The Crouch Valley Line is a branch line from Wickford to Southminster in Essex. It is usually called the Southminster Branch by users of the line, although that is no longer its official name. The line is part of the Network Rail Strategic Route 7, SRS 07.05 and is classified as a London and South East commuter line.

The 16.5 miles (26.6 km) route was first opened to goods traffic on 1 June 1889, and to passengers on 1 July 1889 by the Great Eastern Railway. The line was electrified at 25 kV AC overhead in 1986.

Passenger services are currently operated by Greater Anglia. They replaced the previous operator, National Express East Anglia on 5 February 2012. First Great Eastern previously operated the line until 1 April 2004, when all the operators in East Anglia were merged into one new franchise.

The number of trains on the Crouch Valley Line is normally restricted to two trains per hour (one train in each direction), with additional trains during the rush-hour. This is due to the limited capacity available after the line was reduced to single track in the 1960s as part of the Beeching Axe railway closures. The line was also used to take waste and fuel rods from Bradwell's decommissioned nuclear power station to another part of the country,^[vague] but this service has now ceased.^{[citation needed]}

Thalweg ( /ˈtɑːlvɛɡ/;"valley way") in geography and fluvial geomorphology signifies the deepest continuous inline within a valley or watercourse system.

In hydrological and fluvial landforms, the thalweg is a line drawn to join the lowest points along the entire length of a stream bed or valley in its downward slope, defining its deepest channel. The thalweg thus marks the natural direction (the profile) of a watercourse. The thalweg is almost always the line of fastest flow in any river.

The term is also sometimes used to refer to a subterranean stream that percolates under the surface and in the same general direction as the surface stream.

Slowing stream bed erosion by taking advantage of a thalweg helps stabilize running water sources. Placing boulders along the thalweg in a running water source helps to protect the channel's sedimentary erosion and deposit balance. In concurrence with the placement of boulders along a thalweg, the placement of boulders along an instream to form man-made sills also helps to slow the sedimentary erosion and deposit of running water sources, while keeping the esteem (fishing, local wildlife, and recreation) and natural resources of the running water source intact. The placement of boulders along a thalweg and the creation of instream sills help to aid the flow of water during late summer months when the flow rate drops, and helps to slow sedimentary erosion and deposit in the spring and fall months when the flow rates are high. This process of utilizing a thalweg to slow stream bed erosion was used in Meacham Creek, Umatilla, Oregon (1990).

Daniel Pemberton (born 3 November 1977) is an Ivor Novello winning and multi BAFTA-nominated English composer.

He has composed title tunes and incidental music for countless award winning television series including Peep Show, Desperate Romantics, Occupation, Prisoners Wives, Suburban Shootout, Hell's Kitchen, Great British Menu, Hiroshima, Bad Lads' Army, George Orwell: A Life in Pictures, The Yellow House, Monster Moves, Dirk Gently, Napoleon.and the first series of the 2010 revival of Upstairs Downstairs. Some of his television themes were released on an album TVPOPMUZIK in 2007. He also has composed music for video games such as LittleBigPlanet, Kinect Adventures, LittleBigPlanet 2 and The Movies.

In 2011, he scored the feature film The Awakening starring Rebecca Hall and Dominic West and directed by Nick Murphy as well as the live action short film Ghost Recon: Alpha directed by Oscar-winners Francois Alaux and Herve De Crecy and edited by Oscar-winner Pietro Scalia.