Lithium In A California Lake Could Help U.S. Gain Energy Autonomy
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on NBC News.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The ingredient crucial to electric car batteries is found in the brine of the Salton Sea, a once-busy recreation spot that fell into decay because of toxic runoff.
So where is the Salton Sea?
This Google Map shows the Salton Sea in the middle of the Californian desert.
It looks like a rather bleak hot place to me.
But if we can extract lithium out of little Cornwall, surely the Yanks can extract it from a dying lake.
Sunrise On Ravenstruther Rail Freight Terminal In Scotland
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railfreight.com.
This is the opening paragraph.
The long awaited rebirth of Cloburn Quarry has been celebrated onsite. The former coal handling depot in South Lanarkshire has been inaugurated as a new aggregates terminal, serving the continued growth of the UK infrastructure and construction industry. The onsite quarry will supply materials, with the facility to handle both outbound and inbound loads.
It is a fascinating article, which explains how Cloburn Quarry has opened a rail terminal to supply its customers by rail.
This Google Map shows the Ravenstruther Rail Freight Terminal.
It is very simple being a horseshoe shaped double-track with a connection to the West Coast Main Line.
- Trains would appear to be loaded and unloaded on the Western limb.
- The railway line across the top of the map is the West Coast Main Line..
- Glasgow is to the West with Carstairs station a few miles to the East.
- Glasgow Central and Carstairs stations are 28.7 miles apart.
If the business grows there would appear to be plenty of space to expand.
This second Google Map shows the relationship of the Ravenstruther Rail Freight Terminal and Cloburn Quarry.
Note.
- In the top right corner of the map, the red symbol marks Carstairs station.
- It is possible to pick out the rail freight terminal to the South of the pink arrow making Kingdom Park Homes.
- Cloburn Quarry is the large brown-red scar in the bottom-right corner of the map.
It would appear that the quarry and the rail freight terminal must use heavy trucks along the A70 and A73 to move the aggregate between the two sites.
Operation Of The Quarry
According to the article, the quarry is a source of red granite, which can be used for dressing roads and rail ballast, which is distributed all over the UK and even to Europe.
Having a rail terminal on the West Coast Main Line, must be a big advantage.
As with the rail terminal at Penmaenmawr, which I wrote about in Penmaenmawr Quarry Rail Terminal Opens, this terminal will benefit with locomotive developments that should happen in future.
Both battery-electric and hydrogen-electric capable of using the electrification of the West Coast Main Line, would bring this freight terminal up a level in terms of zero-carbon operation.
It is also likely, that within a few years, there will be heavy eight-wheeler trucks and loading shovels powered by hydrogen to transport and load the aggregates.
Fortescue’s Forrest Says German Hydrogen Deal Is Just The Start
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Reuters.
This is the opening paragraph.
Australian miner Fortescue Metals’ (FMG.AX) newly-announced deal to supply green hydrogen to Germany is just the start as the rest of the world will catch up with Europe’s lead, Fortescue’s chairman told a Berlin industry conference on Monday.
I very much agree with Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, as if countries are serious about commitments to fight global warming, there will be a big rush for hydrogen, so that countries can decarbonise their chemical, steel and other industries.
Some countries like Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, the UK and the US will be fine, but others will struggle.
Germany seems to be taking action by buying up supplies from everywhere they can.
Penmaenmawr Quarry Rail Terminal Opens
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Hanson has reopened its Penmaenmawr railhead in north Wales, as part of its strategy to reduce vehicle movements and associated CO2 emissions.
The quarrying company has spent £300 000 refurbishing the facility, including upgrades to the railhead conveyor which was last used in 2012. The first trial service was operated by GB Railfreight and transported stone to the Tuebrook depot near Liverpool to test the equipment and uncover any operational issues within the quarry and at the railhead.
The aim is to one one train per week between North Wales and North West England.
This Google Map shows the Penmaenmawr railhead.
Note.
- Penmaenmawr station is in the top right corner of the map.
- The railhead is in the bottom-left corner of the map.
- The North Wales Expressway is between the railway and the beach.
There is a conveyor leading to the South and this second Google Map shows the vast quarry complex.
Penmaenmawr station is in the top right corner of the map.
It does appear to me, that this is a good move by Hanson.
- If the quarry can be worked economically, it is surely worthwhile exploiting.
- Opening new quarries, is generally not an easy process.
- Even using diesel locomotives on the aggregate trains, probably saves carbon compared to trucks.
- Closing the quarry would probably not be good for the area.
- They only want to run one train per week.
- I wonder, if the train goes through the Halton Curve that opened a couple of years ago.
