Ron Ron Ron

Going back in time to the mid 1980’s, when I lived in a nice town on the banks of the River Thames, Berkshire…… The local paper ( when we had seriously proper local papers with proper news stories) reported that the council had approved the budget for 3 new lamp post mounted signs, pointing towards the local citizen’s advice bureau. The figure given was £4,000+ iirc. At the time, I served on the maintenance team, for the management committee of the private housing development, where I lived. The residents of this development, jointly owned the freehold of the enclosed development and we looked after all the communal maintenance issues. We began to be plagued with some people visiting shops and local businesses, coming into the private road and parking in residents and visitors parking spaces, so I was tasked with acquiring a whole new set of signs, of different sizes, to be installed at either side of the entrance and next to each of the parking bays. A couple of these ended up being the same metal types used by the local council on lamp posts (but without the pointy bit), such as those being put up for the Citizen’s Advice Bureau. The local sign making company duly delivered 5 signs, if I remember correctly , for a grand total of something like £400, or thereabouts. The council made their own. Note, that was nearly 40 years ago, so a lot will have changed since then. .

A key element of future reform, to bring the railways into line with modern day passenger demand, should be to abolish the historic notions of Sunday or Weekend working, when it comes to employment contracts and pay agreements for frontline (operational) staff. Staffing should be based on a 24/7/365 requirement, adjusted according to the peaks and troughs of the requirement for staffing. There are other industries where this occurs, with unsocial hours and shift working pay elements applied to regular pay, for those involved. It provides both greater certainty and financial benefits for both staff and the employer. .

This idea of saving money by changing the design so that HS2 connects to the slow lines, rather than the fasts, is just compounding the insanity of decisions that have already been made. What next, descope the HS2 train fleet, so they only run at 75 mph ??? .

Does this require a rethink about using weekends for maintenance and temporary closures ? I’m reading and hearing that Monday and Friday are now the quietest days of the week, for passenger numbers ! .

Last month saw the lowering of the first sections of TBM "Emily" into the ventilation and access shaft, at Victoria Road, near Old Oak Common. "Emily" will bore the Down tunnel, heading westwards towards Greenford. The 2nd TBM that will bore the parallel Up tunnel, named "Anne", is now being lowered in sections into the adjacent Victoria Rd. crossover box. Here are a couple of photos of the 336 tonne middle shield being lifted. (Note Wembley Stadium in the background.) .

Car fires of all sorts in confined spaces, can have devastating consequences. The Liverpool King's Dock multi-storey car park fire, almost 6 years ago, was as damaging as the recent Luton Airport fire. The Liverpool fire report said that 1,150 plus cars were destroyed in the blaze, that also necessitated the entire demolition of the damaged structure. That fire was also thought to be caused by an electrical fault in a diesel powered Land Rover. Not an EV in sight. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-46290095 https://news.sky.com/story/fire-has-destroyed-all-vehicles-in-large-liverpool-car-park-police-say-11191272 Report.... https://www.bafsa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/bsk-pdf-manager/2018/12/Merseyside-FRS-Car-Park-Report.pdf .

Too much repetition in this video, but it does give an up-to-date glimpse of the HS2 / E-W Rail crossing. Note the adjacent road to the new path of HS2, has now been diverted under the new bridge, under E-W Rail. The old road bridge, that crossed over the old trackbed, appears to have been demolished, with the E-W Rail embankment finally joined up across the entire Calvert section of the new line. .

A new video promoting the Aegis system. .

Oops ! My bad, as they used to say (apparently that phrase is old hat now.......just as "old hat" is old hat), ....I had a look and they are in fact 35mm compacts. We used to have APS cameras years ago, so I confused the two. I haven't used a film camera for more years than I can remember. .

Despite the opposition and political fuss created in France, when it comes to losing jobs, there have been lots of manufacturing closures in France over recent years, some of them high profile and controversial. e.g. Ford made thousands redundant, Renault closed plants, domestic appliance manufacturers gone ..…even the last Meccano factory closing. They appear to only want to protect, what might be considered, strategic businesses. The French national deficit is over €3 trillion with an unemployment rate of 7.4% (UK is 4.2%). They are going bust, just like us. .

DAB+ is also slowly becoming obsolescent, as with all dedicated radio sets, as more people tend towards streaming all their media. We have just withdrawn our kitchen DAB+ radio from service, having replaced it with a voice controlled smart speaker, that will play almost any radio station, or choice of music, on a quick verbal command. We’ve already had a Sonos system around the house, for almost 10 years. The only radio set we now use, is our bedside FM/AM alarm clock radio, which I’ve been thinking about replacing for a while. Another example, a son and daughter, with their own homes, who don’t possess a single radio set between them. In my son’’s case, his media comes via another Sonos system, his Sky box, his iPhone and iPad Pro. Daughter uses her smart devices and a couple of smart speakers (Home Pods). Our next door neighbours use a Sonos in their large open plan living area and some cheap portable smart speaker elsewhere. A lot of dedicated devices, like radios, cameras, portable music players, electronic calculators etc, have been, or are being replaced by ubiquitous smart devices. The obsolescence is being moved to another place, but at least the functionality is transferable. I’ve collected together a bunch of our old, no longer used stuff from various cupboards, drawers and storage boxes, to be disposed of. 2 compact 35mm APS cameras 2 compact digital cameras 4 various electronic calculators a handheld electronic recorder a portable CD Walkman. a portable Mini-Disc Walkman 2 DAB radios ( one with DAB+ the other next to useless) 1 DAB / Internet radio ( dead electronics) 1 FM/AM portable radio 2 iPod’s 2 iPod Touch’s 4 old, non- smart mobile phones 2 slide rules !!! not electronic, but 2 Bluetooth speakers - dumped on us by offspring. a touch-tone remote control, for an old BT branded, tape based answerphone (used to access voice messages directly from the recorder in the device, rather than from the cloud) The functions these discarded devices used to perform, are now all carried out by iPads, iPhones and Smart speakers. When those devices eventually fail, or are no longer serviceable, the functions can simply be transferred onto something else. .

