LONDON -- Dust clouds from the Sahara Desert have grown tenfold over the last half century and threaten the global climate -- but don't blame the camels.
"Toyota-isation", or the increasing numbers of four-wheel drive vehicles speeding over the sand, has become a major factor exacerbating the problem, a British expert said on Friday.
"It's the Toyota or Mitsubishi or whatever it may be that's replaced the camel for many people there. And they charge around disturbing the surface," Oxford University geography professor Andrew Goudie told Reuters.
"Then you've got all these tourists and people who charge around, and people who just love driving in deserts, all these SUVs and so on."
Goudie, who has been investigating dust and deserts since the mid-1970s, said the problem began with the expansion of four-by-four traffic in the desert after World War Two. But it has worsened of late as wealth and car ownership have spread.
"People in areas like the Middle East were quite poor until the oil boom for example," said Goudie, who gave his findings at the International Geographical Congress in Scotland this week.
Increased drought due to climate changes, over-grazing and ploughing have also played their part in increasing the amount of dust coming out of some parts of the Sahara by nearly 10 times since the late 1940s, the academic said.
The Sahel zone south of the Sahara also has acute problems.
Goudie called for strict measures like bans on vehicles in sensitive areas, wires across the desert to block four-by-fours but not animals, and plenty of warning signs.
"This is being done quite successfully in parts of Namibia," he said of the signs.
Vehicles, he explained, break the crust of the desert which would otherwise be relatively stable due to algae, lichens, clay or pebbles on the surface.
"When you start driving over these surfaces, you break that surface crust and then the fine dusty material underneath can be driven out into the atmosphere in dust storms."
Latest estimates of global dust emissions are about 2 to 3 billion tons each year, with particles from Africa traveling as far as Greenland and the Caribbean, he said.
This poses a threat to human health, exacerbates global climate changes and can have a detrimental effect on other habitats including even coral reefs.
"The cross-boundary nature of dust makes it a truly global issue and one that is not receiving the attention it deserves. The importance of dust basins as a source of global dust is now being more widely understood and the magnitude of the environmental consequences identified," he said.
Britain, for example, has seen an increase in "blood rain", so-called because of its dusty, reddish color, Goudie said.
But while the problem is worsening in Africa -- where the Bodele depression in Chad is the world's worst dust spot -- other arid regions such as North America, Mexico, China and Australia are producing less dust, the academic said.


A photo of the DGA Booth Space at the 2018 Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance conference in St. Charles, Illinois.
No course collecting the past couple of days, as I have been busy singing the praises of Disc Golf Association at the 2018 annual conference of the Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. It has been such an honor being able to spend two days promoting not only DGA to hundreds of event attendees, but also introducing several people to the sport of disc golf for the very first time.
I think those of us in the sport forget sometimes that there are still millions of individuals around the United States alone who have no idea what those strange-looking metal objects with chains are in their city/county parks! So being able to talk about the basics of playing the sport, teaching individuals about the different types of discs and grips, teaching people the X-Step? Is a lot of fun.
A photo of me, Derek Tonn, having a little fun at DGA's booth space at the 2018 IAHPERD conference in St. Charles, Illinois.
It was an interesting conference, seeing all of the products that are being promoted to Physical Education teachers at K-12 schools throughout the region. It was also a lot of fun seeing a number of those products being demonstrated in two large "gym floor" areas. Floor hockey, rollerskating, a game similar to volleyball played with something similar to a tennis racquet, etc. And then there was me, "banging chains" while making literally hundreds of 15-20 foot putts over the two-day event. Using the noise and motion to draw people over to our booth to learn a bit more about the sport and DGA's products.
I really enjoyed getting to know a number of the other vendors as well! Camps, universities, even the Chicago Bears, in addition to all of the companies promoting their specific products and services. And other than one other exhibitor who was selling 7-8 Quest discs with their company's name on them? We were the only disc golf presence at the event.
Of course, not everyone in attendance was interested in disc golf! But for the folks that were, I was able to make several positive connections. Tell folks all-about Steady Ed, and his mantra of "the player that has the most fun wins" while we're teaching kids and adults a sport that they can enjoy for a lifetime. For a fraction of the cost of golf or other sports.


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Peter live for the adventure, exploration, and the experience of different cultures from all his travels. He use photography as way to tell his stories or tell stories of others. Throughout the year he has given the opportunity to work with many different industries in capturing and sharing their vision through photography. He's always looking for new opportunities to expand his portfolio with his skills, knowledges, and experiences to create amazing stories to share.


This will be Wayne's 3rd trip to the Sayreville Main Street Stage. 1st as Chino in West Side Story and as Tim in Noises Off! He is overjoyed to be playing the voice of the plant in this production. He wants to thank the cast for all their patience & dedication to this production. He also enjoys late night TV, movies and fair and honest barter system. Live long and prosper. HERE I COME FOR YOU !!


