Monthly archives: January 2006

Arpley Bus Station

This entry was posted in Model Railway on by

Ian has asked me to show the progression of my model railway, as it’s 18 feet long it’s an extremely long term project. It’s only been in existence for a month or so but most of the models are from my last layout about 10 years or so ago.


 


 

With Ian talking about Spinney Street, I thought it was a good time to mention how i’ve tackled a similar situation. The “tarmac” i’ve trialed here is the surface of a Wickes kitchen worktop (available at £25 for a 3m length!) which I had left over and seems to work rather adequately.
I’m a fan of the free texture databases that can be found on the internet – the pavement is a texture rescaled and tiled in a desktop publishing program. The texture is available here. It’s raised an ice lolly stick width off the road surface to denote a pavement height. I would suspect it’s almost in scale as it does look reasonable. The road lines are done in a similar fashion to the paving stones in a DTP package and simply printed out and stuck down.

Just the roof of the station building to cover in a so far undecided texture and maybe respray the “MerseyBus” liveried bus into Magic Bus livery.

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Fine Lines

This entry was posted in The Academy on by

wearefinelines.co.uk, home of local band Fine Lines. They just appeared on the Revolution with that man Clint Boon (choon!). They’re playing Academy 3 this Wednesday.

Plus, there are free downloads on their site to go towards the free music challenge.

In the spirit of Boony I want to hear from unsigned bands, especially local ones. If you’ve got tracks to download that’ll be even better.

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Spinney Street

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

This is Spinney Street, which is going to be populated with shops, houses and people over time. The tarmac and paving is from the Scale Scenes printables range. I’m hoping to produce a few printable products of my own to place on the road. The end to the left of frame is going to be the home of Scale Motors, selling unique and customised cars. Possibly there will be a portacabin on the land. Next up there will be a shop or chippy then a few terraced houses.

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Idiot Design

This entry was posted in Creationism on by

When the Vatican rubbishes your science you should know to give up.

“If the model proposed by Darwin is not considered sufficient, one should search for another,” he said in the paper. “But it is not correct from a methodological point of view to stray from the field of science while pretending to do science. It only creates confusion between the scientific plane and those that are philosophical or religious.”

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And now we go over to the one hundred metre turd hurdling

This entry was posted in london on by

The 2012 Olympics could be spoiled by sewage overflowing from London’s drains.

The Olympics site is close to the biggest sewage overflow pumping station in London. The tideway group warned last November that there was currently a 100% chance of sewage overflows in the area between May and October.

To cope with the problem the tideway group recommended that the government build a £1.7bn “super sewer” under the Thames, stretching 22 miles from Hammersmith to Barking.

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I was the first man in space from our street

This entry was posted in space on by

The BBC has advice for would be space tourists.

It is easy to forget that we are in space already. We are moving through it on a rocky globe that has sufficient gravity to hold us firmly to its surface.

Indeed, Earth has so much gravitational attraction that – unlike the Moon – it can hold down individual gas molecules and provide us with an atmosphere.

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First get rid of the old waste

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

241,000 cubic metres of intermediate-level and 1,340 of high-level nuclear waste need disposal according to Nirex. The government adviser has published its latest inventory of current radioactive waste totals in the UK, and its forecast of waste totals to be created from the operation and decommissioning of existing nuclear facilities.

And if Tony Blair gets his way and restarts the UK’s nuclear industry there’ll be ever more of this stuff. I’m not as panicky as some about this, but we’re supposed to be cutting down on the pollutants we bequeath our children not increasing the volume of it.

John Dalton, Nirex corporate communications manager, said: “We have been generating this stuff for 50 years or so – surely we have responsibility to deal with the waste we have got now.

“We don’t want to just be passing it on to future generations.”

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It's heeeere (almost)

This entry was posted in Airfix TSR-2 on by

Airfix hs announced the date that TSR.2 kits arrive in the UK. I should, if Hannants have remembered my order, get mine some time after the 20th of Febryuary. Anticipation is tinged with the knowledge that it’s a large kit and there is no way I’ll get to build it whilst living in this flat. There’s nowhere to store it and definitely nowhere to do any spray painting. I need a workshop.

We are now in a position to give dates on TSR.2 availability. The kits are due in the country on February 15th and, assuming no delays with customs, will start shipping week commencing February 20th. Customers can expect to see the first kits appearing in shops later that week, with other stockists following shortly afterwards.

Club members will have exclusive access to a further 250 kits which will be pre-sold on Airfix.com shortly and strictly limited to 2 kits per club member. As we expect this offer to offer be over-subscribed, we will advertise the timing in advance to ensure fairness to all.

The February edition of Scale Aviation Modeller International, available to buy shortly, features an exclusive first look at the TSR.2 via pre-production test shots.

Kind regards

Gary Bent

Check out the rest of Airfix’s releases for the year.

via Alan Bell

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micro generation in New Scientist

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

Two truncated pieces in the New Scientist (you need premium membership to see the full versions) show the way that energy policy should be going. The rooftop power revolution and Editorial: A generator in every home. Somebody find the recent UK government report that estimates that such microgeneration could supply 25 per cent of the country’s electricity by 2050 and make sure the Energy Secretary reads it.

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Nuclear power no use

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

A recent poll found that 54% of people would support nucler power if it could stop global warming. The crucial word there is if. There are a lot of things that people would do if there were a guaranteed pay off. More importantly, and the part that Blair will ignore, 78% felt that renewable sources were more important in the fight against climate change, and 76% thought reducing energy through lifestyle changes and energy efficiency was better.

Far better, [Dr Kevin Anderson, from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester] believed, was a policy which sought significant emission reductions through greater efficiency.

“Why are we still selling fridges with a B, C, D, and E ratings? An A-rated fridge is a standard and you set it. You make sure all new buildings are well built with very high energy efficiency.

“You inform industry that standards will be incrementally increased so that they have market signals. You tell car manufacturers, for example, that to sell a car on a UK forecourt by 2010, it must meet a minimum fuel economy.”

Which is pretty much what the Liberal Democrats say, making them still the most sensible political party no matter what they did to Charles Kennedy.

[Environment spokesman Norman Baker] said: “A new generation of nuclear power stations should not be part of the future UK energy mix.

“Nuclear power is hopelessly uneconomic and the commissioning of a new generation would effectively result in a nuclear tax on every household to pay for them.

“A new generation of nuclear power stations would generate vast quantities of nuclear waste and divert essential funding away from energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy.”

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'Better insulation could save £120'

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

Millions of British homes do not have enough insulation to cope during cold spells, a new survey has shown.

Householders prefer to crank up their thermostats to keep themselves warm.

This wastes an estimated £1.5 billion and produces 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, according to the Energy Saving Trust.

Rather than wasting time and money trying to relaunch nuclear power Blair should call for an initiative to fix this problem and cut energy consumption in general. Prevention is better than cure, remember. If the country’s using less energy then it can afford to get its electricity from more sustainable sources.

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