The Footbridge At Feltham Station – 13th October 2020
Next to Feltham Station, Network Rail are building an unusual footbridge.
This visualisation from Network Rail shows the design.
These are the pictures I took today.
Some of the features of the bridge can be picked out on the visualisation.
Alternative Funding Seems To Be Doing Well
I watch a couple of crowdfunding sites and they certainly seem to be still attracting funds.
I have recently invested a small sum in Cornish Lithium, as I like both the technology and history of the company.
Their round of crowdfunding is coming to an end, as they have raised £4.5 million against a target of £1.5 million.
It certainly appears that there is money for a good company in these troubled times.
A Posh Bus Stop In Islington With A Carpet
Do your local bus stops have carpets?
This picture shows a stop in St. Paul’s Road in Islington!
The Liverpool And Hackney Puzzle
I know Liverpool well, as I was there as a student in the 1960s and now help fund cancer research in the University.
I now live in Hackney, which is a very mixed borough in London and not unlike lots of Liverpool in parts.
It puzzles me and some of the researchers I know in Liverpool, why Liverpool has a rate of the covids, which is five times higher than it is where I live.
Drax, Velocys Help Launch Coalition For Negative Emissions
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Biomass Magazine.
This is the introductory paragraph.
U.K.-based companies Drax Group and Velocys are among 11 organizations that have launched the Coalition for Negative Emissions, which aims to achieve a sustainable and resilient recovery from COVID-19 by developing pioneering projects that can remove carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the atmosphere.
This paragraph details the companies and organisations involved.
In addition to Drax and Velocys, members of the coalition include Carbon Engineering, Carbon Removal Centre, CBI, Carbon Capture and Storage Association, Climeworks, Energy U.K., Heathrow, International Airlines Group, and the U.K. National Farmers Union.
They have sent a letter to the Government, which can be downloaded from the Drax website.
Conclusion
I have an open mind about biomass and products such as aviation biofuel and techniques such as carbon capture.
Keeping the wheels of commerce turning, needs a sustainable way to fly and ideas such as producing aviation biofuel from household and industrial waste, could enable sustainable transport in the short term.
Carbon capture is very difficult in a lot of processes, but I feel that in some, such as a modern gas-turbine powered station, if they are designed in an innovative manner, they an be made to deliver a pure stream of the gas. A pure gas must be easier to handle, than one contaminated with all sorts of unknowns, as you might get from burning some sources of coal.
I am pleased that the National Farmers Union is involved as using pure carbon dioxide, as a growth promoter for greenhouse crops is a proven use for carbon dioxide.
Overall, I am optimistic about the formation of the Coalition for Negative Emissions.
Scotland To Trial World’s First Hydrogen-Powered Ferry In Orkney
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Herald.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The world’s first hydrogen-fuelled ferry is set to undergo testing as Scotland powers forward in the green energy race.
I wonder how many of these there are in the world?
This paragraph lists those behind the project.
The HyDIME project is made up of a consortium of partners being led by Ferguson Marine. Partners include ULEMCo, Lloyd’s Register, HSSMI and Orkney Islands Council.
I suspect ULEMCo will provide the motive power, as their speciality is converting vehicles to run on hydrogen or dual-fuel of hydrogen and diesel.
There is also a HyDIME web site.
This is the project description from the web site.
- HyDIME (Hydrogen Diesel Injection in a Marine Environment) is a 12 month, Innovate UK funded project that will use an environmentally friendly form of hydrogen as a fuel for a commercial ferry operating between Shapinsay and Kirkwall in Orkney.
- HyDIME aims to make waves in the marine industry by proving the safe integration and use of hydrogen on vessels. One of HyDIME’s goals is the design and physical integration of a hydrogen injection system on a commercial passenger and vehicle ferry which will be the first of its kind worldwide.
- The hydrogen used in the HyDIME project will be cleanly produced from renewable energy. Excess energy generated from Orkney’s abundance of wind and tidal power will be used to produce hydrogen via electrolysis, resulting in carbon free, ’green’ hydrogen.
- Looking to the future beyond the project, HyDIME will conduct a scale-up analysis, addressing key questions such as, “How much hydrogen and renewable energy would be required to fuel the Shapinsay ferry PLUS a fleet of hydrogen vehicles in Orkney?” and “Can this project be replicated in other areas of Scotland and the rest of the UK?”.