text:
"This article was like a breath of fresh air"
An insightful article by William Rome on the Norway incident, "Knights Templar: Honesty and Hypocrisy," was published today at Occidental Dissent:
A lot of people are going to be infuriated by this post so I might as well get started early: I will not shed a single tear over the dead brats of Norway's traitorous elite.
For over half a century the Evil Elites of the West have systematically brought tyranny to the people they rule over through non-white immigration, forced integration, forced busing, and Multicultural propaganda which has led to an endless maelstrom of rape, robbery, assault, and murder. To top it off these evil elites also institute Hate-Crimes legislation to silence those who speak out against their tyranny.
Are the Evil Elite and their children affected by any of this? Of course not! They're protected and hidden away in gated communities and private schools. In other words for half a century the Evil Elites of the West have forced policies that they insulate themselves from.
The hands of this Evil Elite are dripping with the blood of their people from the assaults, rapes, and murders they have unleashed. The lives of countless families have been shattered because of the policies shoved down their people's throats. Why should I shed one fucking tear when they finally get a taste of what they've unleashed? Sorry: my tears are reserved for the people whose lives have been shattered by the policies of the Evil Elite not the Evil Elite themselves. To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat lead."
As Hunter has pointed out, Anders Behring Breivik didn't simply pull off some Columbine-style massacre of teenagers for the hell of it (as much as many are making it out to be) but an attack on the next generation of traitors for Norway's government. They weren't attending a Salute Your Shorts Camp Anawanna but the training camp of 16-22 year olds for Norway's ruling Multicult-loving Leftist party. In other worlds he hit them where it hurt most: the training ground for their hand-picked successors.
That is why I included the quote from Rikky-Tikky Tavi in the beginning [Chechar's note: omitted here]. Anders Behring Breivik (as all intelligent political thinkers once did) knew that eliminating the heirs was just as important as eliminating those currently in power. But many will say, "He killed kids! He's an insane lunatic!" My question is: since when does killing kids for political reasons right away mean lunacy? Roman emperors and Norman dukes killed their rival's families. The Bolsheviks shot the Romanov children along with the Tsar and Tsarina. We bombed Kaddafi's children in Libya. Does this mean every Roman emperor, Norman duke, the Bolshevik shooter, and the American pilots that killed children in the name of politics were batshit crazy? And let's not forget the murder of millions of children every year in the form of abortion which Leftist cheer as a "Human Right". Is every white woman that gets an abortion a batshit crazy lunatic? Maybe to gain Leftist sympathy he should call himself an extremely late-term abortionist.
I'm not jumping up and down cheering what he did but let's put the womanish sentimentalism aside. Is killing children for political reasons cold, cruel, and calculating? Absolutely. Does it mean mental illness? Absolutely not.
Even worse those knee-jerkingly calling Anders Behring Breivik a lunatic strengthen the old Marxist canard that all violence done against the Left is a sign of mental illness, while Leftist violence such as the crimes of Che and Mandela are acceptable if misguided acts of political dedication. Why is it that violent Leftists are never mentally unstable?
While I won't be toasting his actions tonight I also won't be shedding tears for the loss of the future traitors who would grow up to continue their parents destruction of Norway. The Evil Elite brought this backlash on themselves with the policies they forced. That's my honestly.
Now for the hypocrisy.
The reaction by the non-mainstream Right to the events in Norway has been jaw-dropping. First off is the spectacle of those who worship Hitler denouncing Anders Behring Breivik for killing fellow whites. They scream, "How could a Nationalist kill his own people?" This from the people who worship a man who killed millions of white people (Eastern Europeans) because they were Slavs? Such hypocrisy is stunning.
The next hypocrisy is from those who are doing everything imaginable to distance themselves from Anders Behring Breivik, saying he's not one of us. Such self-survival is understandable and justified (especially those in Europe). But this distancing is coming from the same people who are routinely denouncing mainstream conservatives for being too afraid to embrace and identify with the non-mainstream Right. They are doing the exact same thing they lambast mainstream conservatives for: being afraid to embrace their extremists like the Left does.
The third hypocrisy is from those who are saying Anders Behring Breivik should have attacked some Muslim rapists and he would have gained more sympathy. This from the same people who've said for years that we shouldn't attack those the Evil Elite have invited in but the Evil Elite themselves. Anders Behring Breivik did just that and he's being denounced by some for not doing they've always said not to do.
My fourth hypocrisy is one of cowardice. On this site and others there is continuous talk about the backlash and collapse of BRA [Black Run America] here in America and Eurabia in Europe. How did you think this would play out? Debates on German philosophers? Essays on political theory? As much we may like to see ourselves as contemporary Voltaires, Thomas Paines and Martin Luthers, our radical writings (like theirs) will have no teeth to them until they're taken up with physical force. Am I calling for this physical force? Hell no! I know when it finally comes it will be violent and unpredictable. I'm not looking forward to the day it comes but I know it's coming and I know it won't take the form of democratic elections or academic debates. Anders Behring Breivik is just the start of the form the backlash and collapse is going to take. Muslims in Eurabia and blacks in BRA are assaulting, raping, and murdering us while they riot, bomb, and burn our cities to the ground: did you not expect a backlash just as violent?
No system falls except in blood. The Roman Republic, Vatican control over Western Europe, British control over the American Colonies and Ireland, and the French and Russian monarchies all collapsed in blood. BRA and Eurabia will be no different. So unless the armchair revolutionaries denouncing Anders Behring Breivik while publically wanting the same thing (Muslims out of Europe) are ready to accept this they need to stop reading Harold Covington, listening to IRA rebel songs, admiring the American Revolutionary Fathers, and saying we'll never vote ourselves out of this mess because they're no different from the hated mainstream conservatives who say this country needs a revolution while also saying we shouldn't be too extreme.
Anders Behring Breivik walked the walk you only talk.
Selected comments from the thread
Mr. Rome: I'm with you. No tears shed by me. Those were no "children", they were young adults. It is all-tragic, but is clearly the fault of no one but the white-hating leftists who brought multi-culturalism. They deserve the blame as they were the root cause of this, as well as the rape of over 800 Norwegian women.
Denise: Did you see their pictures… no kids there. Young adults. Multi-culturalists have brought havoc on Europe and possibly America. Our children will have to fight for their lands and heritage. Thanks, multi-culturalists.
My question to all groups involved, regardless of the spectrum of rightist politics you fall into: Do you believe there is any way to regain our land, culture, heritage and protect our race without bloodshed? I sure hope so, but honestly don't see it. It's not our fault, it's the multi-cultists.
Ed the Department Head says:
I agree completely with Rome's analysis of this situation. While I don't like any of Breivik's neocon stances, Rome is right about this situation. Breivik is the new Pied Piper. The leftist Norwegians hate and vilify the poor Germans over the war and try to psychologically destroy them for being German. The leftist Norwegians sentence their fellow Norwegians to rape, torture, and murder by invading mud people the leftists let through the gates, all for the crime of being white.
Breivik only showed them that if Germanic people and white people are to be brutalized they should be consistent. They take innocent white people's children and now he has taken their evil guilty leftist brats. It is well deserved!
Discard says:
Unless someone has advocated killing adolescents, they are not a hypocrite to think Breivik a madman. Bombing governments is revolutionary activity. Slaughtering your enemies' children is simply savage.
As a civilized White man and a racist, I don't model myself on Roman emperors, Norman dukes, or Trotsky's death squads. By the way, since Richard III murdered the sons of Edward V, no English prince has been named "Richard". That kind of thing hasn't gone over well, historically. Denise is right, nobody will see anything but a pile of nice looking dead White kids. I recognize that you can't send the tyrannical class to the gallows and let their offspring go walking down the street, but that's what re-education camps are for, once you've won your revolution.
But you won't win any revolution by shooting up youth camps, even commie youth camps. What did the PLO's repeated bombings and shoot-ups of school buses and airliners get them but the contempt of every non-Nazi White in the world? 9-11 sure persuaded a lot of people to look into the Sand People's grievances, didn't it?
That said, this event is just one more in the war that the multi-cult has brought on us. This will spin out of anyone's control. These dumbass kids will not be the last victims.
Wandrin says:
"Denise is right, nobody will see anything but a pile of nice looking dead White kids." – Discard
I think Norway's ruling elite will be traumatized.
Wandrin said "I think Norway's ruling elite will be traumatized." I think you are right and I wonder if in their (deserved) grief and panic they won't do something evil and stupid and oppressive that will, in the short term, harm the White Norwegian people, but in the long term might so injure and alienate the general population that this could eventually lead to civil conflict.
I hope so. I hope they decide after this to try to destroy the Norwegians with much more overt oppression and greater mud immigration and the people either succumb or fight back. (Obviously I want the latter.)
"I just wish that their pain had another source" – Discard
I don't really know what I think. My gut feeling is this will have an impact in Norway itself and one that is less predictable than most people seem to believe but at the same time my kids are that age so trying to think about this event is like sandpaper in the brain.
Yggdrasil says:
Is this the very first time that a gathering of leftists in a Western Nation, post 1960, has been made to pay the ultimate price for their anti-democratic multicultural impositions? If so, then I suspect that the pictures of dead young adults will have a rather powerful deterrent effect on parents who might otherwise encourage their kids to be leftists.
It is hard to imagine a more powerful and socially compelling deterrent than to inject the sort of horrific risk that these pictures implant into the minds of multiculturally inclined parents.
Viewed without emotion, this incident implies a multi-layered level of calculation that I find quite remarkable – an example not to be emulated to be sure – but remarkable nonetheless.
Thus far, Islamic terrorism has been confined to sub-way commuters in Spain, Street car commuters in Britain, and primarily, office workers in Manhattan – all nobodies that the elites could, quite frankly, care less about losing. All that the Islamic terror attacks carried out on average working stiffs accomplished was to generate broad popular support for the war on terror and the vast increase in budgets for the security state. In short, their targeting was terrible as they never terrorized the elites responsible for their grievances. This attack was entirely different, as it appears designed to inject an element of extreme risk into volunteering to join the ranks of the multicultural political elite.
Further, the soft sort of totalitarianism of the Frankfurt School variety that is spreading throughout the West is carefully designed to avoid pushing its victims over the edged to the kind of violent reaction that occurred in Norway. Multiculturalism was supposed to be something you could impose on the proles without any cost!
This attack seems to be a rather remarkable demonstration that the velvet-glove totalitarianism that we all live under has failed in its primary mission to keep the elites safe from harm. What are they going to do? Have platoons of guards armed with automatic rifles patrolling the campus of Harvard to protect the future elites from the townies? Wouldn't that be a bit obvious?
After Norway, hasn't the task of obliterating the White race become a bit more "messy"?
The analogies of Hunter and others to the killings commanded by Bush and Western butchers are apt, but miss the point. This job had the kind of purposefulness that one would expect from a state planned attack, not an attack prompted by the rage of some lone nutter.
It hit the aspiring elites were it hurts, in their training camp for future leaders, and it hit the proud, self righteous multi-culti parents where it hurts as well. It revealed the soft underbelly of the multicultural regime for all to see.
On a personal level, I feel sad for the parents and relatives of these dead young adults. After all most were lured into a wildly risky scheme of Quisling oppression of their fellow countrymen thinking that the enterprise was riskless and profitable.
But putting on the cap of an intelligence analyst, I see a picture of profound significance and meaning, one sure to be a major turning point.
CBM says:
Yggdrasil, thank you for your posting. This is exactly what needs to be said rather than this mindless handwringing and conspiracy nonsense that has gone on in right wing circles since this happened. I am glad that there are people out there on the right that are actually thinking.
Kievsky says:
Old Atlantic, I agree we have a right of self defense. But if shoot people, will that be an effective defense? It shall remain to be seen if Breivik's act reduces the mud-flood into Scandinavia. My criticism is that it is taking a gun to a MindWar.
What needs to be happening in Norway is that most Norwegians need to be fanatically opposed to open borders ideology, to scare the crap out of the leaders. The Europeans have to decide whether their native country is really their home or not, and if it is, to take to the streets like in Greece, or better, Egypt.
If ordinary natives have a blase or even positive attitude to the invasion of their own native home country, what can you do for them? Not much? I think a great slogan would be,
