The Anonymous Widower

FART Train On Show At InnoTrans

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Railway Gazette.

This is the first paragraph.

Stadler has unveiled a custom-designed electric multiple-unit for the narrow gauge Centovalli railway which runs for 52 km between Locarno in Switzerland and Domodossola in Italy.

This appears to be one of Stadler’s special trains for a very unique railway in the Southern Alps.

This Google Map shows the route between Domodossola and Locarno.

Note.

  1. The Centovalli Railway runs East-West and is shown in purple.
  2. Locarno is in the East and is marked by a blue arrow.
  3. Domodossola is in the West, where the Centovalli Railway meets the Domodossola–Milan railway, which is shown in black and runs North to Brig via the Simplon Tunnel.

In From Milan To Geneva, I must have taken a train through Domodossola, as this picture is in the post.

Domodossola station looks a lot grander in its Wikipedia entry.

October 25, 2024 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , | 1 Comment

Hydrogen Energy Explained

The title of this post, is the same as this story on Centrica.

This is the sub-heading.

Hydrogen is a clean alternative to natural gas, when it’s burnt it doesn’t produce carbon dioxide, which is a harmful greenhouse gas. It has the potential to play a significant role in achieving net-zero and decarbonising various sectors.

The story is a good introduction to hydrogen.

In the 1960s, when I first worked in a hydrogen electrolyser at ICI in Runcorn, I would have found a document like this one from Centrica invaluable.

October 25, 2024 Posted by | Energy, Hydrogen | , , | Leave a comment

Plans To Turn Former Station Waiting Room Into Pub

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.

This is the sub-heading.

Plans to turn a Grade II listed railway station’s former waiting room back into a pub have been submitted.

These are the first three paragraphs of the article.

Network Rail wants to refurbish the room at Carlisle’s station, which is now a storage room and kitchen.

The first class waiting room, which was until recently used as a pub, was built by architect William Tite in 1880 as an extension to his original 1847 neo-Tudor station designs.

The plans are part of the £27m Carlisle Gateway project to turn the city’s station into a “national interchange” transport hub, funded by central government, Cumberland Council and Network Rail.

I very much like this idea.

Carlisle could be turned into a national interchange, that was almost unique in the world.

  • Rail services across the Borderlands could be improved, to the cities of Glasgow, Lancaster, Leeds, Newcastle and York.
  • Rail services could be developed, so visitors could explore the Lake District by rail.
  • The Eden Project at Morecambe would be a rail-accessible attraction, that was just an hour away from Carlisle.
  • The Borders Railway from Edinburgh could be extended to Carlisle.
  • All services would be zero-carbon, with power coming from either batteries or hydrogen.
  • Services would be tourism-friendly, with space for bicycles, large panoramic windows and high-class catering.

Current times between London and Carlisle could be reduced to under three-and-a-half hours, with reductions of up to an hour, as High Speed Two is eventually delivered.

October 25, 2024 Posted by | Food, Transport/Travel | , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

No Birds Collided with Floating Wind Turbine Offshore Norway During Two-Year Monitoring Campaign

The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.

This is the sub-heading.

Following over two years of ongoing monitoring, no bird collisions with the TetraSpar floating offshore wind turbine have been reported at the Marine Energy Test Centre (METCentre) in Norway.

These first three paragraphs give more details.

Since January 2022, the Norwegian company Spoor has mapped bird activity at the floating offshore wind turbine at METCentre, located about ten kilometres off the coast of Karmøy.

The extensive bird mapping is the first of its kind in Norway. The data collected provides a picture of which species pass by the turbines and how they move.

The cameras have captured over 21,000 bird passages since the monitoring began. The monitoring and analyses were conducted in collaboration with the Biodiversity Department at Multiconsult.

In Unique Study: Birds Avoid Wind Turbine Blades, I said this.

I must admit I’m not surprised, as I’ve landed a light aircraft many times with birds flying above the runway and I can’t remember ever hitting one. But I have seen several dive out of the way.

The two studies are both in Scandinavia, so are birds in that area genetically programmed to avoid wind turbine blades?

I found this page on BBC Science Focus, which is entitled How Many Birds Are Killed By Wind Turbines In The UK?

This was the first two paragraphs of the answer,

As wind energy has grown in popularity, reports of birds killed by wind turbines have become more common. Few studies have investigated the phenomenon, but estimates suggest that between 10,000 and 100,000 birds are killed by turbine blade strikes annually in the UK.

That’s a lot, but it’s worth noting that approximately 55 million birds are killed in the UK each year by domestic cats. Nevertheless, research suggests there may be ways to make wind turbines safer for wildlife. For example, a small-scale study in Norway found that painting one of the wind turbines blades black, reduced bird deaths by 70 per cent.

Perhaps British birds are more stupid than Scandinavian ones?

Or is it, that British moggies have learned to sit underneath wind turbines waiting for birds to fall out of the sky?

It looks like these are questions, that should be solved by more research.

