A Brass Band At Spitalfields
It’s good to have read music and this brass band were in Spitalfields.
It reminds me of the time a few years ago, when Ipswich played in Luxembourg and fans were playing musical chairs with a brass band in the main square. Hilarious!
The Spitalfields Snow Dome
Spitalfields have installed a snow dome for the season.
And it’s free to use.
Should Crossrail Go To Dartford And Gravesham?
here has been a call this week reported in the Kent News by local council leaders for Crossrail to be extended to Dartford and Gravesham.
Given that there is a garden city planned at Ebbsfleet, on the face of it, this could seem to be a good idea. This map taken from the Garden City web site, shows the layout of the new city.
Ebbsfleet Garden City
Note Ebbsfleet International station in the top right. The map below shows the area from Google Earth.
In addition to Ebbsfleet International, three stations are shown. From west (left) to east, they are Swanscombe, Northfleet and Gravesend on the North Kent Line.
Note how there is a loop on the North Kent line to serve Ebbsfleet.
Rail Lines At Ebbsfleet
I use the Southeastern HighSpeed service to get to places like Rochester, Dover and Broadstairs, generally joining the service at Stratford or St. Pancras. It is a good, fast service with modern Class 395 trains, but often when I travel the trains are run almost for my benefit alone.
I think that a general sorting out of train services in Kent, and particularly the Highspeed service will happen. Consider the following.
1. Hastings, Bexhill and Eastbourne could be added to the Highspeed network, by electrifying the Marshlink line. These trains will go straight through Ebbsfleet on HS1.
2. There is no easy connection between HS1 and Crossrail, unless you walk between Stratford International and Regional stations. In fact HS1 doesn’t connect easily to lots of places, due to not stopping at Stratford, where the interchange, except to the DLR is dreadful anyway.
3. Rochester, Strood and North Kent generally needs all the help it can get to lift the economy.
The obvious thing to improve things would be to have cross platform interchange between the North Kent Line, Crossrail and HS1, at Ebbsfleet International. Or if that is not possible, due to the design of the current station, they could apply the rules that have been so superbly demonstrated at Reading, Leeds and Derby.
London Connections has an article, where it discusses extending Crossrail to the east in Kent. It says this.
The original proposal was for Crossrail’s south-eastern arm to terminate at Ebbsfleet. Ebbsfleet seemed an obvious choice, but more thorough analysis showed some disadvantages. Curtailing it at Abbey Wood had distinct attractions to the planning team who would naturally would take a risk-adverse attitude to the project.
From an operational point of view, it would eliminate the need for Crossrail trains to run on third rail routes and therefore simplify train construction and add robustness to the plan. It would also leave this route self-contained and not at the mercy of trains on the south-eastern sector, which was already notorious for being vulnerable to problems anywhere on the crowded network affecting the whole service. It also had the added attraction of reducing the cost of a minimal-viable Crossrail project.
So yet again, Southern Railway’s third-rail electrification throws a spanner in the works.
It certainly needs a bit of planning to sort out the problems of the past.
I suspect that engineers, architects and real railwaymen, will sit round a table in a pub somewhere and get the special engineering fag packets and strong coffee out.
They do have some formidable resources at their disposal.
1. The dual-voltage Class 395 trains, which if more were needed could probably be built in the UK.
2. Acres of space at Ebbsfleet International.
3. A new cross-platform interchange between the Kent Lines and Crossrail at Abbey Wood.
4. In a few years time, ERTMS will have arrived to enable trains to go a lot more places on the comprehensive network south of the Thames.
5. Transport for London may well have succeeded in adding the lines to South East London to the London Overground, that they were refused this year. This would have enabled Dartford, Gravesend, Rochester or even Ebbsfleet to be the terminal of an extended New Cross branch of the East London Line.
6. Transport for London has all of the traffic statistics from payment cards, so they just need to analyse rather than speculate.
I have a feeling that there may be a better solution to getting better access to Dartford and Gravesham, than the simplistic one of extending Crossrail.
A Different Class Of Footballer
Every few years or so, a footballer breaks through, who is at a totally different level to all his peers, both on the field and off.
In my sixty years of watching football, both live or on the television, I’ve seen just a few players like this; Franz Beckenbauer, Danny Blanchflower, Bobby Charlton, Johann Cruyf, Emlyn Hughes, Kevin Keegan and Jurgen Klinsmann. In a few years time some others like David Beckham, Lucas Radebe and Sol Campbell might be added to this list.
Of the players I’ve named, some like Beckham and Keegan would never be in the same class as the others, but they both possess an intelligence that enables them to make best use of what they’ve got.
Tyrone Mings is an unusual footballer, in that after being discarded by Southampton, he got a football scholarship at Millfield School. Here’s the first two paragraphs from the report in the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald.
Tyrone Mings, son of Bluebirds boss Adie Mings, has begun a football scholarship at the prestigious Millfield School and is still dreaming of becoming a professional player.
The former Sheldon School pupil, 16, had been on the books at Southampton FC but was released the financially-troubled club in December after their youth budget was slashed.
Then by way of unfashionable clubs like Yate Town and Chippenham Town, he got transferred to Ipswich for the sum of £10,000, to realise his dream.
So just like Beckham and Keegan, he probably has this will to get to the top.
On the BBC web site today, Mick McCarthy talks about a possible bid for Mings from Arsenal. The article says this.
