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Zauriel

Zauriel is a fictional superhero in the DC Universe. Originally a guardian angel who served Heaven for millions of years, he willingly falls to Earth to serve humanity as their champion and joins the Justice League.

Publication history
Zauriel first appeared in JLA #6 and was created by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Howard Porter, and John Dell. In his first appearance, he saved Aquaman's life, over time forming a close friendship with him, and helped the Justice League thwart and dispel the forces of the renegade angel Asmodel.

Creation and concept
Grant Morrison created Zauriel during their tenure as writer of JLA but was forbidden from using their originally intended name of Hawkman. At the time, Hawkman had been declared off-limits by DC editors due to the character's convoluted continuity, complicated by retcons from the Hawkworld miniseries, which DC tried to negate during the Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! miniseries. Morrison does allude to a Hawkman-connection by having Aquaman mistake Zauriel as "Katar" when the two characters first meet in the middle of a frantic battle.

Fictional character biography
Zauriel was an angel of the Eagle Host, one of the four hosts of Heaven, the others being Human, Bull and Lion. Since the dawn of creation, Zauriel served the Presence (God) as a guardian angel, protecting the souls of countless women, including Cleopatra, Mona Lisa, and Joan of Arc. He later falls in love with one of his assignments, a woman with a boyfriend from San Francisco. At about the same time, Zauriel accidentally learns of the secret plans of Asmodel, King-Angel of the Bull Host and one of the generals of Heaven's armies, and a legion of Bull Angels attempting to succeed where Lucifer failed by overthrowing the Presence.

In an attempt to be with his true love and escape Asmodel's wrath, Zauriel pleaded his case before the four King-Angels, one of which was Asmodel, expressing his desire to abandon his position in Heaven as a guardian angel and seek his love on Earth. The King-Angels rejected his notion and sent him spiralling toward Earth in a blaze that captured the attention of Martian Manhunter of the Justice League. His descent resulted in Zauriel becoming mortal.

Upon reaching Earth, Zauriel immediately found that a group of Bull Angels had followed him down, adopting temporary mortal flesh granted by Asmodel himself, in an attempt to hunt him down and kill him before he could inform Heaven of their plot. Zauriel met with the JLA and together they fought back against the angelic invasion. Zauriel saved Aquaman's life at this point by vaporizing a Bull Angel with his Sonic Flash.

Asmodel then appeared on the scene. He brought a massive angelic chariot with him that slowly crushed San Francisco as it descended. Wonder Woman helped Zauriel slow the ship. Aquaman told the Flash (Wally West) how Zauriel defeated the Bull Angel earlier, and together with the help of Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner), they discerned the angels' weaknesses and managed to defeat them.

The JLA was impressed and Zauriel is later invited to join the JLA during their first major recruitment drive as the team's magical expert.

In the miniseries JLA: Paradise Lost, Zauriel's story continued. He tracked down his former charge, introduced himself and professed his love for her. However, before she could truly respond, Zauriel was attacked by Etrigan and learned that Asmodel had returned, seeking revenge for his defeat.

Sentenced to Hell for his transgression, Asmodel met up with the demon-lord Neron and joined forces with him, doubling the size of Asmodel's army by adding Neron's demons to his original army of angels. Zauriel tracked down the angel Michael, who, after failing to reach the very love he had abandoned Heaven for before her death, had been bitterly wandering the Earth, to seek his aid. Asmodel adopted the form of a child and mounted an attack on the JLA Watchtower, resulting in the death of the Martian Manhunter, who then aided Zauriel in Heaven itself.

From there, Asmodel and Neron led their forces to Heaven and actually beat back the armies of Paradise. Slaughtering his way towards the throne room of the Presence, Asmodel found only an abandoned room instead, empty except for Zauriel. Confused, Asmodel demanded to know where the Presence was, and was informed by Zauriel that the Presence is, in fact, everywhere and in everything. Realizing that there was no true way he could ever succeed where Lucifer had failed, Asmodel turned to Neron for help, but the demon abandoned the former King-Angel. Sentenced to Hell yet again, Asmodel became Neron's prisoner. The Martian Manhunter returned to Earth when the Flash revived him.

After the object of Zauriel's affection decided to stay with her boyfriend, Heaven assigned Zauriel as their ambassador to Earth to be a beacon of hope and reassurance. He was granted a suit of Heavenly armor and a new headquarters, the Aerie, a structure floating over Los Angeles. Accepting the JLA's offer for membership, Zauriel joined them on various missions.

Asmodel did not stay beaten for long and soon bonded himself to the hostless Spectre in the Day of Judgement crossover using the ashes of an angel's wing feather, aided by Etrigan the Demon. Gaining sudden, immeasurable power, Asmodel froze Hell and returned to Earth, leading to immense destruction. Zauriel confronted and attempted to battle Asmodel directly, but Asmodel effortlessly overpowered him by turning his very wings into stone. The heroes of Earth united, the bulk of which went to fight Spectre directly, while a smaller detachment, led by Zauriel, left for Purgatory to find a soul eligible to replace Asmodel's inside the Spectre. They found Hal Jordan.

Returning to Earth with Jordan's soul in tow, the group met up with the others and Jordan entered the Spectre, leading to an internal conflict that ultimately forced Asmodel out, establishing Jordan as the Spectre.

Zauriel also confronted a version of the Spectre in JLA #31, stopping him from delivering a death blow to Triumph, a former superhero turned supervillain. Spectre told Zauriel that his insubordination would not go well for him in the Courts of Light.

Zauriel's career with the JLA continued until the galactic threat known as Mageddon arrived, whose hate-mongering effect motivated Lex Luthor to join up with Prometheus, Queen Bee and General Wade Eiling. With the Earth facing immediate destruction, both from itself and Mageddon, Luthor planted bombs on the Watchtower. As the JLA evacuated, Zauriel deliberately stayed behind and removed his helmet just before the bombs detonated. He was caught in the explosion and died.

Arriving in Heaven, Zauriel discovered that Paradise had abandoned all hope for Earth's survival and was already designing a replacement world. Zauriel begged Heaven for aid, but was turned down. They did, however, grant him the option to return to Earth himself and stand by the mortals. Zauriel accepted and asked the others to listen to the Presence in their hearts. He was about to leave when countless hosts of angels volunteered to accompany him back to Earth and aid in the struggle against Mageddon. Leading his army of angels, Zauriel returned and prevented the nations of the world from destroying each other, while the JLA stopped Mageddon itself.

With the Mageddon situation resolved, a number of League members parted ways with the JLA, Zauriel included. He later appeared for a memorial, commemorating the end of the modern JLA. He is still considered a member of the League, however, to be called upon when needed.

Zauriel appears in other titles, generally functioning as a spiritual counselor or guide to other heroes. In the pages of JSA, he gives advice to Hawkgirl about the future and the current status of the souls in her body. In the Supergirl title, he explains the angelic nature of that version of Supergirl while assisting her in defeating a demonic invasion of Hollywood. He serves as a supporting character in the Spectre series featuring Hal Jordan. Zauriel even bonds with the Spectre-Force itself, during an incident where Hal deals with an ancient entity who wants to turn Earth into a long-lost Paradise.

Infinite Crisis
Zauriel makes cameo appearances during Infinite Crisis, specifically in Infinite Crisis #5, where he is shown leading a group of heroes in an ecumenical prayer service, and in the Day of Vengeance Infinite Crisis Special. In Infinite Crisis #7, Zauriel was hit square in the chest and through his right wing by Superboy-Prime's heat vision. Zauriel then appears in the first issue of 52, a year-long series which chronicles the events following Infinite Crisis. It may indicate that Zauriel was injured but recovered, or it may be that Zauriel returned quickly from death.

52
In 52, Elongated Man (Ralph Dibny) recruits Zauriel, along with Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Metamorpho and Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), to infiltrate a resurrection cult supposedly based on Kryptonian theology. Dibny hoped that these four, because of their significant experience with the afterlife, would be able to judge whether the cult's claims to be able to resurrect his dead wife Sue were viable. The meeting ends badly; the heroes interrupt the ceremony partway through, but in the resulting fracas, the wicker replica of Sue looks up at Ralph and calls his name. Ralph is left temporarily mad, cradling the wicker body under a bridge and muttering that they need to try again.

One Year Later
In March 2007, DC published a Helmet of Fate: Zauriel one-shot, written by Steve Gerber with art by Peter Snejberg. In it, Zauriel is dragged away from an awkward Sunday school 'question and answer' session to retrieve the helmet from the planet Alstair, populated by plant-animal hybrids. Okeontis, a vampire-like fungus creature, plans to use its power to overthrow the tyrant queen Hyathis. Zauriel destroys Okeontis and her controlling intelligence and sends the Helmet of Fate back on its quest for a new keeper.

Zauriel is given the mission to destroy the Shadowpact member Blue Devil, who has been demoted to the rank of a Rhyming Demon in Hell's hierarchy. The angel Abariel told Zauriel that Blue Devil is leading humans to admire and even want to emulate his demonic path and that he must be eliminated despite the fact that, as Zauriel said: "This world owes its existence to him more than once". Zauriel accepted the assignment, although he does not relish the task of killing someone he considers a proven hero. After getting into a small fight with Blue Devil he is then convinced to join the Shadowpact in the place of Blue Devil. He is given Michael's Battle Spear, which is more powerful than his sword, as he takes Blue Devil's place on the team.

Rise of Eclipso
Zauriel is recruited by Congorilla to be part of a reserve Justice League consisting of Cyborg, Doctor Light (Kimiyo Hoshi), Red Tornado, Bulleteer, Animal Man, and Tasmanian Devil to help the JLA stop Eclipso. The reserve League is quickly defeated and Zauriel is injured after being stabbed by Eclipso. Zauriel is subsequently tied up and tortured by Eclipso, who uses the angel's pained screams to lure the new Spectre into a fatal trap.

The New 52
In The New 52, Zauriel appeared in Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger #9. He warns Phantom Stranger that he is never allowed to enter Heaven again, having left to try and save his family. Zauriel tells Phantom Stranger that if he tries, he will be erased from time and history.

