Author: homealonesimon

Interested in Transport and Currency (UK)

First Capital Connect

First Capital Connect (FCC) was a British train operating company, owned by FirstGroup, that operated the Thameslink and Great Northern sectors from April 2006 to September 2014 which later became the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) franchise.

First Capital Connect was a major provider of commuter and regional services in London and the south east of England. It operated passenger rail services from Luton and Bedford via the Thameslink to Sutton, Wimbledon and Brighton via Central London.

It also operated commuter, suburban and regional services out of London King’s Cross and London Moorgate to Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. Major destinations served included Cambridge, King’s Lynn and Peterborough.

First Capital Connect ceased operations at 02:00 on 14 September 2014, when the franchise was taken over by Govia Thameslink Railway, and became part of the larger Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise.

History

On 8 April 2005, the Strategic Rail Authority announced that Danish State Railways/EWS, FirstGroup, John Laing/MTR, National Express and Stagecoach had been shortlisted for the Thameslink Great Northern franchise.[2] On 13 December 2005, the Department for Transport awarded the new franchise to FirstGroup, with the services operated by Thameslink and West Anglia Great Northern transferring to First Capital Connect on 1 April 2006.[3]

The term of the franchise was originally for nine years, finishing in 2015. This was dependent on performance targets being met at the end of the fourth year, which would trigger an automatic two-year extension, and an extension for up to three years after the sixth year at the discretion of the DfT. It was announced on 5 August 2011 that the franchise would end on 14 September 2013. “This will help to facilitate the continued project delivery of the Thameslink Programme, in particular the introduction of new rolling stock, which will be completed after the expiry date of the existing franchise.”[5]

The Thameslink franchise and the Great Northern part of the West Anglia Great Northern franchise were amalgamated in preparation for the Thameslink Programme (formerly Thameslink 2000), designed to increase capacity on the Thameslink route, with trains from King’s Lynn, Cambridge and Peterborough. On 24 July 2007 the government announced that it was fully committed to funding the Thameslink Programme, and the project is now largely complete.

In the early part of 2007, First Capital Connect conducted a study and undertook consultation on options for increasing the capacity of services to Peterborough and Cambridge. The final recommendations involved lengthening four peak services from eight to 12 carriages from May 2009, and adding or removing a small number of stops to balance loads between trains.[8][9] 1,779 more seats have been provided during the morning peak and 2,490 during the evening peak, significantly reducing the number of rush-hour commuters unable to find a seat.[citation needed]

Demise

In December 2011, the DfT announced that all services operated by First Capital Connect would be included within the new Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise.[10]

On 29 March 2012, the Department for Transport announced that Abellio, FirstGroup, Govia, MTR and Stagecoach had been shortlisted for the new franchise.[11][12]

The Invitation to Tender was to have been issued in October 2012 and the successful bidder announced in early 2013. But in the wake of the InterCity West Coast re-franchising process collapsing, the government announced in October 2012 that the process would be put on hold pending the results of a review.

In January 2013 the government announced it would be exercising an option to extend the franchise until 31 March 2014.

In March 2013, the Secretary of State for Transport announced plans for a direct award franchise to run until 13 September 2014. On 18 February 2014 the Department for Transport announced it had agreed a new short-term franchise with First Capital Connect, running for six months to September 2014.[16]

On 23 May 2014 the new TSGN franchise was awarded to Govia with services operated by First Capital Connect transferring to Govia Thameslink Railway on 14 September 2014.

Train Sim World

The raw power of some of British Railway’s most iconic locomotives is in your hands, you will experience the soot, sounds, and joy of the romantic steam era. Stepping back into the 1950s, you are transported into the industrial Northwest of England with Spirit of Steam: Liverpool Lime Street – Crewe, coming to Train Sim World 2 on May 31st!

This blog was made by simon schofield

SPIRIT OF STEAM ARRIVING SOON!