"The immigrants have a home somewhere else; but this is the only home you have. Are you ready for your grandchildren to be refugees from their ancestral land?"
I'm kind of surprised to see this article from William Rome. Aren't you the one who has a kind of multicultural lifestyle?
Maybe it's because he has the same kind of cognitive dissonance as Breivik did. I think it must be horrible to be a "Cultural Conservative" while partly or wholly denying the significance of race.
I'm glad it wasn't a WN or Neo-Nazi though. The kosher conservatives are like the nerd boys who play by the rules and still get bullied and mistreated, and then go postal.
We WN's are like the kids wearing hoodies smoking pot and cigs in the woods across the street from the school — we say "fuck your rules" right from the get go. And so we have less cognitive dissonance about the whole thing. We are able to keep our cool better.
The Systematic global displacement and genocide through mixing and attrition program against Whites is a MindWar, not a hot lead and cold steel war.
If you treat it like a hot lead and cold steel war, the neutral Whites who might have been on our side will end up shooting us on behalf of the Leftists. This is the mistake Germany made — they relied on too much hot lead and cold steel, and not enough on diplomatic savvy. The Jews ran circles around them diplomatically speaking — they had the US and the USSR sewn up, they encircled them, and the Germans thought they could just shoot their way to victory, all the while refusing to develop the atom bomb. Just like Knights in Shining Armor going against Mongols with compound bows on ponies. Beautiful defeat, rather than dirty victory.
The shooting spree is a sort of romantic expression of hopelessness — "we are defeated, so I will go down with guns blazing" statement.
The MindWar is where it's at.
I wrote a post about how hate is like gasoline, and you can burn yourself, or you can fill a tank and start a useful engine with it. Breivik is an example of someone who burned himself (and others).
One of the kids at that youth camp may have been a future nationalist leader. Maybe one of the survivors is. Who knows how this will shake out. It could end up changing some minds in our direction. Violence is certainly part of the European soul.
And some things should be hated.
Old Atlantic says:
Kievsky, I agree with your strategy. This view, which I find much to agree with, could be stated as:
1. With the support of the people, the violence is not needed.
2. Without the support of the people, the violence is useless and even counter-productive.
Rollory says:
Thank you. This is an excellent piece. Says everything I would have.
Excellent, excellent piece.
"Your Anders hero just screwed White Nationalism forever."
- Denise
This is a comment I posted at Mangan's but I suspect isn't going to be approved:
I was not specifically expecting an event like this but I don't find it at all unbelievable or nonsensical. It fits into the overall pattern.
Tom Baugh's black hats/white hats dichotomy comes into play here. This guy was a black hat. GoV and Auster and Mangan are white hats. It would be better if the white hats could win on their own civilized terms, but I see no reason to expect that to actually happen. The Left simply does not believe that consequences for their actions are possible, therefore they will continue to act in defiance of the facts that imply those consequences and civilized behavior predicated on those consequences; therefore those consequences will become more extreme. There will be more black hats, lots more. That is simply the nature of the situation we are in. Calling it ugly won't make it go away.
"There is no substitute for victory." – Douglas MacArthur
Jeffrey Heavin says:
The events in Oslo are part of a beginning. Revolutions are bloody, ugly events without glamour. The glamour comes only later when stories are told to grandchildren. Any real White Nationalist understands what Mr. Rome understands, and that is that "history rhymes" — there is precedent upon precedent of violent events that make a revolution. Lawyers and other such hustlers have not only failed us but have become impotent and quite ridiculous.
To expect such change as is needed to occur without violence is like expecting a pork chop without killing a pig.
Spooky says:
God forbid that we feel anything but horrendous guilt that a group of Marxists took it in the groin for the first time in 70 years. Yes, we're only supposed jump for joy when our Apache helicopters strafe a few brown journalists in Iraq. Otherwise we're "showing our negro."
"How would you like it if an anti-racist leftist killed your kids because of what you believe?"
- Lew
See here: "Thus far, Americans have proven to be more tolerant of the ethnic vibrancy in their midst, despite the Sept. 11 attacks and 4,380 annual murders by immigrants ." They are doing it already. They've been doing it for decades.
I agree that going after their kids is too much but the political elite have been doing this for years to everyone who can't afford to get away from diversity murder.
"Don't have the stomach for this small event"
- WR
It's not a small event. I have relatives who infiltrated terrorist organisations as part of the security services. None of the people in those organizations would have dreamt of going after the kids of their enemies. The mafia doesn't do this. It's a big fucking deal to specifically go after the kids of the political elite rather then the elite itself.
Given the specific nature of the crimes of the political elite and given that it is other people's children who have been the majority of victims of forced integration, mass immigration and murder by diversity I can see the logic of what he did but morally it is a big fucking deal. Don't pretend it's not.
Not that I'm jumping for joy, mind you. Nor am I weeping in my yard.
Oh…but….Muslims were not persecuting Jews when Israel was created…..it bagan after Jews started attacking Muslims….but who cares? As long as the Aryan Hero is killing lefties! Woo HOO!!!!! tha't ALL that matters! Lefties! YEE HA!!!
NO dead Muzzies or anything. Labour's still in power. Woo HOO! He killed Lefty Teens! WOW!!!! This is just like Poitiers! Just like the Seige of Malta! The 300! Woo HOO!
But do you honestly still believe we will beat this thing with nothing but breeding and talk? You agree they have us totally surrounded electronically. So very few voices are actually going to get out, regardless of wealth or looks. In the meantime millions of voices are raised to the contrary, educated to the contrary, and prepared to act contrary to our message.
Denise, I don't think that the people we are trying to reach have such weak stomachs as to forever swear off White nationalism just because a roiled up neocon whacked some of our common enemies.
He was not a WN! And maybe Labor will have second thoughts about being traitors.
Thank you Kievsky. Revolution makes strange bedfellows. Doesn't make sense to argue ideological purity.
I'm going to get a knock on the door for this shit. Just talking Janet! Just talking!
Brutus says:
"it's ABOUT the FACT that your Anders hero just screwed White Nationalism forever. "
Hardly.
Where have you been? It used to take a few months, but now it is only taking about two weeks for the public to forget.
Well they are targeting our kids. Its called Demographic Warfare and Genocide by assimilation. Just because the anti-whites keep their hands clean, by using non-whites to do their dirty work, does not mean they are not every bit as guilty as Anders. The only difference between Anders and the anti-white left, is Anders did not delegate.
All Rapes in Oslo Committed by Immigrants, British National Party (here). So please explain who is responsible for bringing in these rapists and why they are not responsible for their crimes.
Is the only difference between them getting actual dirt on your hands?
Richard Harlos says:
This is a sober interpretation of the situation and an icon of sanity following two days of reactionary bias-confirmation by those who seemed to jump from fanatical opportunity of bias-confirmation to the next. This is only the second piece I've read on this site, being introduced to it only yesterday but I'm quite pleased with what I'm reading and I'll surely return for more.
Thank you for having the courage not merely to look at the situation for what it is, but also for having the courage to state it so plainly.
sybille says:
This article was like a breath of fresh air indeed. I thought I was the only one who was not actually mourning the demise of some far-left youth and "youfs" (I believe many were non-white).
And if it keeps people from becoming white nationalists, Denise, what use would they have been anyway if they care more for the deaths of some leftwing youth than they care about the impending extinction of our entire culture and race due to those cultural-Marxist leftists and their parents?
AnalogMan says:
Good article. Your shares have gone up. I understand what many others seem to have missed: that you have consistently argued against this kind of action.
There are only two ways that the present situation can be resolved. The peaceful solution means the death of the race. We may not win a racial war, but we can't win any other way. History often turns on seemingly trivial events. I have no idea whether Breivik's actions will be one of those events, nor whether they will lead to the extinction of WN, as Denise believes, or to escalating rounds of reaction and counter-reaction. But I agree that it was a logical development, and quite likely not the last.
This is not to be interpreted as endorsement of his actions. I'm not wise enough to judge them. There is no evidence that he did them to further our cause.
One point of fact seems to have been overlooked by some commenters agonising over the image of Nordic children being slaughtered. This was a political camp attended by the rising generation of the perpetrators of the multicult – and their clients. Many of them were immigrants from Africa and Asia. At least one of the survivors quoted in the press was a Member of Parliament. As you point out, it was a logical target.
On a lighter note, for any readers of golden age science fiction, here's a parable from 1961 that illustrates the logic.
Norman Lowell says:
Very good article expounding the result of Breivik's action. The Left, the Do-Gooders, the Traitors will tremble–as they should.
The follow up action to Breivik will all be positive for us: the RRRRR: Radical, Racialist Right, Revolutionary Reactionaires.
But his ideology and intentions were wrong–terribly misguided. He was a patsy, a tool in the hands of the Rodents: a Christian Zionist.
Can one get any lower than that? You couldn't. But yes, Breivik has set in motion a ripple, a wave, a Tsunami of wrathful Whites–the Right ones.
This is just the beginning: just the start of the White Man's Fury. And our Ideology, our Intentions will be diamond pure, diamond hard.
The Final Battle has started. No quarter given to Traitors–and none asked.
2012: Anno Zero!
Posted in Anders Breivik, Civil war, Justice, Nelson Mandela, Thomas Paine
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9 Replies on ""This article was like a breath of fresh air""
Sector 9 says:
The acronym "BRA" = "Black Run America"
I've heard this term bandied about. But to me it's quite a misnomer. "Blacks" don't "run" anything or have any substantial political or economic power themselves (at least none that they wouldn't immediately squander w/out outside help or management). They are used as tools by the establishment governing class to politicize race through Identity Politics while accusing native, law-abiding, tax-paying, middle-class citizenry of racism or bigotry, etc, in order to silence them politically.
The voter intimidation, the violent all-Black on White flash mobs (that go 100% unreported in the establishment media), the repetitive portrayal of Black men as superior to Whites in the media and commercials, welfare, Section 8, insane affirmative action, etc, could certainly give one the impression, though, that the country is "Black run", so I suppose I can see where the term originates.
It's not, though. It's Leftist / Egalitarian run. Genocidal immigration policies and intimidation through cynical Identity Politics are just a couple symptoms of that, not the source of the problem.
Chechar says:
Rome has written a couple of follow-up articles, of which I'll only quote a few paragraphs:
So why are all these massacres of children celebrated? Because they're part of the Evil Elite's script. The sheeple who worship at the Idiot Box expect our elite to massacre children through war, abortion, and non-white violence. No one bats an eye when children are massacred in this way: it's business as usual. Why are the children of those who commit these massacres more important than the children their parents massacre? Why are these children who are being bred to continue these massacres more important than the children they will eventual massacre? Because their deaths are not part of the script. Your not suppose to murder the children of the Evil Elite, the Evil Elite murders your children. And because of this I neither celebrate nor weep for them.
Breivik committed a cruel massacre without question but it was no more bloodthirsty than the cruel massacres the Evil Elite commits day in and day out.
This is the nature of revolution and collapsing systems: a violent and unpredictable breaking of the script. I'm too smart and well read enough in history to play revolutionary. Revolution is not a game but a violent revolt.
Thanks for posting this summary. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has come to this conclusion. AB defies all attempts to dismiss or marginalize him. He is a tiger of a new stripe, like a lightning flash across a dark sky.
Great_North says:
Apparently 'BRA' means 'Black Run America'; makes sense.
Thanks! I'll now add it in the article.
Maaldweb says:
Most of the comments which argue that the 15-25 year old anti-white, marxists were "innocent kids" and that Breivik destroyed WN come from women.
Ok what did I miss? Are we supposed to take female opinions seriously now?
Daybreaker says:
Maaldweb said: "Ok what did I miss? Are we supposed to take female opinions seriously now?"
Sure. This is a test of our own mental discipline. If something is correct we should focus on its correctness and disregard the source. Even if the source is a mass murderer, if something is right, it's right. It's much better to be a woman than a murderer, so female opinions are fine too.
Eric Gisin says:
Rome's article link at Occidental Dissent is dead. This copy and another still exist.
Can you link the other one please? And do you know why Wallace erased it?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The most isolated point of land in Freedom, Lonely Point is named for its rocky and desolate terrain. There are sandbars and scrub plants, but little else along the narrow peninsula. It is home to the Lonely Point Naval Base, Blackstone Federal Penitentiary, and Star Island Space Control Center.