During the Trinity War storyline, Zauriel appears and dismisses Batman, Katana and Deadman after obtaining a piece of Doctor Light (Arthur Light)'s soul. He returns Doctor Light to his "womb" so that Heaven will heal him. Zauriel asks Phantom Stranger why he risked his being by returning and why he did not tell the group of the consequences. With no answer, Zauriel erases Phantom Stranger from existence. He was later resurrected by the Presence because of his desire to help.

During the Forever Evil storyline, Zauriel was with Spectre when Constantine's group appeared at the border of Heaven. When the Presence shows Constantine the rest of the groups' understandings, Constantine then flees, making Zauriel chase after him. They arrive at the House of Mystery, where Constantine traps Zauriel in a celestial circle in the hopes that he will help them fight Blight. He tells the others that the trip was a waste as he only saw why he could not trust any of the group. The others, however, saw the truth or good remaining in their hearts which Zauriel confirms as he agrees to help them fight. Zauriel proceeds to attack Blight, before being defeated as well. He joins Phantom Stranger and Pandora in the collective unconscious, as both created the illusion that they died. The group finds the human, Chris, located within Blight's heart. When Pandora tries to free him as a way to weaken Blight, she is stopped by Zauriel, who tells her and Phantom Stranger that there are bigger plans for Chris. Zauriel continues to fight a part of Blight as Phantom Stranger and Pandora work to help Chris.

Powers and abilities
Zauriel's most visible special attribute is his wings, which grant him the power of flight at incredible speeds and with a high degree of control. As a former angel of Heaven, Zauriel is essentially immortal, immune to the usual mortal frailties of aging and disease. He apparently does not need food, water, air or sleep, and has endured for millions of years serving Paradise.

The most potent of Zauriel's powers is his devastating sonic scream, sometimes called a "sonic flash", which is capable of tremendous amounts of destruction. An ability that is specific to angels of the Eagle Host, Zauriel's scream is acutely attuned to the vibrational frequency that angels adopt when temporarily descending to the Earthly plane, enabling Zauriel to vaporize an angel in milliseconds.

A less-defined property of Zauriel's angel-hood is what he refers to as his angelic over-mind, Zauriel's mental connection to Heaven. This connection grants Zauriel various abilities, including the ability to communicate with any type of animal and a divine connection to the flow of magic on Earth. He can also sense good and evil around him and in people.

Zauriel has a number of other powers, including enhanced strength, durability and agility when compared to a normal human. He can perform what he calls the "Red Sea trick", enabling him to part a body of water in much the way Moses did. On more than one occasion he has been submersed in water for long periods without drowning.

Skills and talents
Zauriel has quite a diverse and versatile set of skills. Zauriel is an incredible swordsman, having wielded a flaming sword since the dawn of creation as a guardian angel. His role as a leader and a guide are impressive, he has led groups into Heaven and has served as a guide to various individuals, including the present Hawkgirl, Kendra Saunders.

He is an expert in the ancient warfare, customs, and theologies of the Abrahamic religious traditions. For example, he invoked the beliefs of the Gnostic Christians when counseling Hawkgirl.

Armor
Zauriel has three major pieces of equipment. The first is his Heavenly armor. Although built of Earthly materials, this prototype is designed by the engineers of Heaven and is blessed with divine properties that are theoretically impossible to replicate on Earth without omniscience. This suit of armor greatly enhances Zauriel's physical capabilities, including strength, durability, foot speed, agility, flight speed and stamina.

Zauriel's sword (Flaming Sword)
Zauriel's second piece of equipment is his Flaming Sword, a creation of elemental angelic fire. Cast in the foundries of the Fifth Heaven and characteristic of both guardian angels depicted thus far, the sword is directly bonded to Zauriel's will. It is able to emit blasts of holy fire, and because it is controlled by Zauriel's will, the sword can cut through virtually anything, including otherwise intangible objects and people, and even the very fabric of dimensions. Zauriel was once able to cut a hole in the dimensional barrier separating Heaven and Earth when the blade was magically augmented by teammates, enabling him and his team to traverse dimensions.

Despite it being a heavenly weapon, Zauriel's sword can be exhausted of power. It has been blown out at least once, but was re-ignited by one of the powers wielded by the then-Supergirl.

The angel Abariel later commanded Zauriel to surrender this weapon in exchange for an even more powerful weapon, Michael's battle staff/spear.

The Aerie
Zauriel's final piece of equipment is his headquarters itself, the Aerie. Floating high over Los Angeles, this shining, golden tower is much like Zauriel's armor in that it is made of Earthly materials but is of Heavenly design. The equipment far surpasses the technology of humans, even going so far as to supersede the technology within the JLA Watchtower.

Michael's battle staff (spear)
The angel Abariel, after commanding Zauriel to surrender his sword, gives Zauriel this heavenly weapon "until such time we may need it back", formerly wielded by the Archangel Michael himself, when he joins the Shadowpact; it is said to be even more capable than the Trident of Lucifer wielded by Blue Devil, and "has great and terrible powers far beyond your sword's meager abilities". It is powerful enough to wound Doctor Gotham, an enemy of the Shadowpact.

Other versions
Zauriel appears in the Elseworlds one-shot Supergirl: Wings. This version is a Lindel, an angel who plans out the lives of human beings before they are born.

In other media

 * Zauriel appears in the Justice League Unlimited tie-in comic.
 * Zauriel appears as a character summon in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.

title: Zauriel


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McCormick & Company

McCormick & Company, Incorporated is an American food company that manufactures, markets, and distributes spices, seasoning mixes, condiments, and other flavoring products to retail outlets, food manufacturers, and foodservice businesses.

Their products are available in many countries, and it is the largest producer of spices and related food products worldwide, based on revenue.

A Fortune 500 company, McCormick has approximately 14,000 employees around the globe. The company headquarters moved from Sparks to Hunt Valley, Maryland, in the third quarter of 2018.

History
Willoughby M. McCormick (1864–1932)started the business in Baltimore at age 25 in 1889. From one room and a cellar, he sold his initial products door-to-door which included root beer, flavoring extracts, fruit syrups and juices. Seven years later, McCormick bought the F.G. Emmett Spice Company and entered the spice industry. In 1903, Willoughby and his brother Roberdeau incorporated the company in Maine; they reincorporated in Maryland in 1915. Most of the company's assets and records were destroyed in the Great Baltimore Fire of February 1904. However, they constructed a new five-story building on the same site within 10 months in 1905.

The United States Bureau of Chemistry investigated McCormick & Company in 1916 for adulteration in its black pepper product. The court case resulted in a fine and a requirement that the company label the adulterated product as "ground black pepper containing from 10 percent to 28 percent added pepper shells".

Willoughby's nephew Charles P. McCormick (1896–1970), began working for the company in the summer of 1912, during his high school years at Baltimore City College. After graduating in 1915, he attended Johns Hopkins University, and was later elected to the company board of directors in 1925.

Willoughby died on November 4, 1932, and Charles was elected president and chairman of the board at age 36. The big "Mc" became a trademark for nearly all U.S. products in 1941.

Charles P. ("Buzz") McCormick, Jr. was elected president and chief executive officer in 1987 and re-elected CEO and chairman of the board in 1988.

The company celebrated its centennial in 1989 with events primarily for employees and those responsible for its success, and arranged for the musical group Up with People to give a series of performances across the U.S. for schools, churches, hospitals and similar organizations. McCormick is a Fortune 500 company, having annual revenues of $5.6 billion in 2020.

Acquisitions
McCormick acquired San Francisco-based coffee, spice and extract house A. Schilling & Company in 1947, enabling McCormick to begin coast-to-coast distribution in the U.S. McCormick continued to use the Schilling name for its Western division until the 1990s, with the last product containers marked Schilling produced in 2002; since then, all of the company's products have been marketed under the McCormick name nationwide.

It acquired Ben-Hur Products, a similar California-based company, in 1953, and Canada's largest spice firm, Gorman Eckert & Co. Ltd. of London, Ontario, in 1959. Gilroy Foods of Gilroy, California, became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1961. Other acquisitions included Baker Extract Co. in 1962, Cake Mate cake decorating in 1967, Childers Foods (later part of Golden West Foods) in 1968, and Tubed Products, an Easthampton, Massachusetts contract food packer and producer of plastic tubes, also in 1968. Charles P. McCormick retired in 1969 and was named chairman emeritus and died the following year of a heart attack.

McCormick acquired Golden West Foods, a frozen foods manufacturer and distributor in Gilroy, California, in 1973 and entered that field under the Schilling brand label. The McCormick (east) and Schilling (west) retail units were consolidated to form a Grocery Products Division in 1975 with headquarters in Baltimore. Additional acquisitions included All Portions in 1975, TV Time Foods of Chicago in 1976, Astro Foods of San Rafael, California, in 1977, and Han-Dee Pak of Atlanta in 1979.

In October 1979, Swiss pharmaceutical firm, Sandoz, Ltd., announced its intention to purchase the company. McCormick sued Sandoz in May 1980 and by September Sandoz agreed to relinquish its efforts to purchase McCormick and sold the shares that it acquired in its attempt to purchase the company.

Setco, a plastic bottles producer in Culver City, California, and Stange, a specialty flavorings and colorings company of Chicago, became subsidiaries in 1981. The company acquired Paterson Jenks, a publicly held United Kingdom corporation, in 1984, and Schwartz, the largest British spice line. Other acquisitions included Armanino Farms, the world's largest grower and processor of chives, from Armanino & Son, Inc., of San Francisco in 1986; and three California companies in 1987: Gentry Foods of Gilroy, Parsley Patch of Windsor, and The Herb Farm of Encinitas.

