After Tornado - yet nother new steam locomotive?

More East Coast Magic.60163 Tornado, originally uploaded by FlyingScotsman4472.

The Tornado Trust has done, and does, a great job, and today I received a letter from the Chairman to the covenanters about a proposal to build a replica P2 locomotive.

The thinking behind this is that the expertise developed by the Trust should be directed towards further construction. This sounds like a good strategy. However, there are many possible options and in my view, at this stage a feasibility study should consider at least a few of the alternatives. In addition to a straight replica of the 1930s design, some of the obvious ones include

• a small production run of tank locomotives, suitable for use for the actual traffic on preserved railways round the country. This struck me recently when travelling on Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway, where a 9F was used for to haul five mark one coaches at a top speed of 25 mph. Whilst it is nice to see a 9F in action, this is extravagant and does not present the impression of a steam locomotive working hard. A small tank locomotive would have been appropriate for the task.
• one or more examples of David Wardale’s updating of the British Railways class 5, the so-called 5AT, which, due to its greater efficiency, should be the equal of a class 8.
• one or more examples of the locomotive designed by Roger Waller of DLM for the Hauenstein line between Sissach and Olten. This is a 4-8-4 tank locomotive but could equally well be a 4-8-0 tender locomotive. This can be adapted for the British loading gauge and can be finished off in any desired style, such as a Gresley streamlined casing.
• an updating of the P2 based on Porta principles of improved combustion and draughting, with other efficiency and labour-saving devices
• A “carbon neutral” steam locomotive using fuel from a renewable source or waste material

We are fortunate in having a number of the largest express passenger locomotives with a popular following, including the GWR Kings and Castles, a few Merchant Navy Pacifics, several LMS Pacifics, two Britannia Pacifics and of course the Duke of Gloucester, plus Tornado itself. There are also projects to construct a Patriot and a Clan class Pacific. I think there is a risk of spreading resources too thinly, and it is a growing one as the number of people who remember steam is dwindling as the years pass. There is a real possibility that as this generation passes, all the valuable work done will be lost as these machines are cast aside.

Also, looking a decade ahead, the main lines are likely to be increasingly congested and it may be difficult to provide the opportunities for these locomotives to do what they were designed to do.

On the other hand, steam technology is far from dead. Roger Waller has demonstrated that conventional steam locomotives can operate competitively within the modern railway environment. The rebuilt Kriegslok has been used both for steam specials, commuter trains and on hire to the Swiss Railways (SBB) for infrastructure duties, a task for which it proved popular, especially in residential areas! This shows that an appropriate steam locomotive can not only cater for the enthusiast and leisure market, but also earn its keep in mainstream use on the regular railway.

In conclusion, it seems to me that

• there are about half-a-dozen obvious and possible options that need to be considered, and
• it would also be a good thing to see the Trust promoting steam by applying some of the many technical improvements that have been made with the technology over the past forty years.

Traditional British anti-Catholicism in full flood

Lewes bonfire night, originally uploaded by ec1jack.

Good old British anti-Catholicism seems to be in full flood following the current problems. It is well explained on a Marxist interpretation. After the Conquest, lands were granted to the church to enable it to provide services such as education, health and welfare. At the Reformation, the lands were transferred to those nobility who supported the king, in some cases by fraud. It was in their interest that the new status quo be held and so the old one was demonised.

The case of the Westminster Abbey lands is typical of what happened in the century after the dissolution of the monasteries, eventually forming the basis of the present Duke of Westminster's fortune. There was in fact strong popular resistance to the Reformation in England and elsewhere on the Continent, in particular the Pilgrimages of Grace, which were brutally put down by the authorities. This does not suggest that the pre-Reformation Catholic church was the evil body that it was subsequently portrayed as.

There is lots not to like about the Catholic church: the behaviour of some of the clergy, over many years, its dogmas, which obviously sound far-fetched, and much else besides, but the tone of much of the comment that is floating around at the moment reveal nothing more than crude bigotry in the Ulster Prod/ Lewes bonfire night vein.

There were stupid and cruel things done by both sides in the aftermath of the Reformation. England's Queen Mary created a clutch of Protestant martyrs, but so had Henry VIII, and it continued until as late as 1681 when the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh Oliver Plunkett was set up and hung, drawn and quartered. As late as 1780, the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots went on for a week, with widespread disturbances in London.

