The JCB

The reason for Brits calling these machines ‘JCB’ is simple enough. It was a British invention, and JCB was the name on the side..

All it is is a tractor fitted with a front loader and an hydraulic backhoe, but what a difference it made. I defy anybody to find a construction site where one of these machines hasn’t got a job. These days, the concept is produced by other manufacturers, but it all started during 1953 in Britain.

The above photo shows an early model lacking four wheel drive. Most now are 4 wheel drive and the ‘mega’ models can dig a 7 metre hole in the ground pretty much anywhere. To operate the backhoe, the seat swivels 180° to face its own controls.

The front arm can accommodate a shovel or a pallet loader, and the rear arm can be mounted on a pivot or side-shift, and be fitted with different width buckets, hydraulic jack hammers and other stuff too.

You can see them on construction sites, road works, cemeteries, waste management depots, farms, snow clearance, all over the place, but the one place you don’t want to see them is on the road in front of you. They are slow, they pitch back and forth something wicked, and are invariably driven by operators who just like to chill.

JCBs can have fun too.. see here..

Stretching exercises JCB style..

London Underground

The most famous, the first and still the largest underground rail network anywhere.

A London icon and one of the best known logos in the world, it hasn’t changed much at all in over 100 years.

No trip to London England is complete with a ride on the Tube.

At first, a road would be dug up and a section of tunnel would be made by digging out and then covering back over, a very tedious process which only worked for the sub-surface parts.

Also, the first trains were pulled by steam locos. They used smokeless coal and the steam was re-circulated but traction was a problem, especially on the gradients in and out of the sub-surface and deeper lines.

So electric traction was borrowed from the USA, after which the Tube just kept growing.

Apart from moving thousands of Londoners and tourists around, it has also doubled as air raid shelters during WWII. Some stations were only ever air raid shelters, some were built in the wrong place, and others were used as underground bunkers for government.

Want to know more than you would otherwise see if you travelled the Tube?

Some more for you..

http://www.webring.org/hub?ring=londontransport;id=2;ac=D%0B%0Dq%7EzlnR%5E%5EJ%04%16%F0%FE%E0%AC%B3%8D%DF%D9%C3%94%A1%A4%AD%BC%BC%B1%8A%8F%94%85%88b%7DfzuR%09BA%5E%110+;go

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/k/kingsway/

When the trains stop running for the night, an army of workers go through the system removing litter, human hair and anything else which gets sucked into the tunnels as your train rockets out of the station and back into the burrows that make up the London Underground.

The Meriden Bonnie..

Named after the famous salt flats in the USA, not the birthplace of William The Conqueror in Normandy France, the Triumph Bonneville, a 650cc twin motorcycle, captured the hearts of many a British motorcyclist.

It wasn’t the electrics which didn’t always work when you needed them most,  or the capacity of the machine to retain oil in its vertically split crankcase, or the vibrations in the frame which made the view in the rear view mirrors somewhat blurry. 

For a stock machine, it was nicely balanced, and power delivery was even and strong. Mostly, it was fast and it looked right.

This is a stock T120, pre-unit construction. Note the separate gearbox. Improvements were made over time, the gearbox was integrated into the main engine housing,  and general frame improvements were made to make it all more rigid, and it also gained twin leading shoe front brakes, and eventually a disc brake.

As nice as the bike above is, there was a version, never made in the Meriden factory, which was a real stunner.

What you do is take the engine out of the Triumph frame, bolt it into a Norton Featherbed frame, add a nice pair of Ceriani front forks for better front wheel control, bolt on a few goodies, and you get one of these..

The tank sports the Norton name still, but this is not a Norton. It is a Triton, and an very smartly finished Triton at that. A bike like this one has seen many hours of hard work and meticulous finishing skills.

For some history on the infamous Featherbed frame, see here..

http://thevintagent.blogspot.ca/2008/12/rex-mccandless-and-featherbed-frame.html

The Bonnie went on to become a 750 in the guise of the T140, and then it all went wrong for Meriden along with the rest of the motorcycle industry. The Japanese invasion, notably the original Honda CB750 spoiled the party, introducing disc brakes, electric starters, smooth riding and vibration free mirrors, they showed the Triumphs, BSAs and Norton's for what they were.

Among others, the Bonnie was not stylish like the Italian bikes, not super smooth like the BMWs, not clumsy and ungainly like the American Harleys, not technical masterpieces like the Japanese Hondas and Suzuki's. The Bonnie was a renegade, and it delivered what it looked like it could deliver, no frills, little comfort, but as much fun as could be had on two wheels.

For more on the Triumph Bonneville, and links to al associated with this most famous of motorcycles, see here..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Bonneville_T120

A Tale of Two Bridges

The Clifton Suspension Bridge..

Completed in 1864. It isn’t the largest span ever at only 702 feet, but the bridge is not about breaking records. It is about getting from one side of the river to the other without getting one’s feet wet, and it does that in true style. As you can see from the first photo, locations for the towers were less than convenient. This tower is called the Clifton tower and as you can see, it is built atop a solid precipice. The Leigh tower on the other side is very different and here is a link to a website which shows how it was done.

http://www.interactory.com/web/hidbrid/content/dev5

OK. Now for a scene to kill for. If you know of a suspension bridge and surroundings that looks as good as this one, please leave a comment and I will check it out..

The Forth Railway bridge..

The suspension bridge on the left is called the Forth Road Bridge and was completed in 1964. at which point the one on the right became known as the Forth Railway Bridge. From its completion date in 1890, it was called the Forth Bridge, and the ‘Railway’ part was added just in case there was any confusion over which was which after 1964. It is made from riveted steel tubes, big steel tubes, it carries a double track, and I understand that no other bridge was ever made exactly like it because it was so expensive to create. However, other bridges borrowed some of the design features.

It looks small from this angle, but when you stand on the jetty just to the left of the brick towers, you get a much better idea of just how big this bridge actually is.

It is a very strong bridge too. The engineers and designers were acutely aware of what happened to the original Tay bridge, and there was no way that this bridge was going to collapse.

The death toll of workers was quite high, ninety eight killed and thousands of non-fatal injuries sustained, but you have to remember that this is the Firth of Forth. Weather in Scotland is not as kindly as it is in the South West of England.

For more info:

The Clifton Bridge.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_Suspension_Bridge

The Forth Railway Bridge.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Railway_Bridge