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Steam Ban due to fire risk (updates)

Discussion in 'What's Going On' started by neildimmer, Jul 12, 2013.

  1. belle1

    belle1 Part of the furniture Moderator

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    Depends which way you look at it. I for one don't want to traipse around during a rainy 15c summer. It also helps the economy of tourist areas, for example I phoned a few campsites in Wales this week, no vacancies until September this year at 3 of them. It's about time we had some decent weather after the washout summers of the last 3-4 years.
     
  2. belle1

    belle1 Part of the furniture Moderator

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    Don't worry Neil, the Express already have "The Big Freeze" headline ready for September...
     
  3. johnnew

    johnnew Member

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    One factor that seems to be overlooked in much of this debate (both for fire issues and flooding issues) is that nowadays most of the signalling is electric/electronic based and a lot of the NR lines are also wired/3rd railed with cabling, sensors and fittings all over the place so even a very minor fire or flood has the potential to do a lot of damage very quickly compared to when everything was lumpy clumpy simple durable metal rods and cables. I guess it also can't be bodged back into working order as quickly as say a broken old style signal cable would have been and many line-side fittings probably have bespoke to site chip sets/software packages etc., in them that aren't just swap ins from stock.

    Thus irrespective of those changes on the public side of the fence mentioned by other posters above that arise from the infrequency of steam traction today the same probability factor for a minor line-side fire occurring carries a far greater risk that it will cause a serious rail-side problem nowadays in 2013 than when compared to 50 years ago in 1963 when steam was still common.

    If I was an NR Infrastructure Manager I think I would be erring on the cautious side too in trying to reduce such risks.

    NB Edited after first posting (sorry).
     
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  4. RalphW

    RalphW Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Administrator Friend

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    Reading the article it is plain to see that this is where their forecasts come from. http://www.britishweatherservices.co.uk/weather-services/ Since it's a forecast and not yet happened, or not, I'm interested to know how you are able to ascertain that it's 'duff' info?
     
  5. 5098

    5098 Well-Known Member

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    The Mail article says "In the last week of July and the first week in August, there will be a sustained heatwave", and clearly refers to the spell of weather we have just been through. Quite why this is showing with today's date is unclear, but it was obviously written several weeks ago. The story of a new heatwave appears to be an Express exclusive!
     
  6. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

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    All very true of course. An earlier comment by me about the occasional knee jerk reaction by NR is because I am still smarting a bit from the 5043 debacle on the Marylebone Flyer. You'll recall that this was when there was one instance of a bit of embankment in the middle of nowhere that caught fire resulting in a line closure inconveniencing many innocent members of the travelling public, the bizarre "Stop The Earl" action at West Ruislip when the train was by now rolling towards Marylebone and the diesel minder back to Birmingham.
     
  7. oddsocks

    oddsocks Well-Known Member

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    Seems like a re-hashed article to me, "It's going to be the hottest time of the year. In the last week of July and the first week in August, there will be a sustained heatwave.
     
  8. buseng

    buseng Part of the furniture

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  9. neildimmer

    neildimmer Resident of Nat Pres

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    clearly duff info, especially when its 2 weeks ago
    In the last week of July and the first week in August, there will be a sustained heatwave
     
  10. RalphW

    RalphW Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Administrator Friend

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    And the Met Office are always accurate????
     
  11. D7076

    D7076 Well-Known Member

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    Resulted in lots of extra duff workings-especially for 47580 and 47760.
     
  12. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

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    Ralph - in defence of my one time employer I would say broadly yes, and definitely more often than not. The problem is that people sometimes expect something that can't be delivered - e.g. where the showers will be, exactly what time the band of rain will pass. Both are imprecise and will always be so. The recent arrival of rain in Manchester when the Test Match was on is one such example. (It all got held back by the Welsh mountains, by the way, is the reason). Sadly the various Smart Phone Apps also create a false reality....The defence rests!
     
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  13. RalphW

    RalphW Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Administrator Friend

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    I agree that for the short term forecasts then yes they are pretty good, the local forecasts on evening TV give a pretty good indication for the following day and if there is a high pressure area stationary then maybe a few days, but I don't see how any computer program/model can make accurate predictions about the weather for any more that a week ahead, there are just far too many variables.
     
  14. neildimmer

    neildimmer Resident of Nat Pres

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    What I was pointing out was the Mail was reporting the last 2 WEEKS weather, ANY PLONKER CAN DO THAT
    It was not a forecast when it has passed
     
  15. Swiss Toni

    Swiss Toni Well-Known Member

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    What has the political affiliations of these newspapers got to do with anything?
     
  16. neildimmer

    neildimmer Resident of Nat Pres

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    Well its just like there Tory puppetmasters they spew a load of c##p
     
  17. 5944

    5944 Resident of Nat Pres

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  18. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

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  19. Spamcan81

    Spamcan81 Nat Pres stalwart

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    Why do you read them then?
     
  20. Swiss Toni

    Swiss Toni Well-Known Member

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    You didn't really answer my question but tell me what daily paper you read that's such a paragon of truth?
     
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