The Brill Tramway was a six-mile (10 km) rail line in rural
Buckinghamshire, England. It was privately built in 1871 by the 3rd
Duke of Buckingham as a horse tram line to help transport goods between
his lands around Wotton House and the national rail network. Lobbying
from the nearby town of Brill led to its extension to Brill railway
station and conversion to passenger use in early 1872. Although
locomotives were bought, the line had been designed for horses and
trains travelled at average speed of only 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h).
In the 1880s, the Duke of Buckingham planned to upgrade the route to
main line standards and extend the line to Oxford, and in anticipation,
the line was named the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad. The extension to
Oxford was never built. Instead, the Brill Tramway became part of
London's Metropolitan Railway. In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway became
the Metropolitan Line of London Transport, and thus the Brill Tramway
became part of the London Underground, despite being 40 miles (65 km)
from London and not underground. In 1935 the London Transport
management closed the Brill Tramway and the infrastructure was
dismantled and sold. Little trace remains other than the former
junction station at Quainton Road, now the Buckinghamshire Railway
Centre.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brill_Tramway>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1700:
Great Northern War: Swedish forces led by King Charles XII defeated
the Russian army of Tsar Peter the Great at the Battle of Narva.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Narva_%281700%29>
1872:
The first-ever international football match took place at Hamilton
Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_v_England_%281872%29>
1936:
The Crystal Palace, built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London,
was destroyed by fire.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace>
1953:
Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda, is deposed and exiled
to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutesa_II_of_Buganda>
1993:
U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence
Prevention Act into law, requiring purchasers of handguns to pass a
background check.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Handgun_Violence_Prevention_Act>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
sartorial (adj):
1. Of or relating to the tailoring of clothing.
2. Of or relating to the quality of dress
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sartorial>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world,
and moral courage so rare.
--Mark Twain
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Twain>