- Penmaenmawr and Tuebrook Sidings are a route of about eighty miles.
But I think in the future it could be a very good move, as at least one of three things will happen.
- The North Wales Coast Line will be electrified.
- Someone will develop a hydrogen-electric freight locomotive.
- Wabtec will develop their battery-electric locomotive for the UK with a UK-sized FLXdrive battery.
All possibilities will help Hanson lower the carbon footprint of the route.
Given too, that Hanson will probably decarbonise their quarrying operations by using hydrogen-powered equipment, it should be possible to arrange a hydrogen supply at Penmaenmawr.
London’s New 733 Bus Route
London has a new 733 bus route, that runs between Moorgate and Oval stations.
Transport for London do seem to have rounded up some better quality buses, to double for the Northern Line during the close at Bank station.
How To Recycle A Hospital
The old Royal London Hospital is starting to emerge from its plastic chrysalis, as the new Whitechapel Civic Centre.
It is now eighteen years, since my granddaughter was born in the hospital with a congenital hernia of the diaphragm.
- There were twenty-three people in the delivery room.
- She was operated on within forty-eight hours by the incomparable Vanessa Wright.
- She left hospital many weeks later.
- Last year, she had her eighteenth birthday and entered the world of work.
A few years ago, I met one of the nurses, who’d looked after her in the hospital. On hearing of her successful life, she was exceedingly surprised. But also exceedingly happy!
But then success in life, is often down to those you meet! And my granddaughter happened to meet one of the best!
Wabtec’s 100% Electric Locomotive Trickle Suddenly Becomes International Flood
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Clean Technica.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Whelp, that was fast. The locomotive manufacturer Wabtec lit up the Intertubes last November when it debuted the new FLXdrive 100% electric locomotive in Pennsylvania, but that was just the beginning. The company has nailed down two clients in Australia for its carbon-free choo-choo while also locking in a spot on the new Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking, which aims to green up railway systems throughout Europe.
It certainly has been quick.
Usually, only in times of war, do things go that fast.
But you could argue that climate change is as big a threat to the world than China, Iran, North Korea or Russia.
Will A Double Track Fit Through Kirkby Station?
These pictures show Kirkby station.
It would be a very tight fit, without rebuilding the bridge.
Covid Leaves Wave Of Wearied Souls In Pandemic’s Wake
The title of this post, is the same as that as this article on The Times.
It is the usual excellent article by Tom Whipple and it discusses long covid.
I haven’t knowingly had long covid or even common-or-garden short covid for that matter.
The Asian Flu of 1957-1958
But go back to 1957-1958 and the outbreak of Asian Flu.
This was another present from China to the world. Wikipedia says this about its severity.
The number of excess deaths caused by the pandemic is estimated to be 1-4 million around the world (1957–1958 and probably beyond), making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.
According, to this page on Wikipedia, deaths from Covid-19, were approaching 5,500,000 at the first of January 2022.
But then the world population is now 7.9 billion as opposed to 2.8 billion in 1957. This is 2.8 times bigger.
If the Asian Flu of 1957-1958 had had a Covid-19 death rate around two billion would have died.
Was There A Long Form Of The Asian Flu?
In Long Covid And Coeliac Disease, I started the post like this.
I recently heard an interview with Adrian Chiles on Radio 5 about the so-called long covid
I am 73 and the more I read about Long Covid, the more I think I had something similar around 1958, when I had just started Minchenden Grammar School, where I missed most of the Spring Term. This was at the time of the 1957-8 flu pandemic., which killed between one and four million people worldwide.
This article on New Decoder is a personal memory of that pandemic, from an experienced journalist called Harvey Morris.
Last night, I was listening to another program about kids with long covid and they seemed to be describing how I felt all those years ago.
One of those two programs, also said that one doctor tested patients for coeliac disease.
So did I have a long form of Asian Flu which kept me off school for a long time?
I can remember a conversation between my late wife and my mother that took place before we got married in 1968.
My mother described how I was badly ill at around ten and how our GP, the excellent Dr. Egerton White kept coming to see me, whilst I was recovering at home, as he couldn’t fathom out what was wrong with me.
But he did seem to take particular care of me, even coming to visit me in hospital, when I had my tonsils out at around five. Could it be, that as he had brought me into this world, that he felt differently about me? It should be noted that he was probably from the Caribbean and either black or mixed-race.
Is Long Covid Linked To Undiagnosed Coeliac Disease?
As I said earlier that one doctor tested long covid patients for undiagnosed coeliac disease, at least one doctor must believe so.
Looking at the statistics in The Times article, I can make the following deductions.
- 42 % of sufferers from long covid are over fifty?
