Do You Have A Community Energy Partnership?
We all pay too much for our energy, because whatever the politicians do, the Big Six just use their muscle and highly-paid lawyers to get around every attempt that is made to force prices down.
They also can rely on our natural inertia to stop us changing.
So I was particularly pleased to see OVO has setup a community energy partnership in Sussex with Community Energy South.
Everyone should check out their local community energy partnership.
We’re only small consumers but we must give the Big Six as tough a time as possible.
Do you think large consumers of electricity like Network Rail, Transport for London, just roll over and pay what the Big Six think they will charge?
Selective Door Opening On The East London Line
Selective door opening (SDO) is used in several stations on the London Underground like Baker Street, Camden Town and Moorgate. No-one seems to mind, especially as at stations where it is used, there is usually an automated announcement.
On Friday I saw this notice on the East London Line of the London Overground.
Selective Door Opening On The East London Line
Hopefully, SDO should work well on the Class 378 trains of the Overground. After all the continuous design of the trains will mean that unless the train is very busy, it should be much easier to get to an operational door.
According to Wikipedia, the SDO is controlled by GPS. So we have the door opening on a train running beneath London’s streets, being controlled by a satellite system.
As time goes on, more and more it seems that trains are becoming sentient beings with seats in them!
I wonder how long it will be before a version of the technology used on the 141 bus that counts the passengers, is giving TfL accurate loading information on some of their trains!
A Novel Way To Serve Strawberries
I found this presentation in a list of simple recipes in The Times yesterday. It’s called Yoghurt-Dipped Strawberries and is from the Total Greek Yoghurt Cookbook by Sophie Mitchell.
All it needs is an appropriate amount of strawberries and Greek yoghurt. I used my all-purpose yoghurt, which is Rachel’s yoghurt with honey which serves as my breakfast with cereal or as a pasta sauce.
I lined a square plate with baking parchment.
The instructions say beat the yoghurt in a small bowl until smooth, but I just used my Little Chopper.
I then dipped the berries into the yoghurt and laid them out on the plate, before putting them in the freezer.
I served them straight from the freezer after about three hours.
These pictures tell the story.
They were delicious, but I think next time, I’ll give them less time in the freezer.
Peer-To-Peer Lending For The Non-Digital World
I was an early adopter of peer-to-peer lending in 2008 and now have a six figure sum invested, which returns me over five percent before tax.
Reading the letters about poor broad band and mobile phone coverage in today’s Sunday Times, it strikes me that many people are cut off from this sensible investment.
I could if I wanted to, set up my Zopa account, so that I perhaps looked at it once every blue moon.
Would it be an idea if one of the peer-to-peer lenders offered a minimal input product for those disconnected from the digital world?
Money would be paid in by a direct transfer or even a cheque paid in at a bank branch, if you still use one.
If you needed to check your account or perhaps withdraw a small amount of the interest and repayments that you have received as cash, you would just use a debit card in any ATM.
Obviously, you will still have the option to login normally, if you wanted.
Now Barclays Tidy Up Savings Accounts
It’s reported in The Sunday Times, but also here in The Guardian.
In my view it says to me, you don’t trust of the wunch of bankers.
All I use my bank for is to hold my working money and provide debit and credit cards.
Rail Minister Hints At More Diesel Multiple Units
In this article in Rail Magazine, Claire Perry, a rail minister, hints that there may be some more new build diesel multiple units (DMUs). This was said.
Rail minister Claire Perry has dropped a strong hint that the Government is prepared to look again at the possibility of ordering diesel multiple units to beat overcrowding and plug a short-term gap.
It would seem to be logical, if you look at the UK rail network in say 2030 or even a couple of decades after that.
I think it is unlikely that all the small branch lines in the UK, like St. Ives or those in North Norfolk will either be electrified or closed. The only permanent solution will be some form of battery or flywheel two or three coach train with a small on-board diesel engine, which has a range of say forty or fifty kilometres.
So as the dreaded Pacers can’t be made compatible to the new disability regulations and should have been scrapped years ago, unless you employ the Bulgarian and Rumanian Armies to put up electric wires all over the country, something else needs to be done.
