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Branch Line

Branch line

A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route.

United Kingdom

Many British branch lines were closed as a result of the "Beeching Axe" in the 1960s, although some have been re-opened as heritage railways. The smallest branch line that is still in operation in the UK is the line from Stourbridge Junction going to Stourbridge Town. This only has one track. the journey is 1/3 of a mile and takes around 55 seconds to complete its journey.

North America

In North America, little used branch lines are often spun off from larger railroads to become new common carrier short-line railroads of their own. Category:Rail transport

Beeching Axe

The Beeching Axe was an informal name for the British government's attempt in the 1960s to control the spiralling cost of running the British railway system by closing what it considered to be "little-used" and unprofitable railway lines.

Background

The Beeching Axe was a reaction to the failed railway [http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docSummary.php?docID=23 modernisation plan] of the 1950s, which spent huge amounts of money on buying new equipment such as new diesel and electric locomotives without first examining the railways' role, what was actually going to be needed, or the implications of changing old-fashioned working practices and tackling the problem of chronic overmanning. The result was the railway system's finances plunging deeply into debt. In tune with the mood of the early 1960s, Harold Macmillan's Conservative government with pro-road transport minister Ernest Marples believed that the future of transport lay with roads, and that railways were a relic of the Victorian past with little future. Many people believe that Marples' view was not totally unconnected to his previous role as a director of a major road-construction company. In 1961 the Conservative government appointed Dr. Richard Beeching (1913–1985) as the chairman of British Railways, with a brief to cut the spiralling losses. Dr. Beeching believed the railway system should be run like a business, not a public service, and that if parts of the railway system did not pay their way—like some rural branch lines— they should be eliminated. He reasoned that once these were closed, the remaining core of the system would be restored to profitability. Beeching made a study of traffic on all the railway lines in the country and concluded that 80% of the traffic was carried on just 20% of the network, with much of the rest of the system carrying little traffic and operating at a loss. In his report [http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docSummary.php?docID=13 "The Reshaping of British Railways"] issued on March 27, 1963, he proposed a massive closure programme. The report proposed that 6,000 miles of Britain's then 18,000 miles of railway system be closed (mostly rural branch and cross country lines) and that many other rail lines should lose their passenger services and be kept open for freight only. In addition, many lesser-used stations would close on lines that were to be kept open. The report was accepted by the government. At the time, the report was called the "Beeching Bombshell" or the "Beeching Axe" by the press and was highly controversial. It sparked outcry and outrage from many communities that would lose their rail services, many of which (especially in the case of rural communities) provided the sole means of public transport. The government argued that many of the rail services could be provided more cheaply by buses, and in a policy known as "bustitution", promised that any abandoned rail services would have their place taken by a replacement bus service, although this policy proved unsuccessful. A significant part of the Beeching Plan also proposed that British Rail electrify some major main lines and adopt containerised freight traffic instead of the outdated and uneconomic wagon-load traffic. In general, politicians jumped at the money-saving parts of the plan and were less enthusiastic about the parts which cost money. Some of those plans were adopted, however, such as the electrification of the West Coast Main Line. At its peak in 1950, the mileage of the British railway system was around 21,000 miles. Contrary to popular belief, Beeching did not start the rail closures, as a number of rail closures had occurred during the 1950s. Between 1950 and 1963, approximately 3,000 miles of track had already been closed. After Beeching's report, the process was accelerated and dramatically expanded.

Rail closures by year

1963, one of many closed under the Beeching Axe]]
- Pre-Beeching closures
- 1950....150 miles closed
- 1951....275 miles closed
- 1952....300 miles closed
- 1953....275 miles closed
- 1954 to 1957....500 miles closed
- 1958....150 miles closed
- 1959....350 miles closed
- 1960....175 miles closed
- 1961....150 miles closed
- 1962....780 miles closed
- Post Beeching closures
- 1963....324 miles closed
- 1964....1,058 miles closed
- 1965....600 miles closed
- 1966....750 miles closed
- 1967....300 miles closed
- 1968....400 miles closed
- 1969....250 miles closed
- 1970....275 miles closed
- 1971....23 miles closed
- 1972....50 miles closed
- 1973....35 miles closed
- 1974....0 miles closed Not all of the railway lines listed for closure were closed; some were kept open for a variety of reasons, including political manoeuvering. For example, the railway lines through the Scottish Highlands, although not cost-efficient by Beeching's definition, were kept open due in part to pressure from the powerful Highland lobby. Other lines may have been kept open because they passed through marginal constituencies. In addition, some lines listed for closure were kept open because the local roads were incapable of absorbing the traffic that would be transferred from the railway if it closed. As a result, there are still a fair number of rural railway lines still in existence on the British Railway system, although far fewer than there were before Beeching. Overall, 2,128 stations were closed on lines that were kept open. As well as minor railway lines, a few major intercity railway lines were closed as well, most notably the Great Central Railway which linked London to the north of England.

Beeching II

In 1964, Dr. Beeching issued a second, less-well-known, report [http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docSummary.php?docID=14 "The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes"], widely known as "Beeching II", which went even further than the first report. The report singled out lines that were believed to be worthy of continued large-scale investment, and, although it did not explicitly say so, implied that any lines not singled out for investment would eventually be closed. Essentially, it proposed that all railway lines other than major inter-city routes and important commuter lines around big cities had little future and should eventually close. If the report had been implemented, the railway system would have been cut to just 7,000 miles, leaving Britain with little more than a skeletal railway system with large parts of the country entirely devoid of railways. The report was rejected by the government and Dr. Beeching resigned in 1965. Although politicians were ultimately responsible for the rail closures, Dr. Beeching's name has become synonymous with them ever since.