October 24, 2024 Posted by | Energy, Environment, World | , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

UK And Germany To Upgrade Some Sea Kings For Ukraine

Yesterday, the UK government issued a press release, which is entitled Landmark UK-Germany Defence Agreement To Strengthen Our Security And Prosperity.

This is the sub-heading.

A landmark defence agreement will be signed by Defence Secretary John Healey MP and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in London today in a major moment for NATO, and European security and prosperity. It is the first-of-its-kind agreement between the UK and Germany on defence.

This introductory paragraph, lays down the tone and objectives of the agreement.

The signing of the Trinity House Agreement marks a fundamental shift in the UK’s relations with Germany and for European security. This agreement between Europe’s two biggest defence spenders will strengthen national security and economic growth in the face of growing Russian aggression and increasing threats.

It is a wide-ranging document, but in this post, I will concentrate on one topic; Sea King helicopters, which are talked about in this paragraph.

New Ukraine support – new joint work to enable German Sea King helicopters to be armed with modern missile systems as well as work on capability coalitions.

As Ukraine is a mainly landlocked company, I do think it must be a compliment to the Sea Kings’ capabilities that the Ukrainians find the naval helicopters useful.

These three paragraphs from the Wikipedia entry for the Westland Sea King, document the history of operations of the Sea King in the Ukrainian Naval Aviation.

In November 2022, in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine the United Kingdom announced they were donating three former Royal Navy Sea Kings to Ukraine. In January 2023, the first Sea King was videoed being used by the Ukrainian Naval Aviation.

In April 2023, the BBC did an interview with one of the co-pilots of a UK donated Sea King to Ukraine. These helicopters served in the Falklands War so they are at least some 40 years old. The co-pilot has said that the Sea King is used for rescuing pilots who have ejected, delivering soldiers, and conducting reconnaissance, among other tasks. One engineer also told the BBC: “They are old…but they have gone through modernisation, and we need them very much. I believe this is just the start of our work together.” The BBC also reports that a third Sea King is being prepared to be sent to Ukraine in the “coming weeks”. The third Sea King HU.5 was delivered to Ukraine in May 2023.

In January 2024, Germany agreed to send 6 further Sea Kings to Ukraine.

I feel the Ukrainians, with their initiative, will find the elderly Sea Kings very useful.

October 23, 2024 Posted by | World | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Energy Dome Pens Contract For First US Project

The title of this post is the same as that as this article on Energy Storage News.

I like Energy Dome, as it makes one of the causes of global warming; carbon dioxide help with the storage of energy, which many argue is part of the solution of the problem.

This press release gives more details.

  • The project is a 20MW/200MWh Battery.
  • The battery will be located in Wisconsin.
  • In parallel, the construction of Energy Dome’s first-of-a-kind standard CO2 Battery plant in Sardinia, Italy, is also proceeding at full speed.

As Energy Dome is an Italian company, the solution is also more about finesse than brute force.

 

October 23, 2024 Posted by | Energy, Energy Storage | , , , | 4 Comments

UK To Manufacture Gun Barrels For First Time In Ten Years

Yesterday, the UK government issued a press release, which is entitled Landmark UK-Germany Defence Agreement To Strengthen Our Security And Prosperity.

This is the sub-heading.

A landmark defence agreement will be signed by Defence Secretary John Healey MP and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in London today in a major moment for NATO, and European security and prosperity. It is the first-of-its-kind agreement between the UK and Germany on defence.

This introductory paragraph, lays down the tone and objectives of the agreement.

The signing of the Trinity House Agreement marks a fundamental shift in the UK’s relations with Germany and for European security. This agreement between Europe’s two biggest defence spenders will strengthen national security and economic growth in the face of growing Russian aggression and increasing threats.

It is a wide-ranging document, but in this post, I will concentrate on one topic; gun barrel manufacture, which is talked about in this paragraph.

The new partnership will help drive investment into the UK – with the agreement paving the way for a new artillery gun barrel factory to be opened in the UK, supporting more than 400 jobs and nearly half a billion-pounds boost to the British economy. The opening of the Rheinmetall factory will see the UK manufacture artillery gun barrels for the first time in 10 years, using British steel produced by Sheffield Forgemasters.

Will Putin and his supporters like being shot at by the best German-designed artillery pieces, built from the best Sheffield steel in a British factory?

When I first heard of this story I thought of one short and powerful six-letter word – energy.

Some may think, we have an idiotic energy policy, which is abandoning all our coal, gas and oil in favour of renewables.

  • We shut our last coal-fired power station a couple of weeks ago and I showed pictures of the last station in Last Of The Many.
  • Germany had fifty-eight coal-fired power stations in operation, as late as July 2023.
  • Germany has also lost all its cheap Russian gas.
  • Germany is also short of energy and what they’ve got is expensive.
  • It’s also likely, that making the quality of gun barrels, that will annoy Putin and his ilk will need a lot of energy.