In 1990, McCormick purchased an interest in the Old Bay seasoning brand, famous in the Chesapeake Bay region for its use in preparing and steaming the local seafood delicacy of blue crabs. McCormick had fired Old Bay's founder fifty years earlier, according to the man's son, reportedly after learning he was Jewish (though the company has said that it has no record of the firing), and had its later offers to purchase his company repeatedly rejected. It then acquired Mojave Foods Corporation of Los Angeles in 1991, and the consumer products business of Golden Dipt Company in 1993. McCormick's 1994 acquisitions included Grupo Pesa of Mexico, Tuko Oy of Finland, Butto of Switzerland, and Minipack of Southampton, United Kingdom. Chairman Emeritus Charles P. McCormick Jr. was re-elected chairman in 1994. The company sold Golden West Foods in 1995 and Minipack of Southampton in 1996. Also sold in 1996 were Gilroy Foods and Gilroy Energy, as well as Giza National Dehydration of Cairo, Egypt. McCormick Canada acquired the French's dry seasoning line in 1997.

The company acquired Ducros of France in 2000, later renamed McCormick France. In 2003, McCormick was added to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index; acquired UniqSauces of the UK and Zatarain's of Louisiana; and sold its packaging businesses, Setco and Tubed Products, as well as its Jenks brokerage business assets. The company acquired C.M. van Sillevoldt B.V. of the Netherlands in 2004 and Epicurean International (renamed Simply Asia Foods) in 2006, with its Thai Kitchen and Simply Asia brands.

In 2007, the company started a new advertising campaign to encourage consumers to dispose of older packages of spices, by pointing out that any of their packages that list their address as "Baltimore, MD 21202" are over 15 years old. In 2008, McCormick acquired Billy Bee Honey Products of Canada, and the Lawry's brand of seasonings and marinades in its largest acquisition in company history for the next ten years. To gain FTC approval for the purchase of Lawry's, McCormick agreed to sell its Season-All business to Morton Salt.

In 2011, the company acquired Kitchen Basics, an Ohio-based brand of shelf-stable liquid stock, for $38 million. During that year, it also acquired Kamis S.A., a privately held Polish company with leading brands in spices, seasonings, mustards and other flavor products in Poland for $291 million. It also bought an 85% stake in Kohinoor Speciality Foods India for $115 million, a joint venture with India-based Kohinoor Foods Limited to market and sell basmati and ready-to-eat food products in India.

In mid-2013, the company completed its acquisition of Wuhan Asia-Pacific Condiments Co. Ltd. (WAPC), a seasoning manufacturer in the central region of China with the Daqiao and ChuShiLe bouillon products.

In June 2015, McCormick purchased Stubb's marinades, BBQ Sauce and rubs for $100 million.

In December 2015, McCormick announced that Lawrence E. Kurzius, head of global operations, would become CEO effective February 2016. Kurzius was a leader at McCormick for 12 years before the announcement and previously held positions at Uncle Ben's, Mars Inc., and Quaker Oats Company.

The company dropped its bid to acquire Premier Foods in April 2016 after determining that Premier's asking price would not benefit shareholders.

Late in 2016, the company acquired Enrico Giotti SpA, a private Italian flavorings company, in a $127 million deal.

In 2017, McCormick purchased Reckitt Benckiser's Food Division ("RB Foods"). At over four billion dollars, it topped the Lawry's acquisition a decade earlier, to become the largest acquisition in the company's history. The addition of French's and Frank's RedHot to McCormick's global portfolio represent the second and third largest brands, respectively, behind the McCormick brand.

In November 2020, McCormick agreed to buy Cholula Hot Sauce from L Catterton. In December 2020, McCormick acquired FONA, a leading North American manufacturer of flavors.

Research and development
In February 2019, McCormick announced that it worked with IBM to build an artificial intelligence (AI) system to analyze decades of data to develop new flavor combinations and seasoning mixes. The company brought its first AI-developed line of seasoning mixes to market in 2019, which were called "One" for making one-dish meals.

TV sponsorship
In December 2021, McCormick announced their sponsorship of Elinor Wonders Why on PBS Kids, and the PBS sponsorship group noted Let's Go Luna as another such series; this is the first PBS programming to be funded by McCormick.

Headquarters
In 1970, McCormick moved its manufacturing and corporate offices from Baltimore's Inner Harbor to Hunt Valley, Maryland. In 1991, McCormick corporate offices were moved to Sparks, Maryland. In 2018, the company's 1,100-employee global headquarters moved from Sparks to nearby Hunt Valley with a grand opening held on October 2, 2018.

McCormick's consumer segment has brands in approximately 170 countries and territories. The retail range includes spices and herbs, recipe mixes, extracts, condiments, marinades, stocks, broths, bouillons, sauces, toppings, homemade desserts, rice mixes, salad dressings and breadings.

McCormick makes flavorings, branded food services products, condiments, coating systems and ingredients for food manufacturers, food service operators and restaurants around the world.

Brands
McCormick & Company brands reach consumers in more than 170 countries and territories. Its brands include: • Aeroplane Jelly

• Billy Bee

• Brand Aromatics

• Cattlemen's BBQ Sauce

• Cholula Hot Sauce

• Club House

• Club House for Chefs

• Drogheria & Alimentari (D&A)

• Ducros

• EarthRight

• El Guapo

• FONA

• Frank's RedHot

• French's

• Giotti

• Gourmet Garden

• Kamis

• Lawry's

• Margao

• McCormick Australia

• McCormick China

• McCormick Mexico

• McCormick Consumer

• McCormick Pasion por el Sabor

• McCormick for Chefs

• Old Bay

• Schwartz

• Silvo

• Simply Asia

• Stubb's

• Tiger's Milk

• Thai Kitchen

• Vahiné

• Wuhan Asia-Pacific Condiments

• Zatarain's

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: McCormick & Company


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Werribee line

The Werribee line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's ninth longest metropolitan railway line at 32.9 km. The line runs from Flinders Street station in central Melbourne to Werribee station in the south west, serving 17 stations via Footscray, Newport, and Altona. The line operates for approximately 19 hours a day (from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 am) with 24 hour service available on Friday and Saturday nights. During peak hour, headways of up to 5–20 minutes are operated with services every 20–30 minutes during off-peak hours. Trains on the Werribee line run with a two three-car formations of Comeng, Siemens Nexas, and X'Trapolis 100 trainsets.

Part of the line initially opened in 1857 by the Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company. The line was progressively finished within the next two years, allowing trains to travel from Melbourne to Geelong. In April 1885, a short branch was opened off the Werribee line just past Newport to Williamstown Racecourse, and in November 1888, a branch was opened off the Racecourse branch to Altona, terminating at a station named Altona Beach. The construction of these lines played important parts in the development of Geelong and Melbourne's west during the 19th and 20th centuries, with the line continuing to be an important asset in the 21st century.

Since the 2010s, due to the heavily utilised infrastructure of the Werribee line, improvements and upgrades have been made. Works have included replacing sleepers, upgrading signalling technology, the removal of level crossings, planning for new infrastructure, the introduction of new rolling stock, and station accessibility upgrades.

19th century
In 1857, the Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company (G&MRC) opened the Werribee to Little River section of the line they were building between Newport and Geelong, then in June of that year, they opened the section between Werribee and a temporary station near Newport, known as Greenwich. The intention was to connect to the Williamstown line being built by the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company, with whom they had arranged permission to run the former company's trains over the latter company's tracks to Melbourne, but the Williamstown line was not yet ready.

However, by October 1857, construction of the Williamstown line had sufficiently advanced to allow the Geelong trains to run to the terminus at Williamstown Pier, so Greenwich station was closed and a connection was made to the Williamstown line towards Williamstown. From Williamstown Pier, passengers could connect to a ferry across Hobsons Bay to Port Melbourne.

The Williamstown line fully opened in January 1859, so the connection near Newport towards Williamstown was removed and replaced with a connection to Newport, and the through running of Geelong trains to Melbourne commenced.

In April 1885, a short branch was opened off the Werribee line just past Newport to Williamstown Racecourse, and in November 1888, a branch was opened off the Racecourse branch to Altona, terminating at a station named Altona Beach. This branch was opened by the Altona and Laverton Bay Freehold and Investment Company to encourage people to buy their land in the area. However, the line closed less than two years later, in August 1890.

20th century
A portion of the Altona Beach line near Williamstown Racecourse was leased by the Victorian Railways (VR) in 1906 to store race trains. Sometime between 1911 and 1919, the line reopened for goods trains with a siding built from Altona Beach to the Melbourne and Altona Colliery Company mine. From November 1917, the VR worked on the line on behalf of the then owners, Altona Beach Estates Ltd., but to a relocated Altona Beach station, short of the original terminus.

The VR electrified the Williamstown line and the branch to Williamstown Racecourse in August 1920. In October 1924, the VR took total control of the Altona Beach line, and electrified it in October 1926. Automatic Block Signalling was commissioned between South Kensington and Yarraville in August 1927, and then on to Newport. The Automatic and Track Control system was installed from Newport South towards Geelong, enabling bidirectional use of the then single track line. The Williamstown Racecourse branch closed in May 1950. Duplication of the Werribee line occurred in stages between 1960 and 1968, with the Altona branch converted to Automatic Block Signalling in October 1967. First announced by the Transport Minister Joe Rafferty in 1977, electrification was extended from Altona Junction to Werribee in September 1983, whilst in January 1985, the Altona line was extended to Westona.

By the early 1980s, the Altona Loop was under threat of closure, as recommended in the Lonie Report. In October 1981, the rail service was drastically cut, with all shuttle services withdrawn, and only two morning and evening trains being operated to and from Melbourne. However, a change of state government in 1982 saw the restitution of many services in July of that year. On 21 January 1985, the line was subsequently extended to Westona and, in April of that year, was extended from Westona to Laverton. In April 1985, Altona to Westona, which had temporarily been operated by Staff and Ticket safeworking, was converted to Automatic and Track Control, and a few days later, the line was extended to Laverton and therefore connecting with the Werribee line.

21st century
Initially, almost every Werribee bound service ran via Westona, but a timetable re-write in May 2011 saw this section converted to a separate service for the majority of the time. The rewrite introduced the controversial practice of having trains serving the Altona Loop run as a shuttle service between Laverton and Newport during off peak hours. Shuttle services were ended in August 2017, with direct services to and from the city being reinstated to the Altona Loop. In June 2015, the completion of the Regional Rail Link allowed for the rerouting of Geelong and Warrnambool services via the 90 km of new track constructed between Little River and Deer Park stations. Instead of stopping at select stations on the Werribee line, services now stop at new stations at Wyndham Vale and Tarneit which are in Melbournes growing western suburbs. The separation of suburban and regional trains has reduced overcrowding, increased capacity, and improved service reliability on the Werribee line in addition to the benefits seen on Geelong services.