Changing attitudes and policies

In 1964, a new Labour government was elected with prime minister Harold Wilson. During the election campaign, Labour promised to halt the rail closures if elected. Once elected, however, they quickly backtracked on this promise, and the closures continued, at a faster rate than under the previous administration, until the end of the decade. In 1965, Barbara Castle was appointed transport minister, and she began to look at the country's transport problems as a whole. Mrs. Castle decided that at least 11,000 route miles of "basic railway" would be needed for the foreseeable future and that the railway system should be stabilised at around this size. Towards the end of the 1960s, it became increasingly clear that the rail closures were not producing the promised savings or bringing the rail system out of deficit and were unlikely ever to do so. Barbara Castle stipulated that some rail services that could not pay their way but had a valuable social role should be subsidised. However, by the time the legislation allowing this was introduced in 1968, many such services and railway lines that would have qualified for subsidies had already been closed or removed, lessening the impact of the legislation. A number of branch lines were nevertheless saved by this legislation.

Overview

The closures failed in their central purpose of restoring the railways to profitability, with the promised savings failing to materialise. By abolishing a third of the rail network, Beeching only managed to achieve a saving of just £7m. Overall losses were in excess of £100m. The losses were mainly because the branch lines acted as feeders to the main lines, and this feeder traffic was lost when the branches closed—in turn meaning less traffic for and worsening the finances of the main lines. The assumption at the time was that car owners would drive to the nearest railhead (which was usually the junction where the closed branch line would otherwise have taken them) and journey onwards by train, but in practice having once left home in their cars, they used them for the whole journey. The "bustitution" policy of replacing rail services with buses also failed. Most of the replacement bus services were far slower and less convenient than the train services they replaced, and they proved unpopular with the public. Most of the replacement bus services only lasted a few years before being scrapped due to lack of usage, effectively leaving large parts of the country without any effective public transport. The closures were brought to a halt in the early 1970s when it became apparent that they were not useful, that the benefit of the small amount of money saved by closing railways was outweighed by the pollution and congestion caused by increasing reliance on cars which followed, and by the general public's hatred of the cuts. The last major railway closure to occur was of an 80-mile-long main line between Carlisle and Edinburgh called the Waverley Route, which closed in 1969; plans have since been made to re-open this line. Today, Britain's railways, like nearly every other railway system in the world, still run at a deficit. In the early 1980s, under the government of Margaret Thatcher, the possibility of more Beeching-style cuts was raised again briefly. In 1983, Sir David Serpell, a civil servant who had worked with Dr. Beeching, complied what became known as [http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docSummary.php?docID=29 "The Serpell Report"] which called for more rail closures. The report was met with fierce resistance from many quarters, so it was quickly abandoned. Many commentators now agree that the Beeching plan went far too far. Although supporters of Beeching claim that some of the closures were justifiable, with hindsight many of Beeching's cuts have been viewed as foolish and short-sighted, and many are now being bitterly regretted. Supporters of the Beeching cuts claim that they were a necessary emergency response to save the railway network from financial disaster, and that if they had not occurred, a far larger programme of cuts would have been later necessary. One of the major criticisms made of the Beeching report was that it failed to take into account future trends such as population growth and greater demand for travel. The population of many of the towns which had their railways closed in the 1960s has grown significantly since, leaving the towns more in need of public transport. However, the trackbeds of many closed railways have been built over and they would be prohibitively expensive to re-open. In total, in 1955 the British railway system had 20,000 miles of track and 6,000 stations. By 1975, the system had shrunk to 12,000 miles of track and 2,000 stations, roughly the same size it is today (2003).

Re-openings

Since the Beeching era, a modest number of the closures have been reversed. Notable amongst these is the Robin Hood Line in Nottinghamshire between Nottingham and Worksop via Mansfield which re-opened in the early 1990s. Previously Mansfield had been the largest town in Britain to have no rail link. Also, in the West Midlands, a new Birmingham Snow Hill station was opened in 1987 to replace the earlier Snow Hill station which had been closed and demolished in the early 1970s. The tunnel underneath Birmingham city centre which served the station was also re-opened along with the line towards Kidderminster and Worcester. The former line from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton has been re-opened as the Midland Metro tram system. The direct line from Coventry to Nuneaton was re-opened to passengers in 1988. Beeching saw South Wales as a declining industrial region. As a result, it lost the majority of its network. Since 1983 it has experienced a major rail revival, with 32 new stations, and three lines reopened within 20 miles of each other: Abercynon–Aberdare, Barry–Bridgend, and Bridgend–Maesteg. In Scotland, a 35-mile stretch of the former Waverley Route between Edinburgh and Galashiels may well be re-opened by 2008 if funding is approved. The closure of the line in 1969 left the Scottish Borders area without any rail links. The Edinburgh-Bathgate reopening in 1985 was the first success of a new policy introduced by the Thatcher government, of experimental reopenings that would only become permanent if well-used. It was and did. In addition to this quite a number of closed stations have re-opened, and passenger services restored on lines where they had been removed. Several lines have also reopened as heritage railways; see List of British heritage and private railways. It would generally be impossible for most of the stations closed by the Beeching Axe to be reopened; many embankments have been filled in and built on (for example around Cowley) and some station buildings have been sold and are now private homes.

