Is It Architecture,Engineering Or Art?
I heard good reports on the television of the rebuilt Reading station, so today, as I hadn’t anything specific to do, I decided to go to the town and have a look at the work that has been done.
I think Isambard would have been proud of what has been done, as he rarely did boring! And the new Reading station is certainly not that!
The concept of the station is very simple. The thirty metre wide overbridge is connected to all the platforms by escalators and lifts. Then at one end there is another set of four escalators and lifts to take people to the main south entrance.
But in all my life, I’ve never seen so many people walking wide-eyed in awe around a new building or even an art gallery. One guy told me he’d come into the station specifically to photograph the building and had taken fifty pictures. Even railwaymen who’d probably seen it all, were walking around giving the new station a critical look.
There was also the teacher, who’d travelled with me from London. She was amazed at it all, especially as she had left on Thursday from the old Reading station.
Very little has been reported on the media about the design and quality of this new station. The only news seems to be stories pointing out the fact that the handover is a few days late and there’s a bit of chaos. None of the stories mention, that the project will be completed a year ahead of the original plan.
I do wonder if Reading is the shape of stations to come.
The wide overbridge concept is used in a similar, but smaller and less dramatic form at Leeds and Derby, but how many other stations could benefit from this type of design?
In the pictures, you’ll see some of Inter City 125 trains, that are used on all services from London to the West and Wales. They are genuine high speed trains capable of 200 kph, ride as smooth as silk and they are now forty years old. I doubt they’ll all ever be retired, as for running through the Highlands of Scotland and from Bristol to Cornwall, where electrification is virtually impossible, there is no other fast train, that can handle the route.
So at last, these trains have got a modern station, to complement their design.
An Alternative London End To HS2
This plan called Euston Cross, was first aired in the railway press and is a serious alternative to what is currently proposed. it’s described detail in this post in a blog.
I think it should be taken seriously, as it would appear to have a few cost advantages and it would require less demolition at Euston.
As an engineer, who helped to develop the methods and software to build large projects, I believe that we can’t ignore the lessons of the biggest and most intelligent beast in the jungle; Crossrail.
Crossrail is setting new records for tunnelling proficiency, depth under London and project management. But as we experienced in the North Sea Oil industry in the 1970s, today’s big machines are dwarves compared to what will be available in a few years.
So the idea of linking HS2 to HS1 by means of tunnels and an underground station might be easier, than anybody would dare think using today’s technology. It could also go a lot deeper and just as Crossrail is diving under the Underground, it could probably dive deeper still.
Call For Thomas Heatherwick
I have just been re-reading the article in the April 2013 edition of Modern Railways, entitled Time for a fresh look at light rail.
The article says that if we are to get more tram systems in the UK, then they must be cheaper. The writer argues that to be cheaper, they must be lighter and designed without thinking too much of how you build a High Speed Train.
He also argues that they should be innovative in their collection of power, like the trams in Seville. I would go one stage further and use some kind of flywheel power storage, as proposed by Torotrak.
Perhaps now is the time to call for Thomas Heatherwick, to design a lightweight, virtually silent, stylish, high-capacity tram, that didn’t need to have overhead wiring all along its route. Seville has shown some of what can be done. The team that successfully takes the next step, will create a revolution in trams. And with luck make a fortune!
The Joy Of Global Warming
Bjorn Lomborg likes to provoke and this article in the Sunday Times certainly does. He starts the article like this.
As I fly into a snow-bound Britain, I realise that you might be asking where global warming has gone as you shiver in the coldest March for 50 years and wonder what you will do if gas has to be rationed. I have been involved in the climate debate for more than a decade, but I am still amazed at how wrong we get it. Let us try to restart our thinking on global warming.
Yes, global warming is real and mostly man-made, but our policies have failed predictably and spectacularly.
He then goes on to say that Kyoto has failed.
But he does produce a solution that could be a win-win situation for everyone.
He says that we should spend money on research!
He is right!
Just look what has happened to products like computers because money has been spent on research!
I have heard some wacky ideas to generate energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions over the last few years. Some of them might just be the things we do to save the planet.
But then engineers and scientists have a track record in digging us out of the holes that politicians and others have got us into.
Where for instance would Britain be today without the genius of Henry Royce, Lord Hives, RJ Mitchell, Alan Blumlein, Alan Turing and Sydney Camm. Under a Nazi jackboot perhaps?
But they and others answered Churchill’s plea and gave the country the tools to finish the job.
A similar massive effort today on a world-wide basis would I believe solve the problems of global warming and create a world fit for our descendents.
The same approach could be used on all of the major problems of the world like cancer, providing clean water, housing and food production.
Sir James Has Got A New Motor
This article on the BBC, looks at a first glance to be about a water tap, with a built in hand dryer, design by Sir James Dyson’s company.
But the most significant thing about it, is the new electric motor. Here’s Sir James Dyson’s view.
Although the minimalistic hybrid water-air tap head is the device’s signature feature, Sir James said that the “secret” of the machine was its motor, which had taken seven years to develop.
Dyson said that its latest motor had taken more than 100 engineers over £26.9m to develop.It uses an electromagnetic field, rather than carbon brushes, to accelerate from standstill to up to 100,000 revolutions per minute within 0.7 seconds. That was about four times the number of revolutions per minute that motors its size typically produced, Sir James said.
The article also says that the motor has a built in computer chip. So is this another of the ubiquitous ARM ones?
Who knows where this type of motor technology will lead?
The Engineers Get To Grips With Food
This report from the BBC, would seem to suggest that the Institute of Mechanical Engineers are venturing into areas that are none of their business. This is two key paragraphs.
The report found that between 30% and 50% of the four billion tonnes of food produced around the world each year went to waste.
It suggested that half the food bought in Europe and the US was thrown away.
I don’t think it is a surprising set of findings, but what are governments doing about it. Nothing! Which is a total scandal.
Perhaps, it’s about time we had more engineers at all levels in Government, all over the world. Waste is anathema to every engineer I’ve ever met!
I wonder if there has ever been a President or Prime Minister anywhere, who has had an engineering qualification? Even an O Level or equivalent in Technical Drawing would be rare. The nearest I can think of is Jimmy Carter, who was deeply involved in the clearing up of this nuclear incident in Canada. After his presidency he has shown himself to be a very practical man.
Ipswich Gets A New Porn Shop
As I walked to Portman Road, I saw a store, I’d not seen before.
Ipswich Gets A New Porn Shop
I’ve no idea how good it is, but it certainly looks the place to get some good engineering pornography.
Ipswich used to have a wonderful shop in Martin and Newby, which was opposite my office in Fore Street, in the early days of Artemis. One memory is the van from Royal Volker Stevin arriving each morning during the construction of the Orwell Bridge. Apparently Martin and Newby made a fortune out of that job, as so many expensive tools were dropped into the river. One suggestion was that they use wooden spirit levels, so that they floated, but they found the current in the river took them out to sea.
A Flying Boat From Norway
This was also pictured in today’s Times. It’s an escape life boat for an oil platform being tested by dropping from sixty metres.
There’s a video here, that is really worth watching.
The Times says that the boat can carry seventy passengers and is made of plastic.
Clever Tricks Improve Breast Scans
I like this story from the BBC’s web site.
One of the keys to fighting cancer is good diagnosis and the article shows how being clever with scientific, engineering and mathematical tricks, X-rays can be improved.
We’ll see a lot more of this type of innovation in the next few years and it’ll help in all sorts of fields and not just medicine.
The Anonymous Widower 