Mirfield Station – 16th December 2021
To get the Grand Central Trains’s service back to London, I had to travel to Mirfield station. As the ticket was just £11.85, it was probably worth it.
I took these pictures of the station.
Note.
- The station has an unusual layout with a main island platform, where Eastbound trains call and a separate platform for Westbound trains.
- The platform can take a six-car train.
- Facilities are just a rudimentary shelter and a train information board.
- There is a lot of promotion for Mirfield in Bloom.
- Access to the station is up a staircase from the road under the station.
I took shelter in the nearby Navigation Tavern, which was a welcoming pub with lots of beer and food.
These pictures show the underpass and the pub.
This Google Map shows the station and the area.
Note.
- The wide island platform marked with the station symbol.
- Station Road running under the railway.
- The Navigation Tavern between the canal and the railway.
All this is going to change.
With the TransPennine Upgrade, the station will be turned into a modern station.
This diagram clipped from this article on Modern Railways shows the current layout at Mirfield station.
And this shows the future layout.
Note.
- The wide platform will serve both slow lines and all trains stopping at Mirfield station.
- Two fast lines will be created in the space to the South of the current platform.
- I would assume that the fast lines will be electrified with a much higher speed limit.
- Will the slow lines be electrified or will battery-electric power be used?
- There is certainly space on the island platform for some much better facilities.
I also think, that the station can be rebuilt without disrupting services.
Conclusion
As Roy Brooks, who was an infamous estate agent in London in the 1960s, would have said, this is a station with potential.
ZeroAvia Raises $35 Million From United And Alaska Air Group to Provide Hydrogen-Electric Engines For Large Aircraft
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Aviation Today.
This is the first paragraph.
United Airlines announced an investment this week in ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric engines. ZeroAvia has secured $35 million in this latest round of investments from both United and Alaska Air Group. The total amount of investments in ZeroAvia is now $115 million and includes previous investors AP Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Shell Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Summa Equity, and Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.
ZeroAvia certainly seem to be bringing in the investment.
After, yesterday’s trip in a dual-fuel train, lower- and zero-carbon fuels seem to be on the way.
Hydrogen Freight Locomotive Demonstration Planned
The title of this post, is the same as that, of this article on Railway Gazette.
The first two paragraphs explain the project.
Progress Rail, BNSF and Chevron have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a fuel cell demonstrator locomotive to assess the viability of using hydrogen as an alternative to diesel for main line freight operations.
Progress Rail plans to design and build a prototype fuel cell locomotive, with Chevron developing the hydrogen fuelling infrastructure. BNSF would then operate the locomotive for a period of time.
It can’t be long before we start to see large-scale hydrogen locomotive projects in the UK and Europe.
Grand Central DMU To Be Used For Dual-Fuel Trial
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
This is the first two paragraphs.
An Alstom Class 180 Adelante diesel-hydraulic multiple-unit is to be converted to run on a combination of diesel and liquefied natural gas in a dual-fuel technology demonstration project.
One car of the DMU which Arriva-owned open access inter-city operator Grand Central leases from Angel Trains is to be equipped with dual-fuel technology company G-volution’s Optimiser system, which is used in the road sector. The modifications are expected to be straightforward, enabling trials on the national network to start later this year.
The article dates from May 2019 and I suspect the small matter of the pandemic and Grand Central’s resulting three closures due to lockdowns are the reason this development hasn’t been heard of since.
But this was the London end of the Class 180 train, that I rode from Mirfield to King’s Cross.
I haven’t ridden in a Class 180 train for some years and there was nothing to indicate from the performance, that it was not a standard train.
There are fourteen of these 125 mph trains.
This explanatory video of G-volution’s technology is on the G-volution web site.
Note that in the video, one of G-volution’s Managing Director; Chris Smith says that the technology is fuel agnostic and will work with a range of fuels including ammonia, biodiesel, bio-LPG, hydrogen and methanol.
Conclusion
It will be very interesting to see what is decided to be the ideal fuel-combination and how much reduction is possible for the various emissions.
I’ll end with two questions.
Will Passengers Like The New Trains?
What is there not to like! Same train and performance with lower emissions.
Will Cummins Like What G-volution Have Done To Their Engines?
Cummins might be a bit miffed, as they built the QSK19 engines for the Class 180 trains and may have their own plans for them. But they are a pragmatic and flexible company in my experience and generally they do what the customer needs or wants. Decarbonisation is surely in everybody’s interest.
Incidentally, the same Cummins diesel engines are used in the TransPennine Express, Class 185 trains, I’ve been riding in most of today.
There are fifty-one of these 100 mph trains in use in the UK. They could be ideal for some long routes, if they could be converted to low-emission.
Aceleron Secures Over £927k In Government Funding For Circular Battery Storage Project
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Current News.
These two paragraphs define their project.
Lithium-ion battery developer Aceleron has been granted £927,426 in government funding to help develop its Project BATLAB.
The project will look to develop a more sustainable, circular build process for batteries in the UK market, with the goal of ensuring everything needed within the life cycle of the battery will be available in the same environment from first life to repurposing.
They are aiming to repurpose vehicle batteries and it appears University College London is involved.
I believe that given average luck, this venture could be a success.
- They have government funding.
- They have backing for a respected university.
- One of the partners is Aspire Engineering.
There will be masses of batteries to repurpose and lots of applications for them.
The Operated On Left Eye Is Working Well
I have just completed The Times Deadly Killer Sudoku in forty minutes on the phone using only my left eye. It certainly works better than it did.
I’m actually doing most typing on my phone using the left eye as it is much better than the right.
The wonders of modern surgery. And all paid for by the NHS in a private hospital.