References

- Forgotten Railways: by H.P. White (1986). ISBN 0946537135
- The Great Railway Conspiracy: by David Henshaw (1994). ISBN 0948135484

External links

- [http://www.timmonet.co.uk/html/body_beeching.htm Website about Beeching cuts in more detail]
- [http://www.joyce.whitchurch.btinternet.co.uk/maps.htm Railway maps before and after cuts]
- [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/ Extensive before and after photo collection of closed stations, with commentaries]
- [http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docSummary.php?docID=13 download the Beeching Report Part 1]
- [http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docSummary.php?docID=35 download the Beeching Report Part 2 (maps)] Category:British Rail(ways) Category:Government reports

1960s

The 1960s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. The Sixties has come to refer to the complex of inter-related cultural and political events which occurred in approximately that period, in western countries, particularly Britain, France, the United States and West Germany. Social upheaval was not limited to just these nations, reaching large scale in nations such as Japan, Mexico and Canada as well. The term is used both nostalgically by those who participated in those events, and pejoratively by those who regard the time as a period whose harmful effects are still being felt today. The decade was also labelled the Swinging Sixties because of the libertine attitudes that emerged during the decade. Popular memory has conflated into the Sixties some events which did not actually occur during the period. For example, although some of the most dramatic events of the American civil rights movement occurred in the early 1960s, the movement had already began in earnest during the 1950s. On the other hand, the rise of feminism and gay rights began only in the very late 1960s and did not fully flower until the Seventies. However, the "Sixties" has become synonymous with all the new, exciting, radical, subversive and/or dangerous (according to one's viewpoint) events and trends of the period.

Events and trends

Many of the trends of the 1960s were due to the demographic changes brought about by the baby boom generation, the height of the Cold War, and the dissolution of European colonial empires. The rise in social revolution, civil rights movements, human rights movement, anti-War movements, and the Counterculture movement are only some of the characteristics that defined the 1960s. Many experts attribute the 1960s "counter-culture revolution" as being the result of the major social and political factors that rose in the 1950s like brinksmanship, continued fighting in the 3rd world, and a return to pre-WWII lifestyle. The new generation was determined to reject a pre-WWII conformist lifestyle with men in suits and women in the kitchen. While many believed it to be just a "Western" phenomenon, the '60s revolution spread far beyond the borders of America and Western Europe. In South America, revolutions were at a height, in the Eastern Bloc, movements were made inspired by the Hungarian Revolution to reject Soviet domination, and in the Middle East attempted to resist Soviet and American domination (see Non-Aligned Movement). Overall, the '60s affected almost the entire globe. It was during this time that protectionist, command, and mixed economies reached their peak...

Technology

Non-Aligned Movement Non-Aligned Movement]
- USSR puts first man (Yuri Gagarin) and first woman (Valentina Tereshkova) in outer space
- The United States puts man on Earth's Moon (see Apollo 11)
- Geosynchronous satellites revolutionize global communications
- Start of the development of algorithmic information theory
- The ARPAnet, precursor of the Internet, is founded in 1969 as a United States Department of Defense project. The numbered series of Request For Comments (RFC) documents begins in order to document the standards and practices of this network, and continues to this day
- Direct Use of the Sun's Energy by pioneer solar-energy scientist Farrington Daniels is published (1964)
- Compact audio cassette introduced; begins to displace reel-to-reel audio tape recording for home users

Science

- Discovery of plate tectonics revolutionizes understanding of continental drift
- Jacques Monod and Francois Jacob discover the lac operon
- Rise of the science of ecology in the awareness of the intelligentsia

War, peace and politics

intelligentsia"]] intelligentsia]
- Cultural Revolution in mainland China causes political and economic chaos.
- Nigerian Civil War begins.
- 6-Day War between Israelis and Arabs in 1967.
- Beginning of The Troubles in Northern Ireland
- Berlin Wall built in 1961.
- Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, the United States sponsored an attempt to overthrow Cuba's socialist government and Fidel Castro.
- Civil rights movement in the United States; end of official segregation and disenfranchisement of African-Americans; racial tensions continue with large race riots in Watts (Los Angeles) in 1966, Detroit in 1967, and Hough and Glenville in Cleveland.
- Sino-Indian War in late 1962. China attacks India and gains some land in Kashmir.
- Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
- Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 over Kashmir ends in a stalemate.
- The Vietnam War and protests, leading to Kent State University shootings in May, 1970.
- Suppression of uprising in Czechoslovakia.
- The Stonewall Riots in New York City give birth to the gay rights movement, June 1969.
- United Nations imposes sanctions against South Africa to protest the policy of Apartheid.
- Students protesting perceived problems with the status-quo are suppressed with violence by police and soldiers in USA, France, Mexico, Czechoslovakia. See New Left.
- The Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille) begins in Quebec - precipitous decline of the Roman Catholic church, liberalism, social-democratic programs, and the birth of modern Quebec nationalism.
- The rise of radical feminism.

