Gore Street Acquires 50MW Ferrymuir Battery Project, Eyes More In Scotland
The title of this post, is the same as this article on The Energyst.
This is a paragraph.
The Ferrymuir project in Fife, Scotland, has all connections and consents in place. Gore Street hopes to commission it in 2022.
It looks like it just needs the money to fit it out.
Judging by the numbers quoted for Gore Street in the article, it looks like a lot of fund managers and people with money, are putting money into energy storage.
Eridge Station – 23rd June 2020
Eridge station is going to have a makeover, which starts this weekend.
So I went to have a look and took these pictures.
Note.
- The station certainly needs a new footbridge.
- The builders were clearing a work site to get access to the station.
- The station will be kept open throughout the work according to this article on Crowborough Life.
The station could end up as a good mix of ancient and modern.
Some Pictures Of Platform Edges On The Uckfield Branch
I took these pictures on my visit to Eridge station yesterday.
The platform edges are a very mixed bunch.
- Some are only a couple of years old and were built, as part of new platform extensions.
- Some were built using pre-fabricated components.
- Some are of fairly indeterminate age.
- The ones at Eridge station probably date from when the station was opened in 1868.
I would suspect that your patio is in better condition than some of these important interfaces between train and platform.
So why did I photograph them?
In First Of A Kind Funding Awarded For 25 Rail Innovation Projects, Project Number Number 4 from Sheffield Hallam University was entitled Illumin Heated Concrete Platform Coper Slabs and was described like this.
Illuminated and heated low-energy concrete slabs for station platforms, which automatically switch on in freezing conditions to help prevent passengers from slipping on ice.
Some more information was given in Heated Railway Platforms Tested To Avoid Ice Accidents.
Could these platforms be fitted to a set of platform edges like these?
I would hope so.
If so, new smoother platforms and not just the edges, would also hope to cut small falls.
MP Campaigns To Extend Train Services For Melton Borough
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Melton Times.
This is the introductory sub-title.
A campaign has been launched by the Melton’s MP to improve services passing and operating from the town station and the one at Bottesford.
Alicia Kearns has submitted two bids to the Restoring Your Railway Fund.
- More regular services on the Poacher Line to Bottesford station.
- Increased services to Nottingham and Leicester via Syston and Loughborough from Melton Mowbray station.
I’ll now look at the two proposals in more detail.
More Regular Services To Bottesford
Wikipedia says this about services at Bottesford station.
- The service is generally every two hours to Nottingham in the West and Skegness in the East.
- Some trains call at Grantham and give connection to the East Coast Main Line.
- LNER services at Grantham connect to Doncaster, King’s Cross, Leeds, Lincoln, Peterborough, Stevenage, Wakefield and York.
- Bottesford is in the Borough of Melton and their is no direct rail service between Bottesford and Melton. A typical journey takes over two-and-a-half hours with two changes, that can include a wait of an hour at Leicester station.
- Bottesford is in the County of Leicester. There is no direct rail service between Bottesford and Leicester.
I think the MP has a point and an improved and more frequent service at Bottesford could be very beneficial.
- Many routes like this in the UK have an hourly service and I suspect many communities along the Poacher Line would benefit from this frequency.
- All services calling at Grantham for East Coast Main Line services would be useful.
- Do services have a good interchange at Nottingham for Midland Main Line services?
It looks like improvements at Bottesford wouldn’t require any new expensive infrastructure, but they would need more trains.
More Services Through Melton
Wikipedia says this about services at Melton station.
- There is an hourly off-peak service in both directions between Stansted Airport and Birmingham, that calls at Cambridge, Peterborough, Oakham and Leicester.
- East Midlands Railway and their predescessor have added services to London via Corby and to Derby and East Midlands Parkway.
When you consider, that both Bottesford and Melton Mowbray are the same Council and Parliamentary constituency, it does seem that a more direct train service is needed between Bottesford and Melton stations.
It does seem to me that some innovative thinking is needed.
If the current plans to fulfil British Rail’s ambition of an Ivanhoe Line running from Lincoln to Burton-on-Trent via Nottingham, East Midlands Parkway, Loughborough and Leicester, are carried out, that will give important towns to the West of Leicester much better rail connections.