There were also strange alliances in the post-Reformation period. Catholic France was on the same side as Protestant Sweden in the Thirty Years' War and it was the (aspiring at that time) Catholic Queen Kristina of Sweden who took the initiative and put a stop to the wretched thing before abdicating.

Catholic bid for hung parliament

Sinister plot to wreck UK economy
Britain's Catholic bishops have produced a booklet called "Voting for the Common Good". It gives no clear guidance on who to vote for. This shows yet again the sinister control the church exercises over its simple-minded members. It is a blatant bid to land Britain with a hung parliament, leading to economic collapse and poverty, and driving people into the arms of the church's evil priests.

Catholic Church nuclear threat to world peace

Piazza St.Pietro / St. Peter Square, originally uploaded by sandercw.

It is not generally known that during the 1960s, under secret protocols involving the CIA, Cardinal Marcinkus and the US defence establishment, and in flagrant violation of non-proliferation treaties, a nuclear launching silo and huge control room was constructed under St Peter's Square with a battery of Minuteman missiles paid for out of church collections from all over the world.

The installation, which is still fully operational and manned 24 hours a day by Jesuits, is concealed by the central obelisk which slides aside on tracks just before the missiles are fired.

Pope behind Iceland volcano - Nazi link

Volcano erupts in Iceland - 21. march 2010, originally uploaded by jovinsson.

It is obvious that the Pope was behind the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Why is there a large Catholic church in Rejkyavik when there are hardly any Catholics there? It was built by Nazi agents during the war, with a crypt which goes down into a long underground tunnel directly connected to the magma chamber under the volcano, originally as a terror weapon to poison the air over Britain when the wind was blowing in the right direction but the Americans occupied Iceland before the plan could be put into effect. The volcano was set off on the Pope's personal instructions.

A Labour-Conservative coalition?

Journalists are talking about coalitions involving the LibDems, but I wonder if a Labour-Conservative coalition is so improbable? They are not so very far apart in their stance, ie lack of principles apart from an overwhelming desire to get into power and stay there, and they could stitch things up nicely between them.

It's worth thinking about.

Britain's voting system ripe for change

The election campaign has brought out the undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the electoral system, to the point that one of the themes is proportional representation.

Against, it argued that one of the biggest problems of PR is in minority parties either keeping unpopular majorities in power. However, with first past the post, with first past the post, all the parties are bidding for the few hundred thousand decisive votes. That is why so many of their policies are so similar and fail to address real issues. It is corrupting.

Of course the PR system has to be the right one, and that will be difficult. We don't want voting lists filled up with hacks selected by the party machine, which is what happened at the Euro election last year, and it would not be a good thing to lose the connection between a smallish constituency and its representative.

Single transferable vote is probably the best way to keep the best of the present system.

Of course no voting system will produce a satisfactory government in the absence of a sound alternative ideology to a flawed libertarianism on the one hand and discredited socialism on the other. Mixtures of the two, such as the LibDems are peddling, are no solution. If you mix two poisons, the result is still poison.

Getting on and off the train

Getting on an off trains these days is still not always as easy as it might be. If the station platform is at the correct height (915mm) and on a straight stretch of line, there is not usually a problem. Otherwise there can be difficulties, which vary according to the type of stock and the configuration of the platform, especially whether it is concave or convex.

This exhaustive study by the Department of Transport discusses the issue in detail.

En värld utan flygplan – men bara i en allt för kort tid.

Vapour Trails, originally uploaded by seadipper.

Under de sista få dagarna har vårens väder blivit soligt men inte för varmt, och resultatet är att vårens vackra blommor stannar kvar. Dessutom har vi dragit nytta av både den ovanliga tystnaden och den rena blåa himlen. I Londons syd-västra delar får man får höra sjungande fåglar vilket är mycket ovanligt. Dessa saker är resultaten av Islands vulkaniska utbrott som släppt ut ett jättestort moln av ånga och ask. På grund av molnet ställdes all flygtrafiken i norra Europa in.

