A Small Cooking Spoon I Can Hang Up
There are two types,. of designers in the world; those like Kenneth Grange, who will never accept second best and then their are all the others.
I strive for perfection and only accept second best, when the best is impossible.
These pictures show my quest for a small cooking spoon that I can hang above my cooker. Where else is there to put the tools, you use to actually cook the food as opposed to prepare it.
My mother had a small wooden spoon, that was always used to stir beans or in a small milk saucepan.
I have been looking for one for myself for about ten years now and I’ve never found one, quite small enough.
I did find the red spoon, shown in the first picture, in John Lewis and I use it a lot. A small one like it, in blue, would be ideal, as it fits the IKEA hooks above my cooker.
So I decided to make it possible to hang the smallest wooden spoon, I’ve got alongside.
I just drilled a hole in it, with my trusty pocket drill and attached a cable clip.
It seems to work.
Is The West Midlands Going To See A Boom In Rail Station Building?
Yesterday, when I wrote West Midlands To Get A New Freight Interchange, I wondered, if the original Four Ashes station would be rebuilt.
On looking at the list of proposed stations on Wikipedia, I noticed the first was Brinsford Parkway station, which I’d never heard of before.
But it turned out it was just a couple of miles South of Four Ashes. Wikipedia says this about Brinsford Parkway station.
It would be located on the Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line loop of the West Coast Main Line, and would give the north of Wolverhampton local commuter trains easing congestion on the A449, M6 and M54 motorways. Penkridge is the only station that still remains open on the line between Wolverhampton and Stafford.
The proposed station would serve a new development on the MoD depot at Brinsford (whose builder would fund the station), other local communities and passengers drawn from the motorway network. It would provide Park and Ride facilities, with a large car park.
It sounds like Wulfrunians are thinking holistically!
It looks like a good idea to me, as it ticks a lot of boxes.
So, I then went through Wikipedia’s lists of current and proposed station projects, to see what other interesting ones were in the pipeline. I found these in the West Midlands.
- Aldridge on the Sutton Park Line, which has been proposed for reopening
- Castle Bromwich on the Birmingham to Peterborough Line
- Fort Parkway on the Birmingham to Peterborough Line
- Hazelwell on the Camp Hill Line, which has been proposed for reopening
- Kenilworth – Crawling into reality, quite a few years late
- Kings Heath on the Camp Hill Line
- Moseley on the Camp Hill Line
The West Midlands has certainly expanded its suburban services with electrification, new trains and the Midland Metro in the last couple of decades and it looks like they will be building more train and tram lines in the future.
Birmingham To Peterborough Line
In my view the most interesting proposal is the two new stations on the Birmingham to Peterborough Line. Except for Water Orton, this line is station free between Coleshill Parkway and Birmingham New Street.
If Fort Parkway and Castle Bromwich stations were to open, surely two trains per hour on this line will not be enough, so I do wonder if there are plans to add extra services to and from somewhere like Nuneaton with its connections up and down the West Coast Main Line and possibly extend them the other way to perhaps the new Bromsgrove station to the West of Birmingham.
It strikes me that there will be some reorganisation. I suspect though, that one of the problems is that it would appear that the line from Nuneaton to Birmingham is not electrified, although Nuneaton and Birmingham New Street stations are. There is also incomplete electrification between Birmingham New Street and Bromsgrove stations.
It looks to me like a cash of call in some Aventra IPEMUs. The only problem might be hauling a full load of passengers up the Lickey Incline on the on-board energy storage.
Inaccurate Marks And Spencer Contactless Payments
I use contactless payments regularly in Marks and Spencer and I’ve never had a payment problem, but some of the transactions end up with very strange locations on my credit card statement.
I’ve found.
- Cambridge Station, Cambridge
- Birmingham New Street, Birmingham
- Reading Station, SSP Reading
- Euston Scot, Euston Station
- Piccadilly Station, Manc
- Heathrow Airport SSP
I know these are all Marks and Spencer despite no indication, as they are for between seven and eight pounds, which is a typical price for a pack of gluten-free sandwiches, a drink and perhaps a biscuit or fruit.
I also know, that in the last month, I’ve bought sandwiches in Marylebone station and I can’t find the transaction.
So did my credit card company reject it, as someone had put some total garbage in the contactless card system in the otlet in the station?
With contactless payments, becoming very much the norm for many customers, they must get this right.
I certainly, haven’t lost out, but I think there’s at least two payments, that seem to have gone missing in cyberspace.
I think the lesson of this tale, is that if you are a small owner-managed store or a large chain, you must set up your contactless system correctly, as it at one level might be an irritance to customers and at a higher one, it might cost you money.