In January 2021, a major timetable rewrite resulted in increased frequencies and weekend daytime shuttle services being extended from Newport to Flinders Street. Peak hour weekday services now stop at South Kensington, which simplifies stopping patterns on the Sunbury line. In addition, peak hour frequencies were also made more consistent for the Altona Loop.

Level crossing removals
The Level Crossing Removal Project has announced the removal of all remaining level crossings on the Werribee line, to be completed in stages from 2018 to 2030. In 2018, one level crossing was removed at Kororoit Creek Road, Williamstown North. The crossing was removed by raising the rail line onto a rail bridge above the road with partial duplication of the Altona Loop completed as part of the project. In 2019, another level crossing was removed at Aviation Road, Laverton. The crossing was removed by raising the road onto a bridge above the rail line with upgrades to Aircraft station in conjunction with the project. The upgrades included a redesigned station forecourt and construction of a new pedestrian underpass. In 2021, a total of 3 level crossings were removed at various locations along the line. Crossings were removed at Old Geelong Road in Hoppers Crossing and Werribee Street and Cherry Street in Werribee. Two of these crossings were removed with road bridges and one with a rail bridge. The removal of the crossing at Old Geelong Road in Hoppers Crossing also included an upgrade to Hoppers Crossing station with a new overpass, station forecourt, and bus interchange. The final five crossings along the line (excluding the ones on the Altona Loop) will be removed by 2030. The crossing at Hudsons Road, Spotswood and Maddox Road, Newport will be removed by constructing two separate rail bridges with a new Spotswood station also being built. In addition, the crossing at Maidstone Street will be removed with the construction of a road bridge and two crossings—Anderson Street and Champion Road—will be closed off. At the end of these works, the Werribee line will be fully level crossing free by 2030.

Network reconfiguration
When the new cross-city rail corridor being built by the Metro Tunnel opens in 2025 there will be a reorganisation of the Melbourne rail network. The Victorian Department of Transport and Planning plans to return the Frankston line to the City Loop, with dedicated use of the Caulfield group tunnel track. This will mean Frankston line trains will no longer through-run with Werribee and Williamstown line trains, and will again stop at City Loop stations Flagstaff, Melbourne Central, and Parliament. As part of the reconfiguration, the Werribee and Williamstown lines would instead begin through-running services to Sandringham for the first time.

Melbourne Metro 2
The 2012 Network Development Plan identified the need for a east-west tunnel connecting the Werribee (and potentially) the Geelong line to the Mernda line. The project would split the Mernda line from the Hurstbridge line after Clifton Hill into a new tunnel, travelling east stopping at a new station in the "inner north", before connecting with at Parkville, Flagstaff, and Southern Cross stations. Exiting the CBD, the line would continue in a tunnel stopping at a new station in the suburb of Fishermans Bend, before crossing underneath the Yarra River and arriving at Newport station. The line would then exit the tunnel and travel further west to connect with the Werribee line bypassing the Altona Loop. The Werribee and Williamstown lines will be reconfigured to provide better and simpler service. This project was initially meant to be completed in the 2020s, however, no funding or planning has taken place, with the revised Victorian Rail Plan stating that the project would be completed under Stage 6 of the plan.

As part of the Melbourne Metro 2, the Werribee and Williamstown lines would be reconfigured to provide simpler service. The Sandringham line would continue running to Williamstown with the line also travelling to and terminating at Laverton via the Altona Loop. Express services (not via the Altona Loop) would instead be served by trains exiting the Melbourne Metro 2 tunnel towards Werribee (and potentially Geelong).

Geelong Fast Rail
The Western Rail Plan is a plan that aims to improve the quality of rail services in Melbournes western suburbs through infrastructure upgrades on a range of metropolitan and regional lines. Geelong Fast Rail was one project identified in the Western Rail Plan as a matter of priority, as it would allow for Geelong and Warrnambool services to travel back via the Werribee line, cutting travel time and allowing electrification of other corridors to occur which are currently being served exclusively by V/Line trains. Phase 1 of Geelong Fast Rail will consist of the following projects aimed at cutting travel times by 15 minutes:

 * New track between Werribee and Laverton dedicated to regional services
 * Upgrades and widening of bridges over main roads, creeks, and rivers
 * Upgraded stations at Werribee and Laverton
 * Signalling and train control system upgrades

Construction on the project expected to get underway in 2023, with the Australian and Victorian governments committing $2 billion each to the project which is expected to create 2800 new jobs.

Services
Services on the Werribee line operates from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 am daily. In general, during peak hours, train frequency is 5–15 minutes (reduced frequencies on the Altona Loop) while services during non-peak hours drops to 20 minutes throughout the entire route. Instead of running through the City Loop, services terminate at Flinders Street and then continue onto the Frankston line, with boosted frequencies in combination with the Williamstown line. The Night Network operates on Friday nights and weekends, with services running 24 hours a day, with 60 minute frequencies available outside of normal operating hours.

Train services on the Werribee line are also subjected to maintenance and renewal works, usually on selected Fridays and Saturdays. Shuttle bus services are provided throughout the duration of works for affected commuters.

Stopping patterns
Legend — Station status
 * ◼ Premium Station – Station staffed from first to last train
 * ◻ Host Station – Usually staffed during morning peak, however this can vary for different stations on the network.

Legend — Stopping patterns Services do not operate via the City Loop
 * ● – All trains stop
 * ◐ – Some services do not stop
 * ▼ – Only outbound trains stop
 * | – Trains pass and do not stop

Operators
The Werribee line has had a total of 10 operators since its opening in 1857. Early in 1857, the Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company (G&MR) opened the Werribee to Little River section of the line they were building between Newport and Geelong. 2 years later in 1859, the government acquired the line and begun operations under the newly formed Victorian Railways (VR). The railway to Altona was constructed by the Altona Beach Estate Company, a private land developer, and opened on 9 November 1888 to a station named Altona Beach, which was about a kilometre to the east of the current station. As a result of the collapse of the 1880s Land Boom, regular services to Altona Beach ceased after August 1890, and the Victorian Government declined the offer of the owners to gift it the line. In 1917, the owners of the estate entered into an agreement with the Victorian Railways (VR) to provide a regular passenger service, having guaranteed to cover any operating losses. The majority of operations throughout its history have been government run: from its government acquisition in 1859 until the 1999 privatisation of Melbourne's rail network, four different government operators have run the line. These operators, Victorian Railways, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Public Transport Corporation, and Bayside Trains have a combined operational length of 140 years.

Bayside Trains was privatised in August 1999 and later rebranded M>Train. In 2002, M>Train was placed into receivership and the state government regained ownership of the line, with KPMG appointed as receivers to operate M>Train on behalf of the state government. Two years later, rival train operator Connex Melbourne took over the M>Train operations including the Williamstown line. Metro Trains Melbourne, the current private operator, then took over the operations in 2009. The private operators have had a combined operational period of 28 years.

Route
The Werribee line forms a mostly straight route from the Melbourne central business district to its terminus in Werribee. The route is 32.9 km long and is fully doubled tracked from Flinders Street to its terminus, excluding during the Altona Loop. After changing from Frankston services at Flinders Street, the Werribee line traverses mainly flat country with few curves and fairly minimal earthworks for most of the line. Few sections of the line has been elevated or lowered to remove level crossings. All remaining level crossings will be removed by 2030.

The line follows the same alignment as the Williamstown line with the two services splitting onto different routes at Newport. The Werribee line continues on its south-western alignment, whereas the Williamstown line takes a southern alignment towards its final destination. Most of the rail line goes through built-up suburbs and heavy industrial areas with small pockets on non-urbanised spaces.

Stations
The line serves 17 stations across 39.2 km of track. The stations are a mix of elevated, lowered, and ground level designs. The majority of elevated and lowered stations being constructed as part of level crossing removals. From 2030, Spotswood station will be elevated as part of additional level crossing removal works.

Rolling stock
The Werribee line uses three different types of electric multiple unit (EMU) trains that are operated in a split six-car configuration, with three doors per side on each carriage. The primary rolling stock featured on the line is the Comeng EMUs, built by Commonwealth Engineering between 1981 and 1988. These train sets are the oldest on the Melbourne rail network and subsequently will be replaced by the mid 2030s. Siemens Nexas EMUs are also widely featured on the line, originally built between 2002 and 2005 these train sets feature more modern technology than the Comeng trains. The final type of rolling stock featured on the line is the X'Trapolis 100 built by Alstom between 2002 and 2004, and 2009 and 2020. All of these rolling stock models are widely used on other lines across the metropolitan network and work as the backbone of the network.

Alongside the passenger trains, Werribee line tracks and equipment are maintained by a fleet of engineering trains. The four types of engineering trains are: the shunting train; designed for moving trains along non-electrified corridors and for transporting other maintenance locomotives, for track evaluation; designed for evaluating track and its condition, the overhead inspection train; designed for overhead wiring inspection, and the infrastructure evaluation carriage designed for general infrastructure evaluation. Most of these trains are repurposed locomotives previously used by V/Line, Metro Trains, and the Southern Shorthaul Railroad.