Economics

- Many countries in The West experience high economic growth (4 to 8% per year)

Culture

- Rock and roll develops, diversifies, and becomes very hip. The Beatles eclipse Elvis Presley and become the most popular musical artists in the world. "Topical" artists like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez worked social commentary into their music.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey hits movie theaters
- The long running BBC family science fiction show Doctor Who begins in 1963
- Star Trek makes its debut in 1966
- James Bond movies begin. Dr. No is the first of the series in 1962, starring Sean Connery as Bond
- Hippies, drug culture & rock and roll converge at the Woodstock festival, 1969
- In the West, the growing popularity of religions other than Christianity (for example, as discussed in the writings of Alan Watts), and of atheism; Time Magazine asks: "Is God Dead?" See Fourth Great Awakening, Consciousness Revolution
- Memorable expositions, or "World's Fairs," are held in Seattle (1962), New York (1964/1965), Montreal (1967) and San Antonio (1968)
- Progressive rock emerges
- The fine arts begins to move away from exclusively consisting of painting, drawing, and sculpture and begins to incorporate elements from popular culture (Pop art) and begins to favour the ideas behind a work, rather than the work itself (Conceptual art)

Others

Conceptual art built in 1969]]
- Post-Colonialism; many new or previously colonized countries achieve independence in Africa, Asia
- U.S. president John F. Kennedy assassinated in 1963; his brother Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in 1968
- U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated on April 4, 1968
- Charles Manson gave up his ambitions of becoming a popular song writer to become a cult leader and mass murderer, 1969
- Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X assassinated on February 21, 1965
- U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society program
- In the United States, increase in crime; riots in Los Angeles in 1965 and Chicago, Illinois at the 1968 Democratic National Convention
- Rise of the baby boom generation to adulthood
- First widespread availability of practical birth control pill for women; See sexual revolution
- Sweden switches from driving on the left to the right, in order to harmonise with neighbouring countries. See Rules of the road

Big changes during the Sixties

In the United States

The movement for civil and political rights for African Americans (in the early '60s usually called Negroes and in the later '60s Blacks), initially a non-violent movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Gandhian figures but later producing radical offshoots such as the Black Power movement and competing with the Black Panther Party and the Black Muslims for primacy in the African-American community. The beginning of what was generally seen as a new political era with the election of President John F. Kennedy in 1960, and its ending in tragedy and disillusionment with Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the assassinations of King and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, and the collapse of Lyndon Johnson's presidency. The rise of a mass movement in opposition to the Vietnam War, culminating in the massive Moratorium protests in 1969, and also the movement of resistance to conscription (“the Draft”) for the war. The antiwar movement was initially based on the older 1950s "Peace movement" controlled by the Communist Party USA, but by the mid '60s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centred on the universities and churches. Stimulated by this movement, but growing beyond it, the large numbers of student-age youth, beginning with the Free University of California, Berkeley]] in 1964, peaking in the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois and reaching a climax with the shootings at Kent State University in 1970. The rapid rise of a "New Left," employing the rhetoric of Marxism but having little organizational connection with older Marxist organizations such the Communist Party, and even less connection with the supposed focus of Marxist politics, the organized labor movement, and consisting of ephemeral campus-based Trotskyist, Maoist and anarchist groups, some of which by the end of the 1960s had turned to terrorism. terrorism The overlapping, but somewhat different, movement of youth cultural radicalism manifested by the hippies and the counter-culture, whose emblematic moments were the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967 and the Woodstock Festival in 1969. The rapid spread, associated with this movement, of the recreational use of cannabis and other drugs, particularly new synthetic psychedelic drugs such as LSD. The breakdown among young people of conventional sexual morality and the flourishing of the sexual revolution. Initially geared mostly to heterosexual male gratification, it soon gave rise to contrary trends, Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation. The rise of an alternative culture among affluent youth, creating a huge market for rock and blues music produced by drug-culture influenced bands such as The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane and The Doors, and also for radical music in the folk tradition pioneered by Bob Dylan.

In other Western countries

The peak of the student and New Left protests in 1968 coincided with political upheavals in a number of other countries. Although these events often sprang from completely different causes, they were influenced by reports and images of what was happening in the United States and France. Students in Mexico City, for example, protested against the corrupt regime of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz: in the resulting Tlatelolco massacre hundreds were killed. The influence of American culture and politics in Western Europe, Japan and Australia was already so great by the early 1960s that most of the trends described above soon spawned counterparts in most Western countries. University students rioted in London, Paris, Berlin and Rome, huge crowds protested against the Vietnam War in Australia and New Zealand (both of which had committed troops to the war), and politicians such as Harold Wilson and Pierre Trudeau modelled themselves on John F. Kennedy. An important difference between the United States and Western Europe, however, was the existence of a mass socialist and/or Communist movement in most European countries (particularly France and Italy), with which the student-based new left was able to forge a connection. The most spectacular manifestation of this was the May 1968 student revolt in Paris, which linked up with a general strike called by the Communist-controlled trade unions and for a few days seemed capable of overthrowing the government of Charles de Gaulle.

In non-Western countries

In Eastern Europe, students also drew inspiration from the protests in the west. In Poland and Yugoslavia they protested against restrictions on free speech by Communist regimes. In Czechoslovakia, 1968 was the year of Alexander Dubček’s Prague Spring, a source of inspiration to many Western leftists who admired Dubček's "socialism with a human face." The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August ended these hopes, and also fatally damaged the chances of the orthodox Communist Parties drawing many recruits from the student protest movement. In the People's Republic of China the mid 1960s were also a time of massive upheaval, and the Red Guard rampages of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution had some superficial resemblances to the student protests in the West. The Maoist groups that briefly flourished in the West in this period saw in Chinese Communism a more revolutionary, less bureaucratic model of socialism. Most of them were rapidly disillusioned when Mao welcomed Richard Nixon to China in 1972. People in China, however, saw the Nixon visit as a victory in that they believed the United States would concede that Mao Zedong thought was superior to capitalism (this was the Party stance on the visit in late 1971 and early 1972). The Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara also became an iconic figure for the student left, although he was in fact an orthodox Communist.

