The Anonymous Widower

New Access To York Station As Part Of Major Brownfield Redevelopment Plans

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Technology Magazine.

This the first paragraph.

New plans including a new access point to York station and the expansion of the National Railway Museum headline groundbreaking proposals of creating 6,500 jobs in the city.

The development is a partnership between.

  • Homes England
  • Network Rail
  • York City Council
  • National Railway Museum

This page on the York City Council web site, is entitled Major Developments At York Central.

This is the first paragraph.

York Central is the large brownfield site to the west of the city’s railway station. It lies between the A19 and A59 road corridors, and is contained by operational rail lines.

The document goes on to say that redevelopment of parts of the site could include.

  • 1,000 to 2,500 homes
  • 60,000m2 to 120,000m2 of office, leisure and retail uses

To gauge the size of the site, this Google Map shows the area.

Note the large York station towards the right of the map.

This looks to me to be the sort of development we need to do more of in this country.

August 15, 2018 Posted by | Transport/Travel, World | , , | 1 Comment

House Sparrows In Aberdeen Bus Station

I took this picture of a few house sparrows in Aberdeen bus station.

You rarely see them in London these days.

August 14, 2018 Posted by | World | , , | Leave a comment

A Kestrel Hunts For Lunch Using A Train

I was travelling between South Tottenham and Blackhorse Road stations on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, where the line runs along the side of Walthamstow Wetlands.

I noticed a bird come and join us and it flew about ten metres away, straight and level and at the same speed as the train, which wasn’t going that fast.

I’d seen this behaviour before from a bird, when driving a truck through Suffolk lanes and realised that it was a kestrel waiting for the train to disturb a tasty vole.

The kestrel was unlucky!

August 6, 2018 Posted by | World | , , | Leave a comment

President Maduro Of Venezuela

Seeing President Maduro of Venezuela standing there in his extravagant suit with a multi-coloured sash, he looked so like one of the comic creations of Sacha Baron Cohen.

Now, I’m afraid every time I hear his name mentioned I laugh!

 

August 5, 2018 Posted by | News, World | , , , | Leave a comment

Canada Envisions Small Nuclear Reactors Producing Power And Hydrogen In Remote Towns

The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Forbes.

The concept is you put small modular nuclear reactors of around 300 MW in a remote town or industrial site to provide electrical power, alongside wind and solar

Any excess power will be used to create hydrogen to power transport like vehicles and trains, so no power is wasted.

These reactors will be built in a factory and transported to site.

It may seem to be fantastical thinking, but I believe small modular reactors are a viable concept and used with hydrogen in remote locations could be application, that gets them started and acceptable.

Two years ago I wrote Small Modular Nuclear Reactors.

My views haven’t changed, except that adding the hydrogen generation improves the reasons to build them.

August 5, 2018 Posted by | World | | Leave a comment

Now That’s What I Call A Growing Green Business!

I took this picture as I walked back from the bus stop to my house, this morning.

For the third of our three children, we used a nappy service, where every day or so, a guy would collect a bucket of soiled cotton nappies and return a pile of clean ones.

I have images in my mind of C unwrapping them and burying her face in the pile, as it was just one of those experiences she liked. Later in life, I saw her do it with towels in a five-star hotel in Hong Kong.

Our service was provided by a guy with a van, but surely a bicycle takes a nappy service to a new level.

So many of my generation, who used real nappies on their children, swear that the children preferred them.

Certainly, with a nappy service, they were a lot easier.

I have explored the sewers of London, which I wrote about in We’re Really In It Now. The flushers told me, that disposable nappies along with wet wipes and fat from fast food eateries, are the three major problems in the sewers

So disposable nappies might be convenient, but they have to be filtered out and go into landfill.

My best wishes for Nappy Ever After in the future!

August 3, 2018 Posted by | World | , , , , | 1 Comment

Did The Mounted Met Get Their Man?

Yesterday, around three in the afternoon, I went out to get three bottles of water for my Dyson Humidifier from the corner shop about a two hundred metres away at the junction of Southgate Road and the Balls Pond Road, which has a very advanced traffic-light system

I crossed Southgate Road on the zebra and all seemed quite, as I started to walk up towards the junction.

I then heard a lot of blue lights coming, so myself and a very tall and large black couple, stood back from the road to see what was up. As everybody does!

A scruffy individual with a backpack about thirty riding a high-powered motor-bike doing about sixty towards the lights, in a road, where the speed limit is twenty. He was followed by three Police motorcycles.

All four motor-cycles turned right at the lights and disappeared towards Dalston Junction.

Perhaps twenty second later, they all returned, as obviously the scruffy ride had done a U-turn. I last saw them disappearing towards Highbury & Islington station.

Afterwards, a couple of Police cars came through and then it all calmed down.

Did the Met got their man, in the traffic congestion at the station?

July 31, 2018 Posted by | World | , , | Leave a comment

Legal & General Has Acquired One Of The Last Major Crossrail Development Sites

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on City AM.

There have been several stories like this is recent months and I think it shows how Crossrail will generate new housing an business developments across London.

July 4, 2018 Posted by | Transport/Travel, World | , , , | Leave a comment

Who Remembers Sides-to-Middle?

Last night, I put my feet through a bed-sheet, creating a large hole.

I suspect, it was probably past its throw away date, but it got me thinking!

My mother would have cut the sheet in half, put the two good sides together and sewed them securely with her reliable 1930s-built Singer.

She used to call it Sides-to-Middle!

This sheet was a fitted one, which didn’t exist in the 1950s and 1960s!

So I doubt, it would have been possible anyway!

 

June 18, 2018 Posted by | World | , | 3 Comments

These Dreaded Glasses Are Starting To Appear In Hotels

In my hotel in Novara, I didn’t get a proper glass or even a hard plastic one, like those I use at home.

I got one of these design crimes!

Consider.

  • They are single-use plastic of the worst kind.
  • They are difficult to open with my gammy hand.
  • When I opened one in Germany I destroyed the glass.

But the worst thing, is that they are unstable and one tipped over in Novara and ruined my paper, in which I was doing the sudoku.

Ban them!

June 3, 2018 Posted by | World | , , | 2 Comments