Atomic Systems

Those of you who listen to XFM will know that they recently ran a competition to find seven new wonders of the world. This set me thinking; what do UKTS members consider to be the seven greatest achievemnts of railway engineering? It should certainly provoke some interesting discussion
By the way-my own seven wonders would be:
Stevenson's Rocket
Gresley's A4s
The Forth Bridge
Brunel's Great Western main line
The APT
The Channel Tunnel
The Black 5s

Erm - the Euston Arch, Birmingham New Street pre having the . bombed out of it, the High Speed Train, the class 08 shunter, the Severn Tunnel, Shrewsbury signal box and probably York station.

central trains - oh hang on wounders or the railway world - appologies i miss read the title

Murray, I know your just the sort who LOVES nitpicking spelling mistakes...its Seven, not Severn

David

Cromford and High Peak Railway
08590 - How it's not fallen to bits yet
MK1 coaching stock
The Severn Tunnel
The Tay Bridge Mk2
The Darjeeling and Himilayan Railway
Clive Tyler

well now for my serious answer

D5185
45305
78019
D123
30777
63601

and

The Great Central Railway

hmmm, hard question

D5185, soon to be back in traffic
North Yorkshire Moors Railway
V2's
Black 5's
Sir Knigle Greasly (the loco)
Bath station, the original
The standard loco's

1) The Stockton & Darlington (First in the World)
2) Mallard (Fastest Steamer Ever)
3) Channel Tunnel (Most amazing modern construction project)
4) Brunels original GW main line Paddington-Bristol (most original and far-sighted early construction project)
5) The original Japanese bullet train (makes the HST look like a Hornby has-been)
6) Construction/joining of the East-West continental lines in the USA (for the speed of construction and administrative organisation alone). Everyone interested in railways should read the history of this construction project: it makes anything built in Britain look like a kid playing in a sandpit!
7) The Settle & Carlisle line (the line with the most romance, soul and scenery in Britain. And another staggering construction story)

And who said Shrewsbury signal box??? Come, on think BIG here!

And who said 'APT' - it's the 7 wonders not the 7 mistakes we're listing!

Martin

- Richard Trevithick's Penydarren
- Liverpool & Manchester Railway
- The Trans-Continental Railroad
- TGV
- Metropolitan Railway
- The Electric Telegraph
- Grand Central Terminal, New York

-Bullied pacifics (all 3 types)
-Channel Tunnel
-Forth Bridge
-Metopolitan Railway (the original bit)
-The original Britania bridge.
-Royal Albert Bridge
-oh and of course the RH&DR

JR

The Black 5
The 9F
The Bullied pacifics
Beyer Garratts
The Ravenglass and Eskdale (finest scenery on any preserved railway in my oinion)
The Ffestiniog Railway and its development of locos
The Forth Bridge
The Channel Tunnel

- The Trans-Siberian railway
- The APT (Britain invented tilting trains, with a bit more investment it would have worked. Thanks Maggie)
- The Shinkansen
- St Pancras
- Those american mile-long trains
- The channel tunnel (amazing how we actually agreed on something with the French, don't you think?)
- Forth Bridge

TGV
St Pancras Station
Chinese Heavy Steam still working in the early 21st Century
Amtrak - for the simple reason that they still exist
The Settle to Carlise line
English Electric

I thought the idea of the seven wonders of the world would be that they were monumental efforts of engineering or architecture (like the original seven wonders of the world.) Does someones favourite choo-choo train really count?

Something like the new railway linking China and Tibet is what I'd consider to be one of the seven wonders of the rail world!

Class 37s (louder than all)
Class 40s Striking!
Class 55s king of the diesels
Mk3s fantastic design and ride quality
The West Highland Line
IC 125 The most successful train ever produced in the UK
New York Subway System (a four track line underground is something else!)

These are my own opinion of course and most of the other wonders people have posted are just as worthy.