Farewell To BT Vision
I have not got rid of BT Vision and if I want to watch football that is shown on BT, I now watch it on Sky.
To say I’m pleased to be rid of BT Vision is an understatement.
- BT don’t seem to have any logical channel numbering, unlike Sky and Freeview and I could never remember where something would be shown.
- Often I had to resort to going through the channels one at a time, until I found what I wanted.
- Sky is logical, as all the Sports channels seem to be together and if I want an event, I can easily find what I want, stating from 405 or so.
- Regularly, I don’t watch a match, but listen to it on Radio 5. BT has this annoying habit of changing to a screen of programs that I might watch, if I had an IQ of about 12.
- Sky just gives me information with a useful clock.
Whoever, designed their system should be sent to manage the satellite station on St. Kilda.
West Midlands To Get A New Freight Interchange
This article in Rail News is entitled New railfreight hub proposed for West Midlands. This is the first paragraph.
Plans have been published for a major rail interchange in the West Midlands, which its promoters say will boost the regional economy and could create between 6,500 and 8,500 jobs.
It sounds good to me. Especially, when you look at this map of the location.
Four Ashes Railfreight Hub
The area is known as Four Ashes and it used to have have a station of the same name.
- On the map the railfreight hub will be in the large triangular area of white and grey buildings towards the bottom of the map and slightly left of the middle.
- The site is 250 hectares.
- The M6 runs South East to North in a gentle curve and has a major junction (12!) with the A5.
- the Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line runs North-South to the right of the line of yellow fields (rape?) and the left of the site of the railfreight hub.
- It’s also not the only proposed new rail infrastructure in the area, as a station has been proposed at Brinsford Parkway, a few miles to the South.
It could certainly be described as a big well-positioned railfreight hub.
But will the locals object, despite the thousands of jobs?
c2c Signs The First Deal On Porterbrook’s Class 387 Trains
This article on Global Rail News is entitled C2c signs short-term lease for Class 387 EMUs to cope with “unprecedented” demand, which tells how c2c have decided to go for a stop-gap lease of six of the twenty Class 387/1 trains, that were ordered by Porterbrook, when they saw a gap in the market.
c2c’s Future Fleet Plans
At present c2c has a one-class fleet of seventy-four Class 357 trains, which I think are leased from Porterbrook. These trains, like the Class 387 trains, are Electrostars. Wikipedia, also says this about c2c’s future fleet.
As part of its new franchise, c2c has committed to leasing new trains to cope with rising passenger numbers, which were boosted especially by the opening of the DLR station at West Ham in 2011 and the rise of Canary Wharf as a financial centre, 17 new four-car trains will be introduced by 2019, followed by 4 more by 2022 and 4 more by 2024.
This would bring the fleet up to one short of a hundred four-car trains.
One curiosity about the Class 357 trains is that they are 100 mph units, but the maximum line speed of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway is only 75 mph. So any new trains will have to be 100 mph units, in case the line speed is increased.
The Global Rail News article says this.
Porterbrook Leasing will supply 24 new Bombardier-built Class 387 carriages on a three-year lease. In November 2015, Porterbrook announced it would be ordering 80 additional Class 387 EMUs to meet the increasing demand for electric rolling stock.
The timing of delivery in the Autumn of this year fits, as Bombardier will have finished building the Class 387/2 trains for Gatwick Express.
The Class 387 trains will certainly do the job in the short term, but running a 110 mph train on a line with a maximum speed of 75 mph in the long term, might not be the best use of resources.
The Crossrail Effect
c2c has a problem in that, when Crossrail opens fully to Shenfield in 2019, this will mean that a lot more places will be easily accessible from South East Essex by changing to Crossrail.
But c2c has no easy connection to the new line.
- At Fenchurch Street, you could walk to Liverpool |Street.
- At West Ham, you could take the Jubilee Line to Stratford or Canary Wharf.
- At Upminster, you could take the Romford and Upminster Line to Romford.
- At Southend Central, you could walk to Southend Victoria and get a train to Shenfield.
To make matters worse, the current time of 65 minutes between Southend Central and Canary Wharf, could possibly be challenged by an improved link from Southend Victoria to Shenfield for Crossrail.
It all depends, where you want to go at the London end.
c2c must be thinking hard about how to improve their services.
I believe they’ll be looking at all or some of these.
- New services to and from new stations.
- Use of London-style contactless ticketing.
- Faster train services, making more use of the 100 mph capability of the trains.
- A viable link to Crossrail.
Whoever, is the operator to Southend Victoria will be doing the same.
It strikes me that the major winners will be passengers going between South East Essex and London.
Electrostar Or Aventra?
I wonder, if the extra train buying for c2c will follow a similar pattern to the London Overground.
