Stoke-on-TrentStoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surrounded by the towns of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Alsager, Kidsgrove and Biddulph, which form a conurbation around the city. The city is polycentric, formed from the federation of six towns in 1910. It took its name from Stoke-upon-Trent where the main centre of government and the principal railway station in the district were located.
Euston railway stationEuston railway station ('juːstən ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railway. Euston is the eleventh-busiest station in Britain and the country's busiest inter-city passenger terminal, being the gateway from London to the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and Scotland.
British RailBritish Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies, and was privatised in stages between 1994 and 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, it became an independent statutory corporation in January 1963, when it was formally renamed the British Railways Board.
Tilting trainA tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train (or other vehicle) rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide about or seated passengers to feel squashed by the outboard armrest, and standing passengers to lose their balance. Tilting trains are designed to counteract this by tilting the carriages towards the inside of the curve, thus compensating for the g-force.
Sleeping carThe sleeping car or sleeper (often wagon-lit) is a railway passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American and English railways in the 1830s; they could be configured for coach seating during the day. Possibly the earliest example of a sleeping car (or bed carriage, as it was then called) was on the London & Birmingham and Grand Junction Railways between London and Lancashire, England.
East Coast Main LineThe East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between its southern terminus at London King's Cross station and via , , , , and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broadly parallel to the A1 road. The main line acts as a 'spine' for several diverging branches, serving destinations such as Cambridge, , , and , all with direct services to London. In addition, a few ECML services extend beyond Edinburgh to serve , although the principal London-Glasgow route is the West Coast Main Line (WCML).
GlasgowGlasgow (UKˈɡlɑːzɡoʊ,_ˈɡlæz-,_ˈɡlɑːs-,_ˈɡlæs- ; Glesca ˈɡleskə or Glesga ˈɡlezɡə; Glaschu ˈkl̪ɣas̪əxu) is the most populous city in Scotland and the third-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated metro population of 1,861,315, The city was made a county of itself in 1893, prior to which it had been in the historic county of Lanarkshire. The city now forms the Glasgow City Council area, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and is administered by Glasgow City Council.
BirminghamBirmingham (ˈbɜːrmɪŋəm ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West Midlands metropolitan county, and approximately 4.3 million in the wider metropolitan area. It is the largest UK metropolitan area outside of London. Birmingham is commonly referred to as the second city of the United Kingdom.
Oxford CanalThe Oxford Canal is a narrowboat canal in southern central England linking the City of Oxford with the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury (just north of Coventry and south of Bedworth) via Banbury and Rugby. Completed in 1790, it connects to the River Thames at Oxford, and links with the Grand Union Canal, which it is combined with for between to the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill. The canal is usually divided into the North Oxford Canal (north of Napton, via Rugby to Hawkesbury Junction near Coventry) and the South Oxford Canal, south of Napton to Banbury and Oxford.
Passenger railroad carA passenger railroad car or passenger car (American English), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (British English and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (Indian English) is a railroad car that is designed to carry passengers. The term passenger car can also be associated with a sleeping car, a baggage car, a dining car, railway post office and prisoner transport cars. The first passenger cars were built in the early 1800s with the advent of the first railroads, and were small and little more than converted freight cars.