Interior Lights On Victoria Line Trains
After looking at the lighting on the Bakerloo Line trains, before and after the fitting of LEDs in Seeing London Underground’s Bakerloo Line Trains In A New Light, I thought it would be useful to look at other lines.
These pictures show the 2009 Stock trains of the Victoria Line.
They look like florescent tubes to me.
I am surprised that these trains which are less than fifteen years old, don’t have LED lights.
I very much suspect though, that if the Bakerloo Line LED lights are an undoubted success, that the Victoria Line trains will be updated.
How To Kill Flies
I am being plagued by flies at the moment and no matter how many squirts I give with fly spray, they keep on coming.
I found this remedy on the Good Housekeeping web site and it is very simple.
All that is needed, is some cider apple vinegar, some washing up liquid and some glasses.
These pictures show the method.
I made four and distributed them around my house.
They seem to work, as after an hour or so, they had collected hundreds of flies.
Rolls-Royce And SOWITEC Cooperate On Power-To-X Projects
The title of this post, is the same of that of this press release from Rolls-Royce.
The press release starts with these two bullet points.
- Target: up to 500 MW electrolysis capacity for power-to-X projects
- Production of green hydrogen and e-fuels for shipping, aviation, mining, agriculture, data centers
In Rolls-Royce Makes Duisburg Container Terminal Climate Neutral With MTU Hydrogen Technology, I wrote how Rolls-Royce were building a carbon-neutral energy supply for the port.
This Rolls-Royce graphic illustrates the project.
It looks like SOWITEC would be the sort of company to install the decentralised renewables for this project.
Rolls-Royce seem to be collecting the technology to build complex projects like the power supply for the Duisburg Container Terminal, either by acquisition or negotiating friendly links.
But I do think, that Rolls-Royce possibly need two items for a complete portfolio.
A factory with a large capacity to build electrolysers. The press release says they need 500 MW by 2028 or nearly 100 MW per year.
Some form of GWh-sized energy storage. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rolls-Royce do a deal with an energy storage company.
Florescent Lights On The Circle Line
These pictures show a selection of florescent lights on the Circle Line.
The pictures were taken at Monument and Temple stations.
In Seeing London Underground’s Bakerloo Line Trains In A New Light, I talked about fitting LED lighting on Bakerloo Line trains.
As LED replacements for florescent tubes seem to exist, are these tubes up for replacement?
LED Lighting In The New Parts Of Bank Station
These pictures show the lights in the new parts of Bank station.
Note.
- They would appear to be LED downlighters, as I can see a distinct matrix.
- One light appears to have died.
The older parts of the station, including the Northbound Northern Line platform still have fluorescent strip lighting.
New Escalators At Bank Station Between The Northern Line And The DLR
This picture shows the triple-barrelled escalator that runs between the Northern Line and the Docklands Light Railway.
Note.
- The digital clock was showing the right time.
- There are three escalators.
- Peering over the barrier, it looked to be that construction has almost finished.
This visualisation shows the station.
Where was I standing when I took the picture?
The label at the top right says.
New entrance to Bank station on Cannon Street. Lifts and triple escalators to Northern Line and DLR.
The triple escalator leading down from the Cannon Street entrance to the Northern Line level is clearly visible.
- It looks like passengers can go between the bottom of the escalators and both the Northbound and Southbound platforms of the Northern Line, using the cross-passage shown.
- I suspect that the triple escalators to and from the DLR in-line with the escalators to the entrance.
- Lifts would probably serve all three levels.
It is an intricate design, that looks like it minimises conflicting passenger routes, at the Cannon Street or Southern end of the station.
Move towards the North and you can see the moving walkway in a new tunnel parallel to the two Northern Line tracks, which connects to the Central Line.
At its Southern end, there is a spacious plaza.
- It has two cross passages to the two Northern Line platforms.
- It is a short walk to the moving walkway to and from the Central Line
- It appears that on the Southern side, is the triple-escalator leading down to the DLR.
These pictures show this plaza and the connecting tunnels and escalators.
Note.
- The entrance to the tunnel with the moving walkway is opposite the escalators to the DLR.
- There are two cross-tunnels connecting the two Northern Line platforms and the plaza.
- All tunnels are wide.
It looks like pedestrian routes are as follows.
Cannon Street Entrance And Northern Line
The large three-barrel escalator between the Cannon Street and Northern levels.
Cannon Street Entrance And Docklands Light Railway
The large three-barrel escalator between the Cannon Street and Northern levels and a shorter escalator between the Northern and DLR levels.
Cannon Street Entrance And Central Line
The large three-barrel escalator between the Cannon Street and Northern levels, a walk to the moving walkway and the escalators to the Central Line.
Cannon Street Entrance And Waterloo And City Line
I suspect, this will use the new route to the DLR and then the existing route between the DLR and the Waterloo and City Line.
Northern Line And Central Line
The moving walkway and the escalators to the Central Line.
Northern Line And Docklands Light Railway
It looks like there are two-banks of three escalators between the Northern and DLR levels.
Northern Line And Waterloo And City Line
Not sure of this route, but it could be via the DLR.
Central Line And Docklands Light Railway
Via the moving walkway and escalators at both ends.
Central Line And Waterloo And City Line
As now?
Docklands Light Railway And Waterloo And City Line
As now?
Conclusion
It would be an ideal location for a chase thriller!
I can’t wait until it opens.