text:
Topics > Transport and Travel > Railway > Newcastle and Carlisle Railway
Newcastle and Carlisle Railway
About the N&CR Railway
The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway company was established in 1825. It's railway line between Newcastle and Carlisle was officially opened on the 18th of June 1838. The railway was 97 km (60 miles) long, linking the city of Newcastle upon Tyne with Carlisle in Cumbria. Newcastle and Carlisle Railway were partners in the development of Newcastle Central Station which opened in 1850. The railway developed a number of branch lines. The Alston to Haltwhistle branch was officially opened on the 17th November 1852. This covered 27 km (17 miles), including the Lambley Viaduct, initially serving the numerous lead mines in the upper South Tyne Valley as well as passenger trains.
The Newcastle & Carlisle Railway (N&CR) was an English railway company formed in 1825 that built a line from Newcastle upon Tyne on Britain's east coast, to Carlisle, on the west coast. The railway began operating mineral trains in 1834 between Blaydon and Hexham, and passengers were carried for the first time the following year. The rest of the line opened in stages, completing a through route between Carlisle and Gateshead, south of the River Tyne in 1837. The directors repeatedly changed their intentions for the route at the eastern end of the line, but finally a line was opened from Scotswood to a Newcastle terminal in 1839. That line was extended twice, reaching Newcastle Central station in 1851.
A branch line was built to reach lead mines around Alston, opening from Haltwhistle in 1852.
For many years the line ran trains on the right hand track on double line sections. In 1837 a station master on the line, Thomas Edmondson, introduced pre-printed numbered pasteboard dated by a press, a huge advance on the former system of individual hand-written tickets; in time his system achieved near-universal adoption worldwide.
The N&CR was absorbed by the larger North Eastern Railway in 1862. Today the Tyne Valley Line follows much of the former N&CR route between the two cities, but the Alston branch has closed.
Before railways
Carlisle was an important commercial centre, but as late as the eighteenth century transport was limited. It is situated on the River Eden at the head of the Solway Firth, but both those waterways suffered from shoaling and sandbanks, frustrating the potential for maritime traffic. A number of canal schemes had been put forward, but a route to navigable water was not simple, and led to plans for a canal to cross to the eastern seaboard: a Tyne - Solway Canal. William Chapman surveyed a scheme for the canal, and published details of a route in 1795.
The scheme was controversial, but gained enough support to be presented to Parliament in the 1797 session, but met opposition there and was withdrawn.
After 1815 ideas of a canal were revived, and a much shorter canal from Bowness to Carlisle was promoted. In 1819 it received Parliamentary authorisation, and it opened in 1823; Bowness was retitled Port Carlisle; the canal was large enough to carry small ships.
First railway proposals
In 1805 William Thomas developed a scheme for a horse-operated plateway (in which the rails are L-shaped, with plain wagon wheels running on the flat part of the rail) between Newcastle and Hexham. This came to nothing, but collieries in the Newcastle area were increasingly turning to ideas of railways and locomotives, and when William Chapman returned to consider linking Newcastle upon Tyne and Carlisle in 1824, it was appropriate to consider a railway as a possible alternative to a canal. He planned to use his earlier canal route for a railway, substituting rope-worked inclined planes for the flights of locks, and found that a railway would be considerably cheaper than the equivalent canal: £252,000 against £888,000. Horse traction was still incorporated into Chapman's railway plans.
There were evidently doubts cast on the practicality of Chapman's railway scheme, for the promoters brought in Josias Jessop to give an opinion. He reported on 4 March 1825, stating that it would be appropriate to increase the construction estimate by £40,000 (later rounded to £300,000); the railway was still considerably cheaper than the canal alternative. Jessop also recommended a variation in the line of route.
A provisional committee met on 26 March 1825 and unanimously recommended proceeding with the railway option, and about £20,000 in share subscriptions were taken that evening. A prospectus and public invitation to subscribe was published on 28 March The first meeting of the provisional Newcastle upon Tyne and Carlisle Rail-Road Company met on 9 April 1825; James Losh was elected chairman. A route was published on 12 November 1825. It ran from Carlisle to Newcastle quay, crossing over to the north side of the River Tyne at Scotswood and running on the north bank to Newcastle.
Chapman reported again in June 1825; he disparaged the locomotives available at the time:
They are objectionable in various ways. In the first place, gentlemen through whose estates or near whose residences they pass, object to their appearance and the noise and smoke rising from them. Whilst new, and on level planes, they possess advantages in expedition; but by their quick motion and that degree of shaking which cannot be avoided, they in the end require so much and frequent repairs as to render their advantage dubious; exclusive of their being unfitted to receive and discharge the carriages that are wanted to be taken forward, and sent off aside in such places of the line as do not coincide with their stages or feeding places.
A definite scheme
Plans for the line were submitted for a Parliamentary Bill in the 1826 session, but before any hearing determined opposition was experienced from two landed proprietors on the route, as well as from George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle, who had extensive colliery interests near Brampton, and did not wish his near-monopoly to be disrupted. Moreover, George Stephenson, surveying an alternative route on the north side of the Tyne from Hexham eastwards, found serious errors in Chapman's route in the submitted plans; in addition a number of bank failures had weakened confidence in the money market. Accordingly, the Directors decided to withdraw the Bill for the time being.
The opportunity was taken to recast the route at the Carlisle end, chiefly to accommodate the Earl of Carlisle's demands. The originally designed line between Carlisle and Gilsland had followed the Irthling Valley, but the new scheme took it south of that route on to high ground, requiring more challenging engineering features. At this period the intention was to open the railway as a toll road, in which any carrier might operate vehicles on the line on payment of a toll. Moreover, there was still a significant risk of implacable opposition from the proprietors of country houses, and the Company voluntarily inserted a clause into the Parliamentary Bill restricting haulage to horse traction, and forbidding stationary steam engines near such houses.
The main line at the eastern end was to cross the Tyne at Scotswood and follow the north bank of the river closely, and at a low level, to a termination at the Close, in Newcastle. This street exists today, located on the bank of the river between the Queen Elizabeth Bridge and the High Level Bridge. There was to be a branch from Elswick Dean to a terminal at Thornton Street. This street too is still extant today; it is a northward extension of Waterloo Street; the location is at a high level and would have required a steep gradient (of about 1 in 50), worked by stationary engine and rope haulage.
There were considerable difficulties in the Parliamentary process, particularly over levels, bridge clearances and construction, and resilience to flooding, but the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway Act was passed on 22 May 1829, with authorised capital of £300,000. At the eastern end the line was to be on the north bank of the Tyne est of Scotswood bridge, with the Thornton Street branch in addition.
Engineering the line
Slow to start work
In fact the supporters of the alternative route on the south of the Tyne, to Gateshead, continued their fight; the advantage of it was the comparative ease of reaching the section of the Tyne further east where sea-going ships could berth; mineral traffic from points on the line to shipping quays was a prime consideration, and a north-bank railway could not reach this location without extreme engineering difficulty. On 14 October 1829 a shareholder circularised the proprietors urging this view, and after all the Parliamentary argument over the route, the first Shareholder's Meeting on 16 October 1829 considered the matter yet again.
The revised route at the Carlisle end of the line was now uncontroversial, although it involved prodigious engineering works, including several viaducts and large bridges, and a tunnel. It was not until 25 March 1830 that work started: the foundation stone of the Eden Viaduct was laid by Henry Howard. In fact the central section of the route was considered to be the best to bring in some early revenue, and that is where the emphasis was placed.
Cash flow problems
There were serious difficulties in getting subscribers to pay their calls, and this made the Newcastle directors timid in issuing calls, exacerbating the cash flow problem. The situation became so difficult that a further Act of Parliament was sought, authorising additional loans; this was enacted on 23 June 1832. In late 1832 the problem was only overcome by obtaining a loan at 5% from the Public Works Loan Board. This involved conditions, including the cessation of paying dividends until trading income was being received and the giving of personal guarantees by the directors. (The dividends continued to be paid in the form of debentures, redeemable later, agilely side-stepping the Public Works Loan Board condition.)
Gateshead instead of Newcastle
The controversy over the route at the eastern end continued and on 10 September 1833 the Board decided to alter it so as to follow the south bank, to a terminus at Redheugh, at Askew's Quay, a little east of the location of the present King Edward VII bridge. By now the Stanhope and Tyne Railway was under construction; it was to run to Tyne Dock, some way downstream, and would get direct access to convey minerals to sea-going vessels, and the N&CR directors saw this as serious competition.
A presence on the north shore was still required—there were many quays opposite Redheugh, as well as the commercial district at a higher level—but now the Scotswood crossing of the Tyne was brought into question, and the Board decided to substitute a crossing nearer the city, at Derwenthaugh. In addition, it was now urgently desired to extend to deeper water east of Gateshead and a separate company was founded with the encouragement of the N&CR, to build that line. The Blaydon, Gateshead and Hebburn Railway (BG&HR) obtained Parliamentary authority on 22 May 1834 to build a line from Blaydon to Gateshead, the Act also allowing the N&CR to build the line subject to conditions. The route was expected to require two rope-worked inclined planes, to climb from near Redheugh to the high ground of Gateshead, and then again to descend to the Tyne at Hebburn.
Having brought about the inception of the BG&HR, the N&CR directors now considered whether to activate the option of building that line themselves, and on 21 August 1834 they decided to do so. This required a further Act of Parliament, which they secured on 17 June 1835; it authorised the building of the Redheugh line, and also a Tyne bridge there (instead of Derwenthaugh) to serve the north shore quays, although the Scotswood bridge was retained in the authorised works. Share capital was increased by £90,000 and a further Public Works Loan Board loan of £60,000 was included in the Act.
The BG&HR protested against the N&CR adoption of the work by the N&CR, and by negotiation it was agreed that the BG&HR would build the line from Gateshead to the River Derwent (near Derwenthaugh) and the N&CR would build to the west. The BG&HR hesitated, and in May 1835 had just begun work as the Brandling brothers announced plans to build a railway from Gateshead to South Shields and Monkwearmouth. The Brandling Junction Railway was formed on 5 September, and it was agreed in the negotiations that followed that the N&CR would take over and extend the BG&HR from the Derwent through to Gateshead. The BG&HR had built less than two miles of its intended ten mile routem and it made no more railway construction.
Removal of Giles
Giles encountered friction with the directors, especially the Newcastle group, which included members with considerable engineering expertise, who did not hesitate to give contradictory instructions directly to contractors without informing Giles. The difficulty increased at the end of 1832 when Giles failed to forecast costs of completion of the line consistently, or to explain the inconsistency, or to attend board meetings. On 28 May 1833 Giles was removed to the position of consulting engineer, and his assistant John Blackmore took over the supervision of the construction. The directors interfered to a considerable extent with the progress of the construction, and not always to beneficial effect.
Locomotive traction
When the line was being planned in 1825, it was decided to arrange it as a toll road, on which any independent carrier might run his vehicles on payment of the toll; and horse traction was intended. By May 1834 this was beginning to look antiquated, as other railways, in particular the Stockton and Darlington Railway, had successfully taken the haulage of trains to itself and introduced steam locomotives. On 13 June the Board decided to adopt that arrangement on the N&CR. The Company circularised landowners as this was specifically forbidden in the Company's Act; the response was generally favourable or acquiescent, and the company undertook to use coke instead of coal to minimise any smoke nuisance.
Opening of the first section of line
The first section of line to be completed was from Hexham to Blaydon; this was to enable the lead produced at Hexham to be brought to a navigable section of the Tyne, as it was considered a lucrative traffic. Rail carriage was going to be considerably cheaper than the alternative, and the lead producers at Hexham had been stockpiling their product there in anticipation of the opening of the line. On 14 August 1834 an ad hoc arrangement was agreed with Joseph Ritson, the contractor for construction of that part of the line, to carry the lead over the unfinished line, using his temporary track and construction wagons, and horse haulage. This was started on 25 August 1834. (A request to operate a passenger coach on the same basis was declined.)
The railway opened for passengers with considerable ceremony on 9 March 1835.
With 600 tickets issued, two locomotives, "Rapid" built by Stephenson and "Comet" built by Hawthorns, each hauled three carriages, gentlemen's carriages mounted on trucks and wagons fitted with seats. The regular passenger service began on 10 March; there were four trains each way between Blaydon and Hexham every weekday, one each way on Sundays. Newcastle passengers were conveyed to and from Blaydon by omnibus, or by steam boat from Newcastle quay when the tide was favourable.
One landowner, Charles Bacon Grey, was not satisfied with the adoption of locomotives, and he obtained an injunction preventing the Company from operating them. At the time the Company had a Bill in Parliament to authorise them, but meanwhile their use was unlawful, and they were obliged to cease operation, which they did from 28 March. Public support for the new railway had been immense, and Grey's action was unpopular. He withdrew his opposition and services resumed from 6 May 1835. The required Act authorising locomotive operation was passed on 17 June 1835.
The Brandling Junction Railway
Robert William Brandling (usually known simply as William Brandling) was a wealthy coal owner, and he had obtained Parliamentary powers in a personal capacity on 7 June 1835 to acquire land for a railway. It became the Brandling Junction Railway, which was authorised on 7 June 1836, to run to a high level terminus at Gateshead, and in the east to riverside quays at South Shields and Monkwearmouth. As part of the ending of the independent life of the Blaydon, Gateshead and Hebburn Railway, the Brandling Junction Railway took over certain powers in Gateshead and on toward Hebburn.
The Great North of England Railway
On 4 July 1836 the Great North of England obtained its authorising Act of Parliament, to build from Gateshead to Darlington; its clear intention was to extend to York, and by alliance with other contemplated lines, to form a trunk line northwards as well. The 1835 Newcastle and Carlisle Act authorised a low level Tyne crossing at Redheugh Hall. At only 20 feet above high water it as designed to reach the riverside quays on the north bank, and to reach a Newcastle terminal at Spital (immediately north-west of the present-day Central station) an incline at 1 in 22 was envisaged, rope worked by stationary engine. The GNER planned to approach through Low Fell, that is on an alignment similar to the present main line from Durham, but at a lower level to reach the N&CR Redheugh bridge. As the scheme was developed, a connection with the Brandling Junction Railway, at a high level in Gateshead, altered the plan so as to cross the Tyne at a similarly high level; this was much better for a trunk line network, but adverse for the N&CR's wish to reach the riverside quays. In time the emphasis shifted from an N&CR bridge being made available to the GNER, to the GNER planning and building a bridge, and making it available to the N&CR.