So would it be better to move operations that need a lot of expensive energy out of Germany?

I’ve also read somewhere, that Germany intends to retire coal-fired energy generation by the end of the decade.

The Germans are also developing two massive hydrogen projects to replace the coal and cut their carbon dioxide emissions.

  • AquaVentus will harvest 10.3 GW of hydrogen from the North Sea and is described in this post called AquaVentus.
  • H2ercules will distribute the hydrogen and is described in this post called H2ercules.

Is it more affordable for the Germans to move high energy manufacturing to the energy?

I wonder, if the deal will eventually be something like this.

  • Rheinmetall will build the gun barrel factory, somewhere that is convenient for Sheffield and Germany and that has access to lots of energy.
  • The energy will need to be green to ease Germany’s Chancellor’s problem with the Greens.
  • Siemens recently built a train factory at Goole and surely that area of North Humberside and East Yorkshire with its large supplies of wind energy and hydrogen, backed up by the gas- and hydrogen-fired power stations at Keadby, would be a good location for an energy-consumptive business.
  • Sheffield Forgemasters might even build a factory next door, to tap into the energy of the area and reduce transport costs of the gun barrel blanks.
  • Sheffield Forgemasters’s steel may even come from British Steel at Scunthorpe. If British Steel make rails, that are good enough for German railways, then surely, it is a good enough starting material for German gun barrels.
  • The Port of Immingham is nearby for import and export of components and finished products.
  • All of the German activity in the area, will surely see flights develop to and from Germany at the nearby well-quipped Humberside Airport.
  • Hull Trains, LNER and TransPennine Express will increase their services to Doncaster, Hull, Lincoln, London, Manchester and Sheffield.
  • I wouldn’t be surprised to see a train service between London and Hull via Doncaster, a new Goole parkway station and Brough. It could even use battery-electric or hydrogen trains assembled by Siemens at their Goole factory.

Humberside could be becoming Little Germany, as it has what Germany needs – energy!

 

October 23, 2024 Posted by | Energy, Hydrogen, News, World | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

I’m Getting Fed Up Being Coeliac

I’m not getting fed up with the benefits.

  • The inability to get serious doses of the covids, as was shown by the University of Padua and I documented in Risk Of COVID-19 In Celiac Disease Patients.
  • The lower rate of cancer, compared to the general population as has been shown by Nottingham University.
  • Coeliac diease and the B12 injections I take, indirectly helped my recovery from the stroke I had. But that was just luck!

I haven’t had a dose of the covids, but I have had all my vaccinations.

But increasingly, restaurant chains like Carluccio’s and Le Pain Quoitidien are closing only to be replaced by chains that don’t even pay lip-service to coeliacs.

Some chains, even treat being gluten-free as a fad. That is an insult to people like me and the doctors and other medical staff, who diagnosed us.

I’m getting feed up as more and more vcoeliac-friendly cafes and restaurants close.

Coeliac disease indirectly killed my son and probably my paternal grandfather and is present in at least 1-in-100 of the UK population.

We should identify all of those, who have the genes, using the genetic test, which is only a simple blood test costing a few pounds.

October 22, 2024 Posted by | Food | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Team GB And ParalympicsGB Athletes Find New Career Pathway At Centrica

The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Centrica.

This is the sub-heading.

Over the summer, billions of people from across the world tuned in to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games to get behind their nation’s most talented athletes, and Centrica has launched a new employment initiative to help sportspeople transition into a different career once they retire.

These first three paragraphs outline the scheme.

Elite sports professionals are highly skilled and have a lot to offer the world of work, although it can often be challenging for them to know where to start, especially when entering into a new sector.

To help adjust to life after sport, Centrica has created a new scheme – the Centrica Athletes Leadership Placement Programme – to find high performance athletes rewarding careers in the energy sector.

Made available to athletes thanks to Team GB and ParalympicsGB’s landmark five-year partnership with British Gas – a subsidiary of Centrica – the programme will give former sportspeople the chance to transfer their skills to new roles within the wider group.

The scheme appears to be similar to a successful scheme for armed forces personnel, outlined in this paragraph.

The scheme falls under the same umbrella as Centrica’s Armed Forces Pathway, which aims to hire at least 500 ex-forces leavers by 2026.

I wish Centrica and their new employees the best of luck.

But it looks to me, that it should succeed.

October 22, 2024 Posted by | Business, Energy, Sport | , , , | 1 Comment

Does Ocado Get Used For Christmas Stocking Fillers?

I use cotton handkerchiefs because of my skin and buy them in boxes of seven from Marks and Spencer at £16 a box.

Today, I was doing my weekly Ocado order and wondered if they delivered the handkerchiefs.

They appear to sell ten of a lesser quality for &6.33.

Unfortunately, they were out of stock. Have they been bought up by kids for stocking fillers for relatives?

But, Ocado do stock a selection of items from Marks and Spencer’s Autograph range.

October 21, 2024 Posted by | Food | , , , , , | Leave a comment

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