But I do believe that the moving walkway should be extended under the roads to Moorgate station.
Two Oases In The City
I came across these oases in Temple Avenue in the City of London.
What a good idea! The notice says it’s part of a Covid-19 Street Recovery Scheme
Painting Blackfriars Bridge
It looks like Blackfriars Bridge is being repainted.
It certainly looks like it needs a repaint.
Seeing London Underground’s Bakerloo Line Trains In A New Light
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
This is the first paragraph.
A 50% energy saving and a substantial reduction in maintenance costs is being achieved by replacing fluorescent tubes on London Underground’s Bakerloo Line trains with custom designed LED lights from MARL International.
From the pictures in the article, they look to be a good design.
I took these pictures of a train with the new lighting on the 6th of November.
These pictures show a train with the old lighting.
Note.
- The old lighting has round lights at the end of the cars.
- The hole for the round lights has been covered by a blanking plate. See the first picture of the new lights.
- Some of the old fluorescents have died.
- Four passengers, that I spoke to, thought the cars were brighter.
The shots through the empty cars were all taken in Elephant & Castle station, so they show a comparison between new and old lighting.
I also spoke to a driver, who said the headlights on the trains will be replaced. He’d driven the train with the prototype installation and said it was much better.
Is This The World’s Best Renewable Energy Video?
This is a promotional video from Minesto about their Deep Green technology.
Is it a serious proposition or is it just kite-flying?
After reading their web site in detail, I think they are serious.
Here’s why!
The Company Is A Well-Backed Spin-Out from Swedish Aerospace Company SAAB
These two paragraphs are from the About Us page.
Minesto is a marine energy technology developer, founded in 2007 as a spin-off from Swedish aerospace manufacturer Saab. Since then, Minesto has successfully developed its unique Deep Green technology.
The company has operations in Sweden, Wales, Northern Ireland and Taiwan, with headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden. Main owners are BGA Invest and Midroc New Technology. The Minesto share is listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market in Stockholm.
A company rarely succeeds without appropriate and sufficient financial backing.
One Of Their Target Markets Is Powering Remote Islands
This page from World Atlas is entitled Which Countries Have The Most Islands?
These are the top five countries.
- Sweden – 267,570
- Norway – 239,057
- Finland – 178,947
- Canada – 52,455
- United States – 18,617
Note.
- That’s a lot of islands.
- The United Kingdom is 26th with a thousand islands.
- Scandinavia has 685574 islands or 686993 if you include Denmark.
Sweden has a thousand inhabited islands, so that means that in Scandinavia alone, there are about 2,500 inhabited islands. How many need a reliable decarbonised power supply?
In the UK, we are developing Remote Island Wind to serve similar locations, which I wrote about in The Concept Of Remote Island Wind.
The UK and Minesto are both looking at the supply of power to remote islands.
One of Minesto’s projects is in the Faroe Islands and it is described in this page on the Minesto web site, which has a title of Faroe Islands – Tidal Energy To Reach 100% Renewable By 2030.
These are the first two paragraphs.
In the Faroe Islands, Minesto is part of one of the world’s most ambitious energy transition schemes.
Collaborating with the electric utility company SEV, Minesto is working to pave the way for tidal energy to become a core part of the Faroese energy mix, allowing them to reach 100% renewable energy by 2030.
Onshore wind and tidal could be an ideal combination, if they worked together.
At the bottom of the Faroe Islands page, the web site talks about The Deep Green Island Mode Project, where this is said.
In June 2019, Minesto was awarded a €2.5 million grant from the European Commission’s SME Instrument programme. The awarded funding will support the installation of Minesto’s technology in the Faroe Islands together with the utility company SEV. The aim of the project, called Deep Green Island Mode (DGIM), is to install Minesto’s first two commercially viable microgrid units in a production and customer environment.
Successful demonstration of DGIM will act as a first step to developing commercial ties with utilities across Europe, both for smaller-scale microgrid systems and as a catalyst for the market up take of larger utility-scale Deep Green systems.
This is also said about the number of installations in Europe.
15 million Europeans live on Europe’s 2,400 inhabited islands, at an average of approximately 1,500 households per island. As recognised by the European Commission, island energy is expensive, polluting, inefficient and dependent on external supply, with significant negative impacts on emissions, the competitiveness of businesses, and the economy.
It appears to me, that Minesto have researched their market well.
Minesto Can Provide Baseload Power
Another of Minesto’s projects is in Taiwan and it is described in this page on the Minesto web site, which has a title of Taiwan – Replacing Nuclear With Renewable Baseload.
These are the first two paragraphs.
In Taiwan, Minesto is carrying out site development with the purpose to establish the first tidal energy arrays with Minesto’s technology in Asia – and to demonstrate renewable baseload generation from the continuously-flowing Kuroshio current.
The conditions for extracting marine energy in Taiwan are very good due to access to both tidal streams and continuous ocean currents. Taiwan aims to produces 20% of electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and has decided to scrap its nuclear power capacity within the same timeframe. Today, 97.5 percent of the country’s total energy use comes from imported fossil fuels.
Taiwan has a well-developed industrial infrastructure and a number of stakeholders in the private and public sectors are active in marine energy.
Decarbonising Taiwan and removing nuclear is a tough ask!
Conclusion
Minesto may be kite-flying in an unusual way, but they appear to be a very serious Swedish company.
The Anonymous Widower 