The N&CR had altered its original intention of building along the north bank to Newcastle. The Redheugh line along the south bank was almost complete, with the issue of the bridge to serve the north bank quays uncertain. Now it seemed that other interests were deflecting it from serving Newcastle properly, and after much deliberation the Board decided on 25 April 1837 to keep to the original Scotswood crossing of the Tyne and to build the Newcastle arm of its line.
Further sections opened
Extensions were opened at the eastern end of the line in June 1836, from Blaydon to Derwenthaugh (near the present-day Metro Centre) on 11 June and from Hexham to Haydon Bridge on 28 June 1836. A short section east from Derwenthaugh to the mouth of the River Team near Dunston was opened for goods traffic in September 1836. The line from Derwenthaugh to Redheugh, the Gateshead terminus, was fully opened on 1 March 1837. The N&CR operated a ferry to cross the Tyne to Newcastle, at 66 The Close, where they had a ferry pier.
It had been intended to open the western end of the line at the same time as the first opening at Hexham, but trouble with the construction of a tunnel at Cowran badly delayed the works. So difficult did the ground prove that the tunnel was abandoned and a deep cutting substituted, at considerable additional expense. Eventually the western end was opened from Greenhead to the Carlisle station at London Road on 19 July 1836.
The Earl of Carlisle's mineral traffic had already been running for a short time (since 13 July), his modernised line, the Brampton Railway, having been altered to join the N&CR at Milton (later Brampton Junction), and opened formally on 15 July 1836. His traffic had used horse traction, the horses riding in dandy carts downhill. The western destination at the canal basin was reduced to secondary importance, and was now described as the Canal Branch, to be opened later. Blenkinsopp Colliery was located a short distance east of Greenhead and that was given a rail connection concurrently.
The Canal Branch saw its first traffic of grain on 25 February 1837, and it was formally opened on 9 March 1837. Its purpose was transshipment to and from the canal itself, and the terminal was for goods only;
This left the gap in the middle of the route, between Haydon Bridge and Blenkinsopp (near Greenhead). It had been left until last because it was expected to be the least remunerative section of the route. For the time being goods were conveyed between Gateshead and Carlisle, being carted by road over the gap. The section was finally constructed, and on 15 June 1838 a train carried the directors in a trial run over the line between Newcastle and Carlisle. The anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, 18 June, was chosen as the official opening day. Five trains left Carlisle from 6 am to arrive in Redheugh between 9:30 am and just after 10 am. The official passengers crossed the Tyne by boat and marched in procession through Newcastle to a breakfast at the Assembly Rooms. A procession of thirteen trains, led by "Rapid" acting as pilot, left for the return journey to Carlisle at 12:30 pm. While the trains were travelling between Ryton and Brampton rain fell and soaked most of the 3,500 passengers who were travelling in uncovered wagons. The last train arrived in Carlisle after 6:00 pm and there was "a disorderly stampede for refreshments". The Newcastle passengers now needed to return from Necastle: by 6:30 pm some had returned to their seats to wait in the uncovered wagons while the rain continued; the first train did not leave until nearly 10 pm, when a thunderstorm broke. On the return journey a collision between two trains at Milton held up the trains further, and the last train did not arrive back in Redheugh until 6 am.
The first line complete
The opening dates may be summarised thus:
The single-track sections on the line in 1840 were from Stocksfield to Hexham, and from Rose Hill to Milton; on the double track sections the N&CR practised right-hand running. Most stations did not have elevated platforms. The track was standard gauge, at first using fish-belly rails of 42 lbs per yard, although by 1837 heavier parallel rails at 47–50 lbs per yard were being installed. The rails were laid on stone blocks, and small coal, cinders and loam were used for ballast. The stations were without platforms, the carriages being lower than those on other railways and provided with footboards. The station at Milton had a stable, the branch line to Brampton being worked by a horse and a "dandy" coach.
There were locomotive depots at Carlisle, Blaydon and Greenhead, the depot at Carlisle having space for eight locomotives, and there was room for four at Greenhead. There was a shed for two locomotives at Redheugh, as well as a repair shop for carriages. These early railway steam locomotives had no brakes, although some tenders were fitted with them, and there were no weatherboards, the driver and firemen wearing moleskin suits for protection. The N&CR experimented with sanding equipment to improve friction in 1838. The boilers ran at a pressure of and the tenders carried eighteen sacks of coke, made at Derwenthaugh, Mineral trains ran at an average speed of , but locomotives such as "Wellington" hauling eight passenger carriages, reached and in service. In 1837 "Eden" ran at from Milton to Carlisle.
The carriages were divided into three compartments, those for first class passengers painted yellow picked out in black and seated 18 passengers. The second class carriages were open to the sides and seated 22–24 passengers. On busy days passengers were carried in goods trucks fitted with seats.
Early connections to other lines
When the Redheugh terminus was opened, passengers could get access to central Newcastle by a N&CR ferry. The Brandling Junction Railway was under construction, rising by a steep incline (at 1 in 22) to cross Gateshead on viaduct and descend again to the Tyne on the east side of the town; it opened on 15 January 1839. At the time there was almost no building east of the present-day Gateshead Highway (A167) and an incline to the bank of the Tyne ran south to north through the site now occupied by the Sage.
The Tanfield waggonway was connected into the N&CR Redheugh line near Dunston and minerals from that line then ascended the Brandling Junction incline, running over only a few hundred yards of the N&CR line.
Blaydon to Newcastle
The Directors had given personal guaranteed to the Public Works Loan Board that the line would be completed to Newcastle, and with the authorised period for constructing the line soon to run out, a start was made. Yet again there was controversy over the route, a gently climbing route to the town centre was now favoured, although there were several alternative locations for the terminal, the climbing route had no Parliamentary authority for land acquisition. In addition, the riverside quays still needed to be served, and a 1 in 8½ descending rope worked incline was proposed.
Nonetheless the work progressed, with land being acquired in the still-rural area west of Newcastle. A demonstration run over the incomplete permanent way was arranged on 21 May 1839 to comply with the Public Works Loan Board requirement to open a railway to Newcastle, and goods traffic seems to have run from then onwards. The line from Blaydon to a temporary "Newcastle" terminus opened fully on 21 October 1839. The station was on the western edge of the built-up area, at the west end of what became Railway Street. From then the passenger trains were formed of Redheugh and Newcastle portions, running in one train west of Blaydon, and joined or separated there. Some sources refer to this station as "Railway Street" or "Shot Tower", but these were merely landmarks; the station was simply the "Newcastle" station of the N&CR.
The intention was still to extend into the centre of Newcastle, but indecision continued over the location, a tunnelled route to the Spital being put forward, as well as a terminus near the Infirmary (west of Forth Banks). Considerable ground preparation works were undertaken over a large area at the Infirmary site, although the intended passenger terminal there was not built.
Edmondson's tickets
Originally paper tickets were written out by hand in a time consuming process. With such as system it was difficult to keep accurate records, and Thomas Edmondson, the station master at Milton, introduced a system of printed numbered pasteboard tickets that were dated by a press; the system was first used in 1837.
Early train services
In 1838 passenger travel on the line amounted to 3.1 million miles, rising to over 4 million miles the following year. In November 1840 there were five trains a day between Newcastle and Carlisle, and one train between Newcastle and Haydon Bridge. The mixed trains, which conveyed passengers and goods, stopped at every station and took hours, whereas the express trains stopped at selected stations and took 3 hours. The fare on the express trains was 2.164d{{efn|A pre-decimal penny in 1840 was worth about p today.}} per mile for first class and 1.672d per mile for second class; on the mixed trains this was reduced to 1.967d and 1.475d per mile respectively. The N&CR ran excursion trains in 1840, the first on specific services for visitors to a Polytechnic Exhibition that had opened in Newcastle, and also on Sunday 14 June, a special service was run for the employees of R & W Hawthorn with tickets sold at half price, with a certain number having been guaranteed. In 1847 there were six trains a day taking about hours, and two trains on Sundays; the Sunday trains were criticised by church leaders.
At Carlisle part of the Maryport and Carlisle Railway opened in May 1843; this joined the N&CR near London Road, and worked in collaboration with the N&CR, forming a through route to a navigable part of the Solway Firth. The M&CR trains used the London Road station for its passenger trains.
Greenesfield station, Gateshead
The Redheugh incline, climbing from the N&CR at the bank of the Tyne, to Gateshead, had been opened by the Brandling Junction Railway on 15 January 1839. At first this simply gave access to Tyne quays east of Gateshead High Street, but the Brandling Junction line was completing its network, in 1839 reaching Sunderland, so that the Redheugh incline became an important artery for mineral traffic to the deep water quays. At a gradient of 1 in 23, the incline was rope-worked by stationary steam engine.
On 18 June 1844 the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway opened its line from the south, completing a railway connection from London to Tyneside. It constructed a fine terminal at Greene's Field, Gateshead; the terminal became known as Greenesfield. Newcastle and Carlisle Railway trains were diverted from Redheugh to Greenesfield, making connections there with the N&DJR. The portion working (by which trains from Carlisle divided at Blaydon, running in two portions to Newcastle and Gateshead) continued.
For 30 months from this time the N&CR provided part of the through railway link between London and Carlisle, via Gateshead.
Line improvements and main line railways
Until 1844, the line between Stocksfield and Hexham and between Rosehill and Milton was a single track but, in that year, the Directors doubled these portions of the railway in preparation for the increase of traffic anticipated from the opening of the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway, at the same time enlarging the Farnley Tunnel near Corbridge—a work accomplished without stopping the running of the trains except for a few days subsequent to 28 December 1844, when a portion of the old roof was damaged and the loose sand above it slid down and blocked the line.
The Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway was part of the group of companies managed by George Hudson, the Railway King. Hudson's clear intention was to get a through line to Edinburgh, and he made public plans to cross the Tyne from Gateshead, and to build a common station in Newcastle. Those ideas became the High Level Bridge and Newcastle Central station.
In the years leading to 1844 controversy reigned over the route to be taken by a railway connecting Edinburgh and Glasgow with the English network. Numerous possibilities were urged, not all of them practicable. An east coast route from Newcastle through Berwick, and west coast routes from Carlisle seemed to be the most realistic due to the high ground of the Cheviot Hills and the Southern Uplands, but a route from Hexham through Bellingham and Melrose was put forward. This was welcomed by the N&CR as it would have brought traffic to their line. In the event the North British Railway was authorised in 1844 followed by the Caledonian Railway in 1845.
At the west end of the line, a through route between London and Scotland was being formed too; the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway opened in December 1846 connecting ultimately to London, and the Caledonian Railway reached Carlisle from Edinburgh and Glasgow in February 1848. Those two railways formed a joint station in Carlisle, named "Citadel Station", but although the use of the station by the N&CR was obviously in the public interest, the owners demanded an excessively high price and the N&CR stayed outside throughout its independent existence.
However the Glasgow and South Western Railway had managed to obtain entry to Citadel station, and omnibuses were provided to carry through passengers between London Road and Citadel stations; the through tickets included the omnibus connection between the stations.
Newcastle Central station
In 1846 the N&CR obtained its fifth Act of Parliament, now authorising the final route to the joint terminal at Newcastle: Central station. George Hudson's railway was dominant in designing and building the station, although the N&CR was present as a junior partner. The route extended from the Infirmary area and much of the ground had been acquired in advance. The short route was opened for passenger trains from 1 March 1847, although a formal opening had taken place on 6 November 1846. The Newcastle terminal was the temporary Forth (or Forth Banks) station, located at the western extremity of the present-day Central station.
The latter took some years to complete; the architect John Dobson designed it to a Doric classical style with a trainshed roof constructed of three wide bays. The station was opened by Queen Victoria on 29 August 1850, but at that time its only access was from the east end, and for the time being N&CR services continued to use the Forth station; they got access to the new Central station from 1 January 1851.
The N&CR had dedicated passenger accommodation at the western end of the station. The booking hall and waiting rooms were in the main building block on the north side of the platforms, and as the N&CR still practised right-hand running at this time, the trains awaiting departure time were conveniently standing adjacent.
The Alston branch
There were lucrative lead ore deposits in the north Pennines around Alston and Nenthead. Transport to market was expensive and slow, and was significantly improved when the N&CR main line opened; the ore was railheaded from Haltwhistle. The directors had considered a branch railway to Alston and Nenthead from 1841 and a branch was authorised by Parliament on 26 August 1846, capital £240,000. The line would have had an ascent of 1100 feet. However serious opposition from landed proprietors was experienced, and the route of the line was modified. A modified route was authorised on 13 July 1849; the final four miles to Nenthead was dropped, on the basis that Alston as a railhead was sufficient.
In March 1851, the 4½ miles from Haltwhistle to Shaft Hill was opened for goods trains, followed by passenger operation from 19 July 1851. The upper end of the branch, from Alston to Lambley and the short Lambley Fell branch opened for goods trains on 1 January 1852, the Lambley Fell branch. The intermediate part of the line had to wait for the completion of Lambley Viaduct; on 17 November 1852 the viaduct was ready and the branch started full operation. There were two passenger trains each way every weekday; the primary purpose of the line was of course mineral traffic. A third passenger train was added from 1870.
The lead industry in the area declined sharply from the 1870s, but coal and lime traffic continued, and formed the mainstay of the rather thin traffic on the line.
The line climbed all the way from Haltwhistle, 405 feet above sea level, to Alston, 905 feet; the first section from Haltwhistle was at a gradient of 1 in 80, 70 and 100, and there was a section of 1 in 50 close to Alston.
