The SECR N class was a steam locomotive designed by Richard Maunsell for
mixed-traffic duties on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) in
London and south-east England. This locomotive class, with two leading
wheels and no trailing wheels (2-6-0), was mechanically similar to the
SECR K class 2-6-4 passenger tank engine, also by Maunsell. Built at
Ashford Works and the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, between 1917 and 1934,
the N class was based on the GWR 4300 Class design, improved with
Midland Railway concepts. The class replaced obsolete 0-6-0s as part of
the SECR's fleet standardisation, using parts interchangeable with those
of other classes. Eighty N class locomotives were built in three
batches between the First and Second World Wars. They worked over most
of the Southern Railway network, and were used by the Southern Region of
British Railways until the last was withdrawn in 1966. One locomotive is
preserved on the Swanage Railway in Dorset, undergoing overhaul.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SECR_N_class>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1859:
On the Origin of Species (title page pictured) by British
naturalist Charles Darwin was first published, and sold out its initial
print run on the first day.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species>
1922:
Irish Civil War: Author and Irish nationalist Erskine Childers
was executed by the Irish Free State for illegally carrying a semi-
automatic pistol.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erskine_Childers_%28author%29>
1943:
World War II: Following the American capture of Makin Atoll,
USS Liscome Bay was sunk by a torpedo from Japanese submarine I-175,
killing 644.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liscome_Bay>
2012:
A fire at a clothing factory in the Ashulia district on the
outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, killed at least 117 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Dhaka_fire>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
battue:
1. (uncountable, hunting, often attributively) A form of hunting in
which game is forced into the open by the beating of sticks on bushes,
etc.
2. (countable, hunting) A hunt performed in this manner.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/battue>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is before all things useful to men to associate their ways of
life, to bind themselves together with such bonds as they think most
fitted to gather them all into unity, and generally to do whatsoever
serves to strengthen friendship. But for this there is need of skill
and watchfulness. For men are diverse (seeing that those who live under
the guidance of reason are few), yet are they generally envious and more
prone to revenge than to sympathy. No small force of character is
therefore required to take everyone as he is, and to restrain one's self
from imitating the emotions of others. But those who carp at mankind,
and are more skilled in railing at vice than in instilling virtue, and
who break rather than strengthen men's dispositions, are hurtful both to
themselves and others.
--Ethics
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ethics_%28Spinoza%29>