The Overground has got a total of 57 Class 378 trains, which like c2c’s are Electrostars, but are ten years younger and five-cars.
I thought, when it was announced that Bombardier had won the order for more trains for the Overground to serve the Lea Valley Lines and Gospel Oak to Barking Line, that it would be more of the same Class 378 trains.
But London Overground added a fleet of Class 710 trains from the new Aventra family.
The Electrostar and the Aventra are both four-card electric multiple units and I suspect once inside, the average passenger won’t notice much difference, but under the skin, the Aventra will be a more efficient train.
Aventra IPEMUs For c2c?
One of the advantages of an Aventra over the Electrostar, is that the trains are wired to be fitted with on-board energy storage. The main reasons for fitting this and making the train an IPEMU include.
- Saving energy by enabling regenerative braking. Not needed as the lines are already enabled.
- Simplifying overhead wiring in depots. Only needed if the existing depots need to be extended.
- Running trains on branch lines without electrification. Not needed unless c2c opens new services to places like London Gateway and Tilbury Riverside.
Running services to London Gateway could be the clincher, as to whether Aventras with an IPEMU-capability are ordered.
I have a feeling that a few miles closer to London, that London Overground will be using similar Aventra IPEMUs to enable the new Barking Riverside Extension to be built without electrification. I wrote about this in Defining The GOBlin Extension To Barking Riverside.
Aventra IPEMUs could run the following route.
- The service would start on the current line to London Gateway, which is not electrified, at a new station, serving the important port and logistics area.
- After calling at East Tilbury, it would serve Tilbury Riverside, by reopening the old branch as a line without electrification.
- It would then use the existing line through Tilbury Town and Grays, before going to Upminster via the line through Chafford Hundred Lakeside.
- After stopping at Upminster, it would use the Romford to Upminster Line, to continue to Romford.
I would estimate that London Gateway to Romford via Tilbury Riverside would take under the hour and four trains could be needed to run a two trains per hour service.
Note the following.
- The Aventra IPEMUs would run normally on the electrified parts of the route, charging their on-board energy storage along the way.
- On the branches without electrification, trains would run on their stored energy.
- This service would connect London Gateway to Heathrow Airport via Crossrail and to Felixstowe via the Great Eastern Main Line.
- A service could be run from Shoeburyness and Southend to Romford, which would not need IPEMUs.
- The service to Romford also give c2c’s network a much-needed link to Crossrail.
- Calling at Tilbury Riverside would be for the cruise ships at the London Cruise Terminal and the Gravesend-Tilbury Ferry
- Calling at Chafford Hundred Lakeside would connect the Lakeside Shopping Centre to Crossrail.
- London Overground would lose responsibility for the Romford to Upminster Line.
- There would be some track adjustments at Upminster, but there would be no need to electrify the two new branches.
Given that the route connects several important commercial, leisure and housing areas, I think it could become a route, that exceeded its expectations, by a long way.
The one problem could be in linking the single track from Romford to Upminster to the single track through Chafford Hundred Lakeside.
Trackwork At Upminster
This Google Map shows Upminster station.
Upminster Station
Note.
- The line to Chafford Hundred Lakeside going off to the South East.
- The line to Romford going off to the North West.
- London Underground’s Upminster Depot to the North East of the station.
- The Romford to Upminster Line comes into a platform at the North side of the station.
I suspect that engineers have methods to get trains across the London Underground lines in a flat junction without building an expensive viaduct.
Conclusions
Obviously c2c have a plan for their new trains and extra services, all over South-East Essex. All will be revealed in the next few years!
But I do think that the Romford to Upminster Line is more use to c2c, than as an isolated single-train outpost for the London Overground.
I also think that the local authorities and the people of the area, would all like to see Crossrail, Lakeside Shopping Centre, London Cruise Terminal, London Gateway, Romford, Southend and Upminster connected together by frequent electric trains.
Aventra IPEMUs would enable the two new branches to London Gateway and Tilbury Riverside, to be added without electrification.
A Trip To Bromley
I like to explore and when I saw the Bromley North Branch on the Tube and Rail Map, I just had to visit.
One sub-theme that percolates through this post is that everything I wanted to buy seemed to be unavailable.
It started at the Co-op outside Dalston Junction station, where all copies of The Times had been sold.
I took a train to New Cross station, where the charming newsagent sold me my paper and I had a chat and a moan with a web designer called Ben about the lack of seats on platform C/D on the station to sit in the sun.
At least if it had started to rain, I wouldn’t have got wet!
From New Cross I took a train to Grove Park station.
This Google Map also shows Grove Park station
Grove Park Station
Note that Platform 1 is to the south side of the station and the Bromley North Branch Line goes out of the South East corner of the map
From Platform 1, I got a train to Bromley North station.