De rena himlen var mycket märkbar här i Brighton, eftersom staden ligger rakt söder om Gatwick flygplats. På morgnarna brukar man kunna se flygplans molniga spår överallt i himlen och de skymmer nästan solen. I områden omkring flygplatserna är förhållandet många gånger värre: luften är allvarligt förorenad och ljudet fruktansvärt högt. Själv kunde jag aldrig bo i närheten av någon flygplats. Men under åren har vi vant oss vid sådana störningar och lugnet och ron var helt oväntade – en överraskning, till och med.

Å andra sidan har sex dagar utan flygplan orsakat stora problem. Många blev strandsatta och kunde inte resa hem. Människor tvingades att hitta ett annat sätt för att åka hem. De blev försenade i några dagar och kunde inte återvända till sina jobb. De kommer att förlora mycket pengar. Några få tvingades att betala mycket pengar för hotellrum. Några hyrde bilar och körde hundratals mil hemåt vilket kostade mycket pengar. Samtidigt var det strejk på franska järnvägar vilket orsakat ett särskilt problem för brittiska, som också drabbades därför att på färjorna räckte platserna inte. Den brittiska regeringen reagerade dramatiskt genom att skicka tre kungliga marina fartyg för att hämta strandsatta britter – men faktiskt skickades fartygen i första hand för att hämta militären.

Flygbolag själva blev hårt drabbade av flygstoppet förstås. Bolag har förlorat pengar och ingen vet ännu om de måste kompensera passagerarna. Situationen är oklar eftersom utbrottet är en handling av Gud. Afrikanska odlare av exotiska frukt, grönsaker och blommor som skickas till Europa på flygplan, blev också drabbade, samt tillverkare som driver det så kallade ”just i tid” systemet, vilket betyder att fabriker är berorende av leveranser av komponenter och så vidare i sista minuten.

Nu är flygplan tillbaka i himlen men flygstoppet är kanske en skymt av framtiden när bränsle säkert kommer att kosta många gånger mer än nuförtiden. Man bör fråga om är så mycket flygtrafik nödvändig? Vem behöver exotiska grönsaker och blommor, egentligen? Vem behöver flyga tusentals mil till ett resemål bara till en kort semester eller på bröllop eller begravning? Vem behöver flyga tusentals mil till något affärsmöte?

Sådana är bara moderna företeelser. För bara tjugo år sedan var det nästan otänkbart. När släktingar i främmande land gifte sig skickades gåvor på posten och gratulationer på telegram. I näringslivet nuförtiden finns det ny teknik till exempel videokonferens, för att slippa åka tvärs över Europa för något affärsmöte. I den sista veckan har vi sett en framtidsvision, kanske.

Crashworthiness

Southall rail crash - reproduced from the London Emergency Services Liaison Panel (LESLP) Website [1], which states: You may use the information and pictures contained herein for educational purposes in a non-profit making and non-commercial environment.
A letter in the latest issue of Rail questioned the crashworthiness of mark 3 stock. The most serious example of failure of this type of stock is the incident at Southall in 1997 (above), where a signal passed at danger resulted in an HST travelling at high speed receiving an impact from a freight locomotive, with 7 fatalities. But is there any stock would have performed any better in such an event? As in any accident, there is always an element of luck, and the circumstances at Southall were a very particular and unfortunate combination; they are analysed in detail in this informative video.

One aspect of crashworthiness is the strength of the bodyshell structure, and despite Southall, mark 3 stock may be as good as it gets. The subject is discussed at length in Whole Train Dynamic Behaviour in Collisions and Improving Crashworthiness, publication TS118, issued by the Rail Safety and Standards Board in 2006. This is of course not the last word on the subject, but tellingly, the author of TS118, Dr Gordon Taylor, states that "It should be noted that none of the standards, either UK or European, comment on the desired crashworthiness performance of a vehicle once the dedicated crashworthiness features have been overwhelmed. For example, it may be useful to provide guidance on the preferred mode of structural collapse."

It is argued that a shortcoming of mark 3 stock is the lack of collapse zones at the ends of the vehicles, to enable the controlled absorption of energy in the event of end-on collisions. But how much value would collapse zones have been at Southall?

