We Have Gone On About Trains In Passing Recently
Both because they run on rails of steel and are made of the same substance, which fits well with our metallurgical themes of late. There are a couple of worthwhile points to make about modern locomotives and the cars they tow.
Firstly, a train cannot suddenly swerve, stop or reverse, thanks to the fact that it travels on a permanent way. Secondly, modern locos are extremely massive beasts, easily tipping the scales at a couple of hundred tons. This means they pack an awful lot of inertia, see point the first about stopping. Bringing a locomotive and freight wagons that may top a thousand tons to a stop takes a while. Art!
No, this isn't the story of a hapless driver getting stuck on a level crossing, just in time to interrupt the 09:15 from Paddington, and wondering what lies to tell on the insurance claim. From the above picture and my preamble, you can tell what's going to happen, can't you?
This is from that self-same vlog about industrial accidents, and the vapid voiceover doesn't bother with minor points of detail like where it happens nor when. What would Rudyard Kipling say? Art!
It's not Greek or Ruffian or Serbian, perhaps an Arabic script? Regardless of country of origin, matey parked much too close to the railway lines. Because - Art!
Oooops.
As you can clearly see, the train is not inconvenienced one jot by impacting the car, which is the opposite of what you can say about the car. It's not even clear if the train driver is aware of hitting the car, or if the person filming this thought to inform them. Art!
Strike Two. One cannot but feel a sense of sympathy for the white car's owner, who parked well away from the tracks and still took a hit. Art!
The Audi or Mercedes-Benz (Conrad can't tell them apart and doesn't care enough to bother which is which, yah boo sucks to Rudyard Kipling) has gotten caught up again further down the train and is still being dragged along. More bad luck for the owner, whom might have expected the car-on-car collision to jar it free. Art!
It's now pointing backwards with the boot sprung free thanks to impact damage. Once again, the train is entirely unaffected and is definitely winning on points. One possible course of action would be to stop the train, reverse to disengage, physically shift the car, report the incident to the police and -
Ah. Problem solved. Immovable object encountered by resistible force.
Worth bearing in mind that this was a slow-moving freight train, as deduced by the tanker wagon in view. If it had been a speedy passenger train doing ninety miles per hour, then the car door might merely (!) have been ripped from it's hinges. As it is, the Audi-Benz is going to be a write-off and White Car Owner is going to be very very cross.
Moral of the story - mark where you park.
Conrad Is ANGRY!
Even angrier than usual, that is. For one thing, my assassins have not yet targeted <redacted> or <even more redacted>. This abject failure means I may need to send assassins after the assassins and has clearly encouraged the Codeword compilers to flaunt their overweening arrogance. Just wait till the Remote Nuclear Detonator comes back from it's 100,000th Victim Servicing.
EMPHYSEMA: WHAT? Are we supposed to be paramedics or physicians now! I bet it has Greek or Latin roots, too. "A condition in which the air sacs of the lungs are grossly enlarged, causing" yes yes yes, whatever. Art!
AND it has a Latin root
CALYXES: I have no idea. Let me look it up in my "Collins Concise Dictionary". Ah, it's the plural of CALYX, "The sepals of a flower collectively that protect the growing flower bud".
ARE WE NOW BOTANISTS ALL OF A SUDDEN!
Bah. AND yes it comes from the Greek "Kalux" meaning "Shell". Art!
ENNUI: I can't be bothered.
Hark Hark It's An Electric Arc!
We've already gone into the earlier methods of making iron and steel, the Bessemer Converter and the Open-Hearth Furnace. Both of these are old hat, with modern iron and steel being produced by the Electric Arc Furnace (and Blast Furnaces, of which more later). In future, if anyone uses the acronym EAF, you'll know what they're talking about.
One of the drawbacks to an open hearth furnace was the lengthy time it took to heat up. Not so the EAF. Art!
That's a simple schematic showing what's what. In real life the carbon electrodes are as big as telephone poles and cost tens of thousands each. Let me show you a real-life EAF with puny humans for scale. Art!
The EAF is smaller and more efficient than the alternative blast furnace, nor does it need a continuous supply of coke to supply heat. This means it's carbon footprint is much smaller than other furnace types. It can make all kinds of steel and tends to use scrap metals for charging.
There you go, a whistle-stop tour of an EAF. Allow me to add in a quote from one of the Quorans who toured a steel mill, courtesy of his friend.
Watching the lid on the furnace open, as bright as the sun they said, behind 3" think dark, almost black green glass. WOW man, like looking into a volcano erupting. Charging the furnace with overhead crane, dumping rail car size loads was one of the most incredible operations of manmade machinery in my life. And then, the arc furnace melting the charge - holy s***, the size of everything. Telephone poles made of carbon dancing through the lid. Mind blowing. And then some dude in a fire suit lancing the furnace that allowed the molten steel to pour like tea into the ladle
CAUTION! Dangerous when hot
"The War Illustrated Edition 199 2nd February 1945"
Back to the montage pages of the magazine's middle. Art!
There's no detailed description for this picture, just that it showed air-dropped supplies being retrieved in the town of Bastogne. The Teutons had surrounded the town and laid siege to it, because they needed it, since it sat at the centre of the road network in that region. Art!
Going cross-country in the depths of winter with lots of snow on the ground (see upper picture) was unfeasible, hence the import of a road hub.
The Allies had control of the skies, I think what's technically called 'Air supremacy', and they had the transport capacity to air-drop hundreds of tons of supplies to the defenders, which rather took the bite out of the siege. In total about 1,100 tons were parachuted or glidered in. Take that, Herr Schickelgruber!
It Was Bound To Happen Sooner Or Later
Lest ye be unaware, the Ruffians have gotten past embargoes and restrictions on transporting their oil by using a fleet incongruously known as a 'shadow fleet'. This consists of about 200 superannuated, rusty, dodgy and downright dangerous tankers that would be better suited to a breakers yard than travelling at sea.
Well, two of them have now sunk in the Black Sea, which will now be fittingly full of spilled oil. Art!
RT will probably spin this as 'two for the price of one!' as this one did indeed split in half during a bad weather. Who knew that there are these things called 'storms' that can sink even hale vessels!
Crews might start demanding danger money to man these hulks. Then again, the Black Sea Fleet probably has a lot of spare naval ratings without ships.
Finally -
The monsoon seems to have dwindled in ferocity a little, so Conrad feels honour-bound to make a constitutional trip into Lesser Sodom.
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