that my cockpit design from version 1 found its way back into my latest model with slight modifications to allow the side panels to properly stay together.

Custom parts are used here. I Cut a few curved windows to make the Laser magnetic flashback suppressors. I also cut a ribbed flexible hose to fit inside the cockpit. I took a flat 2x2 tile and drilled a hole inside it to slide the technoic axle through. LEGO currently has a 2x2 round tile with a hole, but I needed a square one.

Brickarms has great monoclips and u-clips that work great for smaller ideas, such as my joystick or holding parts inside the cylinders.

The stand design is great, but I think it would work better if I swap out some parts and have several technique axles run through it and into the x-wing.