As the idea of a railway network developed, so did the wish to form larger companies by merger. The Newcastle & Carlisle was approached with an offer to lease by the Caledonian Railway in March 1848, and the company receiving another offer soon afterwards from the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway (YN&BR) On 25 April 1848 the N&CR directors considered the offers but thought they were not lucrative enough. The Caledonian offered 6% dividend in perpetuity and all profits of up to 8%, and the YN&BR offered 6% for 3 years, and 7% thereafter. The N&CR shareholders met on 31 May 1848, and contrary to the view of the directors, voted that Hudson's (YN&BR) offer be accepted. The resulting agreement was effective from 1 August 1848, and the YN&BR leased the Maryport and Carlisle line too, intending to operate them as a single entity.
In fact serious revelations about George Hudson's shady business methods emerged at this time, and the findings of the resulting committees of enquiry among his many companies were so damaging that he was unable to continue in his leadership role; the lease by the YN&BR required an Act of Parliament to authorise it, and it became impossible to sustain the proposal. The Act failed and the N&CR reverted to independence, from 1 January 1850.
The original line had been laid with short rails on stone blocks, and these soon proved inadequate for modern railway operation with locomotives. In the early 1850s, the N&CR set about improving its line and rolling stock. In 1850-1 the 31 miles between Blenkinsopp and Ryton was relaid and by 1853 all the original rails had been replaced. The joints were now fished for the first time. By March 1853 the electric telegraph was in full operation on the line.
The Border Counties Railway
On 31 July 1854 the first part of the Border Counties Railway was authorised by Parliament. It ran from a junction at Hexham with the N&CR, running north to mineral deposits. Further Acts authorised extension to make a junction with the Border Union Railway, better known later as the Waverley Route. The North British Railway were sponsors of the BUR and were hostile at first, but later saw the BCR as a useful adjunct; a junction was made at Riccarton in 1862. The NBR very much wished to get access to Newcastle independently of the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, and later its successor, the North Eastern Railway and saw this route as a means to that end. They negotiated an exchange of running powers; they got the facility from Hexham to Newcastle and the NER got running powers from Berwick to Edinburgh. This proved a catastrophic deal for the NBR, as the Hexham route was impossibly circuitous and difficult, whereas the NER now ran all east coast main line trains, passenger and goods, through to Edinburgh.
Conversion to coal
When locomotive traction had been introduced, the N&CR undertook to use coke as a fuel as it was supposed to be nearly smokeless. As the volume of train movements on the line increased, the expenditure on coke climbed considerably, and in 1858 some locomotives used coal instead, even though the company's Derwenthaugh coke ovens had been expanded in 1852. The use of coal so reduced costs of fuel that by 1862 it was virtually complete on the line.
Amalgamation with the North Eastern Railway
The North Eastern Railway (NER) was created on 31 July 1854 by the merger of the YN&BR with the York and North Midland Railway and the Leeds Northern Railway. Agreement to merge the NER and the N&CR was reached in January 1859, approved by the NER board on 18 February 1859. However two shareholders obtained a Court of Chancery judgment in July 1859 that the agreement had exceeded the companies' powers, and they resumed independent, although collaborative, operation. An application to Parliament in 1860 to amalgamate also failed when the North British Railway opposed the bill.
However negotiations continued and amalgamation was agreed upon, and this time ratified by Parliamentary Act of 17 July 1862. The NER managed to negotiate access to the Citadel station at Carlisle at the same time.
Throughout its twenty-seven year history the N&CR paid dividends between 4 and 6 per cent.
The Allendale branch
The Beaumont Lead Company was operating at Allendale, 12 miles east of Alston, and it too suffered heavy transport costs in conveying its output to the railway, at Haydon Bridge. Its manager was Thomas J Bewicke, raised the possibility of a branch line with the North Eastern Railway. The London Lead Company had a lead smelting plant at Langley, about two miles from Haydon Bridge, and it too was supportive of a branch line, which would inevitably serve their works. This attracted local support and the Hexham and Allendale Railway obtained its Parliamentary Act on 19 June 1865. The line was to leave the N&CR at a junction just west of Hexham and climb, mostly at 1 in 40, into the hills. The line opened on 19 August 1867 for mineral traffic as far as Langley, and on 13 January 1868 the entire line was opened for goods and mineral trains. Passengers had not been a priority, but passenger trains started operating on 1 March 1869.
The local lead industry declined steeply in the 1870s and collapsed in the following decade. The line was never profitable and the company sold its line to the North Eastern Railway for 60% of its capitalisation, effective on 13 July 1876.
Hexham signal box - geograph.org.uk - 531335.jpg|thumb|Hexham signal box, built by the NER about 1896; it is a Grade II listed structure.
The 1862 Act also gave the NBR running rights over the N&CR between Hexham and Newcastle, the NER gaining reciprocal rights over the NBR between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Edinburgh. Initially the NBR ran four trains a day between Newcastle and via Border Counties Junction at Hexham, although by 1904 this had been reduced to three trains a day. The N&CR station in Carlisle was almost a mile away from city centre and inconvenient for passengers. The joint Lancaster and Carlisle Railway and Caledonian Railway station in the centre of the city, , had opened in 1847 and the 1862 Act made the NER a tenant. Passenger services began to terminate at the Citadel station on 1 January 1863.
In the summer of 1863 the work of changing from right-hand running to the British convention of left hand running was undertaken. The estimated cost was £4,000 and it was done in stages.
The bridge over the Tyne at Scotswood was replaced by the current girder bridge in 1868 after the original wooden one was destroyed by fire in 1860.
The Consett line
The considerable development of ironamkiing at Consett resulted in an expansion of the former waggonway routes seving the area, and in 1867 the North Eastern Railway built a new line from Consett to join the former Newcastle and Carlisle route in a triangular junction near Blaydon. Iron extraction in the surrounding hills had been handled by the Brandling Junction Railway, which joined the N&CR line near Redheugh. This former waggonway was successively upgraded and after absorption by the North Eastern Raiulway was further modernised.
The Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam Railway
In the early days of planning the route of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, opinion had been voiced in favour of running on the north bank of the Tyne west of Lemington and Newburn. There were extensive coal deposits there, as well as other industries, not served by railways, and in 1866 a railway was promoted, This came to nothing but in 1870 another line was projected, which included a dock at Scotswood enabling the shipping of minerals from the area. This scheme became the "Scotswood, Newburn & Wylam Railway & Dock Company", which obtained an authorising Act of Parliament on 16 June 1871. It left the line from Carlisle to the west of Wylam and crossed the Tyne there, running east on the north bank and rejoining the N&CR at Scotswood; the capital was £85,000.
Serious difficulties with poor ground were encountered at Scotswood and a tunnel was substituted for the cutting there; the tunnel collapsed during construction in September 1874. The Wylam bridge was much delayed too, so that the majority of the line was ready but it was cut off at both ends. Eventually, on 12 July 1875 the line opened from Scotswood to Newburn; there was a separate station (from the N&CR station) at Scotswood. The line was worked by the North Eastern Railway, with three passenger trains each way every weekday. The SN&WR had now expended all its capital resources and the idea of a Scotswood Dock was abandoned, and the line was simply a branch of the NER.
The NER agreed arrangements for the Wylam bridge with the SN&WR, and on 13 May 1876 the Newburn to Wylam village section was opened, with a station in Wylam itself, known as North Wylam. The NER now extended the passenger service to North Wylam.
On 6 October 1876 the bridge at West Wylam, connecting westwards towards Hexham, was opened. Only goods and mineral trains, and occasional special passenger trains, used the bridge; the ordinary passenger service was not extended across it.
The short line was useful to the NER but the value of its independence to its own shareholders was limited, and thoughts soon turned to sale to the NER; this was brought about and confirmed by Act of 29 June 1883.
Brampton branch
Brampton itself was served by a horse-drawn coach on the Earl of Carlisle's Railway from 1836, making a connection at Milton with the N&CR. In 1881 the branch passenger service was converted to locomotive operation, but this was discontinued in 1890 after conditions were imposed by the Board of Trade inspectorate. The North Eastern Railway took over the branch in October 1912 and upgraded the track. A passenger service was provided from 1 August 1913; it was suspended from 1917 until 1 March 1920, but it closed finally on 29 October 1923.
Connecting the Team Valley line
Although the earliest connections from the south to Gateshead and Newcastle took an easterly course, a more direct southward route was established in 1893: the Team Valley route. This ran from Gateshead through Low Fell and Birtley direct to Durham. The course of the Consett branch and the former Brandling Junction line from Tanfield had encouraged considerable industrial development near their junctions with the Redheugh line, and in time the voulume of heavy and slow mineral traffic led to serious congestion. In 1893 a direct route from Dunston Junction, east of Derwenthaugh, towards Low Fell was opened by the NER, enabling that traffic to turn south directly. In 1904 a duplicate east-west route was built near Derwenthaugh, a little further from the Riover Tyne; the present day MNetro Centre station is on that new route. In 1908 further enhacnements were opened with a shortening of the route towards Low Fell through Dunston; the present Dunston station is on that line. In addition there was a new direct route from that line into the junctions at the south end of the new King Edward VII Bridge, giving easier access to Gateshead and towards South Shields, and to Newcastle Central station. This direct route is used by Carlisle to Newcastle passenger trains today.
After 1923
As a result of the Railways Act 1921, the North Eastern Railway became a constituent of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) on 1 January 1923. Britain's railways were nationalised on 1 January 1948 and the former Newcastle and Carlisle Railway lines were placed under the control of British Railways.
The passenger service on the Allendale branch had been withdrawn on 22 September 1930 and the line was closed in November 1950. The passenger service from Hexham to the north over the former Border Counties Railway was withdrawn in 1956, and several stations were closed in the 1950s. Diesel Multiple Units began to replace trains hauled by steam locomotives from 1955. In 1963 Dr Beeching published his report "The Reshaping of British Railways", which recommended closing the network's least used stations and lines. The Alston branch was already being considered for closure, and to this was added the local services from Newcastle to Hexham and Haltwhistle. In 1966 British Railways proposed that North Wylam station remain open and that September suspended services over the line south of the Tyne for engineering works, but this arrangement was withdrawn, and services resumed in May 1967. The following year British Railways closed the North Wylam line north of the Tyne, and passenger traffic was withdrawn on 11 March 1968. The branch line to Alston closed in 1976.
The railway was diverted to avoid Farnley Scar Tunnel in 1962; the tunnel portals remain and both are listed monuments.
In 1982 the connection from Newcastle to the N&CR line was diverted to use the NER line through before rejoining the former N&CR Redheugh branch at Derwenthaugh crossing the King Edward VII Bridge. The Scotswood bridge and the line to it closed.
The line today
Today the Tyne Valley Line follows much of the former N&CR route between the two cities. The line is double track with fourteen intermediate stations; it is not electrified. The train service is provided by Northern and Abellio ScotRail. There are (2015) typically hourly trains between Carlisle and Newcastle, additional hourly trains between Hexham and Newcastle. In addition there are local service between and Newcastle. Line speeds are predominantly and trains typically take between 83 and 92 minutes to travel from Carlisle to Newcastle. The line links the East Coast and West Coast Main Lines, and is used by diverted long distance trains when these lines are blocked to the north.
Locations on the line were:
Redheugh Branch
Alston branch
The line opened on 21 May 1852 except for the connection across a viaduct into Haltwhistle; it opened throughout on 17 November 1852; it closed on 3 May 1976.
Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam Railway
Brampton Town branch
Swalwell Colliery Branch
Derwenthaugh Junction;
Swalwell Colliery; opened to passenger trains November 1852; closed December 1853.
The Newcastle and Carlisle Railway built a considerable number of fine structures, many of them especially ambitious for the early date of construction.
Many of them are on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. The Wetheral Viaduct known locally as Corby Bridge, and crossing the River Eden is listed Grade I; it consists of five semi-circular stone arches of 80 feet span.
The Gelt Bridge, is a skew bridge of three 30 feet elliptical arch spans. It is listed Grade II*.
The Lambley Viaduct on the closed Alston branch is also Grade II* listed; there are nine principal spans of 58 feet span.
The buildings at Wylam station are also Grade II* listed.
South Tynedale Railway
The South Tynedale Railway operates seasonal services on a narrow gauge railway laid on the former Alston branch track bed between Alston and Lintley.
Text from Wikipedia, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (accessed: 14/11/2016).
Visit the page: Newcastle & Carlisle Railway for references and further details. You can contribute to this article on Wikipedia.
Railway Former Station Lambley Viaduct Corby Bridge (Wetheral Viaduct) Railway Viaduct over Poltross Burn Haltwhistle Station 1825 James Losh (1763 - 1833) Wylam Station Newcastle Central Station Carlisle
+Comment Timeline (3 events)
from Geograph (geograph)
Scotswood Road, the A6085
Pinned by Pat Thomson
from Beamish (flickr)
13 - On the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway – the mysterious disappearance of a carriage
from Flickr (flickr)
A series of views along the route of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, in 1838. Number 1...The river wall at Wylam Scars.
Lambley Viaduct from south
Co-Curate Page
- Overview History Map Street View Newcastle Central Station on Neville Street was designed by John Dobson and was opened by Queen Victoria on the 29th August 1850. Replacing three earlier stations, it ...
Lambley Viaduct
- Overview About Lambley Viaduct Map Lambley viaduct was built by the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway in 1852 to carry the Haltwhistle to Alston branch line over the River South Tyne at ...
from http://www.transportheritag...
- "...The viaduct may have been designed by George Barclay Bruce, an eminent Victorian engineer who was involved in the Alston line before leaving for India to pioneer railway construction there ...
Pat Thomson
Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Carlisle Railway letterhead 1847
Pinned by Simon Cotterill
Former Station
- Overview Map Street View The former station-master's house, now private dwelling, was built in c.1836 for the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway Co. It is Grade II listed on the National ...
Image from page 4 of "Views on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway" (1836)
- Overview About Carlisle Map Street View Timeline   Carlisle is a city and the county town of Cumbria. Historically in Cumberland, it is also the administrative centre of the City ...
Haltwhistle Station
- Overview About Haltwhistle Station Map Street View   Haltwhistle railway station is a railway station which serves the town of Haltwhistle in Northumberland, England. It is located on the Tyne ...
from https://archive.org/details...
Views on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, 1836 [Digitised book]
- Views on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway by Blackmore, John; Carmichael, James Wilson Publication date 1836 Topics Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, Railroads -- Great Britain Publisher [Newcastle, Tyne ; Wear] : Currie and ...
Former Station, Greenhead
Corby Bridge (Wetheral Viaduct)
Railway Viaduct over Poltross Burn
James Losh (1763 - 1833)
Wylam Station
Topic Info
Added by: Pat Thomson , Edited by: Simon Cotterill Last modified: 3 years, 4 months ago, Viewed:2006 times,


