Railway bridges struck by road vehicles - merged topic, ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

I don't normally make a big thing of spellings - with two dyslexic children, it doesn't do - but I feel the need to point out that here in Europe we have metres, not meters. 

Here in Great Britain we have the freedom to spell it either way.............

Here in, erm, Britain, we have the freedom to spell it pürqq if we wish, but the correct spelling in British English (and indeed in most non-US variants of English) is metre.

Most people can presumably distinguish between a meter (a measuring device) and a metre (a unit of measurement). Logically this should follow through into the pronunciation, though more people seem to struggle with this (and it is fruitless not to accept that language should be described, not prescribed): generally speaking for measuring devices, we stress the middle syllable (e.g. therm-omitter) whereas in units we give all syllables equal stress (e.g. killermetre). Kill-omitter only makes sense if you follow through and talk of mill-imitters and kill-ogrumms - but the idiomatic form seems to be winning through; there's no logic in these things.

[eightonedee]

Never mind English - what's the Polish for "Ildiwch i gerbydau s'yn dod atoch"? As Red Squirrel says, though, having the height sign in fahrenheit groats might not have helped.

Isn't that Welsh for "Please check your mirrors after passing to ensure you have not displaced the disused railway bridge" 

[TonyK]

As an inch is defined as 25.4 millimetres exactly, the length of the foot is defined by size of the metre - which used to be that object kept in Paris!

So it's a kind of metric measure

By the same logic whiskey, being made from grain, is practically muesli.

Wasn't the original idea of the metre supposed to be 1/10,000,000th of the distance between the north pole and the equator? It was from that, and the realisation that it wasn't easy for any Tom Dick or Henri to measure that the platinum rod was used as the standard.

The nautical mile, being the distance between two minutes of a degree of longitude, has at least some basis of relationship with the natural world. The statute mile is as arbitrary as Fahrenheit.

[patch38]

[By the same logic whiskey, being made from grain, is practically muesli.

That must be true, because you never put ice in muesli.

[CyclingSid]

Height signs can be in imperial and metric units see Diagram 629.2A of the current Regulations http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/2/part/4/made. This does suppose that there is a budget to replace signs, cost of sign v cost of disruption?

[Bmblbzzz]

As an inch is defined as 25.4 millimetres exactly, the length of the foot is defined by size of the metre - which used to be that object kept in Paris!

So it's a kind of metric measure

By the same logic whiskey, being made from grain, is practically muesli.

I shall think about that at breakfast tomorrow morning. 

[Bmblbzzz]

In fact, if Bertolt Brecht had lived in London this decade rather than Berlin of the 1920s, I'm sure he'd have written "Show me the way to the next muesli bar."

[Red Squirrel]

Height signs can be in imperial and metric units see Diagram 629.2A of the current Regulations http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2016/362/schedule/2/part/4/made. This does suppose that there is a budget to replace signs, cost of sign v cost of disruption?

Yes; and - not or. The wording does not allow for a choice of units; "...height indicated in both metric and imperial units" means both units must be shown, and implies metric first. Quirkily, Diagram 531.1A (the advance warning sign) is less clear on this.

Signs are pretty cheap compared with the cost of disruption. The whole of Bristol was signposted for 20mph speed limits for less than the cost of a single road fatality.

[grahame]

From the Daily Post:

A busy road has been re-opened four days after a lorry hit a railway bridge and got stuck underneath.

Two huge cranes had to be brought in on Sunday to free the trapped truck from Ffordd Glanhwfa in Llangefni following the accident which happened on Thursday.

The bridge also had to be removed due to the level of damage caused.

The 100-tonne capacity cranes arrived at the scene at around 10am yesterday and the whole operation took over four hours to complete.

Anglesey Council announced that the road had re-opened this morning.

Martin Davies, from crane and specialist lifting company, Bob Francis Crane Hire had told how they planned to lift the bridge off the lorry as the structure had been so badly damaged by the impact.

And what about re-opening the railway 

[Red Squirrel]

Not the beefiest bridge in the world, was it? https://goo.gl/maps/z29j4vbkysT2

[TonyK]

Not the beefiest bridge in the world, was it? https://goo.gl/maps/z29j4vbkysT2

No, for sure, and it's been polished off now. The line was supposedly mothballed, but the moths don't seem to have noticed.

[bobm]

[By the same logic whiskey, being made from grain, is practically muesli.

That must be true, because you never put ice in muesli.

Oh don't - you'll set off the honourable member for Nailsea all over again....

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=15842.msg177699#msg177699

[grahame]

The potential re-opening of the line on Anglesey is covered at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=5625.0 and I have added a quote / link on that thread to update it in consideration of the bridge strike and way that has effected the situation.

[patch38]

Anyone want a cheap Range Rover? A bit of filler and nobody would ever know...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-45964816

[TonyK]

Oh dear!