- The HyDIME project will provide a stepping stone to accelerate and de-risk future hydrogen marine projects and will contribute towards growing the hydrogen economy in the UK.
This looks to be a very professional project, as they seem to be trying to answer all the questions, anyone will ask.
Any Politician Who Advocates A Circuit Breaker Is Ignoring The Dynamics
As a Control Engineer, trying to control things with an on-off control like a circuit breaker is like trying to ride a bike only turning hard left or hard right.
We need to apply lots of small actions to nudge the pandemic to a safe equilibrium with the UK population.
- A small action, I would do is shut betting shops, as this can be done on-line and most are owned by big groups, so commercial damage wouldn’t be great. Some staff surely could be redeployed.
- I would also close down all religious services with more than six people. Obviously, God is working on a bigger project at the moment and is too busy to help with the pandemic.
- I would also encourage working from home where possible, as that has been shown to reduce spread.
But perhaps we need to take some serious dramatic action.
Why not release the latest James Bond film on a Saturday evening on free-to-air television? And do it worldwide, except to China!
It wouldn’t do the cinemas any good, but if they got on with the next one, if this one is any good, everybody will flock to see it.
Hull Trains Seat Allocation System
When I went to Hull recently, I used Hull Trains.
These pictures show the train as I boarded at London Kings Cross.
When I got my ticket out of the machine, I was very surprised to see the phrase No Specified Seat on the ticket.
I queried it with one of the LNER staff and they said, it will be alright and anyway, it is nothing to do with them.
When I got to the gate, I asked the guy from Hull Trains and he said, you’ll see when you get inside and something like. “Sit in any seat with a green flag!”
You can see the coloured flags on the seats in the pictures. The different colours mean.
- Green – For single travellers
- Red – Do not sit here
- Yellow – For two or more travelling together.
So I choose a window seat with a green flag on it.
Did it work?
- There were no families, but several pairs of travellers and I suspect about sixty percent of the seats were taken.
- Everybody was socially distanced and either had a spare seat or someone they knew next to them.
- At one table, I could see four guys all sitting together,
- The system deals with no-shows and leaves their seat for someone else.
Until proven otherwise, I think it worked well.
- I didn’t get allocated a seat, but I’m certain the system would work well if say some seats had been allocated by the booking computer.
- Seats could also be indicated by coloured lights.
- But as Hull Trains had only just restarted after the attack of the covids.
I had to have a quiet smile though.
My father was a master at designing production control systems and coloured cards were one of the tools in his box.
Often cards for his big customers like Belling, Dunlop and Enfield Rolling Mills were intricate and numbered creations, all produced with letterpress and his two faithful Original Heidelberg Plattern Presses.
Original Heidelberg
With the right gadgets in the chase, that held the type, they could number, score and perforate. You couldn’t do those operations with litho, in the 1950s and 1960s.
I hadn’t realised much about this side of my father’s work, until I met Ray Askew, whilst walking our basset hound. He had a basset too and on talking, it turned out he had worked for Enfield Rolling Mills and it was part of his job to source production control documents and he used to design them with my father, whose firm, then printed them!
Could This System Be Used On East Coast Trains?
East Coast Trains are another First Group company like Hull Trains, who will be running services between London and Edinburgh from some time next year.
I can’t see why they could use a developed version of this system, with tri-colour lights on the seats.
East Coast Trains will be aiming for a four hour service and I suspect they’d like people to just turn up and go, so quick ticketing would be needed. A simple app, where you said how many tickets and what train and then you just turned up in time for your train would do.
Nickel Metal Hydride Battery Storage Company Receives €47m Investment From European Investment Bank
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Nilar, a Sweden-headquartered producer of nickel metal hydride chemistry batteries aimed to compete with lithium-ion and lead acid, will receive €47 million (US$55.45 million) in funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
There certainly seem to be several promising new technologies being developed for energy storage.
Ealing Broadway Station – 12th October 2020
I took these pictures, as I passed through Ealing Broadway station yesterday.
Note.
- It looks to be a large posh shelter on the platform.
- Ealing Broadway seems to be joining the group of Crossrail stations, with means to cross the tracks at both ends of the trains.
I took the pictures from a train with a full nine car Class 345 train! They have a capacity of 1,500 passengers and are 200 metres long.
The Anonymous Widower 