Ipswich Town manager Mick McCarthy has said he is pleased that Arsenal are keeping tabs on defender Tyrone Mings.
It then goes on to say this under a heading of The Generosity Of Mings.
1. In March 2013, Mings provided two tickets to a supporter who had said on Twitter that he was too “skint” to go to a game.
2. Last year he spent part of Christmas Day feeding homeless people. “We spent a couple of hours helping to prepare the food and talking to the people there.”
3. After his squad number changed from 15 to three in the summer, he arranged for two fans with the old number to receive new shirts.
So he’s certainly got the intelligence and character, so let’s hope he doesn’t waste it.
But has he got the football skills? He reminds me in a way of Cyril Knowles, who I saw many times playing for Spurs in the 1960s and 1970s. He’s also certainly got speed to rival most players and the instinct of turning up in the opponent’s penalty area like Liverpool favourite Chris Lawler. Only in a couple of years time, will we know how good Mings really is.
Farage On Breastfeeding
Nigel Farage has been giving his views on breastfeeding, on his phone-in show on LBC. The BBC reports it in full and says this.
“This is just a matter of common sense isn’t it,” he added. “I know particularly people of the older generation feel awkward and embarrassed by it”
As a member of the older generation, I don’t feel awkward and embarrassed by breastfeeding.
But Mr. Farage and his outdated views certainly embarrass me!
Premier Foods
Because of the reports like this one on the BBC, I have just crossed Premier Foods off my list of preferred suppliers for my kitchen.
I didn’t like Marmite anyway!
More Pictures From Crossrail
Crossrail is certainly a gift to photographers, as these pictures in City AM show.
Thoughts On Solar Energy
On my trip to Wales on Wednesday, I was surprised at the number of houses and buildings in the valleys that were sporting solar panels.
I was surprised because according to the general view of the Welsh weather, there doesn’t appear to be enough sun. Although to be fair, Wednesday was a day of clear skies and a warm sun.
The cynic in me, asks whether the Welsh government is giving out a big subsidy or there are a lot of aggressive and ultimately successful salesmen about. But as to the latter, the Welsh have never struck me as particularly gullible. They also have a reputation of being rather careful with their money.
So, I have to come to the conclusion that the economics of solar panels must be getting better.
Here, in Central London, you don’t see too many solar panels, although Blackfriars station is roofed with solar panels. Wikipedia says this.
In January 2014 the Blackfriars Railway Bridge became the world’s largest solar-powered bridge having been covered with 4,400 photovoltaic panels providing up to half of the energy for the station.
Blackfriars station is a station that it is a good place to put solar panels.
1. It is an all-electric railway with no polluting smoke from diesel engines, that might damage the panels.
2. The platforms are a long low horizontal building with quite a large roof area.
3. Because of its position on a bridge, Blackfriars station is probably not a prime candidate for building offices or housing on top of the station.
4. Stations are also designed for the long term and I doubt that any major work will be done at Blackfriars for several decades.
I think we’ll be seeing several other stations being given solar roofs if the economics are right. Not all stations have magnificent Victorian train sheds like Kings Cross, Liverpool Lime Street, Paddington and St. Pancras or are candidates for serious oversite development like Euston, Liverpool Street or Marylebone.
Even Sainsburys are getting into the solar game. With supermarkets and other sheds, the adding of solar panels can help to make the stores less dependent on the grid, but I doubt many will last as long as Blackfriars station without a complete rebuild.
It would seem to me that large commercial applications, will have one major effect. They will bring the prices down.
Coupled with technological improvement like this one, we could be entering a virtuous circle for solar energy, as the shorter the payback time, the more likely a company, organisation or individual will invest.
Solar energy as a local power source has a few advantages.
1. As it produces electricity that can be fed back into the grid and the control systems can be very sophisticated, it is a very efficient way of generating and distributing electricity.
2. The drive is on for electrical equipment like lights, washing machines and cookers to use less electricity, which means people are getting used to pay to save energy, thus making the decision to cut energy bills further by installing solar panels easier.
3. Battery technology is getting better and it won’t be long before the sight of small solar powered units which can power the office-in-a garden or other remote sites become very common.
4. There is nothing mechanical to go wrong, as there is with anything to do with the wind.
The only problem that at present seems to hinder the installation of solar panels on buildings, is the attitude of some councils. Getting a better attitude is partly due to better design and sighting, but a bit of government push would help.
Progress Is A Lot Of Small Steps
In Liverpool University’s Insight magazine, there is an article entitled A Surprising New Use For Tofu Ingredient. The details are here on the University’s web site, This is the first paragraph.
The chemical used to make tofu and bath salts could also replace a highly toxic and expensive substance used to make solar cells, a University study published in the journal Nature has revealed.
It appears that a researcher has found that you can replace expensive and highly toxic cadium chloride in solar cells with cheap and safe magnesium chloride.
Small developments like this make me think that the day when I fit solar panels to my flat roof a bit closer.
Transport for London Drops An Interchange
I noticed this Tube map at Whitechapel station today.
Transport for London Drops An Interchange
The interchange at Embankment seems to be missing. It was certainly there when I went through the station this morning. Although for many months lately, the interchange wasn’t able to be used during escalator rebuilding.
There is a piece in Business Insider, which discusses the omission.
What would Harry Beck have thought?
The Anonymous Widower 