London Underground after twenty Years!

 Very little has changed with the Emergency Services?

Fifty two people died on the 7/7 2005 and four suicide bombers with 800 injured and over 1000 with psychological problems and in this period, even after Grenfell tower block fire the emergency services have not changed their policy and despite some coordination in communications another disaster would be the same!

The failure to improve is hard to understand and the lack of special equipment is sad, because its probably the Lord Mayors and the Government who refuses to finance this type of gear and vehicles?

It would seem in some cases life is of less value than others and tradition and routines refuses to modernize with the times and this is seen across many professions as people bury their heads in the sand to refuse taking responsibility!

Mono-Rails?

Viability?

Many nations around the world today have invested in the novelty of having their own version of the Mono-Rail system based on those 19thCentury wonders of Germany?

But until recently they have not been as viable apart from an easy way to transit airports and the fad of many a Sci-Fi film! It is the development in Mumbai India that is now leading the way in the first serious points development that will now at last put the mono-rail back as a serious alternative to rail and underground?

China wants a simpler system to move people over ground and various designs have come to the fore, apart from their own mono-rails and levitating railways? The future, here and in Japan look brighter and many other nations are now copping on to the viability of the system!

The Elizabeth Line. Part-Two.

London's latest Underground Railway!

What ever you want to call it?

Cross rail is the latest venture to connect the capital of the U.K. from six directions and go under the centre of London! This is of course only the beginning of this venture which will make way for others as mentioned before?

The new fleet is to be based at Old Oak Common depot in west-London, but other depots too will be built at the six hubs! The current stock is new and state of the art, but the second generation is probably on the drawing board?

One does find the interior scheme a bit heavy, but time will tell what the public might like to see? 

It is hoped that by 2020, this new line and a proposed (another) extension to Heathrow International will relieve the current crush on the whole transport system? But if you know London, you just have to have vision and keep spending the billions to keep up with more and more demand!

Tractors. Part-Two.

Construction, Engineering and Mining.

This is perhaps not the place one would think to find the need for the tractor, but some of the machines we use today came first from these uses. Caterpillar is one of several companies that developed tracked machines for working in heavy soils, this was the same in Soviet Russian Steppes where land was not intersected by ditches as in the west.

Today many giant machines working in all of the titled areas are tractors, limited by speed and used to move loads about in tight spots even underground. These machines do not look like our idea of the farm machines but they are mechanically the same, the Bulldozer is in fact a converted tractor for the road and building construction industry.

The future for the tractor of all types will be there Robotising into unmanned piloted vehicles, from vast area farming to construction, tunnelling and mining. May be the only human contact in the near future will be for repairing and cleaning?

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.

Bristol to Swansea Electrification.

Promised for the upgrading of the GWR.

Most people know of Wales, but they think its part of western-England. Very insulting and this may be applied to the overdue delay in the promised electrification of the Great Western Railway line from Bristol Parkway to Swansea.

Cardiff is the capital and plans are a foot to get this far and no further, in fact the railways of Britain have always been slow on modernisation. Electric trains have been around since 1890 and still by 1960 steam was the main pulling power.

It was the London underground and Southern that employed fourth and third rail conduction, from 1900. The 1950's saw the introduction of early electric locomotion between London-Birmingham and Manchester. By this time one could get an electric train from Fenchurch Street in London to Clacton in Essex, but Paddington was the only station not to have any overhead-electric trains.

Since the privatisation of the Rail Network, the first dual-electric trains served the GWR. The Class 73 have been employed from time to time on various duties, wearing the BR blue and Swallow liveries, but that has been about it. 

Hopefully pressure by big business and the Welsh assembly government will see the development to Swansea, the real capital of Cymru/Wales?

Electric Trains. Part-One.

Europe First.

With the advent of electricity it was Europe that first cottoned on to developing electric trains. Many experiments were carried out from Trams to Monorails and then both France and Germany pioneered the field. 

The Paris Metro railway was well ahead of the London Underground by 1900, but England was to commit with Southern third rail and London-Eastern with the Electrical Multiple overhead units

Basically the U.K. was the first to develop overground electric suburban rail networks, Europe advanced with the electric locomotives and have maintained that lead ever since. TVG, Ice and many other high-speed trains are the fruits of electrification.

Construction Vehicles. Part-Two.

Specialised Machinery.

Millions is spent daily in the construction industry to improve the types of machines needed to do various jobs. Cranes and heavy earth movers are essential to get a building or bridge underway and up, but there are also underground drilling machines with equal power and inventiveness.

In between work people will a selection of conventional and fairly trusted machines from diggers to dump trucks. Germany and Japan along with the U.S and U.K are some of the leading producers of these machines, while Australia, Russo, Brazil and China have their own home grown equivalents.

The export of construction machinery is big business, because no matter where you are in the world you will need them at some point in the mining industry, recovery after natural disasters, wars and conflicts.