Planned rolling stock
From the middle of 2020s, the next generation of the X'Trapolis family of electric EMUs—the X'Trapolis 2.0—will be introduced. This new model will fully replace the existing fleet of Comeng EMUs currently operating on the line currently with new, modern, and technologically advanced trains. The new trains will feature:

 * Modernised doors to reduce the boarding times at stations to under 40 seconds
 * Passenger information systems to display that train's journey in real time
 * Higher energy efficiency to work with a lower network voltage, to fit in line with modern rail systems overseas
 * New interior designs including tip-up seating to allow space for wheelchair spaces.
 * Designated bicycle storage areas
 * Passenger operated automatic wheelchair ramps located behind driver cabs
 * Six car fully walk through carriages

Accessibility
In compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992, all stations that are new-built or rebuilt are fully accessible and comply with these guidelines. The majority of stations on the corridor are fully accessible, however, there are some stations that haven't been upgraded to meet these guidelines. These stations do feature ramps, however, they have a gradient greater than 1 in 14. Stations that are fully accessible feature ramps that have a gradient less than 1 in 14, have at-grade paths, or feature lifts. These stations typically also feature tactile boarding indicators, independent boarding ramps, wheelchair accessible myki barriers, hearing loops, and widened paths.

Projects improving station accessibility have included the Level Crossing Removal Project, which involves station rebuilds and upgrades and other individual station upgrade projects. These works have made significant strides in improving network accessibility, with more than 76% of Werribee line stations classed as fully accessible. This number is expected to grow within the coming years with the completion of level crossing removal works on the corridor by 2029.

Signalling
The Werribee line uses three-position signalling which is widely used across the Melbourne train network. Three-position signalling was first introduced in 1927, with the final section of the line converted to the new type of signalling in 1946. Past Werribee, three-position signalling continues further past Geelong.

title: Werribee line


text:
Our Man Flint

Our Man Flint is a 1966 American spy-fi comedy film that parodies the James Bond film series. The film was directed by Daniel Mann, written by Hal Fimberg and Ben Starr (from a story by Hal Fimberg), and starred James Coburn as master spy Derek Flint. A sequel, In Like Flint, was released the following year, with Coburn reprising his role.

Plot
Spy extraordinaire Derek Flint is an ex-agent of Z.O.W.I.E. (Zonal Organization World Intelligence Espionage) who is brought out of retirement to deal with the threat of Galaxy, a worldwide organization led by a trio of mad scientists: Doctor Krupov, Doctor Wu, and Doctor Schneider. Impatient that the world's governments will never improve, the scientists demand that all nations capitulate to Galaxy. To enforce their demands, they initiate earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, and other natural disasters with their climate-control apparatus to force countries to dissolve their armed forces and stop using nuclear power to generate electricity.

Initially reluctant, Flint decides to take them on after a preemptive assassination attempt by Galaxy's section head, Gila, who replaces a restaurant's harpist while Flint is dining with his four live-in "playmates" — Leslie, Anna, Gina, and Sakito. Gila uses a harp string as a bow to fire a poisoned dart, which misses Flint but hits his former boss, Cramden.

Flint squeezes the poison out of the wound, saving Cramden's life. A chemical trace on the dart directs Flint to Marseille for bouillabaisse. In one of Marseille's lowest clubs, he stages a brawl to gain information from "famous" Agent 0008, which leads him to a narcotics trade which is financing Galaxy.

Galaxy agent Hans Gruber is in the club enjoying his favorite soup while waiting to rendezvous with Gila. Instead, Gila sends Gruber to ambush Flint in the lavatory. Flint ends up killing Gruber in a toilet stall while Gila escapes, leaving behind a cold cream jar she has booby-trapped with explosives. Flint detects the trap and chases the bystanders from the club before detonating the bomb.

The remains in the jar lead Flint to Rome. After investigating several cosmetic companies, Flint arrives at Exotica, where he meets Gila for the first time. Gila lets him come to her apartment for an exchange of information, and then a seduction. Following their encounter, he steals the keys to Exotica and breaks into the company's safe, learning of Galaxy's location before being trapped by Gila's assistant, Malcolm Rodney. Malcolm and Gila assume that Flint will soon run out of air in the safe as they transport it to a waiting submarine. However, during the journey, Flint learns that his playmates have been kidnapped and taken to the headquarters on Galaxy Island in the Mediterranean Sea.

He then uses his power of self-induced suspended animation to fool his captors into thinking they have successfully killed him. Gila and Rodney take an evidence photograph of the "body", which they send to Cramden, then carry Flint back to headquarters on the submarine.

Flint revives and sneaks into the Galaxy complex, but his infiltration is thwarted, and he is taken before Galaxy's trio of leaders. Offered a chance to join their new order, he refuses and is sentenced to death by disintegration.

Gila's failure to eliminate Flint results in her being stripped of her leadership role and reassigned to become a Pleasure Unit – a fate that has already befallen Flint's playmates. She then changes sides, slipping Flint his gadget-filled cigarette lighter before she is hauled away. With the help of the lighter, Flint again escapes, sabotages the machinery, rescues his playmates and Gila, and departs the island as it disintegrates.

A waiting American warship picks up Flint and the women as they watch a volcano erupt on the island. Gila presumably joins the other four women living with Flint. (In the sequel, when Flint is again called out of retirement for a mission, he lives with three women, saying that "five was just too many.")

The last shot is of the "Anti-American Eagle" that attacked Flint at Rodney's behest earlier in the film flying over the smoking ruins of the island.

Cast
The uncredited actor playing the overseer of the Pleasure Unit process is Dick Wilson, who later gained fame as "Mr. Whipple" in a long string of commercials for Charmin toilet paper. The voice of then-President Lyndon B. Johnson was provided by Van Williams, who provided the same voice-over effect later that year, in the film Batman: The Movie.

Production
Coburn later said, "I credit the producer, Saul David, for the Flint films. He was responsible for the whole thing. He also cast me in the role. Of course, it was a spoof of the Bond and all the other spy films released at the time. What I liked about Flint was that he was his own man. He trained himself. We tried to work from that theme. It must have worked ... after all, the film was a big hit."

Influences
The film's direct nods to James Bond in a comedic and outlandish style. Flint is initially offered a Walther PPK and an attache case with a concealed throwing knife, with Flint dismissing both as "crude". During the French strip club sequence, Flint stages a mock brawl with a patron identified as Agent 0008, a British secret agent. Flint asks if SPECTRE (the criminal organization in the early Bond movies) is involved, to which Agent 0008 replies, "It's bigger than SPECTRE!" The actor playing the role is similar in appearance to Sean Connery. Later in the film, Gila is shown reading a 0008 novel, referencing the James Bond novels.

Soundtrack
20th Century Fox's house composer Jerry Goldsmith composed the film's score. The film's original soundtrack LP was rerecorded slower arrangements of the score, and a DVD of the surviving elements of the two Flint films was later released.

Herbie Mann covered the title theme, "Our Man Flint", on his 1966 album, Our Mann Flute. Many other cover versions of the theme music were recorded during the mid-1960s, including Roland Shaw, Billy Strange and The Challengers with Hugo Montenegro's version including the Presidential telephone's ringtone. Wall of Voodoo used the theme tune in the 2nd half of their version of "Ring of Fire".

Cultural legacy
The distinctive ringtone of Cramden's "presidential hotline" telephone was re-used in the films Hudson Hawk, and in Seattle children's television program, The J.P. Patches Show. Popular Los Angeles KIIS-FM disc jockey Rick Dees used the sound effect as the "hotline" phone sound whenever the station manager would call and yell at him during his 1980s and 1990s shows. A similar ringtone was used in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, clearly as a "nod and a wink" to the Flint films.

Hanna-Barbara's 1966 animated film The Man Called Flintstone includes nods to the Our Man Flint, especially on the theatrical poster.

A 1965 novelization of the film by Jack Pearl includes much material not seen on the screen that may have been taken from an earlier screenplay draft.

The name Hans Gruber was reused in two later films, Re-Animator and Die Hard.

Clips of audio from the film are sampled in The Desert Sessions song "Sugar Rush" on the album Volumes 3 & 4.

Reception
Our Man Flint generally received positive reviews, having a "Fresh" score of 76% on Rotten Tomatoes from 33 critics.

Box office
According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $7,700,000 to break even and made $12,950,000 at the box office.

Sequels
In Like Flint (1967) was directed by Gordon Douglas and again starred James Coburn, with Cobb also reprising his role as Lloyd C. Cramden.

In 1972, Harlan Ellison wrote a teleplay entitled Flintlock as a continuation of the films with Coburn intended to reprise his role. Still, studios have passed on what would have been a pilot for a proposed television series, and it went unproduced. A later attempt on the same format resulted in Dead on Target (1976), a Canadian-filmed television pilot directed by Joseph L. Scanlan, starring Ray Danton as Flint, here depicted as a private investigator. This originally aired on ABC-TV on March 17, 1976.

An Italian parody, Il vostro super agente Flit, was released in 1966.

title: Our Man Flint


text:
John Gilbert, Baron Gilbert

John William Gilbert, Baron Gilbert, (5 April 1927 – 2 June 2013) was a British Labour Party politician.

Early life
Gilbert's father was a civil servant. Baron Gilbert was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, St John's College, Oxford, where he studied philosophy, politics and economics, and New York University, where he gained a PhD in international economics. He then worked as a chartered accountant in Canada.

Parliamentary career
He contested the Parliamentary seat of Ludlow in 1966 and a by-election in Dudley in 1968 before being elected for Dudley in 1970 and (after boundary changes) Dudley East in 1974, which he represented until 1997, when it became part of the new Dudley North constituency (which was held by a new Labour MP) and Gilbert retired from the House of Commons.

In the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan he was Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1974–1975), Minister for Transport (1975–1976), and Minister of State for Defence (1976–1979). As Minister for Transport he approved the London M25 orbital motorway project and introduced the Bill to make the wearing of seat belts compulsory. He also served on the House of Commons Defence Committee (1979–1987) and the Trade and Industry Committee (1987–1992).

House of Lords
After his retirement from the House of Commons, he was created a Life Peer as Baron Gilbert, of Dudley in the County of West Midlands on 16 May 1997 and from 1997 to 1999 he was the Minister of State for Defence Procurement in Tony Blair's first government. Always a staunch proponent of Britain's independent nuclear deterrent, he caused controversy when he proposed neutron bombing the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to "prevent people from infiltrating from one side to the other." In October 2012 he said in the House of Lords "The A400M [the RAF's new transport aircraft] is a complete, absolute wanking disaster, and we should be ashamed of ourselves. I have never seen such a waste of public funds in the defence field since I have been involved in it these past 40 years."