Working hard on busy passenger and freight services through historic Merseyside and Cheshire you can look forward to an entirely new simulation experience. With the introduction of Steam locomotives to Train Sim World 2, this will be like nothing you have driven before. Master the art of steam simulation, the firebox, and the boiler, creating the ultimate balancing act to keep these machines alive and powerful. Learn the finesse and rhythm of each locomotive to determine your speed and keep to the timetable, with no modern comforts to rely on, the only safety system is your wit!

Immersed in the middle of the British Railways steam era, you will take control of the famous LMS Jubilee Class locomotive, resplendent in nostalgic BR Brunswick Green livery, and adorned with BR’s late crest. Carrying passengers on a journey of a lifetime along the West Coast Main Line, over the Runcorn Railway Bridge, and right into the heart of Merseyside with this beautiful express 4-6-0.

This blog was made by simon schofield

Magna Carta 2.00 pound coin

1. We know who signed it, but we’ll never be sure who wrote it.

Magna Carta was an agreement between King John and a group of English barons in response to years of the king’s misrule and excessive taxation. Despite a closing line suggesting the charter was “Given by [John’s] hand,” the charter was more or less forced on him by the barons. Many 19th-century historians suggested that the charter was written by one of its most influential signers, Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton. However, the document’s exact wording was likely the product of months of back-and-forth negotiations between the king and his noblemen.

2. Though considered a founding document, Magna Carta had plenty of precedents.

The roots of Magna Carta are found in other charters granted by English kings at the beginning of their reigns. In 1100, Henry I had issued a 20-clause coronation charter, promising to rule justly, offer the church greater financial freedom and reduce royal meddling in the marriages and family inheritances of his barons. Although Henry kept few of these promises, his charter nonetheless served as a basis for the barons’ negotiations in 1215. Magna Carta was unique, however, in several respects, including its length and detail, its timing (it had been 60 years since the last royal charter) and the fact that it was less an offering by the king to his nobles than a demand by the nobles to their king.

Intended as a peace treaty, this first Magna Carta never took full effect and failed to avert war between John and the nobles. By September of 1215 the barons had garrisoned Rochester Castle in opposition to the king, while John had successfully petitioned the Vatican to have Magna Carta annulled and all the rebels excommunicated. It was only in 1225 that a new king, 9-year-old Henry III, reissued an abridged version of Magna Carta as his own coronation charter.

4. Three of Magna Carta’s original clauses are still part of British law.

Magna Carta laid a foundation for lasting legal concepts like the ban on cruel and unusual punishments, trial by a jury of one’s peers and the idea that justice should not be sold or unnecessarily delayed. But the document also addressed very specific concerns that don’t quite echo through the ages, including a ban on fishing weirs and a mandate on the proper width for the bolts of cloth used to make monk’s robes.

When Henry III reissued Magna Carta its 69 clauses had been reduced to 27. It remained that way, with minor changes, until the 19th century, when British parliamentarians set about pruning obsolete laws from the many-layered British legal code. By the mid-20th century, only three clauses remained on the books. These remaining laws grant freedom to the Church of England, guarantee the customs and liberties of the city of London and—most importantly—forbid arbitrary arrest and the sale of justice.

5. There’s no single “original” copy.

Multiple copies of the first Magna Carta (a sheet of parchment with approximately 3,600 words written in vegetable-based ink) were distributed to individual English county courts during the summer of 1215. Today four of those copies survive; the British Library holds two, and the other two are in the collections of the cathedrals at Salisbury and Lincoln. At the beginning of World War II, Winston Churchill tried to force Lincoln Cathedral to donate its original Magna Carta to the United States, where it had been on display, in hopes that such a gift would create support for an alliance with Great Britain. Such a strong-armed donation would, of course, have run contrary to the property rights enshrined in the document itself. In the end, the cathedral’s Magna Carta spent the war under guard at Fort Knox, but was returned to England after the war.