People

World leaders

Ernesto "Che" Guevara]]
- Prime Minister Robert Menzies (Australia)
- Prime Minister Harold Holt (Australia)
- Prime Minister John McEwen (Australia)
- Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (Canada)
- Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson (Canada)
- Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Canada)
- Chairman Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China)
- President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China on Taiwan)
- President Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt)
- President Charles de Gaulle (France)
- Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (India)
- Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri (India)
- Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India)
- Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Israel)
- Prime Minister Levi Eshkol (Israel)
- Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
- Pope John XXIII
- Pope Paul VI
- Prime Minister Basil Brooke (Northern Ireland)
- Prime Minister Terence O'Neill (Northern Ireland)
- Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark (Northern Ireland)
- Governor Luis A. Ferré (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico)
- Taoiseach Sean Lemass (Republic of Ireland)
- Taoiseach Jack Lynch (Republic of Ireland)
- Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet Union)
- Leonid Brezhnev (Soviet Union)
- Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (United Kingdom)
- Prime Minister Harold Wilson (United Kingdom)
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States)
- President John F. Kennedy (United States)
- President Lyndon Johnson (United States)
- President Richard Nixon (United States)
- Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (West Germany)
- Chancellor Ludwig Erhard (West Germany)
- Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger (West Germany)
- President for Life Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)

Writers and intellectuals

- Isaac Asimov
- J. G. Ballard
- Truman Capote
- Andy Capp
- Rachel Carson
- Noam Chomsky
- Judith Christ
- Philip K. Dick
- Louise Fitzhugh
- Milton Friedman
- Allen Ginsberg
- Seamus Heaney
- Robert A. Heinlein
- Frank Herbert
- Ken Kesey
- Timothy Leary
- Norman Mailer
- Marshall McLuhan
- Jules Pfeiffer
- Carl Sagan
- Charles Schulz
- Dr. Seuss
- John Steinbeck
- Hunter S. Thompson
- Joseph Heller
- Gore Vidal
- Kurt Vonnegut
- Alan Watts
- Tom Wolfe

Sports figures

- Lance Alworth (American football player)
- Richie Benaud (Australian cricket captain)
- George Best (Northern Irish football player)
- Nino Benvenuti (Italian boxer)
- Jim Brown (American football player)
- Wilt Chamberlain (American basketball player)
- Bobby Charlton (English football player)
- Jim Clark (Scottish racing driver)
- Cassius Clay later known as Muhammad Ali (American boxer)
- Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rican baseball player)
- Eusebio (Portuguese football player)
- Peggy Fleming (American figure skater)
- Bob Gibson (American baseball player)
- Cookie Gilchrist (American football player)
- Bobby Hull (Canadian hockey player)
- Gordie Howe (Canadian hockey player)
- Franz Klammer (Austrian skier)
- David Kopay (American football player)
- Sandy Koufax (American baseball player)
- Denis Law (Scotland footballer)
- Vince Lombardi (American football coach)
- Willie Mays (American baseball player)
- Stan Mikita (Slovak-Canadian hockey player)
- Bobby Moore (English football player)
- Joe Namath (American football player)
- Jack Nicklaus (American golfer)
- Arnold Palmer (American golfer)
- Gary Player (South African golfer)
- Bobby Orr (Canadian ice hockey player)
- Pelé (Brazilian football player)
- Richard Petty (American NASCAR racing driver)
- Frank Robinson (American baseball player)
- Bill Shankly (Liverpool FC football manager)
- Gary Sobers (Barbados & West Indies cricket captain and all-rounder)
- Alfredo di Stefano (Argentinian/Spanish football player)
- Fred Trueman (Yorkshire & England cricketer)