Derby was a small part of Bombardier Transportation’s empire too. The separate, worldwide transportation division of the company was headquartered in Berlin and in Europe alone, had manufacturing plants in 14 countries, with four factories in Germany alone. (Note: The Voyager, Super Voyager and Meridians were built at their Belgian plant). They inherited a European wide mess, when they took over ADtranz and sought to merge and close facilities in an attempt to sort it out. Bombardier may have diversified to keep Litchurch Lane running, but there was an attempt to close the UK facility down, as part of their European rationalisation attempts, fulfilling any future UK orders from their German production lines. Large orders for LUL stock, Aventra trains and the Elizabeth Line fleet, have been a stay of execution for Derby. Now the order well has run dry…..again ! .

The tax payer isn’t paying for trains to be built. They are all leased, not bought by the TOC’s or the government. Ownership lies with the ROSCO, or the manufacturers, through their own ROSCO vehicle. Any public liability is with underwriting the contracts, or where subsidy to an operator includes cover for any increased leasing costs. . In or out of the EU it doesn’t make a difference. This is a similar scenario to 10 years ago or so, when there hadn’t been a passenger train order for……what was it, 1,000 days ? Derby was faced with large job losses or even closure, with then owner Bombardier, threatening to close shop and concentrate its European manufacturing at just a couple of plants. Being in the EU didn’t help there. It was badly needed train orders ( inc. large orders from LUL) that saved the day. Unfortunately, the reality is that train building in the UK has been stuck in a “feast and famine” cycle since the mid- noughties. Unless that cycle is broken somehow, the prospects don’t look good for places like Derby. .

At the Bromford tunnel....... TBM "Mary Ann" was launched on 14 August 2023 Distance travelled so far: 872m Approximate distance remaining: 4,404m Launch location: Bromford tunnel, South Portal Destination: Bromford tunnel, North Portal Last updated 14 November 2023. .

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I can see it now. HS2 trains powered by rockets, complete with flame throwers, swirling knife blades and machine guns........ 🤣🤣🤣 🤪🤪🤪 .

How many old 2nd generation DMU’s and EMU’s are left that’ll need replacing in the next 5 to 10 years? Basically, anything left from the BR era, which will be 30+ years old by now. 150, 153, 155, 156, 158, 159, 319, 321/2/3 etc ? There will be a need to start replacing more modern, 3rd gen, post privatisation trains in the 2030’s and 40’s. What remains of domestic train building capacity may be gone by then. .

Phil has hit this one right on the head. 1. Border controls are not going to be relaxed in the current climate and with mainland Europe also contemplating action to strengthen their own external borders. 2. There is no longer any possibility of a HS1 - HS2 link within London. The existing HS2 plans cannot be altered at this late stage. That horse bolted years ago. In addition, as Phil also mentioned, there will be no trains capable of running any service off HS1, onto the NR classic network. The cost of ordering a tiny fleet of bespoke, "classic compatible" trains, that also meet the CT criteria, would be prohibitively expensive. It's highly unlikely than any operator would order such trains. .

Surely, there are two entirely different 8xx fleets operated by GWR, under different contract conditions? The trains supplied under the IEP (between the DfT and Agility) and those additional trains ordered subsequently by GWR, under a more typical leasing contract. The length of the IEP contract is fixed for 27.5 years. Exit clauses are quite complex and IIRC, quite expensive to put into effect. .

I assume this was meant to be sarcastic or a joke? .

Every single segment is individually cast, to fit its position in the arch and to account for the curvature of the viaduct. Apart from the first XX hundred metres, the viaduct has been on a gradual curve all the way up to this point already. .

Back to the Colne Valley viaduct. The launching girder, "Dominique", has now been positioned across Moorhall Rd. and is ready to start assembling the next span, the first beyond this road crossing. Note: in the early stages of this video, you can see pre-cast viaduct sections that have been brought forward and lined up, waiting to be installed. .

Look at the chosen route out of London. There were not many options to build the line through such a heavily built-up area. They've used an existing railway corridor, even if most of the line is buried in tunnels, emerging at West Ruislip. Look at the possible routes than could have been taken from that point onwards. The Colne Valley, with its numerous lakes, the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne are right in the way. .

If you mean the viaduct section, sitting above the nearest pier in the photo, then that is one of the hundreds of pre-cast sections, that have already and will be brought forward from the production facility near the Chilterns tunnel south portal. These pre-cast sections are brought along the viaduct and positioned in readiness to be loaded onto the launching girder, which carries and loads them into place. There's only one in that frame, but usually are several more behind, waiting to be installed. .