Earth Hour

[bmcecosse]

Don't forget to turn ON everything you can from 8:30 to 9:30 tonight - to balance out the idiots that are switching off the lights on a few landmarks for an hour 'to save the world'...... If they were serious - they would BAN the shocking waste of energy lighting up landmarks !

[autolycus]

... and they should BAN the use of thermodynamically-inefficient methods of propulsion - open cycle solid-fuel-powered, external combustion machines, petrol engines based on 1950s designs, ...

Kevin

[Fingolfin]

I agree with the last bit of your statement, BMC, except that generally the organizers of Earth Hour are not members of government and cannot enforce a blanket ban on anything. The fact is it's wholly voluntary (unless your government is doing things mine won't). And I rather enjoy the idea of folks taking a time to revel in some symbolism.

[les]

A piece of molten rock, to all we see on it today, look around it's all come from that rock. Mind blowing.

[mike.perry]

Petrol engines based on 1950s designs. That lets me out, mine's a 1930s design

[autolycus]

Petrol engines based on 1950s designs. That lets me out, mine's a 1930s design

That's the idea - it was Roy whose cage I was (very gently) rattling. I did wonder, but couldn't be bothered to look up, when you could really date the A-series design from. I settled on calling it 50s rather than 40s because that's when it went into production.

Was the 918cc sv engine a new design for the Morris 8, or a development of the Minor sv engine?

Kevin

[dp]

Earth hour will save the earth from destruction - by an hour

[mike.perry]

What shall I do with that hour? I hope I don't oversleep

[mike.perry]

Was the 918cc sv engine a new design for the Morris 8, or a development of the Minor sv engine?
Kevin[/quote]

I think it was knicked from the Ford 933/1172 s/v, certainly the ports are the same spacing and there are a lot of similarities

[bmcecosse]

My open cycle external combustion engines may not be so inefficient as some imagine...... How else to get the energy from coal - our most abundant energy source ? I suspect burning it in a power station/making steam/turning a turbine/generating electricity/transmitting that electricity to point of use/injecting it into an electric motor etc may not be any more efficient! And then if we consider the Capital cost involved doing all that - compared to my shovel......I think I know the answer! And anyway - has every boy not hoped to be a steam engine Driver one day???

[MarkyB]

Never appealed to me, I always preferred something I could steer myself.

[autolycus]

My open cycle external combustion engines may not be so inefficient as some imagine.

You're probably right if you define "efficiency" in a sensible way - which is why I said "thermodynamically" I'm far from convinced by electric trains - far too liable to total disruption by a single fault caused by one duff pantograph or act of idiocy.

And anyway - has every boy not hoped to be a steam engine Driver one day???

Well this small boy would still love to: there was a long time gap between Loco Works open days and riding in the cabs of HSTs at 125 mph, and a Deltic and the famous 46009 at 100 mph, but none of this would compare with opening that regulator myself.

And MarkyB: it needs a curious act of faith to be up front on a train when you not only can't steer, but can't even see where you're going. 125 through thick fog with the occasional flash of a clear signal and a bell from the AWS really does mean you're trusting other people.

Kevin

[bmcecosse]

Hope you weren't IN 46009 when it hit the flask at 100 mph...........

[autolycus]

Not in it, but standing watching. This project had been my baby as the BR Research Division technical person, so it was a very tense few minutes after it set off. I'd been on all its test runs before the track was slewed to point at the flask wagon, and seen with much respect the work put in by Toton to get it into the condition that it could reliably hit 100mph.

There were plenty of nominations to drive it that day, but no volunteers.

If there are still any doubters, we had to position the flask to a precision of +/-10mm laterally, and then we wedged the drawbar to ensure it would hit the flask to maximise the wedging effect as it hit the flask lid/body interface.

Happy days!

Kevin

[bmcecosse]

Hahahahaha " There were plenty of nominations to drive it that day, but no volunteers. "..... At least they didn't waste a good 'steamer' on the project!

[autolycus]

No, but we seriously considered a Deltic. There was one potentially available, and the CEGB at first wanted 100mph with 5 on, which we knew we couldn't manage with a 45 or 46, and no 47s could be spared. In the end, three things swung it: the CEGB's consultants predicted that extra coaches wouldn't add to the severity of the impact, but would just add to the mess; the Diesel Engineer at Toton was a brilliant bloke who could sense just what he'd get away with in tweaking 46009 (and 46023, the reserve); and there was a very senior bloke near the top of the DM&EE who would have the final say on what could be spared, and he was also a big Deltic preservation fan. The CEGB could also point out that the 46 was the heaviest loco in use at the time, with the most potentially damaging structure.

In the end, we settled on three coaches because it was the most we could get the speed with, we needed some brake force in case we had to abort the run at the last moment, and the CEGB PR people wanted to make sure it looked like a proper train.

http://www.britishrailways.tv/british-r ... eo_id=1190 for anyone who doesn't know what we're on about.

Kevin

[MarkyB]

Why were the wheels not attached to the flask wagon?
Looks like an easy way to reduce it's mass and so the severity of the impact.

[autolycus]

It wouldn't have made much difference to the impact, according to Ove Arup & Partners, who did the predictive work for the CEGB, and it would have been less realistic in that the scenario being modelled was of the flask wagon becoming derailed and overturned into the path of an oncoming train. When bogied wagons overturn, they shed their bogies. Bear in mind that the vast majority of the weight of the loaded wagon is the flask itself (I'll check the actual weights if you like).

We did the preliminary work for another scenario, too: a flask wagon becoming derailed but remaining upright until it hit a tunnel portal. We had the technique developed for fly shunting the flask wagon and a freight brake van at 60+ mph. Quite fun riding into a tunnel at that speed in a freight brake, which can have quite a lively ride, and hoping you'd got the air brake charging right (or we'd have been screwing down the brake to avoid the next stop being Melton Mowbray.)

Kevin

[Plin]

Thank you Kevin & Roy for expanding my knowledge. I was intrigued as I had never heard of this so looked it up last night, quite an exciting experiment!

[mike.perry]

Very Interesting but seem to have wondered off the topic slightly