Given that High Speed Two is coming to East Midlands Hub station at Toton and there will be a Bedford and Leeds service run by Midlands Connect using High Speed Two classic-compatible trains, that I wrote about in Classic-Compatible High Speed Two Trains At East Midlands Hub Station, I wonder if in the interim, there should be more trains between Derby and Melton.
- Intermediate stations would be Syston, Sileby, Barrow-upon-Soar, Loughborough, East Midlands Parkway Long Eaton and Spondon.
- An hourly frequency would double the service frquency at smaller stations like Sileby and Barrow-upon-Soar.
- The Southern terminal could be Melton station, but I feel Corby or Peterborough stations would be better, as this would improve services at Oakham station. We should not forget Rutland.
- As Corby will be an electrified two-platform station with a two trains per hour (tph) service to London, this could work quite well as a Southern terminus.
- Peterborough would have advantages and give a good connection to Cambridge, London and Scotland, but improvements to the current Birmingham and Stansted Airport service would have similar effects.
This route would be just as valuable after High Speed Two opens through the East Midlands Hub station, as it will give fast ongoing connections to Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle and York.
Electrification Of The Midland Main Line
I feel strongly, that full electrification of the Midland Main Line could be a step to far.
- Electrification, through Leicester station will mean a complete closure of the station for a couple of years.
- Electrification of the route North of Derby, through the Derwent Valley Mills, which is a World Heritage Site, will be opposed by the Heritage Taliban with all their might.
But.
- Electrification of the route between Clay Cross North Junction and Sheffield via Chesterfield will take place in conjunction with High Speed Two
- Electrification to Market Harborough, which is sixteen miles South of Leicester will happen.
- East Midlands Railway’s new Class 810 trains could be fitted with a battery option giving a range of between 55 and 65 miles.
- Pantographs on this trains can go up and down with all the alacrity of a whore’s drawers.
If the easier section of electrification between Leicester and Derby stations, were to be erected, this would enable the following routes to be run using battery=equipped Class 810 trains.
- London and Derby, where battery power would be used through Leicester.
- London and Nottingham, where battery power would be used through Leicester and between East Midlands Parkway and Nottingham.
- London and Sheffield, where battery power would be used through Leicester and between Derby and Clay Cross North Junction.
- Lincoln and Burton-on-Trent, where battery power would be used South of Leicester and North of East Midlands Parkway.
- Derby and Corby, where battery power would be used between Syston and Corby.
There would also be the service between Derby and Norwich, which might be able to be run by a similar train.
Conclusion
The MP’s plan is worth pursuing.
Hydrogen To Become A Source Of Cleaner Power On A Massive Scale
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Power Technology.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Hydrogen is light, storable, energy-heavy and does not produce direct carbon emissions or greenhouse gases (GHG). Sectors such as soil refining, ammonia production, methanol production and steel production use hydrogen extensively. Hydrogen will likely play a crucial role in clean energy transition with an increase in its use in sectors such as transportation, buildings and power generation. Interest in the use of hydrogen technology is increasing in a range of niche transport market segments, besides other applications. In the short to medium term, hydrogen technology could be used to replace compressed natural gas (CNG) in some areas with minor changes to the existing infrastructure.
The article is very much a must-read.
Restoring Your Railway Fund Could Provide A Toolkit For Town Transformation
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail Business.
The article talks a lot of sense and is a must-read for improving a town, that is on its uppers.
It uses the Northumberland Line between Newcastle and Ashington in the North East as an example and describes how the fund can be used with the Towns Fund.
This paragraph gives a few examples of rail lines that could be improved using the fund!
Potential priorities for future rounds of funding could include the South Yorkshire Joint Line, a freight line serving 50 000 people between Doncaster and Worksop; the Leamside Line, a disused line which would serve 70 000 in Washington; March to Wisbech, a disused line which would connect 35 000 people in Wisbech to the network; and the line from Yate to Thornbury, another freight line which would connect 15 000 people in Thornbury to Bristol and beyond.
In the early sixties, I lived in the crap town of Felixstowe, with a sparse rail service to civilisation (London). Now the town has an hourly rail service to Ipswich in a smart new train and the town is more successful.