To Middlesbrough By LNER
Today, I took the new LNER service to Middlesbrough.
It left at 15:25 and should have arrived in just under three hours. But it was eighteen minutes late.
I took these pictures of our arrival in Middlesbrough.
Note.
- The train wasn’t full at Middlesbrough.
- Quite a few passengers left and joined at York.
- There were also a good number of leavers at Thornaby.
- The train was five cars.
As it is only the third day of the new service, passenger numbers seem to me to be on-line with what I’ve seen for other new services.
I have a few thoughts.
Is A London and Middlesbrough Service Needed?
In the 1970s, when I worked at ICI, I would regularly travel to Middlesbrough from London for a day’s work at their Wilton site.
In those days there was no direct train and you had to change at Darlington.
Since then I’ve also travelled to Middlesbrough to see football matches and visit the local countryside.
I suspect I’ve done well over fifty trips between the town and London, but today’s trip was my first one that was direct.
Will More Services Be Added?
If you look at LNER’s service patterns to Harrogate and Lincoln, they started with a single service and have quietly grown to between five and seven trains per day (tpd) in both directions.
I suspect that an early and a late train are essential to allow a full day in London or Middlesbrough.
Could This Route Be Run By A Nine-Car Train?
I suspect normally, a five-car train would be sufficient, but suppose one of the big London football clubs was playing Middlesbrough in an FA Cup quarter final, LNER might like to add capacity for the match.
King’s Cross and York stations regularly handle nine-car Azuma trains and from my pictures, it looks like Middlesbrough can too! The only other stop is Thornaby station, which is shown in this Google Map.
I suspect that it might just be possible, if Thornaby passengers were told to get in the first six cars.
Could This Route Be Run By A Battery-Electric Train?
Consider.
- The trains run on diesel power North of Longlands junction, where they leave and join the East Coast Main Line.
- It is a distance of only 22.2 miles.
With some form of charging at Middlesbrough, I think that within a few years, this could be an all-electric service.
It would be very handy for Hitachi, as any possible customers for battery-electric trains could be given a demo to or from London.
I Think The Stop At York Is A Good Idea
It could be argued that LNER’s King’s Cross and Middlesbrough service is two services in one.
- A direct service between London King’s Cross and Thornaby and Middlesbrough.
- A fast non-stop service between London King’s Cross and York, that takes several minutes under two hours.
Hence my view, that the York stop is a good idea.
Could The Middlesbrough Service Split And Join With Another Service At York?
The Middlesbrough service takes five minutes for the stop at York, but other services only take three minutes.
Has the longer stop been inserted into the timetable, so that the Middlesbrough timetable can be split to serve two separate destinations?
- Secondary destinations would have to be North of York or York station itself.
- These could include Bishops Auckland, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Scarborough and Sunderland.
- Given the arguments, there have been over the new timetable not calling at smaller stations, could these be served by a train to Newcastle?
There are quite a few sensible possibilities.
An alternative could be to split and join at Thornaby to serve both Middlesbrough and Sunderland.
Gift-Wrapping Service On Board LNER Trains This Christmas
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Advent.
This article may seem a bit like an April Fool.
But the publicity might just get more people to travel by train.
Zopa Co-Founders Speak Out Against Fintech’s Peer-To-Peer Exit
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Financial News.
Read it, as it a cautionary tale about what happens to disruptive innovation.
Eventually, the big bad boys make sure you don’t disrupt their easy life.
Zopa has been part of my life for fourteen years and it did me well. Especially in the bad times and when I had a personal crisis.
I wrote Stability in Financial Systems in 2012, where I said this.
I have a strong feeling that Zopa, the peer-to-peer lender, is also a stable system. Other companies of the same type may well be too! but I am not as familiar with them as I am with Zopa.
Unfortunately, the decision makers in Zopa decided to become a bank, broke the stability and crashed the company.
Son of Zopa will arise!
Hydrogen Hub Plan Will Cut Transport Sector Emissions In The Highlands
The total of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Ross-Shire Journal.
This is the introduction to the article.
The site of one of the Highland capital’s most distinctive industrial landmarks is set to take on new life and a new role, helping decarbonise transport in the region.
The former SGN gas holder site on Harbour Road, Inverness, has been identified by H2 Green as an ideal location for its new green hydrogen production, storage, and distribution facility.
H2 Green, which is part of the Getech Group, signed a deal with gas network operator SGN for use of the site, which lies between Inverness’s rail depot and industrial area.
This Google Map shows the centre of Inverness.
Note.
- Inverness station in the South West corner of the map.
- Inverness bus station is nearby.
- Harbour Road runs across the top of the map.
It looks to me that the round structure in the North East corner is the former SGN gas holder.
These are my thoughts.
The Size Of The Electrolyser
At eight tonnes of hydrogen per day, the proposed electrolyser would be almost as big as the Herne Bay Electrolyser, which creates ten tonnes of hydrogen per day.
Could The Gas Holder Be Used To Store Hydrogen?
As the gas holder was probably built for town gas, which contains a lot of hydrogen, I suspect it could be refurbished to hold hydrogen.
Oxygen Production
The article also says this about oxygen production.
The hub could also provide zero-carbon heat and medical-grade oxygen for hospitals, aquaculture and water treatment works in the area.
Could it be that oxygen is at a premium in the Highlands, so H2 Green are filling a need?
At the height of the pandemic, when hospitals had an oxygen shortage, I asked ITM Power, if they could produce medical grade oxygen, as a by-product of creating hydrogen. They replied in the affirmative.
Conclusion
It looks to me, that H2 Green have a well-thought out plan for hydrogen in The Highlands.
The Anonymous Widower 