Ron Ron Ron

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 We have just withdrawn our kitchen DAB+ radio from service, having replaced it with a voice controlled smart speaker, that will play almost any radio station, or choice of music, on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. .

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All that track appears to be outside the depot area. Reception sidings or whatever, on the NR side of the new complex. The depot itself is yet to be built. As well as being the main base for HS2 track infrastructure maintenance, This depot will be a construction hub for the installation of the HS2 track system. Presumably why the E-W rail side of things is being installed, in readiness? .

. E-W Track laying on the approaches to the bridge over HS2 and the future HS2 infrastructure depot. The infrastructure depot will be built just beyond the bridge in the foreground. The bridge carrying E-W Rail over HS2, can be seen in the background. .

There are rules governing the jettisoning of fuel. The UK CAA say… Where possible over water (meaning large bodies like the sea). When it’s not possible over water, fuel dumping should be carried out above 10,000 ft agl. (note: agl and not altitude) Exceptionally, if fuel dumping at this level, or over water, is operationally impracticable or inconsistent with safety, fuel may be jettisoned above 7000 ft agl in winter and above 4000 ft agl in summer. For fuel to be jettisoned below these levels, the situation must be unavoidable. .

“Lydia”, was previously used as “ Jessica”, on the Crossrail project, where it bored two sections of the tunnels, totalling 3.5 km….. Limmo Peninsula in Canning Town, to the Royal Victoria Dock…. Pudding Mill Lane to Stepney Green. A new shield and cutting head have been used for this new job, along with other re manufactured components. .

It’s not a shaft, but a logistics tunnel. We’ve covered and talked about this a number of times in recent weeks and months. The 853 metre long logistics tunnel will run from the Atlas Road logistics compound, in North Acton, to the eastern end of the OOC station box. This tunnel is currently being bored (by TBM “Lydia”) and due to reach OOC in the new year. This will provide a route not only for taking the excavated spoil away, but also for delivering tunnel segments and other construction materials into the Euston tunnels.. It’ll be the main access route to the Euston tunnels, as they are being dug. .

Geoff Marshall at OOC..... .

Why has it taken them something like 3 weeks to push out such a PR bulletin? Construction has progressed beyond the half-way point and the viaduct has now reached and connected to the span over Moorhall Road. That HS2 Ltd video is itself, mostly made up of clips from previous videos. Some going back months and even back to the start of construction. The PR department for this project is a bit of a joke. They post on their X (Twitter) feed, sometimes daily and sometimes a few times a day, with mostly regurgitated posts, that are repeated over and over again for months. The extensive HS2 public web site is also updated in a very random fashion. Reports of tunnelling progress are just one example. .