There’s a lot of chicken-and-egg syndrome at work here, but sorting the rail routes could be a good start.
In some cases, it’s not necessarily rebuilding infrastructure, as that is there for freight or an inadequate passenger service using a scrapyard special. But why not use refurbished trains powered by battery or hydrogen, on these routes to provide an hourly service. The curiosity value of the unusual propulsion, might even be a selling point to those reluctant to give up their PPVs, (Personal Protective Vehicles)!
An Untidy Railway
I took these pictures as I returned from Eridge.
You see it all over the railways and not just in the UK; general untidiness!
When I joined ICI in 1968, I went on a thorough and excellent induction course.
One very experienced engineer, gave a Health and Safety Lecture and one thing he said, was that a neat and tidy chemical plant was less likely to have silly accidents.
Some years later, I went to the United States to see some of Metier’s clients, of whom some were nuclear power stations. This must have been just after the Three Mile Island accident, which is described like this in Wikipedia.
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of reactor number 2 of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station (TMI-2) in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg, and subsequent radiation leak that occurred on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history.
Artemis was involved in maintenance at the nuclear stations I visited. I can remember at AEP Donald C Cook nuclear station being shown a database of work to do and many of the actions were referred to as TMIs and checking them had been mandated by the US regulatory authorities.
I should say, the site on the shores of Lake Michigan impressed me, but another I visited later didn’t. I won’t name it, as it is now closed and it was the most untidy industrial plant of any type I have visited.
As we left, I gave my opinion to our support engineer and he told me they had a very large number of TMIs to process. I wasn’t surprised!
So why are railways generally so untidy?
Potential Site For New Cambridge South Station Named
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Rail News.
The article says this about the site of the proposed Cambridge South station.
There had been three options for the station site and the preferred choice, which is the furthest north and nearest the guided busway, will offer improved connections with other railway routes as well as the busway. Although the detailed plans for East West Rail between Bedford and Cambridge have not yet been confirmed, it is possible that EWR trains will call at Cambridge South.
This Google Map shows the area.
Note.
- Addenbrooke’s and Papworth Hospitals and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in the South-East corner of the map.
- Long Road going East-West across the map.
- The West Anglia Main Line going North-South, at the Western edge of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. Cambridge station is to the North and Shelford station is to the South.
- Running diagonally away from the railway towards the South-West corner of the map, is the Cambridge Busway. which connects the Trumpington Park and Ride to Cambridge station and the City Centre.
It would appear there would be plenty of space to put a station with enough capacity for this important medical complex.
Train Services
Trains passing through that area include in trains per hour (tph)
- CrossCountry – 1 tph – Birmingham New Street and Stansted Airport via Cambridge
- Freater Anglia – 2 tph – London Liverpool Street and Cambridge North via Cambridge
- Greater Anglia – 1 tph – Norwich and Stansted Airport via Cambridge and Cambridge North
- Great Northern – 1 tph – London King’s Cross and Ely via Cambridge and Cambridge North
- Great Northern – 1 tph – London King’s Cross and Kings Lynn via Cambridge and Cambridge North
- Thameslink – 2 tph – Brighton and Cambridge
- Thameslink – 2 tph – London King’s Cross and Cambridge
That all adds up to 10 tph to Cambridge and 5 to Cambridge North.
When you add in future services on East West Rail, and do a bit of reorganisation, there could be twelve tph through the three Cambridge stations.
High Speed Rail Link To Lift Baltic Economies By Up To 0.6 Per Cent
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Emerging Europe.
This is the first two paragraphs.
A major new report from Swedbank, a Nordic-Baltic banking group based in Stockholm, Sweden, claims that the construction of a high speed rail link between the Estonian capital Tallinn and Lithuania’s border with Poland could lift GDP in each of the three Baltic states by between 0.2 and 0.6 per cent.
In addition to the direct economic impact in terms of public investment and jobs, the ambitious project will also help the region meet its environmental goals and bring in new technology and know-how.
The article is a must-read and has left me thinking, what will High Speed Two do for the UK?
The Anonymous Widower 