Matthew Malthouse writes
Railtrack, seriously underinvesting, starved of money by the
government.

Surely that should be;

Railtrack, seriously underinvesting, too busy paying dividends to
shareholder and bonuses to directors.

--
Dave

In article , Matthew
Malthouse writes
British Rail, very seriously underinvesting,

Nowhere near true.

Read Roger Ford's column in the current (August) Modern Railways.

--
Clive D.W. Feather, writing for himself | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8371 1138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Written on my laptop; please observe the Reply-To address

On Mon, 11 Aug 2003 13:06:42 +0100 Dave wrote:
} Matthew Malthouse writes
} Railtrack, seriously underinvesting, starved of money by the
} government.
}
} Surely that should be;
}
} Railtrack, seriously underinvesting, too busy paying dividends to
} shareholder and bonuses to directors.

That too. But it comes to the same thing in the end.

Matthew
--
Il est important d'être un homme ou une femme en colère; le jour où nous
quitte la colère, ou le désir, c'est cuit. - Barbara

http://www.calmeilles.co.uk/

Mid voltage AC would probably have many attractions. Suggest 625/1250/2500
respectively for underground, inner urban and open country respectively.
Dual voltage with 25kV relatively easy to do.


DW

"Cast_Iron" wrote in message
...
: Boltar wrote:
: are (Acrosticus) wrote in message
: ...
: From: Michael Bell
: Date: 08/08/2003 23:43 GMT Daylight Time
:
: It has always seemed to me that the 750 volt 3rd rail is
: a bad
: idea.
:
: Too right! Massive amperages, high resistances, huge
: numbers of substations in
: relation to the length of a line. It's an idea that's
: really past its sell by
: date. If you want to electrify, do it properly with 25Kv
: at 50 Hertz in a wire
: up on some sticks. Tinkering about with 750v DC is about
: as much good as
: rearranging the deckchairs on the deck of the "Titanic".
:
: OTOH hand , when was the last time that you heard of trains
: being stuck or
: cancelled because the 3rd rail fell over? There doesn't
: seem to be a winter
: that goes by without some AC line being screwed by snapped
: overhead wires.
: Catenary is fragile and flakey and is a terrible design
: plus it looks bloody
: awful too. The only place its really needed is street based
: tramways.
:
: What is needed is some sort of mid voltage (maybe
: 3000-6000V) sturdy ground
: based 3rd rail system which isn't as fragile as overhead
: wires but doesn't
: have the power losses of standard 750V 3rd rail. I'm sure
: isn't beyond the wit
: of man to devise it.
:
: Probably incredibly easy to devise, but paying for it - now that's the
: difficult one to organise.
:
:

On Mon, 11 Aug 2003 12:14:16 +0100, Christine
wrote:



If a track worker got electrocuted, why wasn't he complying to Railway
Safety Standards.

I heard that he slipped or stumbled onto the rail

If he was he would not have been electrocuted, no
matter how harsh it sounds. There are Railway Safety Standards for
personell who work alongside Third Rail Electrifaction, and if these
are stuck to rigidly to the letter, then no one would get hurt!


Doe they prevent people from slipping or stumbling?

Matthew Malthouse wrote in message ...
On Mon, 11 Aug 2003 13:06:42 +0100 Dave wrote:
} Matthew Malthouse writes
} Railtrack, seriously underinvesting, starved of money by the
} government.
}
} Surely that should be;
}
} Railtrack, seriously underinvesting, too busy paying dividends to
} shareholder and bonuses to directors.

That too. But it comes to the same thing in the end.

Matthew


To be totally honest, whatever happens you're always going to find a
problem! It seems that a lot of people enjoy criticising this railway
in which tries to please all, something that either of you two could
not do.

On the subject of conductor rail on the same side of platforms, its no
different really to people climbing on station roofs and coming into
contact with the OHLE, and yes it can easily be done! Then again I ask
how many of you are planning a nice stroll down the Brighton mainline
this weekend? Contact with the third rail is near enough impossible if
one is not being totally stupid, i.e strolling off crossings (even
then through a cattle grid) onto the line. It's a ridiculous argument,
and yes if a line was to be installed from new, unless it is within
the Southern Electrified region, and mainly due to stock
compataibility, the line is more likely to be Over-head line
equipment.

Any other ridiculous ideas?

] (Arthur Figgis) wrote in message ...
That says more about particular implementations than anything
intrinsic to overhead lines. The ECML wires were put up very cheaply,
as the only way the treasury would allow it to be electrified at all,
and so fall over. The WCML ones are much better built, and don't tend
to fall over.

They might not fall over on their own but if something hits them or falls on
them its a pretty major task to reinstate them. If a 3rd rail gets damaged
its a far simpler job to fix.


plus it looks bloody
awful too. The only place its really needed is street based tramways.

High speed lines?

Thats only because currently (no pun intended) high speed lines use overhead
because they use high voltage, they're not intrinsically required like they
are on a tramway (to keep the electricity well out of the way of people and
vehicles). If a high power 3rd rail design could be devised (which I'm sure
would look substaintially different to "traditional" 3rd rail) then there is
no reason they couldn't use that and perhaps it might have avoided the problem
that the Eurostar had last year where freezing sea spray got onto the overhead
lines and stopped all the trains.

B2003

(Boltar) wrote in message . com...
] (Arthur Figgis) wrote in message ...
That says more about particular implementations than anything
intrinsic to overhead lines. The ECML wires were put up very cheaply,
as the only way the treasury would allow it to be electrified at all,
and so fall over. The WCML ones are much better built, and don't tend
to fall over.

They might not fall over on their own but if something hits them or falls on
them its a pretty major task to reinstate them. If a 3rd rail gets damaged
its a far simpler job to fix.


plus it looks bloody
awful too. The only place its really needed is street based tramways.

High speed lines?

Thats only because currently (no pun intended) high speed lines use overhead
because they use high voltage, they're not intrinsically required like they
are on a tramway (to keep the electricity well out of the way of people and
vehicles). If a high power 3rd rail design could be devised (which I'm sure
would look substaintially different to "traditional" 3rd rail) then there is
no reason they couldn't use that and perhaps it might have avoided the problem
that the Eurostar had last year where freezing sea spray got onto the overhead
lines and stopped all the trains.

B2003

However collecting the juice at high speeds is a problem....

In article ,
Boltar wrote:
OTOH hand , when was the last time that you heard of trains being stuck or
cancelled because the 3rd rail fell over?

Sometime around last year, around Bank. I can't remember the
details, but I think the central conductor rail "fell over", rather
than the outer one.

(OK: so it was trains being stuck/delayed/canceled because the 4th
rail fell over, rather then the 3rd. And it was a rather unusual
incident.)


--
Good night little fishey-wishes.... I've counted you, so no
sneaky eating each other.
-- FW (should I worry?)

(Nathan Whitington) wrote in message om...
However collecting the juice at high speeds is a problem....

WHy should it be? Whats the difference between a contact pushing onto a wire
above a train and pushing onto a rail to the side of it? Todays 3rd rail may
have problems at high speed but it was designed 100 years ago , I really can't
see this being a major problem if a completely new 3rd rail system was devised.

B2003