I Am A Twenty-Four Hour Person
I rose as usual at around five-thirty this morning and went through my normal routine.
- I measured my weight and blood pressure. Incidentally, I weighed 61.8 Kg.
- I checked my savings in Zopa and my bank account.
- I did two dozen press-ups
Now I am on my first cup of tea of the day. I have also replied to a couple of e-mails.
I’ve been like this in one way or other since the 1970s, when I started programming Artemis.
In those pre-e-mail days, I would be on my computer writing code before six and generally only stopped writing code around ten at night having been writing on and off all day.
C would sometimes drag me off for some shopping or a visit to a pub or restaurant, but I worked very hard and was well rewarded.
Some would say my hours are unusual, but my father was the same. Memorably, he once mowed the lawn at two o’clock in the morning!
Malta Energy Storage System Is Looking Forward To First Pilot
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Tech Eplore.
This is the first paragraph.
Malta has received a round of funding and is graduated from “project” to group that can sail. The Cambridge, MA-based company is focused on the storage of electro-thermal energy and the funding put the group in celebration mode this month. In return, the company is turning up the volume on its potential role in the future of energy storage—namely, working out salt-based electro-thermal energy storage.
The article goes on to describe how the system works and I suggest you read it.
This is the last paragraph.
Malta CEO Ramya Swaminathan said the challenge ahead is about design and manufacturing, in Xconomy. Swaminathan said customers were expected to come from a variety of points in the energy system. Such as? She said they expect “developers with wind or solar projects who want firm power, to grid scale applications that can be in the hundreds of megawatts range, to critical backup for data centers, to isolated grid systems like island economies.”
I believe the technology has a lot going for it.
- It has heavyweight financial backing.
- The technology is very conventional and well-understood, which will ease manufacture and maintenance.
- No complex or expensive raw materials are needed.
- I would suspect that few, if any dangerous chemicals are needed.
- It would have developing country applications.
- They would seem to have a large capacity.
I shall be following Malta Inc. with interest.
Monetarising The Freedom Pass
I find my Freedom Pass extremely valuable and I’m extremely grateful for it, as I can’t drive after a serious stroke, that left me with eyesight problems.
But I feel Freedom Pass use could be expanded, to improve the efficiency of London’s transport network and generate some much needed cash flow for Transport for London.
Some Principles
What I am proposing here will obey these principles.
- Charges will only occur, when the card is used in conjunction with a bank card to buy tickets or services.
- Any tickets or services bought through the Freedom Pass system, will be at the best possible price.
But the major principle will be that if a Freedom Pass holder continues to use their card as they do now, they will not pay any charges.
An Updated Web Site
The current web site at www.freedompass.org is mainly for information only.
This function could be increased, but I also think the website could be extended in several ways.
A Personal Profile
Some pass holders might like to add a personal profile with perhaps a photograph and selected personal details, next of kin and some medical details.
Obviously, creating a profile would be at the pass holder’s discretion.
Journey Logging
I believe that with Oyster, you can check where you’ve been on a ticket machine.
Some Freedom Pass holders might like to have a similar facility on a web site.
Railcard Management
If you have a Freedom Pass, the site will know if you are over a certain age or have a qualifying disability. I would actually get a Freedom Pass, even if I wasn’t quite as old, as my eyesight was deemed not good enough to drive.
So the Freedom Pass web site could prompt you when you needed to renew your Railcard.
Adding A Bank Card To A Freedom Pass
To get between Dalston Junction and Gatwick Airport stations, I need to buy a ticket from the Zone 6 Boundary to the Airport. It would be very handy, if a Freedom Pass could be linked to a bank card, so that there was no need to buy an extra ticket. The few pounds to get to the Airport, would be automatically charged to the linked bank card.
I would not need to buy a ticket and would just touch in at Dalston Junction station and touch out at Gatwick Airport. My bank card would be charged a few pounds.
The link would also work, where a journey was done before the 09:30 start time of Freedom Pass on many routes.
