The Hastings Line is a secondary railway line in Kent and East Sussex, England, linking Hastings with the main town of Tunbridge Wells, and from there into London via Tonbridge and Sevenoaks. Although the line primarily carries passengers, a gypsum mine served by the railway is a source of freight traffic. Passenger trains on the line are operated by Southeastern. The railway was built by the South Eastern Railway in the early 1850s across the difficult terrain of the High Weald. Supervision was lax, and contractors skimped on the lining of the tunnels, causing deficiencies that showed up after the railway had opened. Rectifications included a restricted loading gauge along the line, requiring the use of specially made rolling stock. Served by steam locomotives from the time of opening until the late 1950s, passenger services were then taken over by a fleet of diesel-electric multiple units built to the line’s loading gauge. Freight was handled by diesel locomotives, also built to fit the loading gauge. The diesel-electric units were in service until 1986, when the line was electrified and the most severely affected tunnels were singled.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings_Line
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
54:
Claudius, the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy, died mysteriously, most likely by poison administered by his wife Agrippina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius
1307:
Agents of King Philip IV of France launched a dawn raid, simultaneously arresting many members of the Knights Templar, and subsequently torturing them into "admitting" heresy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar
1885:
The Georgia Institute of Technology was established in Atlanta as part of Reconstruction plans to build an industrial economy in the post-Civil War Southern United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Institute_of_Technology
1911:
Prince Arthur, a son of Queen Victoria, became the first Governor General of Canada of royal descent as well as the first Prince of Great Britain and Ireland to hold that position. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Arthur,_Duke_of_Connaught_and_Strathearn
1958:
The first book featuring the English children's literature character Paddington Bear (statue pictured), created by Michael Bond and Peggy Fortnum, was published. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddington_Bear
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
cenote: A deep natural well or sinkhole, especially in Central America, formed by the collapse of surface limestone that exposes ground water underneath, and sometimes used by the ancient Mayans for sacrificial offerings. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cenote
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
The nature and intention of government … are social. Based on the idea of natural rights, government secures those rights to the individual by strictly negative intervention, making justice costless and easy of access; and beyond that it does not go. The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing. --Albert Jay Nock https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Jay_Nock