Entertainers

cricket
- Bud Abbott
- Steve Allen
- Ursula Andress
- Julie Andrews
- Fred Astaire
- John Astin
- Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello
- Joan Baez
- Lucille Ball
- Brigitte Bardot
- Billy Barty
- The Beach Boys
- The Beatles
- Tony Bennett
- Jack Benny
- Milton Berle
- Joey Bishop
- Ray Bolger
- Ernest Borgnine
- Charles Bronson
- Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner
- Johnny Brown
- Carol Burnett
- George Burns
- The Byrds
- Sid Caesar
- Godfrey Cambridge
- Diane Cannon
- Cantinflas
- Capucine
- Vicki Carr
- Diahann Carrol
- Johnny Carson
- Violet Carson
- Art Carney
- Jack Cassidy
- Ted Cassidy
- Carol Channing
- Roy Clark
- Imogene Coca
- Nat King Cole
- Sean Connery
- Tim Conway
- Bill Cosby
- Joan Crawford
- Bing Crosby
- Gary Crosby
- Phillip Crosby
- Tony Curtis
- Dalida
- Bette Davis
- Sammy Davis, Jr.
- Doris Day
- John Derrick
- Neil Diamond
- Angie Dickenson
- Walt Disney
- The Doors
- Donovan
- Mamie Van Doren
- Kirk Douglas
- Patty Duke
- Jimmy Durante
- Dick Van Dyke
- Bob Dylan
- Clint Eastwood
- Barbara Eden
- Linda Evans
- Robert Evans
- Henry Fonda
- Jane Fonda
- Peter Fonda
- Eileen Fulton
- Judy Garland
- James Garner
- Gerry & the Pacemakers
- Jack Gilford
- Jackie Gleason
- Cary Grant
- Kathryn Grant aka Kathryn Crosby
- Grateful Dead
- Dick Gregory
- Andy Griffith
- Merv Griffin
- Fred Gwynne
- Buddy Hackett
- Joey Heatherton
- Jimi Hendrix
- Audrey Hepburn
- Katharine Hepburn
- Charlton Heston
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Dustin Hoffman
- Bob Hope
- Dennis Hopper
- Ron Howard
- Rock Hudson
- The Jackson 5
- Chad and Jeremy
- Antonio Carlos Jobim
- Carolyn Jones
- Shirley Jones
- Tom Jones
- Janis Joplin
- Boris Karloff
- Danny Kaye
- Buster Keaton
- Gene Kelly
- Don Knotts
- Jimmy Komac
- Harvey Korman
- Nancy Kwan
- Bert Lahr
- Peter Lawford
- Norman Lear
- Bruce Lee
- Janet Leigh
- Jack Lemmon
- Jerry Lewis
- Art Linkletter
- Gina Lollobrigida
- Sophia Loren
- Peter Lorre
- Paul Lynde
- Shirley Maclaine
- Ann Margret
- Dean Martin
- Groucho Marx
- James Mason
- David McCallum
- Country Joe McDonald
- Steve McQueen
- Barry Melton
- The Monkees
- Mary Tyler Moore
- Rita Moreno
- Pat Morita
- Howard Morris
- Zero Mostel
- Paul Newman
- Jack Nicholson
- David Niven
- Roy Orbison
- Gregory Peck
- Peter & Gordon
- Oscar Peterson
- Patricia Phoenix
- Pink Floyd
- Sidney Poitier
- Vincent Price
- Richard Pryor
- Elvis Presley
- Otis Redding
- Robert Redford
- Steve Reeves
- Debbie Reynolds
- Don Rickles
- Chita Rivera
- The Rolling Stones
- Mickey Rooney
- Dan Rowan and Dick Martin
- Peter Sellers
- Rod Serling
- David Seville
- Dick Shawn
- Dinah Shore
- Simon & Garfunkel
- Frank Sinatra
- Frank Sinatra, Jr.
- Nancy Sinatra
- Red Skelton
- The Smothers Brothers
- Elke Sommer
- Sonny and Cher
- Jill St. John
- Connie Stevens
- Inger Stevens
- Stella Stevens
- James Stewart
- Ed Sullivan
- The Supremes
- Russ Tamblyn
- Jacques Tati
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Danny Thomas
- Marlo Thomas
- The Three Stooges
- Spencer Tracy
- Robert Wagner
- William Wagoner
- Burt Ward
- John Wayne
- Tuesday Weld
- Raquel Welch
- Orson Welles
- Adam West
- The Who
- Gene Wilder
- Andy Williams
- Flip Wilson
- Natalie Wood
- Stevie Wonder
- Ed Wynn
- Keenan Wynn
- Led Zeppelin
- Bradley Football
- Cass Elliot -- The Mamas & the Papas
- Carl Stuart Hamblen

Further Viewing

To see examples of the idealism of the Sixties, view the Woodstock Movie.

External links

- [http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjackson/webbibl.html The 1960s: A Bibliography] Category:1960s ko:1960년대 ja:1960年代 simple:1960s

Heritage railway

takes on water at Bishops Lydeard station on the West Somerset Railway, Somerset, England.]] A heritage railway or a preserved railway is a term used, especially in Great Britain, for a railway which is run as a tourist attraction, is usually but not always run by volunteers, and seeks to re-create railway scenes of the past. They may be operated in concert with area museums (particularly transport museums). See List of heritage railways.

Historic heavy and light rail

Heritage railways are usually railway lines which were once run as commercial railways, but were later no longer needed, or were closed down, and were taken over or re-opened by volunteers or for-profit organizations. They are not primarily focused on providing local transportation - although they often do - but on serving tourist and leisure market. Typically a heritage railway will use steam locomotives and old-fashioned rolling stock to create a period atmosphere, although some are now concentrating on more recent "modern image" diesel and electric traction to re-create the post-steam railway era. The first heritage railway to be rescued and run entirely by volunteers was the Talyllyn Railway in Wales. It was taken over by a group of enthusiasts in 1950 and this is widely recognized as the start of the preservation movement. There are now several hundred heritage railways in the United Kingdom. This large number is due in part to the closure of many minor lines in the 1960s under the Beeching Axe. These were relatively easy to revive on a small scale. Another major reason is the British people's general liking for railways. Heritage railways often have limited service, only operating at times when volunteers are available to run the trains. However, following the privatisation of Britain's main-line railways, the lines between for-profit heritage railways and for-profit branch lines is blurring and some heritage railways are now operating as a significant part of the local transport infrastructure.

