On The Loose In North London: Flying Gazebo Causes Train Delays
The title of this post, is the same as that of this news item on Network Rail.
These paragraphs outline the story.
Residents are being urged to keep garden objects tied down and away from the railway after a flying gazebo caused 60 trains to be delayed or cancelled on Friday.
Passengers on London Overground trains running between Gospel Oak and Barking experienced disruption for around three hours. Freight trains were also affected.
The gazebo was reported to be blocking the line between Upper Holloway and Crouch Hill stations at around 0945 and trains had to be stopped while it was recovered by a Network Rail response unit.
In total, the incident caused 15 full train cancellations, 8 part cancellations and delays to 37 trains.
There is also this picture of the remains of the errant gazebo.
At least it appears, that the gazebo didn’t bring the wires down.
Would Southeastern’s Proposed Battery-Electric Trains Be More Reliable In The Snow?
This article on CityMonitor, which is entitled No Trains South Of London During Cold Weather? Blame A Pair of Herberts For Choosing The Wrong Electrical System, explains it all.
The article was written in 2018 and these are the first two paragraphs.
As is often the case when the weather is below freezing, commuters around London are having a terrible time this week. The blizzard has hit services on all lines around the capital. Trains running towards the south and southeast have had the worst of it, with services cancelled on Monday before the full impact of the storm really hit.
It’s frustrating to compare the UK’s lack of readiness when extreme weather hits with services in Switzerland or Sweden, which cheerfully run in heavy snow conditions.
The article blames the poor performance on South London’s third rail electrification, which as the title suggests was chosen by a couple of Herberts.
Does anybody know of a child in the last fifty years, who has been called Herbert?
I shouldn’t be too hard on Herberts, as my paternal grandfather was a Herbert. But he was an alcoholic and died before he was forty.
Why Don’t I Feel The Cold?
It’s been cold today in London, but I didn’t really feel it.
Was Storm Franklin Named By An Old Minchendenian?
This press release from the Met Office is entitled Storm Franklin Named.
When I first heard yesterday, that the storm was to be named, I must admit, that I allowed myself a small smile.
I went to Minchenden Grammar School in Southgate, leaving in 1965.
One teacher, that we looked upon with a degree of affection was our German teacher, who was Frank J Stabler, who some pupils referred to as Franklin J Stabler. I don’t know whether that was his real name or whether it was fellow pupils making it up.
But he did have one story, that he used to liven up one of the lessons, where he taught me enough German to get by in the country.
Apparently, he was returning from France to the UK on the night of Saturday, the 31st of January in 1953, using the ferry from Dieppe in France to Newhaven in Sussex.
That ferry route used to have a reputation for being rough and on one bad crossing around 1975, my five-year-old son fell and cut himself just above his eye. He was skillfully cleaned up and plastered by one of the chefs. Luckily the chef had been a soldier, who had been well-trained in first aid.
Back in 1953, Mr. Stabler could have chosen a better night for his trip, as that day was the night of devastating East Coast Floods, which killed over five hundred people in the UK.
The captain of the ferry decided to sit the storm out and crew and passengers spent twenty-four hours being tossed about like a cork in the English Channel, which was a tale Mr. Stabler told with great drama.
He finished the tale, by saying that in the end, he prayed for the boat to go down to put everybody out of their misery.
Conclusion
I have to ask if someone on the committee that decides storm names, either directly or indirectly, has heard this tale and decided that Franklin would be an appropriate name for a storm beginning with F.
Omicron I Can Understand, But Arwen Is Surely A Funny Name For A Storm!
This article on the Birmingham Mail is entitled Storm Arwen: What Does The Name Arwen Mean And Who Chooses Storm Names?.
It says this about Arwen.
The name Arwen is believed to be of ancient Welsh origin and means “fair” or “good”. It is most commonly a female name.
Arwen was made famous by J.R.R Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings book series, which sees the name translated to “noble maiden” in Sindarin.
I’ve never read any of Tolkein’s books or seen any of the films, but I have played real tennis several times with one of his cousins.
He is or was a man who was involved with high-vacuum scientific equipment. He had some interesting tales about selling the equipment to the Soviet Bloc. He said that he always had a few of his cousin’s books handy, as they made excellent presents to oil the wheels of Soviet bureaucracy.
I hope everybody reading this, has been untroubled by the wrath of Arwen.
I
Zhengzhou Henan: Chest-High Flooding Hits China Trains And Roads
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the the BBC.
This is the first two paragraphs.
Roads and subway stations have been submerged across China’s Henan province as heavy rain has brought severe floods.
One region in Henan has recorded 40cm (15 inches) of rainfall. In Zhengzhou, the city’s entire subway system was forced to close.
I feel sorry for those that died and their friends and families, not only for their loses, but also because they will have probably no say in the stopping of building of hundreds of coal-fired power station, which are certainly one of the factors in all the extreme weather around the world.
Let’s hope at COP26, if the Chinese turn up, other nations make the point that their pro-global warming policies are killing their own people.
Is Qatar 2022 Seriously Under Threat?
For various reasons, I’m not in favour of holding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
I am not alone and summed up Greg Dyke’s views in Greg Dyke On Qatar 2022, where I came to this conclusion.
I think the whole tournament is already dead-in-the-water and that it probably won’t take place in Qatar. If it does, it will be in fully-enclosed air-conditioned stadia, with virtually no spectators and absolutely no real fans or atmosphere.
The air-conditioned stadia will probably use masses of electricity generated in fossil fuel power stations.
This article on the BBC is entitled Christian Eriksen: Denmark Midfielder Suffered Cardiac Arrest, Says Team Doctor.
Was Eriksen’s cardiac arrest caused by the heat in Copenhagen?
We shall probably not know until the full investigation has been completed.
Now put yourself in the position of an owner of a Premier League or other important football club.
Would you allow your star player to go and play in the heat of Qatar without a full investigation into what happened with Christian Eriksen?
I suspect many owners would tell Qatar and FIFA, where they could stick their World Cup.
They just can’t afford to risk their assets!
Starter Homes At Cockfosters
This would seem to be the final failure of a 1960s office development at Cockfosters.
It must have been about 1962, when I remember my mother telling me about the topping-out ceremony of these blocks by Cockfosters station.
They probably will satisfy a need, but it wouldn’t be my place to choose to live.
- You may have the Piccadilly Line to Central London, but it is a long way. It takes 43 minutes to Leicester Square.
- Cockfosters shopping centre hasn’t improved much since the 1960s.
- I doubt that the development will have lots of parking.
But then on top of the hill with all the wind blowing from the East in the winter, it will be a bitterly cold place to live!
There are perhaps two good points.
- The development is close to Trent Park for walking.
- The buildings do seem to be structurally fairly sound.
But they’ll need to be, with all that cold wind!
An Elegant Way To Cope With Roof Leaks
I took these pictures at St. Pancras station.
Note.
- The full wording is “I catch rain, not rubbish”
- The green grass is something like Astroturf.
- There were three of them!
- They appear to be fitted with castors.
I’m surprised, I’ve not seen this idea used before.
I’m Not Dreaming Of A Wet Christmas
I took these pictures yesterday, close to my house.
I have a feeling that a Wet Chistmas, is what we’ll get in London.
The Anonymous Widower 