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Sideshoots - associated subjects / The West - but NOT trains in the West / Re: Paddington bear stolen from Newbury in Berkshire, now recovered - March 2025
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on: March 27, 2025, 10:53:20
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i recall many years ago that "a" two foot high cloth Paddington bear was removed from a flimsy plastic wrap around case on the course at Paddington station.
It turned out to be two students from one of the country's across the pond who had removed the bear.
Not sure if any one can actually recall when this "removal" occurred.
28th August 1992. I'd say you've done pretty well at remembering that, though as usual some of the facts have evolved a bit in storage. (Obviously I'm not relying on my memory for this!) From reports in several papers, the bear was three feet high, was in a glass dome (or case) and had been there for 25 (or 12) years, five youths were seen outside Paddington with Paddington and arrested, and two Canadians were charged with criminal damage next day. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Buses and other ways to travel / Re: Heathrow Airport closed all day Friday 21 March 2025
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on: March 24, 2025, 12:23:53
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Seems my option that Heathrow Airport should have been able to supply the Airport from the other 2 GSP as widely reported in the media is backed up by the boss of National Grid https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdjy4m0n1exoThere is no doubt a war of damage limitation of the 2 public listed companies going on to protect from reputational damage, political focus, not to mention the clams for costs from Airlines. As I said in my original post on Friday, I am surprised the Heathrow were not able to reconfigure the supplies, something they should have been able to do that night, the only thing that then my have effected flights was the smoke from the fire. One company that is keeping its head well below desk level is UKPN. They manage the distribution network at Heathrow, as an independent DNO▸ (or the equivalent). But they have put out some quite hubristic stuff about this role in the past, e.g. this: Security and reliability of electricity is essential for all airports. Heathrow is no exception. Even an interruption of a few seconds could have a knock-on effect on baggage systems and cargo shipments. This could take many hours to resolve and lead to significant lost revenue and passenger disruption. Resilient power is also vital to the entire airport community: including passenger transport services, employees’ facilities, freight and cargo operators, passenger retail or restaurants, emergency services, rail links, and airlines themselves.
Providing 24/7/365 resilient power to a global transport hub requires continuous innovation and dedication. This means around-the-clock maintenance, repairs, and renewals to thousands of high voltage electrical substations, transformers, relays, and more than 600km of cables...
Approach and innovation
As strategic energy infrastructure partner, our approach has been to work with Heathrow to deliver world-class performance every single day. The faultless maintenance of critical energy infrastructure of this scale and density is vitally important: the risks to people, property and businesses from electricity cannot be understated if not managed correctly. ... and a world class excuse generator? |
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Poole Level Crossing
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on: March 23, 2025, 13:13:41
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Is that, really, 30,000 plus pedestrians per day? It does not say "per day" ....
Of course it is. It's in the middle of the High Street, with people walking up and down all the time. Simplistically, spread over 15 hours it's one every two seconds; that's a reasonable footfall for a busy shopping (and other stuff) street. Or maybe that should be "was" - the user census data I have are 10 vehicles and 15243 pedestrians and cyclists. If that's more recent, I guess it represents a drop in retail footfall. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Buses and other ways to travel / Re: Heathrow Airport closed all day Friday 21 March 2025
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on: March 22, 2025, 20:07:16
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The BBC» is reportingThere are also backup diesel generators, and uninterruptible battery-powered supplies which provide enough power to keep safety critical systems such as aircraft landing systems running.
However, when the fire broke out the substation, it was out of action, along with its backup. That's very badly worded. What it's trying to say is that the fire destroyed one transformer and damaged the surrounding equipment so that both circuits were put out of action. The North Hyde grid supply point is fed by two underground cable circuits from Iver grid switching substation (and GSP). Each is rated at about 400 MW, but the grid operates on the principle that any circuit (or anything else) can be taken out of service without any user losing supply, so the GSP as a whole is rated at 400 MW. So it's not strictly a backup, but the effect is the same. There is a plan to put in a third link, I think at the same rating, which would raise the GSP's capacity to 800 MW. PS: In fact, this is the plan - There is planned 275kV circuit reinforcement on NGET’s network between Iver and North Hyde with an estimated completion date in the early 2030s. The existing Iver – North Hyde 1 and 2 circuits need to be replaced and uprated to a larger capacity. Build of a third circuit between the two sites is also planned. Alongside this, NGET are also undertaking a wider, strategic review of the 275kV cable circuits in West London and future network requirements.However, ETYS24 - last year's ten-year statement from NESO (was NGESO) - does not mention that. Note that the GSP is not overloaded now, but the demand is forecast to rise very steeply. In what's called the Future Energy Scenarios that are used for planning, total grid demand rises from 48 GW» this winter to 73 GW in 2031/32. For the North Hyde GSP it rises from 173 MW to 431 MW! |
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All across the Great Western territory / Buses and other ways to travel / Re: Heathrow Airport closed all day Friday 21 March 2025
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on: March 21, 2025, 15:31:14
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From the BBC» , in a page with further details: With Heathrow being such a busy airport for passenger journeys and global trade, questions have been raised over whether it has back-up systems in the event of power cuts.
The BBC understands that Heathrow does have back-up power for its key systems, but kickstarting these alternative power supplies for the whole airport takes time.
A source said it was not possible to switch the power back on immediately.
A Heathrow source also told the BBC that they have "multiple sources" of energy at the airport – with diesel generators and "uninterruptable power supplies" in place.
