Carry On Blogging
At seventy-two and after recovering from a serious stroke ten years ago, I could be considered to be in a relatively high-risk category from COVID-19.
I also live alone and am a coeliac.
But.
- I have reasonable supplies of ready-meals, tea, milk, beer and packaged foods to last for a week.
- I test my INR and on Friday it was 2.5.
- I weigh about 61 Kg.
- I exercise regularly and can easily walk a couple of miles briskly.
- I have plenty of INR testing strips, with probably enough to last until August.
- I have about two months of drugs, but there is supposed to be a system lunched this week to get drugs to people like me.
- I have an on-line subscription to The Times, so I can read their news in detail and get access to all their puzzles.
- I can walk round the corner to a shop, where I can get milk and other daily supplies.
- I can easily walk to my GP’s surgery and the local Marks and Spencer Simply Food.
- I have a son, who can put shopping on the door-step, ring the bell and run!
- I have enough cash to pay for goods that neighbours or others might deliver.
I also have the great advantage, that my front door almost opens onto the street, so I can receive deliveries without meeting the courier, by just leaning out the window and telling them to put them on the step.
I very much feel, that I can set myself up to just carry on blogging.
Others can help here by doing the following.
- Suggest topics, where they would like my comments.
- Sending me stories, that I might like to read on topics like battery-power, branch line reopening, design, energy storage, hydrogen-power, innovation, extreme science, humour and life in general.
- Sending me positive stories about COVID-19.
It’s probably best, if you don’t send me stories from the BBC and The Times as I read them extensively.
I shall always reply, if I can. Hopefully, I will try and treat subjects in a light-hearted manner to ease the burden of these serious times.
We must all carry on!
Crossrail Bond Street Site Closed For Deep Clean
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Construction Enquirer.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Bond Street Station Crossrail site was shut down for deep cleaning on Thursday after a member of the construction team tested positive for the coronavirus.
It looks like COVID-19 will now be delaying Crossrail.
The Battle Against COVID-19
There is one factor ignored in all the discussion.
Any scientist, medic, engineer or even politician, who in say ten years is generally shown to have contributed greatly to defeating COVID-19 will achieve life-long fame.
Look at how the country still holds Camm, Mitchell, Royce, Watson-Watt and above all the Few in awe for the Battle of Britain!
There are two big differences this time.
- In 1940, we were saving Britain, this time we could be saving the whole world!
- This time too, we’re not alone!
And all of us have our part to play! However small!
Coronavirus Pushes Switch From Cash To Card Payment
The title of this post is the same as that as this article on Railway Gazette.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Cash sales of tickets on the Metlink transport network in Greater Wellington will end on March 23, in a move which Metlink said was designed ‘to stay one step ahead of Covid-19 and give our passengers and staff more peace of mind’.
Should all buses, trams and trains go cash-free and contactless in the UK?
TfL Closes 40 Tube Stations, Suspends The Night Tube, Fewer Trains And Buses Next Week
Th title of this post is the same as that of this article on Ian Visits.
Ian gives this list of stations that could close.
Bakerloo Line
- Lambeth North
- Regents Park
- Warwick Avenue
- Kilburn Park
- Charing Cross
Central Line
- Holland Park
- Queensway
- Lancaster Gate
- Chancery Lane
- Redbridge
Circle Line
- Bayswater
- Great Portland Street
- Barbican
District Line
- Bow Road
- Stepney Green
- Mansion House
- Temple
- St James’s Park
- Gloucester Road
Jubilee Line
- Swiss Cottage
- St John’s Wood
- Bermondsey
- Southwark
Northern Line
- Tuffnell Park
- Chalk Farm
- Mornington Crescent
- Goodge Street
- Borough
- Clapham South
- Tooting Bec
- South Wimbledon
- Hampstead
Piccadilly Line
- Caledonian Road
- Arsenal
- Covent Garden
- Hyde Park Corner
- Bounds Green
- Manor House
Victoria Line
- Pimlico
- Blackhorse Road
The general feeling in the comments on Ian’s site, is that they are stations, where they are lightly used or the design could increase the rate of infection.
Let’s Get Innovating!