So if Esmerelda, who lived in Camden wanted to get to Orpington to walk her grandchildren to school., she would be able to use the Freedom Pass for a normal fare, which would be charged to her bank card.
I would assume that Transport for London would pick up a small commission for the National Rail tickets.
A Ticket Buying Web Site
Depending on the company, the rules for using Freedom Passes with National Rail tickets aren’t always simple.
Yesterday, I went to football at Ipswich and bought a return ticket between Harold Wood and Ipswich stations.
- Harold Wood is the Zone 6 boundary.
- I was also able to get on a Liverpool Street to Norwich train, despite it not stopping at Harold Wood.
- As a Greater Anglia ticket inspector told me off for not doing this about six months ago, when he saw my Freedom Pass alongside my Senior Railcard, when he checked my tickets, I feel it must be right.
But I don’t think all train companies are so accommodating.
Suppose you were able to buy any rail ticket on the Freedom Pass web site and I wanted to buy a return ticket on a Saturday from Dalston Junction to Ipswich.
- Logging in, the site would know I had a Freedom Pass and a Senior Railcard.
- I would ask for my ticket and then the web site would find my cheapest ticket.
- I would pay for it as one does on any of the numerous rail ticket web-sites.
But it would probably add a third orange ticket, giving my route and conditions.
Should Ticket Buying Be Limited To Freedom Pass Holders?
If you are a London resident, would you use a trusted ticket buying web site from Transport for London, where you knew any profits would be reinvested in London’s transport network?
If it was a best price, I would!
Conclusion
The right design of web site could be a nice little earner for Transport for London.
Or any other regionalised transport organisation, like Transport for Wales or Merseytravel.
Open Golf Championship’s £69m Boost To Scottish Economy
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the first two paragraphs.
The Open golf championship at Carnoustie in July boosted the Scottish economy by £69m this year, according to an independent study.
Researchers at Sheffield Hallam University found the Angus area alone received a £21m cash injection from hosting the event.
It just goes to show the value of big events to a country, region or a city.
I have to ask the opposite question! – Do some areas of the UK, suffer because they don’t host a big sporting event, arts festival or site or museum of national importance?
Hybrid Power On The Railways
In my opinion, one of the best hybrid transmissions is that of London’s New Routemaster bus. This description of the drive-train is from Wikipedia.
The bus is a hybrid diesel-electric driven by a battery-powered electric motor, charged by a diesel fuelled generator and recovering energy during braking by regenerative braking.
It is a classic serial hybrid vehicle.
- There is no mechanical connection between the engine and the driving wheels.
- The diesel engine only runs, when the battery charge is low.
- The electric motor is always powered directly from the battery.
- The control systems for the drive-train are very simple.
- It is very efficient, as the engine only runs when needed and regenerative braking is employed.
- The bus can run on battery power only, for short distances.
- The various components of the drive-train can be placed in convenient places and connected by power and control cables.
In the New Routemaster, the components are placed as follows.
- The diesel engine is half-way up the back stairs.
- The battery is under the front stairs.
- The electric motor is under the floor in front of the rear axle.
This flexibility is very useful in a large vehicle.
Hybrid transmissions are starting to be employed on the railways.
These are the applications in use or planned.
Alstom Coradia iLint
The Alstom Coradia iLint is a hydrogen-powered two-car multiple unit.
This video shows the operation of the train.
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It would appear to be a serial hybrid, where the hydrogen fuel-cell charges the battery and this drives the train through an electric motor,
I suspect most hydrogen trains will work in a similar way.
Class 321 Hydrogen Train
Some Class 321 trains are being converted to run on hydrogen. Unlike the Coradia iLint, the trains will also be able to use electricity from electrification.
MTU Hybrid PowerPacks
MTU have produced a Hybrid PowerPack, which is being retrofitted into several trains, including Class 170 trains in the UK.
Class 93 Locomotive
The recently-announced Class 93 locomotive appears to be a hybrid locomotive with a large diesel engine and about 125 kWh of batteries, that can also use electrification.