Personal life
Gilbert was married twice, firstly in 1950, to Hillary, daughter of Lord Strabolgi. They had two daughters, before divorcing in 1954.

Gilbert later married Jean Ross-Skinner in 1963.

He died in 2013 at the age of 86.

title: John Gilbert, Baron Gilbert


text: File:JudiBari.jpg

title: File:JudiBari.jpg


text:
User:Kenwarren/wel

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia!

Here are some tips to help you get started:

 * Try the Tutorial, and feel free to experiment in the test area.
 * If you need help, post a question at the Help Desk
 * Eventually, you might want to read the Manual of Style and Policies and Guidelines.
 * Explore, be bold in editing pages, and, most importantly, have fun!

Good luck!

[[User:Kenwarren|Ken Warren (talk)]]

P.S. One last helpful hint. To sign your posts like I did above (on talk pages, for example) use the '~' symbol. To insert just your name, type ~~~ (3 tildes), or, to insert your name and timestamp, use ~~~~ (4 tildes).

title: User:Kenwarren/wel


text:
Category:Natural arches

Natural arches and bridges.

title: Category:Natural arches


text:
User talk:80.46.175.179

Nomination of Dust (His Dark Materials) for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Dust (His Dark Materials) is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Articles for deletion/Dust (His Dark Materials) until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished. Jontesta (talk) 01:49, 28 June 2022 (UTC)

title: User talk:80.46.175.179


text:
Great Moon Hoax

The "Great Moon Hoax", also known as the "Great Moon Hoax of 1835" was a series of six articles published in The Sun (a New York newspaper), beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel and his fictitious companion Andrew Grant.

The story was advertised on August 21, 1835, as an upcoming feature allegedly reprinted from The Edinburgh Courant. The first in a series of six was published four days later on August 25. These articles were never retracted, however on September 16, 1835, The Sun admitted the articles were in fact fabricated.

Hoax

The headline read:

The articles described animals on the Moon, including bison, single-horned goats, mini zebras, unicorns, bipedal tail-less beavers and bat-like winged humanoids ("Vespertilio-homo") who built temples. There were trees, oceans and beaches. These discoveries were supposedly made with "an immense telescope of an entirely new principle". The telescope - transported to South Africa from New England - was said to be many times larger than any other telescope in the world. The lens measured "24 feet in diameter and 7 tons in weight".

"Vespertilio-homo" can be translated from Latin as man-bat, bat-man, or man-bats.

A reprinted edition of 1836 added a second type named the Vespertiliones or the bat-men. The author of the narrative was ostensibly Dr. Andrew Grant, the travelling companion and amanuensis of Sir John Herschel, but Grant was fictitious.

Eventually, the authors announced that the observations had been terminated by the destruction of the telescope, by means of the Sun causing the lens to act as a "burning glass", setting fire to the observatory.

Authorship

The writer of the article was at first not known to the public. Initially, authorship of the article has been attributed to Richard Adams Locke (1800–1871), a reporter who, in August 1835, was working for The Sun. Eventually, Locke publicly admitted to being the author in 1840, in a letter to the weekly paper New World. Despite Locke's claims, rumours persisted that others were involved in the articles' creation.

Two other men have been noted in connection with the hoax: Jean-Nicolas Nicollet, a French astronomer travelling in America at the time (though he was in Mississippi, not New York, when the Moon-hoax issues appeared), and Lewis Gaylord Clark, editor of The Knickerbocker, a literary magazine. However, there is no good evidence to indicate that anyone but Locke was the author of the hoax.

Assuming that Richard A. Locke was the author, his intentions were probably, first, to create a sensational story which would increase sales of The Sun, and, second, to ridicule some of the more extravagant astronomical theories that had recently been published. Locke had meant for the hoax to act of a satire to show how science can be and is influenced by the thoughts of religion. For instance, in 1824, Franz von Paula Gruithuisen, professor of astronomy at Munich University, had published a paper titled "Discovery of Many Distinct Traces of Lunar Inhabitants, Especially of One of Their Colossal Buildings". One theory is that this paper is responsible for inspiring the articles written by Locke.

In his paper, Gruithuisen claimed to have observed various shades of color on the lunar surface, which he correlated with climate and vegetation zones. He also observed lines and geometrical shapes, which he felt indicated the existence of walls, roads, fortifications, and cities. However, a more direct object of Locke's satire was Rev. Thomas Dick, who was known as "The Christian Philosopher" after the title of his first book. Dick had computed that the Solar System contained 21,891,974,404,480 (21.9 trillion) inhabitants. In fact, the Moon alone, by his count, would contain 4,200,000,000 inhabitants. His writings were very popular in America; intellectual Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of his fans.

Reactions

According to legend, The Sun's circulation increased dramatically because of the hoax and remained permanently greater than before, thereby establishing The Sun as a successful paper. It brought the journal to international fame, and the hoax resembled crime reports that allowed the readers to play detective, trying to discover the truth.

However, the degree to which the hoax increased the paper's circulation has certainly been exaggerated in popular accounts of the event. It was not discovered to be a hoax for several weeks after its publication and, even then, the newspaper did not issue a retraction.

Herschel was initially amused by the hoax, noting that his own real observations could never be as exciting. He later became annoyed when he had to answer questions from people who believed the hoax was serious.

Edgar Allan Poe claimed the story was a plagiarism of his earlier work "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall," and "Hans Phaall – A Tale", published in the Southern Literary Messenger. His editor at the time was Richard Adams Locke. He later published "The Balloon-Hoax" in the same newspaper. As well as "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall". The story was reprinted in the New York Transcript on September 2–5, 1835, under the headline "Lunar Discoveries, Extraordinary Aerial Voyage by Baron Hans Pfaall".

Poe described a voyage to the Moon in a balloon, in which Pfaall lives for five years on the Moon with lunarians and sends back a lunarian to Earth. The Poe Moon hoax was less successful because of the satiric and comical tone of the account. Locke was able to upstage Poe and to steal his thunder. In 1846, Poe would write a biographical sketch of Locke as part of his series "The Literati of New York City" which appeared in Godey's Lady's Book.

Context
The sensational reports of Richard Adams Locke were not out of place in the context of the mass proliferation of penny press newspapers such as the New York Sun which received much of their income from advertisements, a business practice made sustainable by large numbers of viewers. The Sun was a pioneer when it came to producing shocking and often sensationalist journalism, being the first New York newspaper to report on murders, suicides, personal events, and divorces, and it was because of stories such as these that the Sun thrived in attracting viewers to their articles and advertisements.

The success of such sensational stories as the "Great Moon Hoax" can be partly attributed to the influence of contemporary speculative science. Figures like the Reverend Thomas Dick, who claimed that the moon was inhabited by billions of beings, had captured the public's imagination in the early 19th century. Locke's hoax played on these popular beliefs, presenting them as the latest scientific findings from the well-respected astronomer Sir John Herschel, which lent the story credibility.

Legacy

The hoax is featured in Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History.

The Moon Trilogy - a series of fantasy novels by the Polish author Jerzy Żuławski, published in 1903–1911. The series consists of the following novels: ''On the Silver Globe. Manuscript from the Moon, The Conqueror and Old Earth''.

Nate DiMeo's historical podcast The Memory Palace dedicated a 2010 episode to the Great Moon Hoax entitled "The Moon in the Sun".

The hoax inspired a three-part musical by composer Matt Dahan as part of his musical radio series Pulp Musicals.

Richard Adams Locke and the Great Moon Hoax are fictionalized in chapter 14 of Félix J. Palma's 2012 novel The Map of the Sky.

The hoax reflected a time when readers were looking for entertainment as much as information from penny press newspapers, which would later change with the development of ethical reporting.

title: Great Moon Hoax


text:
Sandwell Valley

Sandwell Valley is an area of green belt in the county of West Midlands, England, on the border of Birmingham and West Bromwich, with Walsall at its northern end.

It is a valley on the River Tame of which 720 ha are owned by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, with the RSPB leasing 25 acres as Sandwell Valley RSPB reserve. Within this large area, is the 270 ha Sandwell Valley Country Park, which contains two visitor centres, Forge Mill Farm and Sandwell Park Farm, the former using modern farming techniques, the latter with a walled kitchen garden and rare breeds of farm animals, one of 16 farm parks approved nationally by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

Sot's Hole is one of three Local Nature Reserves in the Country Park, and lies on the edge of the site on Dagger Lane/Church Vale, West Bromwich. In an effort to protect and restore the reserve, a group of local people joined together in November 2005 and formed the Friends of Sot's Hole.

The earliest evidence of people in Sandwell Valley is in the form of flint tools from the Mesolithic period, but evidence of later periods is also present in the landscape, including the site of Sandwell Hall (home of the Earls of Dartmouth) and Sandwell Priory ruins (still evident today). Exhibitions at Sandwell Park Farm tell the story of the people who lived here.

The M5 motorway bisects the Country Park, with the intersection between it and the M6 (considered Junction 8 of the M6) at the northern end, and junction 1 of the M5 to the south. The latter junction surrounds a surviving gatehouse from the hall. The Birmingham-Walsall Line, part of the former Grand Junction Railway, opened in 1837, runs through the northern end of the valley, with Hamstead railway station being the nearest. The former Newton Road railway station having closed some years ago.

The highest point of Sandwell Valley is in Birmingham and is known as Hill Top, where the remains of a World War II gun emplacement can still be found there.

The Country Park's fauna and flora are studied by the Sandwell Valley Naturalists' Club (SandNats).

Every Saturday morning at 9.00am, the country park hosts a parkrun, a free, weekly timed 5 km run. Adjacent areas include Great Barr, Hamstead and Handsworth Wood.

title: Sandwell Valley


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Dæmon (His Dark Materials)

A dæmon is a type of fictional being in the Philip Pullman fantasy trilogies His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust. Dæmons are the external physical manifestation of a person's "inner-self" that takes the form of an animal. Dæmons have human intelligence, are capable of human speech—regardless of the form they take—and usually behave as though they are independent of their humans. Pre-pubescent children's dæmons can change form voluntarily to become any creature, real or imaginary. During adolescence a person's dæmon undergoes "settling", an event in which that person's dæmon permanently and involuntarily assumes the form of the animal which the person most resembles in character. Dæmons are usually of the opposite sex to their human, though same-sex dæmons do exist.