This Google Map shows the station.
Bromley North Station
It would appear that there isn’t much space to extend the line from Bromley North station.
I then walked down to Bromley South station.
It was a fairly easy walk as it was generally downhill.
My ability to buy a drink was restricted though, as all tables in the sun were busy.
At Bromley South station, i took a train to Victoria.
In the Wikipedia entry for Bromley North station, there is a section called Future Proposals, where this is said.
Proposals have been put forward by Transport for London and the London Borough of Bromley for the Bromley North Line to be extended and connected to either the Docklands Light Railway via a link south of Lewisham, to the Tramlink system from Beckenham Junction, or to an extension of the Bakerloo line from Elephant and Castle. These schemes have not been taken beyond the proposal stage and recommendations are expected to be published around 2017.
Additionally, it has been suggested that the Bromley North Line could be connected to London Overground via an extended service from New Cross, although the problems of line capacity make this seem an unlikely solution.
This map from carto.metro.free.fr shows the lines in the area.
Lines Around Bromley
Grove Park station is beyond Sunbridge Park station.
This Google Map shows the two Bromley stations.
Bromley Stations
Note.
- Bromley North station is in the North and Bromley South station is in the South, as would be expected.
- The only surface routes between the two stations would be through the Town Centre along the High Street or along the A21.
- Building along both would probably be highly controversial and extremely difficult.
- Creating any connection between a tram or train to the lines through Bromley South station would need a lot of land and possibly some demolition.
So I think that it is unlikely that there will be any connection between the two stations, unless it is in a tunnel.
The Germans, who have had this sort of problem in cities like Kassel would probably do something like this.
- Use tram-trains starting in Platform 1 at Grove Park station, running as trains to Bromley North station.
- At Bromley North station, they would switch to tram operation, cross under the main road at the station and run towards the Town Centre.
- Alternatively, they could cross the main road under control of traffic lights, as is done in Nottingham.
- The trams would run to Bromley South station down the middle of the High Street.
As I believe there isn’t enough space for trams or tram-trains to join the railway to go to Beckenham Junction station, they would probably just go round a loop with a couple of stops to return to Bromley North station.
There is also the problem of building tram-trains that work on railways with third-rail electrification. I believe it is technically possible, but it could be complicated and have safety issues.
Quite frankly, I think it is unlikely any surface transport solution will be added to Bromley North station.
A much better and safer solution could be to use several small electric buses, that shuttled between the two stations through the Town Centre.
Sense About Steel
This article in the South Wales Evening Post is entitled Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon one solution to Tata Steel crisis, insists council chief Steve Phillips.
He is right and I said so in The Death Of Traditional Steel-Making.
I also said that in addition to the tidal lagoon, a comprehensive metro should be developed all over South Wales.
Aventras And The Romford To Upminster Line
The Romford to Upminster Line is probably a line that Transport for London sometimes wishes had been chopped with the Beeching Axe.
I suspect though, that given the railway mania in London and the South East, the arrival of Crossrail at Romford in the next few years and the ambitious expansionist tendencies of both TfL and c2c, that this line won’t remain a simple shuttle in perpetuity.
At present the line is worked by a single four-car Class 317 train, which I found in A Clean Train From Romford To Upminster.
But from May 2018, Aventras in the shape new Class 710 trains, will start to arrive on the London Overground.
I just wonder, if one of the first trains will get allocated to this isolated line in East London.
- It surely would be an ideal test track to get to know the trains and familiarise drivers with their new charges.
- The novelty of new trains in this backwater, but linked to Crossrail, might encourage more passengers to use the line.
- Train-spotters and other anoraks will certainly visit.
The line is also only five kilometres long, but fully electrified, so I do wonder, if TfL will investigate the IPEMU capabilities of the Class 710 trains, if they decide to fit on-board energy storage.
- I suspect, there would be no modifications to track, electrification or signalling needed to run the linewith a train running as an IPEMU.
- Five kilometres or ten if both ways, is well within the capabilities of an IPEMU.
- During testing, if the energy storage should fail, the driver would just swear, put the pantograph up and continue.
- Charging of the energy storage, would happen in one or both of the terminal platforms.
According to Wikipedia, the line is not signalled, so the possibility must exist of running this short line on stored energy to reduce track maintenance costs.
No Connection At Croydon
On Sunday, I wanted to go from Dalston Junction station to East Croydon station to get to Tattenham Corner.tat
The first train to appear was on to West Croydon, so I thought I’d get it and then take a tram across Croydon.
But I’d forgotten it was a Sunday and the tram stop exit of the station was closed, as the pictures show.
Surely, if the station is open and the trams are running the tram stop exit should be open.
The Anonymous Widower 