The concept of collapse zones came to notice following a the serious accident at Clapham Junction in 1988, involving trains formed of mark1 stock and resulting in 35 fatalities. Previously, this stock had been regarded as providing a good standard of protection, but expectations had risen in the 40 years since it was designed. TS118 notes that "Following the collision at Clapham in 1988, it was required, as an interim measure, that all new vehicles be designed to absorb 1MJ in a collapse zone at each vehicle end. Subsequently, theoretical calculations were undertaken in which impacts between commuter trains of varying length were undertaken. These showed that, for two such trains each comprising 35 tonne vehicles, the collapse zone energy absorption requirement for a 60km/h head-on collision was 1.5MJ for the impacting end and 0.75MJ for each intermediate end. Collapse zones of 1m at the impacting end and 0.5m at each intermediate end and a peak collapse force of 3MN were also specified as being readily and economically achievable."

Steel versus aluminium
During the last 20 years, large numbers of vehicles have been introduced with bodyshells manufactured from aluminium alloy extrusions. Structural assessments comprising quasi-static crush tests, behaviour in accidents and mathematical modelling have been undertaken to allow comparisons with low carbon steel bodyshells to be made. The principal conclusions were:

• Vehicles built from long aluminium alloy extrusions are generally able to sustain higher loads before collapsing than equivalent steel vehicles. This results in higher decelerations when aluminium vehicles collide.
• Typical aluminium alloy extrusions tend to be thicker and stiffer than equivalent fabricated steel sections and hence are more prone to fail by tearing rather than bending, with the result that less energy is absorbed.
• Welding of alloys typically used for aluminium vehicles (6000 series alloys) significantly reduces the tensile strength relative to the unwelded alloy. This concentrates all the structural deformation in the weaker heat affected zone of member joints, producing the effect of low ductility.

Quasi-static tests undertaken on aluminium alloy structures during their early development highlighted difficulties with their collapse behaviour, especially in respect of the very high force necessary to initiate collapse (almost 1000 tonnes in one example) and the subsequent low force sustained as the welds failed by tearing along the heat affected zones. As part of the Crashworthiness Development Programme, BR Research designed, built and tested an aluminium alloy cab end using a bonded and riveted construction to eliminate the welds. This was only partially effective and parallel developments by vehicle manufacturers, using 5000 series alloys and adopting different construction techniques, proved more successful.

In terms of resulting passenger casualties, a study undertaken in 2000 following the collision at Ladbroke Grove, concluded that there was little difference in the crashworthy performance of modern steel and aluminium alloy vehicles. The same study also concluded that there remained a number of improvements that could further enhance the performance of aluminium alloy vehicles.

Causes of fatalities
There are four principal causes of injury in rail accidents, being

• ejection from the vehicle,
• penetration of crash debris into the vehicle,
• crush of the passenger survival space, and
• impact of the vehicle occupants with internal fixtures and fittings (termed secondary impact).

Injuries due to crushing or penetration are usually grouped under the term ‘loss of survival space’. If a train can be designed to remain upright and in-line in an end-on collision, the likelihood of sustaining fatalities or serious injuries due to uncontrolled crush, penetration and ejection will be substantially reduced. Therefore in the following discussion, which assesses the likely benefits of this work, the term ‘loss of survival space’ has been expanded to also include injuries resulting from ejection.

Of the 162 fatalities recorded during the period 1984-2005, 89% were as a result of crush, penetration or ejection. These categories also accounted for 32% of serious injuries, but just 3.5% of minor injuries. Hence the majority of both minor (96.5%) and major (68%) injuries were attributable to secondary impacts. During the 1973-1983 period, 99% of the 67 recorded fatalities, and 56% of the serious injuries, were attributed to loss of survival space or ejection.

Most fatalities over the two periods for which data is available can therefore be attributed to loss of survival space of one form or another. However, the data show a reduction in the number of fatalities and serious injuries attributable to loss of survival space between the two periods. This is most likely due to the reduced number of accidents involving Mark 1 rolling stock in the latter period... the data therefore demonstrate that phasing-out of Mark 1 rolling stock has coincided with a reduction in the number of fatalities resulting from loss of survival space. However, the loss of survival space remains the principal cause of fatalities on the UK network, as well as accounting for a significant proportion of the major injuries.