They added when the power outage happened the back up systems "all operated as expected".
The systems, however, are not enough to run the whole airport – hence the decision to close it down.
The source said the airport is in the process of redirecting power to the affected parts of the operation – but that it "takes time".
And even once the power is back on, there are countless systems which need to be rebooted and checked to ensure they are working properly and are stable. I would not surprised if international standards require critical systems for air operations - navigation aids, and everything that allows an aircraft to land and clear the runway at least - to be backed up independently of outside supply, and perhaps with backups for those backups. That much they are saying did work as intended. I wonder if the fact that that was in place meant they did not worry so much about security of external supplies. So everything not critical got handled on the basis of manually reconfiguring the network - but remember that this is a big part of supply resilience at all levels (it's why restoring supply, as this morning around the dead GSP, takes several hours). And as they say, running an airport safely, even in an emergency basic no-frills mode, needs a lot more power that they (and their DNO▸ (s)) can restore via new routes within a few hours. In this case that was the result of a commercial decision made by HAL.
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All across the Great Western territory / Buses and other ways to travel / Re: Heathrow Airport closed all day Friday 21 March 2025
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on: March 21, 2025, 13:25:05
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Heathrow's supply comes from at least two grid supply points, the nearest two being North Hyde to the north (the one that went bang) and Laleham to the south. But there are others further away that could be included if resilience is the valued highly enough. SSEN» distribute power from both, but UKPN also operate at Laleham. The nominal supply area for North Hyde GSP is attached - it does not include much of the airport. But of course the big question is why the multiple supply routes to the airport did not give it a resilient supply. That's for HAL and perhaps SSEN to answer, rather than NGESO.
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture Overseas / Re: Fatal collision at a level crossing near Arras 17 March 2025
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on: March 17, 2025, 20:21:49
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Further news updates tonight, from official sources so they story should be correct now. The vehicle was a Ford explorer belonging to the army, but used for a driving lesson. Both student and instructor, serving with the 41st signals regiment of Douai, were killed; there was no other injured passenger. Four of the 100 or so passengers on the train were taken to hospital, none seriously injured.
The driver is reported to have said he saw the car stopped on the crossing, others say it was there before the barriers came down.
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: HS2 - Government proposals, alternative routes and general discussion
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on: March 17, 2025, 15:11:35
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Then either none do & the current timetable would still work on the main lines, OR this will mean that there will be fewer paths available per hour as some stop (so the more 'locals' - Cotswolds, Bristol (poss not, as XC▸ direct would be quicker than via OOC▸ ), Cardiffs, WSMs) while others don't....
Or else it is a very easy promise to make, since by the time Old Oak Common station opens there won't be any Great Western Railway. And as an operational timetabling matter, I would doubt any promise so far into the future, even from the provisional GBR▸ , was worth much. |
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Journey by Journey / London to Kennet Valley / Re: Sad death of Shirley Pope, 82, and her dog, hit by train on foot crossing at Pewsey, Feb 2025
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on: March 17, 2025, 10:34:15
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But that shows it to be a rail over footway, rather than correctly as footway over rail There is also a small wooden footbridge over the same lane (Hollybush Lane), 20 m from the railway. And oddly, it's owned by NR» and got its "Railway Authority" plate to prove it. But I can't fathom what that, or any other footbridge, has to do with crossing the railway near here. A key piece of information is missing. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Buses and other ways to travel / Re: Drivers carrying passengers who are travelling when they should not
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on: March 16, 2025, 20:31:30
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Not fully understanding how fines and convictions work in this case.... I guess there is a distinction between 'reducing the fine to £0' and dropping the case altogether?
This was a civil penalty notice under the Carriers' Liability Regulations 2002 (as amended). The offence was defined in the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. The explanation, with leaflets etc, is here. Most of the words are about goods vehicles, of course. This looks like the relevant offence for this case: 32 Penalty for carrying clandestine entrants.
(1)A person is a clandestine entrant if—
(a)he arrives in the United Kingdom concealed in a vehicle, ship or aircraft,
(aa)he arrives in the United Kingdom concealed in a rail freight wagon,
(b)he passes, or attempts to pass, through immigration control concealed in a vehicle, or
(c)he arrives in the United Kingdom on a ship or aircraft, having embarked—
(i)concealed in a vehicle; and
(ii)at a time when the ship or aircraft was outside the United Kingdom,
and claims, or indicates that he intends to seek, asylum in the United Kingdom or evades, or attempts to evade, immigration control. The law and regulations define the maximum penalty; the Secretary of State decides the amount in each case - there are guidelines about how much. And in case you were wondering: 10.—(1) A notice may be served on a person under regulation 9(3) by:
(a)delivering it to that person;
(b)leaving it at his proper address;
(c)sending it to his proper address by first class post in a prepaid registered envelope or by the recorded delivery service;
(d)facsimile, sent to his usual or last known business facsimile number;
(e)electronic mail, sent to his usual or last known business electronic mail address. |
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15
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Sideshoots - associated subjects / The Lighter Side / Re: Grotty Scotty Piccies
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on: March 13, 2025, 19:18:00
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Looking at the earlier picture of Plockton, I reckon no. 5 is there too. The curvature is the same, and so is the platform surface - just a bit drier. All it requires is to sneakily crop the image to exclude the bridge and warning sign at the end of the platform ...
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