I liked this paragraph from a story in The Times about getting enough ventilators.
Rural hospitals in Canada are using techniques normally reserved for mass shootings. By installing separate tubes, one ventilator can treat up to nine patients, as long as they have the same infection and equal lung capacity.
I never thought, I’d see a benefit from mass shootings.
But it does show the benefits of top class innovation!
First Passenger Train In 80 Years Runs On Camp Hill Line
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.
These two paragraphs described the route, that the train took on the Camp Hill Line.
On Monday morning a train carrying the Mayor, West Midlands Railway’s customer experience director Jonny Wiseman and other representatives from across the rail industry, travelled along the line.
The train followed the route of what would be the re-opened line, stopping at the Moseley, Kings Heath and Hazelwell sites before arriving into Kings Norton, and later returning to Birmingham New Street.
The article has a picture showing the VIPs showing boards indicating the stations at Moseley, Kings Heath and Hazelwell, that will be reopened.
Wikipedia says this under Future for all three stations.
In 2019, the project to re-open the stations at Moseley, Kings Heath and Hazelwell received £15 million in Government funding, with construction due to start in 2020 and aimed for completion in time for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
£15million seems good value to reopen three stations.
Let’s hope the world has solved the COVID-19 crisis before the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Trains For The Service
The picture in the article, shows the test service was run by a two-car Class 170 train. This is an ideal train to do the testing, but as the Camp Hill Line is not electrified, self-powered trains will be needed for the passenger service.
West Midlands Trains will have a good selection of self-powered trains with which to run the service.
- They already have a selection of Class 170 and Class 172 Turbostar diesel multiple units in very good condition, which total thirty-seven two-cars and twenty-one three-cars.
- I’m sure Vivarail will pitch diesel-electric or battery-electric versions of their Class 230 trains.
- Alstom will probably pitch the Breeze hydrogen-powered train.
- Porterbrook will probably pitch their proposed Battery/FLEX conversion of Class 350 trains.
I don’t think there will be a problem finding a suitable fleet for this route.
I suspect some form of battery-electric train will be used, as there is lots of 25 KVAC overhead electrification in the Birmingham area, that can be used to charge the batteries.
Battery-electric trains with a range of perhaps forty miles would also open up the possibilities for other electric services for West Midlands Trains.
A Thought On Construction
Because of COVID-19, there will probably be numbers of unemployed in this part of Birmingham, who have skills that could be useful to do the building work.
So should the non-railway related parts of the reopening be accelerated to put money in the pockets of the local unemployed.
Liverpool Calls In Volunteer Student Doctors
BBC Breakfast has just run a report about how student doctors at Liverpool University are going to be used to help out in local hospitals.
According to the BBC report, two hundred students have volunteered.
The BBC also interviewed a senior Professor, who was very happy about it all.
I suspect other medical schools will volunteer and there are reports, that Cambridge already has, but I do think that this is the way to get better doctors.
A Personal Story
A few years ago, I was in a teaching hospital after suffering a collapse.
A senior tutor approached me and asked, if I would mind, if I was used for interview practice by final year students.
I hope the students benefited as much as I did, whilst they sorted out what was wrong with me!
Conclusion
We should look upon COVID-19, as something that will make us all better people and doctors.
Is COVID-19 for my generation and those younger than myself, our Second World War?
Getting Ready For A Bath
At least I can have a bath now, but I have to put a glove over my plaster.
It seems to work well, although finding the gloves in the shops is difficult.
This one was scrounged from the GP’s surgery, when the excellent nurse changed the dressing.
Preparations For War
I always remember a tale told by my mother about her mother, who was born in Dalston in the 1880s.
In 1939, my mother asked her mother, if she was ready for the inevitable war.
The reply was as follows.
I was caught out in the First War and I’m not going to get caught out in this one!
I’ve got a hundredweight of jam and a hundredweight of sugar in the cellar!
Do readers still know what a hundredweight is? – Fifty kilos.
From what I know, my grandmother was rather a forceful woman of very strong Devonian ancestry, with the Yeoman surname of Upcott.
In this war against COVID-19, I may have made a few preparations, but nothing like those my formidable grandmother would have made.
The Anonymous Widower 