King William allowed engineers to study whether a railroad system would be possible in the Netherlands. But it was difficult to find money to fund the railway tracks. The king made his decision on August 8, 1837. Eventaully, the Dutch government decided to pay to built the railroads. After 2 years, the first railway company was founded. It was called the Hollandse Ijzeren Spoorweg Maatschappi, or (HIJSM). They began with the construction of the railway track that connected Amsterdam and Haarlem. The first steam locomotive to ride this track was a small locomotive called "de Arend".
After the success of the first railway track that connected Amsterdam to Haarlem. The railroads started to expand and a new railway company was found. It was called the ‘Nederlandse Rhijnspoorweg Maatschappij’ (NSR). They both made the new railroad to Rotterdam The railway would cross everything.
The NSR and the HIJSM bought every piece of land to proceed. But some landowners and farmers didn’t like the idea of a railway crossing their farm, because it could frighten the cows. There was even a big incident that happened while making a railway track that connected Amsterdam to Rotterdam. A land owner called Aernout Hendrik van Wickenvoort Crommelin only wanted to sell his piece of land if a train station was built favorable for him. The HIJSM and NSR didn’t like that so they tried to make the railway track go around his piece of land. Unfortunately it failed. Still Aernout had given them some land to continue. The NSR and HIJSM lost a lot of money on this incident and it was later called: ‘Het laantje van van der Gaag'. The railroad was finished in 1847.
The NSR also wanted to built a railway by their self. This railway would go from Amsterdam to Utrecht to Arnhem and then on to Germany. The making of it didn’t went really well because they could not find enough investors. But luckily was our King William I again the savior of the railroads. But there was a problem with the constructing of the railway because the Dutch railways were built on Dutch broad gauge and the connection in Germany was made on standard gauge. The railroad to Utrecht was finished on December 18, 1843, The next stretch to Arnhem on May, 16 1845. The final stretch to Germany took 11 years because the other part of the railroad had to be made in Standard gauge.
In 1860 the Spoorwegnet was founded. It is a system that connects all the cities with railways built by the government.
In 1863, a new railway company was founded. It was called the Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Staatsspoorwegen or SS for short. This company was not founded by the government. It was founded by a private group of investors who had acquired a license to use railways built by the state.
The other companies also continued building railroad tracks. More railway companies were founded. One was the Noord-Brabants-duitse Spoorweg-Maatschappij, or NBDS, often called S for short. It was founded to complete the railway track that connected Saint Petersburg, Berlin and London.
In the 1800s, railways in the Netherlands were run by many different companies that all had their own rules and trains. This made rail travel very inconvenient.
In 1890, all the railway companies in the Netherlands were merged and then split into 2 companies. The HSM and the SS. The railways were reclassified based on the English model.
In 1903, the workers at the railway companies went on strike, meaning they stopped working until their bosses met their demands. They felt their working conditions were very bad. They earned low wages for very hard work. The strike was successful. The bosses agreed to improve working conditions. When World War I began in 1914, the Netherlands stayed neutral. Train transportation was then used by armies. The railways were part of the war because it was easy to transport soldiers and equipment. The HSM and the SS had to work together very closely. In 1937, they merged, becoming the "Nederlandse Spoorwegen" or NS.
In total there are 404 railway stations in the Netherlands. 381 stations are managed by the NS. Some of them are very old looking and some are more modern.
In the past, passengers had to rely on yellow signboards to watch for trains. There were no escalators. The Zandvoort station has much of the older style of architecture, while Utrecht CS is new.
There have been many different trains in the Netherlands. The first were steam trains, then diesel trains and now electric trains.
The first train was called the Arend and it drove from Amsterdam to Haarlem. The many other steam trains that came after were all named by series and by number, as in series 600.
Diesel trains were cheaper and easier to use than steam trains. Currently, the only diesel trains still running are called the buffel. They run on the following lines: Zwolle – Enschede, Zwolle – Kampen, and Apeldoorn – Zutphen.
Most of the trains in the Netherlands today are electric. They are noticeable by the big electricity masts that give them power.
Trains are usually divided into two classes of seating, first and second.
In the past, there was also a third class, but it has been discontinued. Almost all the trains today have one day's free Wi-Fi connection so passengers can use the Internet. In the past, passengers had to buy tickets to take the train, but now they can use OV chipkaarts.
• Sprinters are fast trains that stop at every station
• The Thalys is a new high-speed train that can reach 300 km/h.
• Intercity is also an express train; it travels from one city to another without stops.
http://www.holland.com/uk/tourism/article/railway-museum-in-utrecht.htm
http://www.ns.nl/over-ns/wie-zijn-wij/profiel/geschiedenis
http://www.spoorweggeschiedenis.nl/
Youth of the Nation
"Youth of the Nation" is the second single off American Christian nu metal band P.O.D.'s fourth studio album "Satellite". The song was released on December 25, 2001.
The song was inspired partially by the Santana High School and Columbine High School shootings. In a 2008 interview, guitarist Marcos Curiel described it:
""We were rehearsing and writing Satellite a couple of blocks away from the school. One day on the way to the studio, there were all these helicopters and cars speeding by. We really didn’t know what was going on. When we got to the studio, this guy had the news on, and he was like, ‘This kid just went and started blasting fools.’ So we started jamming, and that rhythm just naturally came out then Wuv [Bernardo, drummer] put that drumbeat on it, and the song was born.""
Surface to Air Missile
A surface-to-air missile (SAM), or ground-to-air missile (GTAM), is a type of missile that is launched from ground or from a ship to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of Anti-aircraft warfare.
Infante Luis of Spain
Luis Antonio Jaime of Spain (25 July 1727 – 7 August 1785), Infante of Spain, Cardinal Deacon of the titular church of Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain, 13th Count of Chinchón, Grandee of Spain First Class, known as the Cardinal Infante, was the last child of Philip V of Spain and his wife Elisabeth Farnese. He is famous for being the youngest Cardinal in history. He also had close ties with several famous Spanish painters of his day including Francisco de Goya.