The data for the two periods also indicates a clear trend towards ejection as a major cause of fatalities or serious injury. Since ejection is usually the result of trains coming out of line during an accident, this indicates that there is benefit in improving the stability of trains in end-on collisions. This also supports other efforts to reduce the likelihood of passenger ejection such as the strengthening of windows.

...in the same period the number of casualties per accident is actually greatest for side-on impacts. This may be reasoned by considering that in the event of a side-on collision the primary crashworthiness features of the vehicles are bypassed, and there is much less survival space protection.

Discussion
The study from which the above extracts are drawn can be regarded as close to exhaustive. Amongst the conclusions that can be drawn are that

• the entire issue must remain under review in the light of ongoing experience
• since the advent of mark 3 stock, safety has been brought towards a plateau, since accidents are of their nature unpredictable and that designing for one set of conditions can mean that performance in other circumstances is sub-optimal.
• the change from steel to aluminium construction in recent years has introduced a new set of problems, and there are other risks unrelated to crashworthiness, including fire.
• collapse zones can only dissipate a fraction of the energy involved in a high-speed incident and can themselves become a hazard unless passengers are excluded from those areas of the vehicle
• there are many types of possible incidents in addition to end-on collisions and as safety standards improve, it becomes increasingly difficult to design in anticipation of a variety of events of low probability
• if the compliance costs of safety regulations place an unnecessary burden on the the railway, people will transfer to cheaper, less safe modes of transport, making the safety measures counter-productive.

Survivability in the event of accidents has also been increased by changes unrelated to the basic design of vehicles, such as improvements in interior design and the use of laminated glass windows to reduce or eliminate the possibility of ejection from vehicles, which had become a major cause of fatalities in accidents.

It could reasonably be argued that the performance of mark 3 stock as currently operating could be accepted as providing a performance standard for the crashworthiness of future rolling stock.

Accidents involving mark 3 stock since 1997
1999 Ladbroke Grove (7 fatalities in mark 3 vehicle)
2004 Ufton Nervet (7 fatalities)

