u/richard7k

Leighton Buzzard Railway diesel locomotive Beaudesert (Alan Keef, 1999) shares a two-foot-gauge track with Simplex locomotives Damredub, Arkle, and Redrum at Pages Park Station (Bedfordshire, England) in September 2018. The Leighton Buzzard Railway opened in 1919 to serve local sand quarries, and originally used steam locomotives before converting to internal combustion in 1921. Motor Rail of Bedford supplied both gasoline and diesel Simplexes, with newer ones like these three joining ex-military locomotives sold off by the War Department after World War 1.

You might recognize the bell tower.

Liverpool Overhead Railway exhibit at the Museum of Liverpool (seen August 2015).

From 1893 to 1956, the Liverpool Overhead Railway connected the docks, and other parts of the Mersey River waterfront, using electric multiple unit trains. It was the second electric “metro” in Britain after the City & South London Railway opened in 1890, and the first elevated railway to open with electric trains instead of starting with steam and electrifying later like New York and Chicago. After the “Dockers’ Umbrella” closed, not much was preserved, but car 3 (Brown Marshalls & Co Ltd, 1892) is displayed with some elevated track at a reconstructed Dingle Station.

During the interwar period, a dip in military contracts led Armstrong Whitworth of Newcastle upon Tyne, England to build more locomotives, including some early diesels such as 0-4-0 diesel-electric shunter No. 2.  It was built as a demonstrator in 1933 and used from 1937 to 1970 by A. Reyrolle and Company's factory in Hebburn, whose main product was electrical switchgear for power stations. 

After its retirement, No. 2 was sold to the W.F. and J.R. Shepherd scrapyard in Byker, where it worked as a shunter before itself being declared scrap.  Thankfully, the diesel locomotive was saved and moved to the Tanfield Railway's Marley Hill depot in 1978, where it was restored and given vacuum brakes so it could pull passenger trains.  It does a lot of work at Tanfield such as shunting, piloting, and substituting for steam locomotives. When I visited just after a rainstorm in May 2017, the locomotive was sitting in the Marley Hill railyard.

During the interwar period, a dip in military contracts led Armstrong Whitworth of Newcastle upon Tyne, England to build more locomotives, including some early diesels such as 0-4-0 diesel-electric shunter No. 2.  It was built as a demonstrator in 1933 and used from 1937 to 1970 by A. Reyrolle and Company's factory in Hebburn, whose main product was electrical switchgear for power stations. 

After its retirement, No. 2 was sold to the W.F. and J.R. Shepherd scrapyard in Byker, where it worked as a shunter before itself being declared scrap.  Thankfully, the diesel locomotive was saved and moved to the Tanfield Railway's Marley Hill depot in 1978, where it was restored and given vacuum brakes so it could pull passenger trains.  It does a lot of work at Tanfield such as shunting, piloting, and substituting for steam locomotives. When I visited just after a rainstorm in May 2017, the locomotive was sitting in the Marley Hill railyard.

While watching Andor, one historical event I was reminded of was the May 18, 1980 Gwangju Uprising that happened in South Korea. Some of it parallels the Ferrix riot, like the spontaneity, and some of it parallels the Ghorman massacre, like the perpetrators blaming the victims and the event leading to a larger movement. However, some of it does not, since the 1980s democracy movement wanted to democratize South Korea while the Rebel Alliance aimed to restore republican government rather than democratize the Empire. I am not Korean myself -- American who worked there as an English teacher -- so what I'm writing below is a brief summary. Let me know your thoughts.

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Following the assassination of military dictator Park Chung-hee, General Chun Doo-hwan launched two coups to install himself as acting leader and then president: December 12, 1979 and May 17, 1980. After the second coup and declaration of martial law, which included the closure of universities and restrictions on freedom of speech and association, university students in Gwangju (which had a long history of protesting) began protesting and organized militias that took over parts of the city. Soon, the military and police retook the city and killed several hundred citizens. The dictatorship blamed the "riot" (their term) on Communist agents of North Korea and tried to maintain military rule through a one-party state with rigged elections, but support for democracy increased until June 1987 protests and international pressure led to the start of democratization. After he left office, President Chun was convicted of treason and insurrection, and sent to prison until a later president pardoned him.