Heritage streetcars

branch line A related development that is becoming popular in the United States is the heritage streetcar. In many cities, historic streetcar (also termed tramcar, trolley or trams) lines are being put in place alongside modern light rail systems. Proponents claim that using a simple, reliable form of transit from 50 or 100 years ago can bring history to life for 21st century Americans. Additionally, many heritage streetcar lines turn out to be much more economical than their modern counterparts, often with installations that go in at a fraction of the cost of newer lines. However, there are trade-offs: such systems often lack handicapped access (required in the U.S. under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990), for example. Most are modified to comply with the law. Systems are operating successfully in over 20 U.S. cities, and are in planning or construction stages in 40 more. Heritage streetcar systems currently operating in Little Rock, Arkansas, Memphis, Tennessee, New Orleans, Louisiana, Philadelphia, PA and Tampa, Florida are among the larger; a heritage line was recently completed in Charlotte, North Carolina and will become an integral part of the city's new transit system. In 1947, American playwright Tennessee Williams brought long-term fame to the streetcars of New Orleans when A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play in 1948. A Streetcar Named Desire was made into a movie starring Marlon Brando in 1951. Over 50 years later, the revival of streetcar operations in New Orleans is credited by many to the worldwide fame gained by its streetcars made by the Perley A. Thomas Car Works. These cars were operating on the system's Desire route in the 1947 play and later movie of the same name. Some of the original Perley Thomas cars have been carefully restored locally and continue to operate in 2004. Sadly, many of the historic streetcars suffered significant water damage in the floods following Hurricane Katrina and the future of the line is in doubt. New Orleans' St. Charles streetcar line is a National Historic Landmark. In San Francisco, parts of the cable car and MUNI streetcar system are heritage lines, although they are also functioning parts of the city's transit system. The cable cars are a National Historic Landmark - with the New Orleans streetcars, the only such landmarks that move. The Hong Kong Tramways in Hong Kong are considered part of the heritage of Hong Kong. In the United Kingdom the vast majority of tram lines were torn up before the heritage movement began to flourish. The tracks and trams were scrapped: although trams are returning to British cities, they are modern transportation systems, not heritage operations. There are, however, thre notable heritage tram operations in the UK. The National Tramway Museum at Crich, is located in an old limestone quarry and has an extensive collection of preserved trams. By contrast the Blackpool tramway is the only surviving first-generation tram system in the UK and provides a service running along the Blackpool Pleasure Beach using historic and modern trams. There is also a modern "heritage" tramway in Birkenhead, Merseyside.

North America

North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean. It covers an area of 24,497,994 km² (9,458,728 sq mi), or about 4.8% of the Earth's surface. As of July 2002, its population was estimated at more than 514,600,000. It is the third largest continent in area, after Asia and Africa, and is fourth in population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. Both North and South America are named after Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a previously undiscovered (by Europeans) New World. North America occupies the northern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western Hemisphere, the Americas, or simply America. North America's only land connection is to South America at the narrow Isthmus of Panama. (For geopolitical reasons, all of Panama – including the segment east of the Panama Canal in the isthmus – is often considered a part of North America alone.) According to some authorities, North America begins not at the Isthmus of Panama but at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, with the intervening region called Central America and resting on the Caribbean Plate. Most, however, tend to see Central America as a region of North America, considering it too small to be a continent on its own. Greenland, although a part of North America geographically, is not considered to be part of the continent politically.

Physical features

Greenland, plutonic, metamorphic rock types of North America. ]] Plate tectonics recognizes the vast majority of North America as being the surface of the North American Plate. Parts of California and western Mexico are known for being the edge of the Pacific Plate, with the two plates meeting along the San Andreas fault. The continent can be divided into four great regions (each of which contains many sub-regions): the Great Plains stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Arctic; the geologically young, mountainous west, including the Rocky Mountains, the Great Basin, California and Alaska; the raised but relatively flat plateau of the Canadian Shield in the northeast; and the varied eastern region, which includes the Appalachian Mountains, the coastal plain along the Atlantic seaboard, and the Florida peninsula. Mexico, with its long plateaus and cordilleras, falls largely in the western region, although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf. The western mountains are split in the middle, into the main range of the Rockies and the coast ranges in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia with the Great Basin – a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts – in between. The highest peak is Denali in Alaska. Since 1931, Rugby, North Dakota, has officially been recognized as being at the geographic center of North America. The location is marked by a 4.5 metre (15 foot) field stone obelisk. Image:North america terrain 2003 map.jpg|North America bedrock and terrain. Image:North america basement rocks.png|North American cratons and basement rocks. Image:North America Tectonic Elements.jpg|Tectonic elements of North America Image:North america craton nps.gif|North American craton.