Accidents 1967-1997

Date	Location	Nature of accident	ATP-preventable?	Rolling stock	Fatalities

19.9.97	Southall	Train collision	—1	Post-Mark 1	7
8.8.96	Watford Junction	Train collision	Yes: SPAD2	Post-Mark 1	1
8.3.96	Rickerscote	Derailment, then collision	No	Non-passenger	1
31.1.95	Ais Gill	Derailment, then collision	No	Post-Mark 1	1
15.10.94	Cowden	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Mark 1	5
25.6.94	Branchton	Derailment	No	Mark 1	2
27.7.91	Newton	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Mark 1	4
8.1.91	Cannon Street	Buffer stop collision	Yes: Overrun	Mark 1	2
4.8.90	Stafford	Train collision	No	Post-Mark 1	1
20.4.89	Holton Heath	Train collision	No	Non-passenger	1
6.3.89	Bellgrove Junction	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Mark 1	2
4.3.89	Purley	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Mark 1	5
12.12.88	Clapham Junction	Train collision	No	Mark 1	35
11.11.88	St Helens	Derailment	No	Post-Mark 1	1
19.9.86	Colwich	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Post-Mark 1	1
11.9.86	Bridgeton Depot	Train collision	No	Mark 1	2
27.4.86	Micheldever	Train collision	No	Non-passenger	1
9.3.86	Chinley	Train collision	No	Post-Mark 1	1
4.12.84	Eccles	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Post-Mark 1	3
3.12.84	Longsight	Train collision	No	Mark 1	1
11.10.84	Wembley Central	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Post-Mark 1	3
30.7.84	Polmont	Derailment	No	Post-Mark 1	13
3.2.84	Wigan	Train collision	No	Non-passenger	2
9.12.83	Wrawby Junction	Train collision	No	Mark 1	1
3.2.83	Elgin	Derailment	No	Post-Mark 1	1
9.12.82	Linslade	Derailment	No	Mark 1	1
11.12.81	Seer Green	Train collision	No	Mark 1	4
8.12.81	Ulleskelf	Derailment	No	Post-Mark 1	1
7.11.80	Crewe	Train collision	Yes: Excess speed	Non-passenger	2
14.3.80	Appledore	Derailment	Yes: Excess speed	Mark 1	1
22.10.79	Invergowrie	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Mark 1	5
16.4.79	Paisley Gilmour St	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Mark 1	7
25.2.79	Fratton	Train collision	No	Mark 1	1
19.12.78	Hassocks-Brighton	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Mark 1	3
5.9.77	Farnley Junction	Train collision	No	Mark 1	2
3.1.76	Worcester Tunnel Jc	Train collision	No	Non-passenger	2
26.10.75	Lunan Bay	Train collision	Yes: Excess speed	Post-Mark 1	1
6.6.75	Nuneaton	Derailment	Yes: Excess speed	Mark 1	6
23.1.75	Watford Junction	Derailment, then collision	No	Post-Mark 1	1
23.10.74	Bridgwater	Train collision	No	Non-passenger	1
11.6.74	Pollokshields E Jc	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Mark 1	1
19.12.73	West Ealing	Derailment	No	Mark 1	10
30.8.73	Shields Junction	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Mark 1	5
27.4.73	Kidsgrove	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Non-passenger	1
6.9.72	Leicester	Train collision	No	Non-passenger	1
11.6.72	Eltham Well Hall	Derailment	Yes: Excess speed	Mark 1	6
16.12.71	Nottingham	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Non-passenger	3
6.10.71	Beattock	Train collision	No	Non-passenger	1
2.7.71	Tattenhall Jc	Derailment	No	Mark 1	2
26.2.71	Sheerness	Buffer stop collision	Yes: Overrun	Mark 1	1
20.5.70	Guide bridge	Derailment	No	Mark 1	2
31.12.69	Roade Junction	Derailment, then collision	No	Post-Mark 1	1
18.5.69	Beattock	Train collision	No	Mark 1	1
7.5.69	Morpeth	Derailment	Yes: Excess speed	Mark 1	6
8.4.69	Monmore Green	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Post-Mark 1	2
8.3.69	Ashchurch	Derailment, then collision	Yes: Excess speed	Mark 1	2
4.1.69	Paddock Wd—Marden	Train collision	Yes: SPAD	Mark 1	4
9.9.68	Castlecary	Train collision	No	Mark 1	2
5.11.67	Hither Green	Derailment	No	Mark 1	49
27.9.67	Didcot	Derailment	Yes: Excess speed	Mark 1	1
31.7.67	Thirsk	Derailment, then collision	No	Mark 1	7
5.3.67	Connington South	Derailment	No	Mark 1	5
28.2.67	Stechford	Train collision	No	Mark 1	9

Source: Memorandum by University of London Centre for Transport Studies (RS 24):
TRENDS IN TRAIN ACCIDENTS ON BRITAIN'S MAIN LINE RAILWAYS (Andrew W Evans LT Professor of Transport Safety, University College and Imperial College London June 1998)

Prison works - not like this it doesn't

Prison gatehouse, originally uploaded by captainbonobo.

I was talking to a friend who had gone to collect someone who had just been released from prison.

The procedure, apparently, is that prisoners are released with a few pounds and a train ticket to their place where they previously lived. That's it.

The individual concerned has been in and out of prison for years, mostly for drug offences. I have come across him myself and he is not the kind of person I would want to have much to do with. As a child he had been in the "care" of a local authority and abused regularly. Then he took to drugs. It would be very difficult for anyone with a past like this to get their life in order.

But it would help if, once having been brought into the prison system, a coherent post-release plan was put in place to give people like these the best possible chance.

If there was a serious intent to cut crime, that is what would be happening. It would also help if what is a medical problem was recognised as such and taken out of the hands of the law-enforcement authorities so far as possible.

It makes me weep

I bought a book about the work of Abram Games today. Who today has ever heard of him? Games was the designer of the 1951 Festival of Britain logo. He did a lot of work for public bodies such as London Transport.

Games, with others such as Mischa Black, worked within an ethos of public service excellence. It seemed in those days that things could only get better. And they did, for a time. Somewhere around the late 1960s it all went sour, first with a property boom and then with a bust that lasted all the way through the 1970s. After that came the Thatcher years and greed took over. Nowadays, managerialism rules and passengers have become "customers". But we do value your custom, a recorded message tells us. I don't think.