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When I visited Gwangju in January 2022 and took these photos on a snowy afternoon, I walked around the 5.18 Democratic Movement memorial and thought about how hard it is to overthrow tyranny and set up a durable democracy. Almost three years later in December 2024, President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law but was impeached after massive nationwide protests and later imprisoned for insurrection. After Park Geun-hye (daughter of Park Chung-hee) was forced out of office in 2017 and replaced by Moon Jae-in, this was the second time in modern South Korean history that a presidential impeachment and removal forced a new presidential election, which is how current president Lee Jae-myung was elected.

Lancashire Electric Power Company B-B electric locomotive N° 2 Derek Shepherd (Hawthorn Leslie, 1936) worked at the Kearsley power station until 1980. During that time, Kearsley was nationalized and Derek Shepherd was rebuilt to draw power from batteries as well as overhead wires.

After Kearsley closed, the locomotive was transferred to the Heysham nuclear power station, where it was converted to a purely battery-electric locomotive. When I visited the Tanfield Railway near Newcastle upon Tyne, England in May 2017, Derek Shepherd was being restored in the Marley Hill Five Road Shed.

While visiting Wales in May 2016, I noticed some double-decker buses providing local transit. To return to Caernarfon from the Llanberis Lake Railway and Snowdon Mountain Railway, I took Express Motors’ Route 88 and got a surprisingly fast ride through the Welsh countryside. Can anyone identify the make/model of this bus?

This was on my summer vacation a few years ago.

Bluebell Railway ex Dorking Greystone 0-4-0 tank engine No. 3 Captain Baxter (Fletcher Jennings, 1877) entered preservation in 1960 after working as a purely industrial locomotive, instead of having worked for British Railways. When I visited in August 2015, I found Captain Baxter being worked on at Sheffield Park Station.  The locomotive is not completely "stock," as the Bluebell Railway equipped it with steam heating and vacuum brakes in 2010 to let it pull more passenger and demonstration freight trains.

While visiting Wales in May 2016, I rode the Talyllyn Railway. After the train ride, I was taken on a guided tour of the Pendre locomotive depot and shown ex-Corris Railway 0-4-2T No. 4 Edward Thomas (Kerr Stuart 4047, 1921).  This steam locomotive was acquired by the Talyllyn Railway in 1951 after the Corris Railway closed, and did not need regauging as both are 2'3" gauge.  It ran with a Giesl ejector chimney for a few years, but unlike Peter Sam it has returned to using a conventional funnel.  The Railway Series (Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends) author Reverend W. Awdry, who began volunteering with the Talyllyn Railway in 1952, later based the Skarloey Railway on the Talyllyn Railway and Peter Sam on Edward Thomas.

Produced from 1959 to 1960, the T60 was British lightweight microcar manufacturer Berkeley's only three-wheeler. It cost only 400 pounds when new (about 8100 GBP today) and could be driven with a motorcycle license. I saw one at Barmouth Ferry Station in Wales after riding the Fairbourne miniature railway in May 2016.

It’s in a regional capital so I’d consider it a city.

I was here about ten years ago and still remember it well.

Newcastle Central Station, and Newcastle Castle for which the city was named, as they appeared at sunset in September 2018.  In the background, a CrossCountry Voyager (Class 221?) DMU train pulls up to the outer platform.

Seen from the King Edward VII railway bridge in September 2018, a pair of Tyne and Wear Metro Series 4000 electric trains cross the Queen Elizabeth II metro bridge over the River Tyne between Newcastle and Gateshead in northeastern England.

In the mid-1920s, R.A. Lister of Dursley (Gloucestershire) introduced the Auto-Truck, a versatile monowheel "turret truck" that was used by several industries.  When I took a September 2018 guided tour of the Amberley Museum (West Sussex, England), I was shown an Auto-Truck set up as a tricycle tractor with a short wagon trailer. The museum also maintains a Rail-Truck locomotive.

I was in a large city near the coast.

A now-retired London Underground (Circle Line) C-Stock train enters St. James's Park Station in November 2013.

I saw it too early in the day to try this restaurant's barbecue.