A handful of other Magna Cartas are versions issued between 1225 and 1297, when the charter officially entered the English statute books. In 2007, a 1297 Magna Carta sold at auction for $21.3 million, the most ever paid for a single page of text.

6. If you call it “the Magna Carta,” you probably aren’t from England.

According to standard British usage, King John’s Great Charter has 63 clauses but no definite article—it’s simply referred to as Magna Carta, without the “the.” The charter was written in Latin (in which there are no exact equivalents for “an” or “the”), and signed by men who would have been fluent in Latin, French and Middle English. But for American newspapers, museum exhibitions and politicians, Magna Carta nearly always merits the article.

The Stanley Parable

The Stanley Parable is a story-based video game designed and written by developers Davey Wreden and William Pugh. The game carries themes such as choice in video games, the relationship between a game creator and player and predestination/fate.

In the game, the player guides a silent protagonist named Stanley alongside narration by British actor Kevan Brighting. As the story progresses, the player is confronted with diverging pathways. The player may contradict the narrator’s directions, which if disobeyed will then be incorporated into the story. Depending on the choices made, the player will encounter different endings before the game restarts to the beginning.

The Stanley Parable was originally released on July 31, 2011, as a free modification for Half-Life 2 by Wreden. Together with Pugh, Wreden later released a stand-alone remake using the Source engine under the Galactic Cafe studio name. The remake recreated many of the original mod’s choices while adding new areas and story pathways, as well as overhauling the game’s graphics entirely. It was announced and approved via Steam Greenlight in 2012, and was released on October 17, 2013, for Microsoft Windows. Later updates to the game added support for macOS on December 19, 2013, and for Linux on September 9, 2015. A further expanded edition titled The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe was released on April 27, 2022. It is available on consoles in addition to previously supported platforms and it includes additional content, as well as further refined graphics.

Both the original mod and its two remakes have received critical praise from journalists. Critics praised the game’s narrative and commentary on player choice and decision-making.

The player has a first-person perspective, and can travel and interact with certain elements of the environment, such as pressing buttons or opening doors, but has no combat or other action-based controls.[1]

The narrator presents the story to the player. He explains that the protagonist Stanley is employee 427 in an office building. Stanley is tasked to monitor data coming from a computer screen and press buttons appropriately without question. One day, the screen monitoring data goes blank, which has never happened before. Stanley, unclear on what to do, begins to explore the building and discovers that the workplace is totally abandoned.

At this stage, the story splits off in numerous possibilities, based on the player’s choices. When the player comes to an area where a choice is possible, the player can opt to follow the narrator’s directions or perform the opposing action. The initial decision is a set of two open doors. The narrator notes that Stanley traveled through the leftmost door, but this has not yet occurred.[a] The narrator takes the player’s choices into account, reacting with new narration or attempts to return the player back to the target path if he is contradicted. For example, if the player were to follow the narrator’s directions and pass through the leftmost door, the story of the missing employees proceeds. Alternatively, the player can choose the rightmost door, causing the narrator to adjust his story. In this case, he will urge the player to return to the “proper” path, although the player can continuously disobey the narrator, resulting in other adjustments to the story. In some instances, the narrator breaks the fourth wall when reacting to the player’s decisions.

In the original 2011 mod, there were six different endings. Wreden stated it would take about an hour for the player to experience them all. The 2013 remake added more than ten endings, altered some pre-existing endings and the respective routes to trigger them, as well as several Easter eggs, and other choice-related aspects. Ultra Deluxe expands on the game’s endings further, including further routes, new environments, and alternate endings.

This blog was made by simon schofield

MULTI-COLORED TRAIN 2

I have created another train for my London Commuter on Creators club i had a good response from people how like my train that i design for tsw2 on Creators club i takes time to design a train if you help to design a train on tsw2 i can show you how to design a train for Creators club

This my new train that i have design on creators club and this blog was made by simon schofield