What has gone wrong with Linux?

There was a time when Linux was just for geeks. Then the developers sorted things out and as recently as a year ago it all just worked.

Now it seems to have gone bad again. Sound and video are broken, especially in some of the browser plug-in modules, and so Skype doesn't work. Nor does the "suspend to disk" function on laptops. There are problems related to Pulse Audio and Flash player, also KDE4 was released long before it was stable, and even if one selects KDE 3.5, some of the unstable KDE4 components get installed anyway.

Quasimodo

Quasi modo geniti infantes, Alleluia, rationabile, sine dolo lac concupiscite, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

Short trains and long platforms

I have written about this before but the subject came up in an article in the latest issue of Rail. Surely the solution is to fit all train doors with a simple detector in series with the locking system, so that they cannot be opened unless they are adjacent to a station platform? This would be simpler and more robust than GPS location, avoid the need to lengthen platforms, and could be retro-fitted to all stock, including, for example, mark 3 vehicles with slam doors and secondary locking.

YesBut

"Yes but "is a phrase I do not like but am using frequently at the moment. Statements are being made that are perfectly correct as far as they go but there is much more to be said that has been left unsaid.

Hence YesBut.

Double-stack containers

03_23_5, originally uploaded by tarunhuria.

If there is to be any new railway construction in the UK, shouldn't the lines be designed to accommodate double-stack containers like this on Indian Railways?

It will of course take time before even a useful basic network is established but one has to start somewhere. A worthwhile initial aim would be to develop routes from Felixtowe and Southampton to the Midlands.

Seat reservations

Seat reservations are popular with train companies, but less so with passengers. Research by Transport Watch has revealed that many passengers do not sit in the seat that they reserved. A glance down any carriage will reveal that many of the reserved seats have not been claimed.

If one travels on a long journey, for example, from Cologne to Hamburg, it is like a game of musical chairs as passengers move from one place to another.

There are probably two main reasons why people swap seats. They may not like the look of their neighbouring passengers - a broadcaster on "Thought for the Day" once said that passengers always walked past his compartment if he was wearing his clergyman's collar!

And there is the design of the rolling stock. People prefer a seat with a view out of the train even if they spend most of the journey watching a film on their laptop computer, but in many types of rolling stock introduced since the 1970s, windows and seats are misaligned and the view out is obstructed. This problem has been aggravated by the prevalence of airline-style seating, which also gives rise to a luggage problem. On aircraft there there is secure storage for large items of luggage. On trains, people prefer to have their luggage nearby, and when seats are arranged in facing bays there is space between the seat backs. But when the seats are arranged airline style, the luggage space is lost and space has to be provided somewhere else, usually near the doorway where anyone can walk off with it.

One answer is to reserve a place on the train rather than a particular seat. Another is to provide seating plans so that passengers can choose where they sit, as in the example above from Sweden which can be downloaded from the train company's web site. The real solution, however, is to arrange the vehicle interiors much like the original Danish IC3 stock, which ensures that most people will be satisfied, wherever they sit.

The evolving liturgy

Easter Vigil communion, originally uploaded by seadipper.

With the new ruling on the use of the Extraordinary Form of the liturgy - formerly know as the Tridentine Rite - the ordinary liturgy is also beginning to change as it is being influenced by the old rubrics.

A good sanctuary layout is a big help. Changes over the past year at St Mary Magdalen's, Brighton, have also contributed to the re-shaping of the ceremonial, which is now more orderly and dignified than it has been for many decades. The photograph below shows what it looked like a year ago, when it was as re-ordered in the 1970s.

Catholic Church skeletons

Botafumeiro_4009, originally uploaded by jm salaber.

The justified calls for action against paedophile priests are now rising to a point of shrillness that suggests that it is motivate more by good old-fashioned No Popery sentiment than concern for the victims.

But there could be other skeletons about to fall out of the cupboard. Incense, for example. How many people are dying from it? As well as being a fire hazard, burning incense produces harmful particulates and tarry substances that may be carcinogenic.

Översätta böcker

Jag har nyligen läst två översatta böcker. Den första var “Bilbo – En hobbits äventyr”, ursprungligen skriven av den engelska författaren J R R Tolkien, och den andra var Snö, skriven av den svenska författaren Ellen Mattson, översatt till engelska av Sarah Death.