Why did we choose foster care?
When we moved to Louisiana seven years ago I accepted a job at a state funded group home. I worked there for nine months... Those nine months were absolutely life changing. They were my first real exposure to the world of foster care and the children in the system. We cared for children from about eleven to seventeen. Traumatized, hurt, angry, damaged by the things they had experienced in their lives so far. Longing for love, but understandably guarded. When they allowed me to love them, that was the greatest of privileges. These kids changed me. Completely. And I'm SO blessed to have been able to keep in touch with several of them who have continued to let me love them and have loved me back in a way that humbles me and brings big weepy tears to my eyes.
I want to share an experience with you... One single day at work that changed our lives and our future for good.
Christmas day, 2008. Chris came to work with me, there were eight kids who had nowhere to go on Christmas. No family, no aunts, grandparents, no mama or daddy, no willing previous foster home... nobody.
I look back on that day, on the tears, the fighting... there were TONS of gifts that had been donated, and I wondered for a moment why these kids were so ungrateful... they threw things, they yelled, the color wasn't right, it wasn't the brand they hoped for... didn't they realize they were getting gifts?? From strangers who cared about them?
These eight children very literally had nobody.
...and did I mention it was Christmas??
Nobody should have nobody on Christmas!
Chris and I went home that night with a new understanding of the calling the Lord was placing on our lives. We walked into our three bedroom home and we knew.
These kids needed somewhere to go, someone to love them on Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, weekends, Thursdays, Mondays, every day, every hour and every minute.
When I left my job several months later we quickly sought foster certification. For the next several years until our daughter was born we welcomed these teenagers from group homes into our life and our home on holidays and weekends and whenever we could. We cooked with them, prayed with them, had family dinners, watched movies, opened gifts, played games, LOVED with every ounce of our hearts because these kids are SO lovable. We loved each one who spent time with us and we will love them forever.
Each of these moments were gifts from the God who called us and prepared us. I will never forget some of the experiences we shared with these precious ones and how He used them to mold me into who I am today. They showed me that not only did I have room in my home, I had even more room in my heart.
And even after Mercy came into our lives and filled our hearts so full, those sweet ones who have kept in touch continued to remind me of how much room there was to love, and even one more little heart ready to share her love with the world.
As Mercy grew over the course of that first year, I would walk into that empty bedroom and just wonder who would fill it. I often prayed for our future foster children in those moments, not knowing if they had been born yet or when we would meet them. I prayed that our hearts would be prepared, I prayed for their safety, their hearts, I prayed for their parents and I thanked God for giving us room to grow our family, even if only temporarily, through these precious little ones in foster care.
Three bedrooms, still only two were occupied.
Three hearts, so roomy and so ready to love.
...and friends, that's about as simple as it gets.
We have room, so we said yes.
And oh how very blessed we have been by saying yes to this sweet little man who has filled our home and our hearts over the last five months!
Do you have room? ...in your home? ...in your heart?
If you have some empty space, will you commit to praying that the Lord show you ways to fill it that will honor Him? It may not look like foster care, adoption or respite care, but if it does please continue to pray, contact me or other foster parents and organizations in your area, seek information and pray. Don't. Stop. Praying.