If an order for enough two and three car Class 172 trains, were to be announced soon, the closet trainspotter that is George Osborne, will be able to show many diverse parts of the country that he means business. Incidentally, in The Times yesterday, there is a long article by Janice Turner about spending two days following George Osbourne. This is the last paragraph.
Approaching St Pancras, Osborne frowns out of the window. “One of these,” he says, “is the Francis Crick building, a medical research institute, the first thing we approved when we took office.” Down on the concourse, he points to a half-built skyscraper. “There, that’s it,” he says, with satisfaction. And I realise this is how he wants to see himself in the story, striding off back to the Treasury with his brown government box, a man of glass and concrete, if not human hearts.
So does this partly explain, why under the Cameron Government we’ve seen such a spurt in infrastructure, with quite a bit of that for rail? All politicians like to leave a legacy, but it’s just that some leave much better legacies than others.
An order for Class 172 trains, would tick an awful lot of boxes.
- As on the Gospel Oak to,Barking Line (GOBlin), they make an excellent stop-gap train prior to electrification, in that they create good publicity and ridership for the line. It could be argued that the GOBlin wouln’t have been slated for electrification, if London Overground and the Class 172s hadn’t done such a good job on what was one of the worst communter lines in the UK.
- The trains are British-built in Derby by Bombardier.
- As they are already designed and built, the design and certification doesn’t feature on the critical path.
- There is a lot of expertise already in their operation and maintenance.
- They are an easy replacement operationally for a lot of the Pacers and Sprinters.
- If we make a mistake and order too many two-car sets, I suspect they can be easily lengthened to three-cars.
- At the present time, a lot of engineers are working hard to keep the old trains running and trying to get them updated. Ordering new Class 172 trains, would mean that they could do more worthwhile jobs for which there are skill shortages in the UK rail industry.
- In 2018, hopefully London Overground won’t need their eight sets, so those lines currently served by Pacers and Sprinters, will be getting some Class 172s anyway.
The only problem, is unlike Ford Escorts, you can’t just whistle them up immediately. But according to Wikipedia, there has been a lot of talk about potential orders, so hopefully Bombardier at least have a plan to start production in a timely manner. Given too, that the extra carriages for London Overground, are now being manufactured and delivered, Bombardier may have no capacity constraints.
One of the great advantages of at least creating a few standard Class 172s, is that they could be used initially on the worst lines for overcrowding and service, or to promote new services. But say if you put a a set on Burnley to Manchester via Todmorden, would the new route and trains cause overcrowding, just as it has on the Overground?
I wouldn’t be surprised if George Osborne announces some of these trains in his Autumn statement on December 3rd. Even a small number could have a significant effect!
The new Bacon Factory Curve may have had a significant effect on train services in the Felixstowe area, but a new two-car class 172 between the seaside town and Ipswich would probably have more perceived effect on the people of the area.
So will George’s legacy be in fifty years time, the railway commentators and bloggers of that time complaining about the ancient stop-gap Class 172 trains still trundling up and down the branch lines? And will these commentators be praising them, just like I and so many commentators today, praise the nearly fifty-year-old stop-gap Inter-City 125s, still speeding us to Wales, the West |Country, Nottingham and Scotland.
London’s Low-Key New Train Launch
To say that the launch of the new carriages for the London Overground on Thursday was low-key would be an understatement. I have only found one article on the web with a picture and that is in Rail Magazine. They say this.
The first five-car Class 378 for the London Overground network was unveiled at New Cross Gate depot yesterday (November 6).
All 57 EMUs in the fleet are receiving an extra carriage, as part of a £320 million investment boosting overall capacity by 25% – equivalent to an additional 170 passengers per train.
But where are the politicians in the photo?
First Five-Car Class 378
It’s not like Boris to miss a photo-opportunity.
In some ways there is a very solid engineering principle behind these Class 378 trains. You should always make sure that anything you design can be adjusted to meet changing circumstances.
London Overground thought that three car trains would be enough for the limited number of passengers on the North and East London Lines. It quickly became obvious that these were inadequate. Either by good design or just plain luck, the trains had been originally built as two end cars with cabs and an unpowered trailer car in the middle. So to go from three to four they just built an extra trailer car and plugged it in, with a few small adjustments to the trains systems.
But even four cars have proved inadequate and now the process is being repeated to create five car trains. This is perhaps a little more complicated, as they have been unable to lengthen some platforms like Shadwell, so selective door opening has been implemented.
In the London Transport Infrastructure Plan for 2050, it states that these lines will have six cars at some point. So how long will it be before another car gets added?
Match Seventeen – Ipswich 1 – Watford 0
This was a another cracking game, where Ipswich got their third win on the bounce.
The goal was a long range effort for Tommy Smith from just outside the six ysrd box, after Kevin Bru’s shot started to play pinball.
Kevin Bru is coming on and I think we could see a lot of him this season. He certainly is better than a free transfer.
What Would I Do With £70,000?
A spam e-mail turned up in my Inbox asking me what I would do with a lump sum of £70,000.
I would have no hesitation and I would stick it into a peer-to-peer lender, that had a mechanism that protected my lump sum and gave me interest. Without doing the research, I think that is either Zopa or Ratesetter, at present. But there may be others with an equally safe risk profile.
Zopa, the one I know best, has given me the following.
1. A safe haven for my money, until I want to do something else.
2. 5.1% interest before tax.
3. The ability to either roll-up or take-out the repayments and interest.
4. You might also get invited to the occasional party to meet the team. You might meet mavericks like me there too!
Dont’t put your lump sum near any wunch of bankers. The Bank of Mattress is probably a safer investment.
The Rail Projects Keep Coming
I’ve just been reading the rail news sites like Modern Railways and Global Rail News and over the last few days some substantial projects have been announced.
The project that will affect me most is an upgrade to the Great Eastern Main Line.
It’s not any new features, but an upgrading of track, overhead wires and signalling. Network Rail say this.
As part of the upgrade, one of NR’s ‘high output’ machines will begin replacing ballast along the route to ensure the track bed is safe and well-drained. The machine is currently being used to upgrade the Great Western main line, and will move to the GEML in the New Year.
It will also upgrade one track at a time, so it’s unlikely there will be substantial blockades. Traditionally, this sort of work would have meant weekend closures and buses. So Network Rail seem to be doing sometime better.
Network Rail are also replacing the Scarborough Bridge on the Scarborough Branch Line. The work is described here and this is a paragraph.
The bridge, which was originally built in 1845 and then rebuilt in 1875, is now life-expired. Work will see the bridge decks and tracks replaced and a new walkway installed to improve safety for railway workers. The work is part of a £6 million investment by Network Rail.
So it’s only a small project, but I’m sure it’s important to a lot of travellers.
The extending of Chiltern’s network to Cowley has also been announced. I think we’ll see a lot of projects like this, where old lines are given something to do in the next couple of decades.
Network Rail has also announced a £200million project to do more work on the improvement of lines between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
As with the electrification across the North of England, electrification is another prime example of the failure of Central government to do the right thing to create infrastructure and fuel jobs, businesses and growth. This describes the scope of the work.
The companies will work with Network Rail to electrify the main line between the cities, complete route clearance works at Winchburgh Tunnel, infrastructure works at Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley stations and extend platforms at Croy, Falkirk High, Polmont and Linlithgow.
What will fast electric trains running between Scotland’s two major cities, do for the area? Wikipedia lists several benefits including this one.
Service frequencies between Edinburgh and Glasgow Queen Street increased from four trains per hour to six per hour, with the fastest journey time being reduced to 35 minutes. This would have resulted in a total of 13 trains per hour between the two cities across all routes;
Currently, services take from about 50 minutes to an hour and a quarter.
Global Rail News has announced that funding is in place to extend the Manchester Metro to the Trafford Centre.
An aside here is to look at the list of proposed changes and expansions to the Manchester Metrolink. Every council in the area seems to have its own pet ideas and surely this must be best argument for a peacemaker and decision taker in Manchester, like TfL are in London.
I wonder how many more of these projects will be announced before the General Election in May.
The Anonymous Widower 