Dæmons frequently interact with each other in ways that mirror the behaviour of their humans, such as fighting one another when their humans are fighting, or nuzzling one another when their humans embrace, and such contact is seen as normal. However, for a human to touch another person's dæmon is taboo.

Background
Pullman says his inspirations for dæmons were Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo's Young Woman with a Macaw and Hans Holbein the Younger's The Lady and the Squirrel, all portraits in which there seemed to be "a psychological link between the person and the creature".

Form
Dæmons supposedly occur in every world, but in Lyra's universe they take an external shape, even if they are not corporeal. Typically dæmons and their humans are conscious or asleep at the same time. However, the dæmons of witches and shamans can remain awake while their humans sleep.

"The worst breach of etiquette imaginable" is for a human to touch another person's dæmon; even in battle, most soldiers would never touch an enemy's dæmon, though there are exceptions (such as between lovers or in particularly violent fights). Dæmons can touch other dæmons freely; interactions between dæmons usually accentuate and illuminate the relationships between the characters, and can also be used as a means of passing information between humans without being overheard. The sexual element of human/dæmon interaction is also reflected when Pantalaimon and Kirjava assume their final forms, as they officially settle after Will and Lyra stroke the other's dæmon.

During puberty, children's dæmons "settle" into a form which reflects their mature personality. A person's dæmon is usually of the opposite sex to its human; however, very occasionally, it may be the same sex as the person. Pullman said he doesn't know why, and that it may also indicate some other gift or quality, such as second sight, or that the person is homosexual, adding "There are plenty of things about my worlds I don't know, and that's one of them".

Separation
Normally, a person and their dæmon must stay within a few yards of each other. The exact distance the two can separate is unclear; Lee Scoresby expresses surprise when a bird dæmon travels forty yards from her human, while Lyra is uncomfortable when Pan goes to a second storey window while she is standing in front of the same building. However, witches and shamans' dæmons can travel separately. Such separation from one's dæmon – sometimes called "pulling" – causes extreme pain and distress for both human and dæmon, and, given enough distance, results in death.

The most detailed account in the books shows pulling to be torturous both physically – like "an iron hand pulling one's heart out between one's ribs" – and emotionally. A permanent separation between human and dæmon kills both and releases a huge burst of energy, which, for instance, is harnessed by Lord Asriel to blast a hole between two overlapping universes at the end of Northern Lights. The General Oblation Board initially accomplished this separation through simply tearing child and dæmon apart, but this generally resulted in the subject dying of shock.

Certain trained people, particularly witches and human shamans, have achieved the ability to survive separation from their dæmons by undergoing an initial voluntary separation done at a special location. For the witches this is at a canyon underneath the earth in Lyra's world. Shamans endure gruelling ordeals that involve leaving their dæmon as they embark on a spiritual quest, crossing an area of death where nothing may grow or live. After rejoining their dæmon they gain the ability to separate from them to a far greater extent than previously, though both witches and shamans regain their intimate bond with their dæmon. Lyra and Will achieve the ability to be distant from their dæmons by going through the World of the Dead.

Some humans, for example, Mrs. Coulter, are able to go farther from their dæmons than most others. Mrs. Coulter's dæmon, a golden monkey, goes into Lyra's room when she is staying with Mrs. Coulter to find her alethiometer (truth reader) despite not having undergone intercision, with Mrs. Coulter talking to Lyra perfectly normally at the same time. The reasons Mrs. Coulter can do this are not stated.

The Secret Commonwealth establishes that others have undergone separation from their dæmons or have pushed the bond past its usual limits. On one occasion, Pantalaimon discovers a woman who has become separated from her dæmon after a boat sank with the dæmon on it, the two having been unable to find each other after this even as the girl's continued survival makes it clear that the dæmon is still alive. In Lyra's search for Pantalaimon, after he leaves her following a conflict, Lyra learns that there are groups of poor in distant countries who actually sell their children's dæmons through an organisation selling dæmons.

Intercision
In the trilogy, a special guillotine made of manganese-titanium alloy is used by the General Oblation Board to separate people from their dæmon without killing them (known as intercision). However, unlike the distant separation practiced by witches and shamans, the guillotine permanently breaks the bond between person and dæmon, and drastically reduces the person's creativity, intelligence, and willpower: The adults who have survived the process seem blank and lifeless, and their dæmons subdued and incurious. The General Oblation Board continually perfects the process through experimentation, but Lyra encounters a young boy who cannot bear the results of his intercision and dies. When Lyra finds dæmons that have been separated from their humans, the creatures are insubstantial and needy: They cluster desperately, held back only by the contact taboo.

Lifespan
The books do not indicate when or how, or into what form, a dæmon is "born", but a baby's dæmon takes the form of a baby animal. When a person dies, their dæmon fades away like "atoms of smoke." Likewise, when a dæmon is killed, its human dies as well. How a dæmon acquires a name is not explained in the books, but clarified by Philip Pullman as being normally given by the parents' dæmons. As Will Parry came from our world, his dæmon was not given a name in this way and was named Kirjava (meaning mottled in Finnish) by Serafina Pekkala when she first met the dæmon.

Analysis
Maude Hines in her essay on Philip Pullman's work wrote that the concept of the dæmon, as a clearly fantastic element, epitomizes Bourdieu's "space of the possibles", and that the dæmon is "an animal familiar like Jung's anima/animus, which acts as an externalized conscience or soul". Maude Hines in her essay  Second Nature: Daemons and Ideology in The Golden Compass  called dæmons "one of the most remarkable aspects" of Pullman's world, and notes that they "function as conceit for playing out questions of the natural" in it.

title: Dæmon (His Dark Materials)


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Ernest Lee Thomas

Ernest Lee Thomas (born March 26, 1949) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Roger "Raj" Thomas on the 1970s ABC sitcom What's Happening!!, and its 1980s syndicated sequel, What's Happening Now!!, and for his recurring role as Mr. Omar on Everybody Hates Chris.

Early career and What's Happening!!
Thomas was born in Gary, Indiana, and began his professional acting career as a Broadway actor, appearing in the 1974 revival production of Love for Love and in the 1975 revival of The Member of the Wedding. Both shows starred actress Glenn Close. Shortly after he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a TV/film actor. In the fall of 1975 he received a role on an episode of The Jeffersons. It was during the taping of the show that he learned of an audition for a sitcom loosely based on the 1975 film Cooley High. Thomas auditioned, won the lead role, and filmed the television pilot, which tested poorly. The concept was quickly reworked into a more light-hearted approach to the source material, and became known as Central Avenue, before settling on the title What's Happening!!. Thomas was the only cast member retained from the pilot, and took the lead role of Roger "Raj" Thomas. The new "summer series" became a ratings hit, and was expanded to a full series, airing from 1976 to 1979.

During the show's run, Thomas was involved in other film and TV projects including Baretta, The Brady Bunch Hour and the film A Piece of the Action starring Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby. During the first season of What's Happening!!, Thomas was one of the final two actors to be considered for the lead role of Kunta Kinte in the breakthrough miniseries Roots, which eventually went to LeVar Burton. Thomas would go on to play the smaller role of Kailuba in the miniseries.

What's Happening Now!! and later career
After a six-year hiatus from TV and film acting, Ernest resumed his role as Roger "Raj" Thomas in the sequel What's Happening Now!! The show aired in first-run syndication from 1985 to 1988.

Since the show's cancellation Thomas has guest starred on a number of popular TV dramas and sitcoms including In the Heat of the Night (which co-starred his TV wife Anne-Marie Johnson, from What's Happening Now!!), The Parent 'Hood, Martin (which starred his What's Happening Now!! co-star Martin Lawrence), Soul Food, The Steve Harvey Show, All About the Andersons and more recently Just Jordan. He has also appeared in a number of films, including a supporting role in Malcolm X and a cameo in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. He later had a recurring role as funeral director, Mr. Omar, on the TV sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. He had an uncredited guest spot as Ernest T "Bass" on the TV show Are We There Yet? It was titled, "The Satchel Paige Episode" and had him playing a Flavor Flav type personality.

In 2012, Thomas was cast in rocker/horror movie director Rob Zombie's 2012 film The Lords of Salem. In 2016, he was in a comedic body horror short film called Earworm.

Personal life
Thomas has stated in multiple interviews to have had a romantic relationship with actress Kim Cattrall during her time as a student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in the 1970s.

Thomas has an eye condition called amblyopia.

title: Ernest Lee Thomas


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Williamstown line

The Williamstown Line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's third shortest metropolitan railway line at 16.2 km. The line runs from Flinders Street station in central Melbourne to Williamstown station in the inner west, serving 12 stations via Footscray, Yarraville, and Newport. The line operates for approximately 19 hours a day (from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 am) with 24-hour service available on Friday and Saturday nights. During peak hours, the line operates with headways of up to 20 minutes, ensuring frequent service for commuters. During off-peak hours, the service intervals are adjusted to provide service every 20–30 minutes, accommodating the lower demand. Trains on the Williamstown Line run with two three-car formations of Comeng, Siemens Nexas, and X'Trapolis 100 trainsets.

Together with the Southern Cross to Sunbury portion of the Echuca railway line, it is the first and oldest government-built line in the State of Victoria, having been opened on 13 January 1859. The line was built to serve the port at Williamstown, giving it economic importance to the Colony as it established itself as an important international passenger port. The line has played an important part in the development of Victoria's railways, with the first workshops opening along the line in the 1800s.

Since the 2010s, due to the heavily utilised infrastructure of the Williamstown line, improvements and upgrades have been made. Works have included replacing sleepers, upgrading signalling technology, the removal of level crossings, the introduction of new rolling stock, and station accessibility upgrades.

