Great Western Main Line electrification - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[patch38]

I seem to remember there are some mobile phone masts in West Berkshire that have been painted to make them less intrusive (and they are on the edge of a forest from memory)

Do you mean the ones disguised as pine trees by the M4 at Yattendon? Quite well done...

[BerkshireBugsy]

I seem to remember there are some mobile phone masts in West Berkshire that have been painted to make them less intrusive (and they are on the edge of a forest from memory)

Do you mean the ones disguised as pine trees by the M4 at Yattendon? Quite well done...

Those are the ones...when they were first planted there were reports of drivers on the M4 having near misses because they were distracted trying to spot them!

[chrisr_75]

They are shining bright silver. They are galvanised steel

They will however weather quite rapidly to a fairly unobtrusive flat, dull grey colour.

Painting surely is a bad option as it will need to be maintained and is likely to contribute to future corrosion problems if the paint isn't 100% bonded to its substrate.

I guess certain parts of the home counties were always going to produce issues like this!

[grahame]

I'm not sure if anyone on here's old enough to remember it   but I understand that in Mr Brunel's day when the railway was being built, there were some pretty strong objections to certain proposals / structures ... and indeed some changes.   Yet these days, so much that would have been regarded as a major industrial-style change to the landscape has metamorphosed into a celebrated eloquence, and some of the things done to beautify are classified as "follies".

Today's engineering works may become tomorrow's celebrated beauty, and today's masts hidden as trees may become tomorrow's follies.

[TaplowGreen]

I'm not sure if anyone on here's old enough to remember it   but I understand that in Mr Brunel's day when the railway was being built, there were some pretty strong objections to certain proposals / structures ... and indeed some changes.   Yet these days, so much that would have been regarded as a major industrial-style change to the landscape has metamorphosed into a celebrated eloquence, and some of the things done to beautify are classified as "follies".

Today's engineering works may become tomorrow's celebrated beauty, and today's masts hidden as trees may become tomorrow's follies.

I hardly think you can compare a few steel gantries to Box Tunnel or the line along the coast in Dawlish, and if we're around long enough to hear the former described as a "celebrated beauty" I will happily buy you beer all evening before eating my hat!!! 

[IndustryInsider]

...before eating my hat!!! 

A stovepipe one presumably?   

[dviner]

Of course, to maintain an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, we really need to get rid of all of the man-made monstrosities that detract from the natural landscape - the roads and houses.

[ellendune]

Of course, to maintain an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, we really need to get rid of all of the man-made monstrosities that detract from the natural landscape - the roads and houses.

No only the modern ones (say post 1800) and you could just restore the roads to cart tracks. Surely that would be the landscape that was to be preserved. 

[John R]

At the risk of being slightly provocative, it had never even occurred to me in many years of travelling to and from London that I was indeed passing through an AONB^▸ (Areas Of Natural Beauty). Indeed, I've not even given it a second glance.  Whereas Dawlish, lots of the Cornish main line, the Lune Gorge, etc, etc....

[TonyK]

Those gantries are a lot less intrusive than the 9 110m tall wind turbines being built a few miles from my (rural) abode. In a part of Devon where you would struggle to get permission to build a kennel for the Jack Russell, 18 huge pools of concrete are being laid into the slow draining culm that soaks up the rain and releases it slowly, or at least used to. The good people living by the new gantries will at least be able to take consolation in the knowledge that they will do some good, and not just line a few pockets with subsidies (though doubtless some of that will still happen).

[dviner]

Of course, to maintain an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, we really need to get rid of all of the man-made monstrosities that detract from the natural landscape - the roads and houses.

No only the modern ones (say post 1800) and you could just restore the roads to cart tracks. Surely that would be the landscape that was to be preserved. 

Nope, unless you can prove that the thatch on the cottage was placed there by the wind, and the walls were the result of sedimentary rock formation, you're out of luck.

Cart tracks - you must be kidding.

 

[broadgage]

Of course, to maintain an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, we really need to get rid of all of the man-made monstrosities that detract from the natural landscape - the roads and houses.

Yes but what about the fields ? if one looks back far enough, most of England was covered in dense forest, until the discovery of agriculture !
The heritage industry never seem very clear as to what era they are seeking to restore/return to/preserve.
Prehistoric, complete with dinosaurs
stone age
iron age
Ancient Roman
Medieval
Early industrial revolution
Victorian
Pre ww1
Between the wars
Just post ww2
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s

[TaplowGreen]

I don't think anyone (with the possible exception of Jeremy Corbyn/the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers)/ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about)) is seriously suggesting a return to a medieval idyll/or a time when dinosaurs walked the Earth, just that perhaps a little more thought could have been given to the surrounding environment when these gantries were designed/chosen?

[grahame]

I don't think anyone (with the possible exception of Jeremy Corbyn/the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers)/ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about)) is seriously suggesting a return to a medieval idyll/or a time when dinosaurs walked the Earth, just that perhaps a little more thought could have been given to the surrounding environment when these gantries were designed/chosen?

I think I read somewhere that the gantries they're using are of a design that's rather like a Meccano  set - lots of standard parts that bolt together differently to suit the location / needs of each gantry.  And I recall that was said to make the electrification works a lot easier, cheaper and faster rather than having to do a 'special' at each location.  It struck me, though, that this could mean a certain amount of excess / needless metalwork providing attachment points for things not attached, and perhaps rather chunkier / heavier elements than were always needed as it would have to be manufactured to match worst case use scenario.   

Did I get this right, or was I having a "funny" dream??

[TaplowGreen]

I don't think anyone (with the possible exception of Jeremy Corbyn/the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers)/ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about)) is seriously suggesting a return to a medieval idyll/or a time when dinosaurs walked the Earth, just that perhaps a little more thought could have been given to the surrounding environment when these gantries were designed/chosen?

I think I read somewhere that the gantries they're using are of a design that's rather like a Meccano  set - lots of standard parts that bolt together differently to suit the location / needs of each gantry.  And I recall that was said to make the electrification works a lot easier, cheaper and faster rather than having to do a 'special' at each location.  It struck me, though, that this could mean a certain amount of excess / needless metalwork providing attachment points for things not attached, and perhaps rather chunkier / heavier elements than were always needed as it would have to be manufactured to match worst case use scenario.   

Did I get this right, or was I having a "funny" dream??

..........far be it from anyone else to pass judgement on whether a dream about railway gantries constitutes "funny"...........I guess it depends on what you normally dream about?