Riding The Blackpool Trams
I’d never ridden the Blackpool trams until this visit, as often these visits seemed to coincide with their rebuilding.
The trams I rode are modern Flexity 2 units, that are essential for providing a complete service in the 21st Century. Supposedly some of the older trams still run at weekends, but I didn’t see any.
The trams have three problems in my mind.
They should link up with the trains at Blackpool North station. Wikipedia says this.
The tramway is to be extended to Blackpool North railway station after Blackpool Council agreed to provide the remaining funding for the project. [11] A study is currently being undertaken by the council about a further extension to Lytham St Annes.
They need information and maps at the tram stops. As the trams have helpful and chatty conductors, this isn’t as pressing as it could be, but why isn’t there an illustrated map showing the route at each stop?
The tram I rode from the North Pier to the South Pier was crowded to say the least. It strikes me that some serious thinking needs to be done about augmenting the fleet, either by adding more new trams or running the heritage trams more. In an ideal world, where money was no object you’d probably build some innovative new double-deck trams. Come to Blackpool Thomas Heatherwick, Blackpool needs you!
Double-Decker Trains for HS2
According to the Sunday Times today, a design consultancy, Priestmangoode has been asked to make the trains on HS2 as sexy as possible.
I’m all for this and have stated that we should make trains more passenger friendly several times. Here’s a piece where I advocated a better approach to the trains to the West Country and the north of Scotland from London using rebuilt High Speed Diesel Trains.
Transport for London have used this design-led approach on the New Bus for London and I hope it goes well for them, when the bus is introduced next month.
So get the trains right and of course build them in the UK and we might have a railway to be proud of. As someone, who’s travelled from London to Nice on Eurostar and a TGV Duplex, we don’t have much competition from the French. The TGV Duplex may look impressive on the outside, but inside it’s rather cramped and stuffy and the ride is not as good as a High Speed Diesel Train.
Hidden Heroes At The Science Museum
I went to see Hidden Heroes at the Science Museum yesterday. It was quite an interesting little exhibition documenting the stories behind a selection of everyday objects.
As you would expect most of the items shown, had been invented or designed in the major industrial countries like the UK, the United States, Germany, France and Sweden.
But what was surprising was that only one had been designed or invented by a woman. and that was the coffee filter, which was invented by a German housewife called Melitta Bentz. Could it be that she was fed up with her family’s comments on her bad coffee?
In some ways it’s strange, but one of Britain’s most successful and well-known female engineers of the mid-twentieth century, Tilly Shilling, made her name in the field of getting liquids to flow properly. She designed a device, which meant that the Merlin engines in Spitfires and Hurricanes could perform negative-G manoeuvres and thus not be shot down by German fighters.
The E-Type is Fifty!
That amazing style icon of the 1960’s, the E-Type Jaguar is now 50. There a report here.
BP’s Gulf Crisis
I’ve done a lot of interesting things in a long working life. One that might help BP is a type of reusable oil rig/platform, for which I did the calculations in about 1972. It was called a Balaena and the company was called Balaena Structures. It was based in Cambridge. I wonder what happened to the idea.
An automated/instrumented body
As I lie here I’m connected to a heart monitor, that reports by radio to the central support unit. But they also take my blood pressure, pulse rate and temperature every hour or so.
How long will it be before I could wear a body suit, that did everything automatically, even if I was at home in bed?
This could take a complete map of everythung the wearer did.
In addition to medical treatment, it could have implications in the treatment of mental health and drug addition. especially if it contained a two-way communication link, so they could be informed when to take their medication.
My Infuriating Nokia X6
It must be the name X6. It’s the name of much disparaged BMW!
But it really is an infuriating device.
Take today! I’ve just uploaded a few albums from CDs so that I can play them if I get bored on the journey and need some music. But can you do it by just clicking an album. No! You have to create a Playlist. I don’t work that way. I take the CD out of it;s box and put in the player. Where is the equivalent?
As I learn more about this phone, I’ll return to it.
Finger Friendly Packaging
If we want to see how a company in a small country can create a very large high-tech niche for themselves, you need look no further than Logitech, who are based in Switzerland. Their products aren’t very cuckoo clock.
As I’ve bought myself a new laptop for the journey, I felt it would be a good idea to get a new mouse. I hate those pads on laptops which never seem to work for me! So as I’ve got several of their products, I looked no further than Logitech.
The mouse works well and has a very small transmitter, so I can leave it in all the time. And the mouse works on just one battery. In fact I’m using it now.
But what surprised me was the packaging.
Logitech's Finger Friendly Packaging
Note the red arrow at the top. It points to a perforated area in the packaging, which you tear along in the age old fashion and hey presto, you get access to the contents.
No broken nails, knives or scissors.
This type of packaging should be compulsory!
10/10 to Logitech.
Nuclear Waste
I have been over several nuclear power stations and on the whole they weren’t a chilling experience, where you felt that any minute, you’d be engulfed in some radiation-related explosion. At only one did I feel a bit uneasy and that was because the site was untidy and cramped. It just didn’t have the aura of being well-run that I got from say Sizewell A or AEP Cook. But I visited this plant twenty years ago and it has operated safely since.
But when I saw an article entitled, Areva plans new reactors that make nuclear waste disappear, in The Times on Monday, I was initially sceptical.
But it does look that it may be the solution to the problem of nuclear waste. I hope so!
What puzzles me about the story is that the technology was first proposed in the 1950s. If it is that good, why hasn’t it been developed earlier.
Not What It Says on the Tin!
I have recently put in some new radiators. The pipes from the floor need to be painted and I got some Dulux to match the radiator.
Paint Colours
Note that the pipe colour doesn’t seem to be anything like the oval on the tin.
The Anonymous Widower 