- 58 % of sufferers from long covid are female?
- It is not stated how many sufferers had been diagnosed as coeliac and were on a long-term gluten-free diet.
These statistics would fit roughly with the statistics for coeliac disease.
- According to the NHS, there are more female coeliacs as male.
- There was no test for coeliac disease in children until 1960, so it is likely, that many undiagnosed coeliacs are over 60.
- Since around 2000, coeliac disease is tested for by means of a simple blood test.
- Doctors understand coeliac disease better now, so I suspect more coeliacs under about thirty have been diagnosed.
I am certainly led to the conclusion, that undiagnosed coeliac disease could be a factor in long covid.
Treating Long Covid
The article on The Times has a section which is entitled How Do We Deal With It (1)?, where this is said.
One of the great challenges of pathology is that you have to know what you are looking for before you can find it.
“People with long Covid go to the clinician, give blood, and none of the results that come back show that these individuals are sick,” says Resia Pretorius, from Stellenbosch University. The doctors look through the metabolites in their blood, seeking something unusual, and find nothing. “The end result is their clinician tells them it’s psychology — go for a run or whatever. Some of these patients can’t even walk up a set of stairs. They think: are we mad?”
She had an idea. What if it was about the blood structure, as much as its composition? Her laboratory has looked at the blood of both acute Covid patients and long Covid sufferers. They have found tiny clots.
Something in the disease seems to cause malformation, and they can’t be removed.
They have also found preliminary evidence that treating patients with antiplatelet and anticoagulants leads to significant improvement. Although, she stresses, it’s a risky procedure that requires careful monitoring, in case people bleed dangerously.
When I read the bit about anticoagulants, the bells in my head started ringing.
I am a coeliac on a long-term gluten-free diet, who suffered a serious stroke in 2011, from which I made a remarkable recovery. I am now on Warfarin, which is the old-fashioned anti-coagulant and test myself regularly with a meter, so I don’t bleed dangerously.
Note remarkable is not a word of my choosing, but one that has been used several times by doctors referring to the recovery in my stroke. But then there are masses of Jewish, Huguenot and Devonian survival genes in my cells.
At the time of the panic about blood clots and the AstraZeneca vaccine I wrote A Danish Study On Links Between Coeliac Disease And Blood Clots, of which this is an extract.
This morning I found on the Internet, a peer-reviewed Danish study which was entitled
Coeliac Disease And Risk Of Venous Thromboembolism: A Nationwide Population-Based Case-Control Study
The nation in the study was Denmark.
This was the introductory paragraph.
Patients with coeliac disease (CD) may be at increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), i.e. deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and its complication pulmonary embolism (PE), because they are reported to have hyperhomocysteinaemia, low levels of K-vitamin-dependent anticoagulant proteins, and increased levels of thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor.
One thing in this summary screams at me. The mention of vitamin-K!
Ten years ago, I had a serious stroke, that because of modern clot-busting drugs failed to kill me.
I am now on long-term Warfarin and know I have to eat a diet without Vitamin-K.
There are too many coincidences in all this for me not to shout, “Do More Research!”
East Midlands Commuter Programme
The East Midlands Commuter Programme has been launched.
It has its own web site, with this mission statement.
Working Towards A Sustainable/Healthy/Prosperous East Midlands By Investing In Rail
And this more expansive statement.
East Midlands Commuter Programme is a scheme to introduce a high-frequency and high-quality rail service across the East Midlands with as little new infrastructure as possible, as well as lobbying for the extension of NET trams into Derby, East Midlands Airport and more.
So what is the flesh on the bones?
Four Stages
These are.
- Stage One – Building the Core
- Stage Two – Trams and Stations
- Stage Three – A Vital Stage For Heavy Rail
- Stage Four – Achieving Twenty trams per hour Through Toton
It looks to me, that there is the start of good things there, but full information is not on the web site yet.
Every plan put forward must be capable of being built.
I shall not comment further until the plan has been completed, published and handed to the Government.
Liverpool’s Vision For Rail was published by the region in July 2021 and it is a complete and well-thought out plan.
In October 2021, I was able to write Chancellor To Fund £710m Merseyrail Expansion.
Work has already started on the first extension to Headbolt Lane station.
At a very much smaller level, look what happened in Devon with the Dartmoor Line, where a small scheme was delivered quickly.
We now also have two further smaller well-planned schemes underway; the Northumberland Line and the Levenmouth Rail Link in Scotland.
Conclusion
I would suspect, that if the East Midlands can write a plan that is complete, fully-costed and deliverable, then they will get the same result as the Liverpool City Region.
The Anonymous Widower 