19th century
Construction of the line was started by the Melbourne, Mount Alexander, and Murray River Railway Company (MMA&MRR) with the construction of Batman Hill (now Southern Cross) station in 1853. Interestingly, the station did not see a train for another 6 years till services began in 1857. In response to 12 months of inaction by the MMA&MRR and pressure from the government and financial backers, the company organised a gala event at Williamstown on 12 June 1854.

Recognising the challenges faced by private companies and the pressing need for railway development, the government took action to address the situation. On 19 March 1856, despite only small sections being completed, the government intervened and acquired the line, assuming responsibility for its construction and further development.

In 1858, the Williamstown Workshops opened for the assembly of engines and carriages imported from England. Other buildings were soon added, with a total of seven locomotives built. During the late 1880s when railway management described the workshops as inadequate, moves were made to construct new workshops at Newport. By 1889 the new shops were open and Williamstown was closed.

Although it is now operated as a branch from the main Werribee/Geelong line at Newport, the line was originally built from the city with the Geelong line being the branch. The line officially opened in January 1859, but the section between the Newport Workshops and Williamstown Pier was in use by Geelong-line trains from October 1857 as it provided a connection to the ferry services departing from the pier. From Williamstown Pier, passengers could connect to a ferry across Hobsons Bay to Port Melbourne.

20th century
In August 1920, the line was fully electrified from North Melbourne to the Williamstown Pier. Later in 1927, the section from South Kensington to Footscray received three-position signalling with further extensions of the three position signalling occurring in 1929 and 1997.

Due to the proximity to the nearby wharf facilities, the Williamstown line provided a vital connection between Melbourne and the freight and passenger facilities at the port provided. The railway was built to serve the Government port at Williamstown, giving it great economic importance to the Colony of Victoria and establishing its role as an international passenger port. The Newport Workshops in Victoria have played a significant role in the railway system, highlighting their importance through various expansion initiatives. Notable expansions took place from 1905 to 1915 and again from 1925 to 1930. At the peak of operation it was one of Victoria's largest and best-equipped engineering establishments, with up to 5,000 employees on site. The workshops had their own cricket grounds, and the game of Trugo is said to have been invented by workers on their lunch hour in the 1920s. In the late 1980s, the original segments of the workshops were removed from everyday use with modern workshops built along the eastern side of the site, which remains in use today.

The only section of the line to have closed was the Williamstown to Williamstown Pier section which closed in March 1987.

21st century
In January 2021, a major timetable rewrite resulted in increased frequencies and weekend daytime shuttle services being extended from Newport to Flinders Street. Peak hour weekday services now stop at South Kensington, which simplifies stopping patterns on the Werribee and Sunbury lines.

Level crossing removals
The Level Crossing Removal Project has announced the removal of 3 level crossings on the Williamstown line, to be completed in stages from 2021 to 2030. In 2021, one level crossing was removed at Ferguson Street in Williamstown. The crossing was removed by lowering the rail line onto a rail trench under the road, with the adjacent North Williamstown station also being lowered. A final two crossings will be removed along the line by 2030. The crossing at Hudsons Road in Spotswood will be removed by elevating the rail line above the road with Spotswood station also being rebuilt as part of the project. The crossing at Anderson Street, Yarraville, will be closed off as part of other level crossing removal works. At the end of these works, the Williamstown line will have 1 remaining crossing at Giffard St in Williamstown that is not scheduled for removal.

Network reconfiguration
When the new cross-city rail corridor being built by the Metro Tunnel opens in 2025 there will be a reorganisation of the Melbourne rail network. The Victorian Department of Transport and Planning plans to return the Frankston line to the City Loop, with dedicated use of the Caulfield group tunnel track. This will mean Frankston line trains will no longer through-run with Werribee and Williamstown line trains, and will again stop at City Loop stations Flagstaff, Melbourne Central and Parliament. As part of the reconfiguration, the Werribee and Williamstown lines would instead begin through-running services to Sandringham for the first time.

Services
Services on the Williamstown line operate from approximately 5:00 am to around 12:00 am daily. In general, during peak hours, train frequency is 10 minutes while services during non-peak hours drop to 20–40 minutes throughout the entire route. Services do not run through the City Loop, instead terminating at Flinders Street. Rather than running through the City Loop, services continue onto the Frankston line with boosted frequencies in combination with the Werribee line. During periods with low patronage, shuttle services operate between Newport and Williamstown operate in the evenings, weekend mornings, and as part of the Night Network. Night Network operates on Friday nights and weekends, with services running 24 hours a day with 60-minute frequencies available outside of normal operating hours.

Train services on the Williamstown line are also subjected to maintenance and renewal works, usually on selected Fridays and Saturdays. Shuttle bus services are provided throughout the duration of works for affected commuters.

Stopping patterns
Legend — Station status
 * ◼ Premium Station – Station staffed from first to last train
 * ◻ Host Station – Usually staffed during morning peak, however this can vary for different stations on the network.

Legend — Stopping patterns Services do not operate via the City Loop
 * ● – All trains stop
 * ◐ – Some services do not stop
 * | – Trains pass and do not stop

Operators
The Williamstown line has had a total of 8 operators since its opening in 1859. The first section of the line from near Newport to Williamstown Pier was originally opened by the government in 1857 and used by the Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company (G&MR) until the remainder of the government line to Spencer Street (now Southern Cross) opened 2 years later in 1859. This was operated by the government under the newly formed Victorian Railways (VR) using the full length from Williamstown Pier to Spencer Street (G&MR then used the VR line from Newport to Spencer Street). Many operators throughout its history have been government run. From its government acquisition in 1856 until the 1999 privatisation of Melbourne's rail network, four different government operators have run the line. These operators, Victorian Railways, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Public Transport Corporation, and Bayside Trains have a combined operational length of 141 years.

Bayside Trains was privatised in August 1999 and later rebranded M>Train. In 2002, M>Train was placed into receivership and the state government regained ownership of the line, with KPMG appointed as receivers to operate M>Train on behalf of the state government. Two years later, rival train operator Connex Melbourne took over the M>Train operations including the Williamstown line. Metro Trains Melbourne, the current private operator, then took over the operations in 2009. The private operators have had a combined operational period of 25 years.

Route
The Williamstown line forms a mostly straight route from the Melbourne central business district to its terminus in Williamstown. The route is 16.2 km long and is fully doubled tracked from Flinders Street to its terminus (excluding Williamstown station where the track narrows to one track at the single platform). After changing from Frankston services at Flinders Street, the Williamstown line traverses flat country with few curves and minimal earthworks for most of the line. Some sections of the line have been elevated or lowered to remove level crossings, including at Williamstown North station. There is only one crossing remaining on the line which is not scheduled to be removed.

The line follows the same alignment as the Werribee line with the two services splitting onto different routes at Newport. The Williamstown line continues its southern alignment, whereas the Werribee line takes a western alignment towards their final destinations. Most of the rail line goes through built-up suburbs and heavy industrial areas.

Stations
The line serves 12 stations across 16.2 km of track. The stations are a mix of elevated, lowered, and ground level designs. The many elevated and lowered stations being constructed as part of level crossing removals. From 2030, Spotswood station will be elevated as part of additional level crossing removal works.

Rolling stock
The Williamstown line uses diverse types of electric multiple unit (EMU) trains that are operated in a split six-car configuration, with three doors per side on each carriage. The primary rolling stock featured on the line is the Comeng EMUs, built by Commonwealth Engineering between 1981 and 1988. These train sets are the oldest on the Melbourne rail network and subsequently will be replaced by the mid 2030s. Siemens Nexas EMUs are also widely featured on the line, originally built between 2002 and 2005. These train sets feature more modern technology than the Comeng trains. The final type of rolling stock featured on the line is the X'Trapolis 100 built by Alstom between 2002 and 2004 as well as between 2009 and 2020. All of these rolling stock models are widely used on other lines across the metropolitan network and work as the backbone of the network.

Alongside the passenger trains, Williamstown line tracks and equipment are maintained by a fleet of engineering trains. The four types of engineering trains are: the shunting train; designed for moving trains along non-electrified corridors and for transporting other maintenance locomotives, for track evaluation; designed for evaluating track and its condition, the overhead inspection train; designed for overhead wiring inspection, and the infrastructure evaluation carriage designed for general infrastructure evaluation. Most of these trains are repurposed locomotives previously used by V/Line, Metro Trains, and the Southern Shorthaul Railroad.

Planned rolling stock
From the middle of 2020s, the next generation of the X'Trapolis family of electric EMUs—the X'Trapolis 2.0—will be introduced. This new model will fully replace the existing fleet of Comeng EMUs currently operating on the line currently with new, modern, and technologically advanced trains. The new trains will feature:

 * Modernised doors to reduce the boarding times at stations to under 40 seconds
 * Passenger information systems to display that train's journey in real time
 * Higher energy efficiency to work with a lower network voltage, to fit in line with modern rail systems overseas
 * New interior designs including tip-up seating to allow space for wheelchair spaces.
 * Designated bicycle storage areas
 * Passenger operated automatic wheelchair ramps located behind driver cabs
 * 6 cars fully walk through carriages

Accessibility
In compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992, all stations that are new-built or rebuilt are fully accessible and comply with these guidelines. The majority of stations on the corridor are fully accessible, however, there are some stations that have not been upgraded to meet these guidelines. These stations do feature ramps, however, they have a gradient greater than 1 in 14. Stations that are fully accessible feature ramps that have a gradient less than 1 in 14, have at-grade paths, or feature lifts. These stations typically also feature tactile boarding indicators, independent boarding ramps, wheelchair accessible myki barriers, hearing loops, and widened paths.

Projects improving station accessibility have included the Level Crossing Removal Project, which involves station rebuilds and upgrades and other individual station upgrade projects. These works have made significant strides in improving network accessibility, with more than 75% of Williamstown line stations classed as fully accessible. This number is expected to grow within the coming years with the completion of level crossing removal works on the corridor by 2029.

Signalling
The Williamstown line uses three position signalling which is widely used across the Melbourne train network. Three position signalling was first introduced in 1927, with the last section of the line converted to the new type of signalling in 1997.

title: Williamstown line