BBC 4 and Plane Spotting?

Three nights of Boredom!

One has to say thanks to my dad, who at age seven introduced me to aircraft spotting and identification, because after watching John Snow last week I would not bother taking up the hobby today!

Wither you film of photograph or just watch with binoculars and note with pencil and pad it is a great hobby to learn many things that might be one day invaluable, if we were in a war situation?

Apart from that its a worth while hobby and there is plenty to see, if you just take your time and look up? 

One was disappointed with the lack of types and no mention of the Dreamliner along with some of the new types, perhaps time was not on their side?

Getting good aircraft guides and registration books with tail colours and a good camera with easy access to You Tube, if not similar platforms is today's forte. 

There are many others aspects to this hobby and that of radio communications between the tower and the cockpit, something that can be developed as the hobby progresses since many transceivers are expensive and difficult to operate

But just sitting and looking up with binoculars is as pleasurable since not everyone is photographic?

Never seeing the light of Day. ONE.

Bores.

Boring machines come in various sizes and uses, we tend to associate them with tunnel construction as in the London Tubes, Channel Tunnel and the new London Cross rail project?

But there are as many used in a variety of roles from water well sinking to the present day need of fracking. Many of the surface drillers are set up for short-term workings, where as the boring machines are constructed under ground and when the jobs are completed they are buried or encased.

Smaller boring machines where developed for the mining industry to take men off the coal face, but today many are no longer used.

Despite computer or robotic automation, humans are still required to clear obstacles and this has lead to some very serious and devastating accidents in China, Russia and South-America.

Engineering, Maintanance and Building. Part-Two.

Differing Requirements?

Because there are so many different gauges around the world and types of systems from mainline, to metro and tubes there is need for the same types doing the same jobs at differing scales. This has been tried on the London Underground, who purchased smaller Class 66 locomotives.

In days gone by steam cranes and open waggons carried material and crew gangs to build, but today a whole section can be laid by machine as we have already seen. It is the complex electrics overhead that cause expense and delays, computer systems have to be accurate with signal commands.

This new requirement when in place allows high-Speed travel and less point switching for passenger trains, but freight remains a different matter. Most recovery over the last forty years has been carried out by a second locomotive, but in the years to come this with under floor motors as on both tube and metro stock will overcome all of the old problems.

Much of the maintenance of the old days may be carried out more by robotic controlled vehicle based on the current stock with video equipment. Not every nation will be able to afford this so depending on where they are many older methods will remain.

Retrun of the Trams.

The three U.K. Types.

The need for the tram has returned to the United Kingdom, not for love of them but rather for their vital need in inner city urban fast transport. Great Britain was the origins of the trams from Swansea in Wales to Yorkshire to Blackpool. From horse drawn to their hey day in electrification.

The first trams suffered from two problems one they were hard to turn and two if the line was blocked end of the journey. Today priority has been granted to the three types in operation across the U.K with more being planned for Scotland and Wales.

Bombardier M5000 Flexity-2 Swift working Manchester, these 70 seats have a speed of 43 mph.  These are one of three different types in service. The Sheffield Super Tram and more than six new type Stadler trams for the Croydon area network in south-London.

Not all areas have been mentioned, but hope to follow on looking at each type. The DLR, Newcastle Metro and Glasgow tube will be dealt with in separate articles, as some already have been.