High Speed Bi-Mode Aventra
I am sure that Bombardier’s proposed High Speed Bi-Mode Aventra, which features batteries and 125 mph running under both diesel and electric power is a hybrid train.
Conclusion
Just as hybrid cars are becoming more numerous, I suspect we’ll be seeing more hybrid trains in the future.
Funding Injection For Smart Central Heating Project
The title of this article is the same as that of this article in The Scotsman.
This is the first two paragraphs.
East Lothian-based thermal energy storage specialist Sunamp and energy supplier OVO have secured seven-figure funding to develop a commercially viable smart central heating system.
The project brings together OVO’s intelligent energy management platform, called VCharge, with Sunamp’s super compact “heat batteries” which are said to store four times more heat than hot water tanks of a similar size.
This sounds like an interesting concept from Sunamp and OVO.
This video from Fully Charged, shows Sunamp’s thermal batteries in action.
I believe we’ll be seeing more of thermal batteries!
It’s Not Just Drones We Should Worry About!
In The Private Thoughts of Engineers and Scientists, I talked about a discussion, I had with a chemist about the production of sarin gas.
His view was that if amateurs tried to make the deadly gas, there was a high chance, they’d kill themselves, but he had a better idea to cause havoc in a city, which I will not disclose.
I too, have a couple of non-lethal methods, that would bring an airport or a city to a standstill.
One idea is so simple, that I suspect many terrorists could think it up.
Again, I will not disclose my ideas, but they are probably just two of many.
In some ways, the success of the drones in closing Gatwick Airport will only encourage others to think of new ways to disrupt our lives.
We still don’t now, who were behind the Gatwick Airport drones, but there must be a long list of suspects.
- Extinction Rebellion
- Anti-Airport Protesters
- Russia – It worked better than Novichok!
- North Korea – Unlikely, as they don’t seem to have any spats with the UK.
One thing that may rule out a lot of groups, is that sophisticated high-performance drones are not cheap.
Other groups will be ruled out, because they want to kill hundreds of innocent people and a couple of drones are unlikely to do this.
Class 769 Flex In Action
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Rail Engineer.
The article describes a ride in a Class 769 train, which is under test on the Grand Central Railway.
The article is very comprehensive, so if you want information on the progress of these trains, you ought to read the article.
One overall impression, I received, was that the train is a lot quieter, than the author expected.
This was the last sentence.
That said, based on the Flex experience, this writer would rather travel on a Class 769 than on a Class 150.
I can’t wait to have a ride, when they enter service in the New Year.
The article also gives a summary of Porterbrook’s various FLEX projects, which are taking redundant, but very serviceable electric-trains and converting them into self-powered trains needed on the UK rail network.
The article also says this about the future of the Class 319 trains.
There are 86 Class 319 four-car units, all of which were made redundant from the Thameslink route. Porterbrook has been successful in placing approximately 45 units for further use – 32 for Northern (eight of which will be converted to Flex specification) and 13 units with West Midlands Trains. In addition, there are Flex orders for five units for Wales, 19 units for Great Western Railway and one for the University of Birmingham (the HydroFLEX). This makes a grand total of 71 of the 86 units, leaving 15 still to find new homes.
I believe that Porterbrook’s reaction to finding that they had a fleet of trains for some of which, there were no obvious uses has been admirable. But also very pragmatic and hopefully financially rewarding in the long-term.
Looking back to the days of British Rail, these trains would probably have been sent to the scrapyard.
London’s Northern Line Extension To Battersea Delayed By A Year
The title of this post is the same as that of this article in the Financial Times.
This is a paragraph.
People close to the project believe that TfL will announce in the new year that the completion date is being pushed back until September 2021.
This delay will heap more financial woes on Transport for London.
Transport for London have already postponed these important upgrades.
- The resignalling of the Piccadilly Line.
- The rebuilding of Camden Town station.
- The rebuilding of Holborn station.
I believe that on financial grounds, the Mayor must reverse his fare-freeze as soon as possible.
The Anonymous Widower 