Mar29th
I’ve not mentioned for a while the extraordinary engineering feat that is the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link, which runs from St Pancras station in London down through Kent to the longest undersea tunnel in the world. It will open in November, and will be something many people thought was impossible: a new railway line right through part of one of the world’s busiest cities, which manages to be both high speed and yet relatively unobtrusive.
Perhaps the highest-profile part of the link is the new St Pancras station, which is almost complete and which has been the subject of almost universal superlatives from architects, engineers and conservationists alike. Stephen Bayley, in an Observer article (see below), describes it simply as “the best railway station in the world”. To anyone who knew the old St Pancras, which had been totally run down from its Victorian magnificence, this is extraordinary.
Both the remarkable Gothic hotel fronting the station and the famous glass roof (one of the great feats of 19th century engineering) have been beautifully restored. They are joined by modern platforms and check-in facilities built in and over the old beer cellars which lurked under the former platforms. Bayley’s article can be found here: (Link) along with a nice series of photos of the work. It’s well worth a read.
This comment was originally published in the Engineeringtalk Newsletter
Mar21st
With “social networking” online all the rage nowadays, it was predictable that a site for engineers would eventually be set up, but fortunately it’s been implemented well.
I-spark (Link) has been created by the UK’s Engineering and Technology Board, along with The Guardian newspaper and consultancy Altran, and aims to get 40,000 of us signed up by the end of 2007. It’s been cringingly called a “MySpace for Engineers”, but we shouldn’t hold that against it too much.
If it takes off, and becomes a place for people to exchange ideas and get advice, it’ll be great. However, I suspect people are more likely to sign up to get their CVs online in the hope of some future employer randomly stumbling over them. In that case it’ll just be a “Linked-In” for engineers, and you might as well just ensure you’re on Linked-In (Link) - which you probably are. Similarly, if it was just “MySpace for Engineers”, you may as well just be on MySpace.
Despite its UK origins, I can’t quite work out if i-spark is for engineers in the UK, for UK engineers anywhere in the world or even for any engineer from any country. Do let me know if you find out. Is this a much needed initiative? Or something you just don’t get the point of? Let us have your opinions on (Link)
This comment was originally published in the Engineeringtalk Newsletter
Mar7th
The UK government recently opened up an “E-Petitions” website where any citizen can start a petition to the Prime Minister. It is, of course, worthy, amusing and idiotic in equal measures. Naturally, it’s full of “we, the undersigned, petition the Prime Minister to scrap (insert name of tax here)” entries, without any proposal as to how the country is going to be run when all these taxes are abolished.
Then there are the 5,000 people who seem to be keen on replacing the national anthem with Spandau Ballet’s “Gold”, which is just silly, but only because everyone knows it should be “Reasons to be Cheerful, Part III”. And of course, as you’d expect, all the car drivers are uniting to propose that speed limits, petrol duty, requirements for responsibility, etc, should only apply to bad drivers (i.e everyone but them). (more…)
Mar1st
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