Territories and regions

craton On the main continent landmass, there are three large and relatively populous countries:
- Canada - many large islands off the shore of North America belong to Canada, including Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands on the west, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island on the east, and the Canadian Arctic islands (including Ellesmere Island, Baffin Island, and Victoria Island) in the north
- Mexico - the Revillagigedo archipelago and numerous smaller islands off its coast belong to Mexico
- The United States - the 48 contiguous states and Alaska are part of North America, while the state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean is not; the Aleutian Islands south of Alaska also belong to the U.S. At the southern end of the continent, in a relatively small area known as Central America, are the countries of:
- Belize
- Costa Rica
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Nicaragua
- Panama ¹ At the southeastern end of the continent lies a chain of islands territories called the Antilles, the Caribbean or the West Indies, which include the countries:
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Grenada
- Haiti
- Jamaica
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Trinidad and Tobago ¹ And the dependencies:
- Anguilla (British overseas territory)
- Aruba ² (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
- Cayman Islands (British overseas territory)
- Guadeloupe (French région d'outre-mer)
- Martinique (French région d'outre-mer)
- Montserrat (British overseas territory)
- Navassa Island (U.S. territory)
- Netherlands Antilles ¹ (part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands)
- Puerto Rico (U.S. commonwealth)
- Turks and Caicos Islands (British overseas territory)
- British Virgin Islands (British overseas territory)
- U.S. Virgin Islands (territory of the USA) Lying in the Atlantic Ocean but considered part of the continent are the dependencies:
- Bermuda, a British overseas territory found about 1,072 km (670 mi.) southeast of New York City
- Greenland, the largest island in the world and a self-governing dependency of Denmark, which is located in the far north of the continent to the east of Nunavut.
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a French collectivité d'outre-mer off the south coast of Newfoundland, is the last of France's once vast possessions in America north of the Caribbean. ¹ These states and dependencies have territory both in North and South America.
² These dependencies lie in South America, but are considered North American because of cultural and historical reasons.
See here for details.

Usage

The United States, Canada, and the other English-speaking nations of the Americas (Belize, Guyana, and the Anglophone Caribbean) are sometimes grouped under the term Anglo-America, while the remaining nations of North and South America are grouped under the term Latin America. Alternatively, Northern America is used to refer to Canada and the U.S. together (plus Greenland and Bermuda), while Central America is mainland North America south of the United States. The West Indies generally include all islands in the Caribbean Sea. In this respect, Latin America generally includes Central America and South America and, sometimes, the West Indies. The term Middle America is sometimes used to refer to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean collectively. The term "North America" may mean different things to different people. The term in common usage is often taken to mean "the United States and Canada, only" by some people of the United States and Canada, excluding Mexico and the countries of Central America, unless the context makes it clear that they are to be included (such as with specific reference to Mexico, when talking about NAFTA). For example, guides to wild flora and fauna published by the National Audubon Society for "North America" frequently include only species found in Canada and the U.S. This may be attributed to the fact that culturally and economically, the U.S. and Canada are more alike to each other than they are to the rest of North America. Mexicans, however, are acutely aware that Mexico is a part of North America and object to this usage. Central Americans, however, are generally content to be called Central Americans – largely because of their shared history, which includes several attempts at supranational integration in the region and in which Mexico, their much larger northern neighbor, was never involved.

Political divisions and regions

Notes:
¹ Continental regions as per UN categorisations/map.
² Depending on definitions, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago have territory in one or both of North and South America.
³ Due to ongoing activity of the Soufriere Hills volcano beginning 1995, much of Plymouth, Montserrat's de jure capital, was destroyed and government offices relocated to Brades.

External links

- http://www.america-norte.com/america-norte-mapa.htm Category:Continents Category:North America zh-min-nan:Pak Bí-chiu ko:북아메리카 ja:北アメリカ simple:North America th:ทวีปอเมริกาเหนือ

Short-line railroad

:Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the popular board game Monopoly, probably named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line. A short line is an independent railroad company that operates over a relatively short distance. Short lines generally exist for one of three reasons: to link two industries requiring rail freight together (for example, a gypsum mine and a wall board factory, or a coal mine and a power plant); to interchange revenue traffic with other, usually larger, railroads; or to operate a tourist passenger train service. Often, short lines exist for all three of these reasons. Because of their small size and generally low revenues, the great majority of short line railroads in United States are classified by the American Association of Railroads as Class III. In Canada, Transport Canada classifies short line railroads as Class II. In the beginning of the railroad age, nearly all railway lines were short lines, locally chartered, financed and operated; as the railroad industry matured, local lines were merged or acquired to create longer mainline railroads. Especially since 1980 in the USA and 1990 in Canada, many short lines have been established when larger railroad companies sold off or abandoned low-profit portions of their trackage. Short line operators typically have lower labor, overhead and regulatory costs than Class I railroads and therefore are often able to operate profitably lines that lost money for their original owners.

External links

- [http://www.aslrra.org/ American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association] Category:Rail transport

Taiwan clouded leopard

The Formosan Clouded Leopard is a subspecies of Clouded Leopard that was endemic to the island of Taiwan and now believed to be extinct. Its tail is slightly shorter than that of other subspecies of Clouded Leopard. It was the largest native wildlife on Taiwan, after the Formosan Black Bear. After extensive loggings at its natural habitat, the leopards were forced to retreat into the Jade Mountain and Dawu Mountain. After the 1980s, there has been no sightings of this animals. The Rukai Taiwanese aborigines believed that their ancestors transformed from these leopards. Category:Felines

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Comparison of contract and tort law

The law of obligations<

Branch line

United Kingdom

North America

Beeching Axe

Background

Rail closures by year

Beeching II

Changing attitudes and policies

Overview

Re-openings

References

External links

1960s

Events and trends

Technology

Science

War, peace and politics

Economics

Culture

Others

Big changes during the Sixties

In the United States

In other Western countries

In non-Western countries

People

World leaders

Writers and intellectuals

Sports figures

Entertainers

See also

Further Viewing

External links

Heritage railway

Historic heavy and light rail

Heritage streetcars

See also

North America

Physical features

Territories and regions

Usage

Political divisions and regions

See also

External links

Short-line railroad

See also

External links

Taiwan clouded leopard

Comparison of contract and tort law