Cisco's rebranded technology event Cisco Connect 2013 Kenya (formerly Cisco Expo) will be held in Nairobi Kenya from October 8 – 9 at Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi. The event showcases the firm's technologies, products and solutions.
Under the theme 'Your Vision Made Possible', the forum aims to provide a platform for Cisco to discuss and showcase current ICT trends such as the Internet of Everything (IoE), and how organizations and governments throughout East Africa can leverage these trends to drive business success and make their visions possible.
Participants will also benefit from presentations and technology breakout sessions delivered by Cisco subject matter experts, as well as Cisco partner workshops. These sessions will embrace technology topics such as cloud, collaboration, video, virtualization and borderless networks.
Cisco Connect Kenya 2013 will also feature the 'World of Solutions', an interactive exhibition area where visitors can explore the broader Cisco partner ecosystem, experience Cisco solutions, and hear the unique perspective of Cisco technology experts and partners. Cisco Connect Kenya 2013 expects to attract over 1,000 attendees, comprising regional business and technical decision makers from government and mid to large enterprises from a diverse cross-section of industries.


text:
package io.crate;

import org.elasticsearch.common.io.FastStringReader;
import org.elasticsearch.common.io.Streams;
import org.joda.time.DateTimeZone;
import org.joda.time.format.ISODateTimeFormat;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Properties;

public class Build {

    public static final Build CURRENT;

    static {
        String hash = "NA";
        String hashShort = "NA";
        String timestamp = "NA";

        try {
            String properties = Streams.copyToStringFromClasspath("/crate-build.properties");
            Properties props = new Properties();
            try (FastStringReader fsr = new FastStringReader(properties)) {
                props.load(fsr);
            }
            hash = props.getProperty("hash", hash);
            if (!hash.equals("NA")) {
                hashShort = hash.substring(0, 7);
            }
            String gitTimestampRaw = props.getProperty("timestamp");
            if (gitTimestampRaw != null) {
                timestamp = ISODateTimeFormat.dateTimeNoMillis().withZone(DateTimeZone.UTC).print(Long.parseLong(gitTimestampRaw));
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // just ignore...
        }

        CURRENT = new Build(hash, hashShort, timestamp);
    }

    private String hash;
    private String hashShort;
    private String timestamp;

    Build(String hash, String hashShort, String timestamp) {
        this.hash = hash;
        this.hashShort = hashShort;
        this.timestamp = timestamp;
    }

    public String hash() {
        return hash;
    }

    public String hashShort() {
        return hashShort;
    }

    public String timestamp() {
        return timestamp;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub