Great Portland Street – 22nd July 2026
Out of curiosity, I went back to Great Portland Street, this morning.
I took these pictures.
Note.
- I used to visit the area a lot in the 1970s, to see Time Sharing Ltd., who were a computer company, that I did a lot of work with.
- Time Sharing Ltd has a Wikipedia entry.
- I don’t think there were buses down Great Portland Street in the 1970s.
- The area is dominated by the buildings of the Portland Hospital.
- The Mason’s Arms has changed its name to The Lucky Saint.
- The Mason’s Arms, was where we all drunk.
The area has much changed.
UK’s Largest Onshore Wind Farm To Be Rebuilt With Fewer, Larger Turbines
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the sub-heading.
One of Europe’s biggest onshore wind farms is to be flattened and rebuilt with fewer, taller turbines, its owner has announced.
These three paragraphs add more detail to the story.
Whitelee Windfarm has been producing electricity for about 20 years on a stretch of moorland near Eaglesham, south of Glasgow, but is reaching the end of its life.
Scottish Power Renewables says the existing 215 turbines will be replaced in three phases with around 124, each of which will be about 110m (361ft) taller.
The £1.5 billion “repowering” project will take 10 years to complete and will double the electricity output from 539 megawatts to 1 gigawatt, which is enough to power about 650,000 homes.
I asked Google AI,”Will there be any objectors to the repowering of Whitelee Wind Farm” and received this reply.
While there are no formal objectors on record yet, opposition to the repowering of Whitelee Wind Farm is highly anticipated. The developer, ScottishPower Renewables, officially filed their proposal with the Scottish Government in July 2026, but the formal planning application is not expected to be submitted until December 2027.
Anticipated objectors and their concerns typically include:
Campaign Groups & Environmentalists: Organisations like Scotland Against Spin generally challenge large-scale onshore wind projects over landscape dominance, ecological impacts, and the sheer scale of the new turbines.
Visual and Height Concerns: The repowering plan proposes replacing the existing 215 turbines with roughly 124 much larger machines. Each new turbine will stand roughly 110m taller than the current ones, which is expected to draw objections from those concerned about the visual alteration of the moorland.
Aviation and Radar Issues: Taller turbines and longer blades frequently raise fresh concerns and potential clearance objections from civil aviation and military radar stakeholders.
The BBC article finishes with this paragraph.
The work at Whitelee is expected to generate about £330m for the Scottish economy.
How many Scottish jobs will a third of a billion pounds sustain?
Blackfriars Station – 22nd July 2026
I feel that with a few modifications, Thameslink could solve some of London’s airport connectivity and general transport capacity problems.
So this morning, I went to Blackfriars station and took these pictures.
Note.
- Blackfriars station has two through platforms and two South-facing bay platforms.
- Blackfriars station is fully step-free.
- The two through platforms handle just 12 trains per hour (tph).
- Both Thameslink and the Elizabeth Line are designed to handle up to 24 tph.
The Wikipedia entry for Thameslink, says this about the frequency of operation.
The new services began operating in 2018, though the full projected timetable of 24 trains per hour has never been achieved.
So how could this spare capacity be used?
Could A Gatwick And Luton Airport Express Service Be Developed?
Consider.
- Thameslink already has a 2 tph Bedford and Brighton service, that already stops at the two airports, but it also stops at twenty other stations.
- Thameslink already has a 2 tph Bedford and Three Bridges service, that already stops at the two airports, but it also stops at nineteen other stations.
- Both airports have a 6 tph service, that stops in Central London at London St Pancras International(for Eurostar), Farringdon (for the Elizabeth Line), City Thameslink, London Blackfriars and London Bridge.
- East Midlands Railway operates a 2 tph St.Pancras International and Corby service, which stops at Luton Airport Parkway, Luton, Bedford, Wellingborough, Kettering, which takes only 32 minutes. This service uses a dedicated platform at St.Pancras International, where platform space is limited.
I wonder if it would be better if the East Midlands Railway service became an Express service through the Thameslink core and perhaps replaced one of Bedford’s Thameslink services. Bedford would still have the same number of services, but two would be a lot faster.
Battery-electric trains might even extend the service to Leicester, which might allow extra stations at Oakham and Melton Mowbray to be added.
Loganair Agrees To Buy Five Beta Technologies’ Alia CTOL (CX300) Electric Aircraft For Use Across Scotland
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the John O’Groat Journal.
These two paragraphs add some detail.
A “truly historic moment” in regional air travel could soon see electric aircraft transporting passengers between between Highlands and Islands airports.
Loganair announced a deal to buy five all-electric aircraft, with options for five more, on Monday.
The first aircraft is expected to be in service in 2029.
As an engineer and a former private pilot, I felt this would happen at some time, but not as early as this.
Read the Wikipedia entry for the plane to find out more about this fascinating aircraft.
The Anonymous Widower 