Bilbo
Den första historien sker i Midgård, där hjälten, en hobbit som heter Bilbo, bor i ett trevligt hål under kulen som ligger utanför en liten by, Hobbiton. En dag dyker trollkarlen Gandalf upp och de snackar om äventyr. Gandalf skriver något hemligt tecken på Bilbos prydligt grönmålade dörr och några dagar senare kommer fjorton dvärgar fram. De vill att Billbo ska hjälpa dem att vinna tillbaka deras skatt, som blev stulen av ett förskräckligt odjur, draken Smaug. Draken bor långt borta under det Ensamma Berget, som en gång var dvärgarnas gruva och underjordiska palats. Bilbo drömmer om äventyr men samtidigt gillar han lugn och ro i sitt bekväma hem.

Resan börjar på en vacker april dag. De får många äventyr. Den mest betydliga händelsen sker i en grotta under de Dimmiga Bergen där Bilbo hittar en magisk ring som gör bäraren osynlig. Ringen är den precisa saken som Bilbo behöver för att smyga sig in i drakens sala. Draken blir ursinnig och flyger bort och attackerar byn Esgaroth som ligger vid Långa Sjön. Draken dödas av en man, Brand, som är ättling av Girion, den sista herren i byn Dalby, som ligger vid det Ensamma Berget och hade blivit ruinerad av draken nästan två hundra år tidigare.

Efter drakens död vill alla ta hans guldskatt. Männen, älverna och dvärgarna bråkar, men snart kommer vättarnas arméer. Då förenar alla sig mot vättarna, som slutligen besegras, men många dör. Bilbo återkommer till hålet med sin del av skatten och lever lyckligt därefter. Men ringen är ingen harmlös sak, därför att den gjordes av den mörka herren Sauron. och så börjar den stora sagan som heter Härskarringen.

Snö
“Snö” är en historisk roman. Historien sker i en vecka under Julen, år 1718, i en okänd stad i västra Sverige. Vädret är mycket kallt och det snöar hela tiden. Berättelsen handlar om Jakob Törn som hade som yngling, varit riddare i armén. Men en kula hade skjutits mot honom och hästen hade blivit rädd och ramlade ner på hans ben. Benet hade blivit krossad och efter olyckan kunde han inte gå utan en käpp. Jakob hade lämnat armén och blivit stadens apotekare. När historien börjar har Jakob Törn knivhuggats av sin fru och flyttar till ett lager på stadens varv, ägd av stadens borgmästare. Jakobs vän som heter Lars är döende. Nyheterna kommer att kungen har dött i kriget i Norge. Rykten är att han har mördats, en gåta som finns kvar idag. Kungens läkare förpliktar Jakob att balsamera kungens kropp. Kungen hade varit Jakobs hjälte och nu när han är död, är Jakob djupt grubblande. Samtidigt strömmar den besegrade arméns återstoder in i staden. Männen är frusna, hungriga och skadade. Omständigheterna är kaotiska.

Kungens balsamerades kropp bärs bort till begravningsplatsen i Stockholm. Lars dör. Jakob återvänder till sitt hus och fru. Hon förklarar att hon knivhuggat honom eftersom hon hade blivit arg när Jakob hade berättat om kungens död. Slutligen förenar de sig och skaffar ett barn.

Slutsatsen
Vad kan man säga om översättningarna? Bilbos hål ligger i ett land, “The Shire” som ser ut som södra England. Litterära forskare anser att “The Shire” är faktiskt området där Tolkien själv är uppväxte. Men de flesta delarna av Bilbo sker i ett vilt ödsligt landskap. Ett nordiskt landskap som troligen ser ut som Sverige. Staden vid Långa Sjön påminner läsaren om dessa gamla svenska städerna som ligger vid sjöar – en stad som Sigtuna, till exempel. Att läsa Bilbo i svensk översättning ger läsaren en helt annan upplevelse eftersom dess inre syn av platserna där historien utspelas är helt annorlunda.

Snö är däremot en historia grundad i Sveriges landskap och historia. Om man aldrig hade besökt Sverige och inte kände till Sveriges historia, skulle boken verka svår att begripa.