Glasgow

george matthews wrote: Diesel was a slight improvement, though I can remember being in Paddington where diesel exhaust was almost as bad as the former coal smoke.

Annecdote: Locomotives running in diesel mode are also illegal in New York's Penn Station, (I don't know about Grand Central,) but diesel diners weren't, I guess, because I remember Penn Station being stunk up by them on two occasions.
I know that diesels are legal in other parts of Manhattan because they moved our trains when I was a freight handler there in 1955- 56.
Coal is still necessary for the world's economies.

philipmartin wrote:

george matthews wrote: Diesel was a slight improvement, though I can remember being in Paddington where diesel exhaust was almost as bad as the former coal smoke.

Annecdote: Locomotives running in diesel mode are also illegal in New York's Penn Station, (I don't know about Grand Central,) but diesel diners weren't. I remember Penn Station being stunk up by them on a few occasions.
I know that diesels are legal in other parts of Manhattan because they moved our trains when I was a freight handler there in 1955- 56.
Coal is still necessary for the world's economies.

It needs to be phased out totally, in order to bring down the CO2 content of the atmosphere.

Leave it in the ground.

george matthews wrote: It needs to be phased out totally, in order to bring down the CO2 content of the atmosphere.

Horsefeathers!

george matthews wrote:It needs to be phased out totally, in order to bring down the CO2 content of the atmosphere.

Leave it in the ground.

CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate

johnthefireman wrote:

george matthews wrote:It needs to be phased out totally, in order to bring down the CO2 content of the atmosphere.

Leave it in the ground.

CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate

The news report is that there are continuing rises in solar electricity. I think that even in the countries with poor education, such as the US, solar electricity continues to rise. The rise in CO2 is affecting the climate change and must be reduced as soon as possible.

Coal: leave it in the ground.

Can't remember whether I've mentioned this before, but the new house that my wife and I are building outside Nairobi will be powered only by solar, plus perhaps a bit of wind power. We're not connected to the national grid, and our plan is not to use a diesel generator.

Mind you, I am on the lookout for a steam engine to restore - a road traction engine, a portable engine or a stationary engine - but I haven't found a suitable one yet. But this being Kenya where there is no coal, it would have to run on wood, so it would be pretty much carbon-neutral. Bamboo stalks burn really nicely in the firebox of a small engine, but they also burn up very quickly.

johnthefireman wrote:Can't remember whether I've mentioned this before, but the new house that my wife and I are building outside Nairobi will be powered only by solar, plus perhaps a bit of wind power. We're not connected to the national grid, and our plan is not to use a diesel generator.

Mind you, I am on the lookout for a steam engine to restore - a road traction engine, a portable engine or a stationary engine - but I haven't found a suitable one yet. But this being Kenya where there is no coal, it would have to run on wood, so it would be pretty much carbon-neutral. Bamboo stalks burn really nicely in the firebox of a small engine, but they also burn up very quickly.

Try biogas. It's entirely carbon neutral. I did my cooking on a small plant for several years in Western Province near Kakamega. Occasionally I used a gas lamp, when the electricity went off. There was/is a farm in the Moi area where most of the farm machinery worked on biogas for decades. I doubt if it could power railway engines but there the correct choice is electricity from hydro - as in Ethiopia.

The value of biogas is that you can use it in conventional gas apparatus - with a bit of adjustment. So it's very convenient for cooking and lighting. The farm used it to generate electricity. The man who did it was called Hutchinson. I would not be surprised if he is no longer alive but I think the enterprise has continued.

It is quite possible to live without emitting carbon dioxide. And we really have to spread the practice rapidly.

At home in Wimborne I use solar to heat the water during the summer. I keep thinking about installing photovoltaics but I am short of the money needed.

(I could send you information on biogas)

Thanks, George. I have some experience of biogas from Sudan in the 1980s - a Presbyterian missionary couple who lived near us were running their mission on it, using the water hyacinth as the main ingredient. Theirs was a rather Heath-Robinson home-made contraption, but I've seen some of the latest models which are quite sleek and user-friendly. I haven't looked into it in any detail recently and I'm not sure what volume of material one would need in order to produce a reasonable amount of gas. I'd also have to convince the wife!

Being completely CO2 free is not on the cards for us yet. The new house is deep in the bush and I'm afraid we need a diesel-guzzling Land Rover to get in and out.

johnthefireman wrote:
Mind you, I am on the lookout for a steam engine to restore - a road traction engine, a portable engine or a stationary engine - but I haven't found a suitable one yet.

When I was a child in New York we had steam rollers to flatten the roadways. Maybe you could find one in Kenya.

philipmartin wrote:

johnthefireman wrote:
Mind you, I am on the lookout for a steam engine to restore - a road traction engine, a portable engine or a stationary engine - but I haven't found a suitable one yet.

When I was a child in New York we had steam rollers to flatten the roadways. Maybe you could find one in Kenya.

I have never seen one in Africa. I don't think there were any. Remember, there was no coal in East Africa. There were modern diesel powered rollers.

Thanks, George. I'm just trying to be amusing, pointing out something from my childhood.

I haven't seen a steam roller in Kenya yet, although I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't some at Sandstone in South Africa, where they have a huge collection. I recently stumbled upon a rusting steam traction engine on a conservation ranch in Kenya - it's currently inhabited by bees so it wasn't possible to get too close to examine it. And earlier this month I visited the old Nzara industrial complex in a remote corner of South Sudan where there are three steam engines (two stationary engines and one portable) attached to the old sawmill. One of them was still running up to about fifteen years ago, but was stopped with a crack in the firebox wall. That complex was opened by the British in 1953 - the original leather-bound visitor's book is still there and still in use and has my signature in it from my three visits over the last 13 years (2003, 2011 and 2016) alongside heads of state, ambassadors and other dignitaries - but was run down soon after the independence of Sudan in 1956 as the government in Khartoum did not want any competition for its own agricultural industries in the north, nor indeed any real development in what was then southern Sudan.

johnthefireman wrote:I haven't seen a steam roller in Kenya yet, although I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't some at Sandstone in South Africa, where they have a huge collection. I recently stumbled upon a rusting steam traction engine on a conservation ranch in Kenya - it's currently inhabited by bees so it wasn't possible to get too close to examine it. And earlier this month I visited the old Nzara industrial complex in a remote corner of South Sudan where there are three steam engines (two stationary engines and one portable) attached to the old sawmill. One of them was still running up to about fifteen years ago, but was stopped with a crack in the firebox wall. That complex was opened by the British in 1953 - the original leather-bound visitor's book is still there and still in use and has my signature in it from my three visits over the last 13 years (2003, 2011 and 2016) alongside heads of state, ambassadors and other dignitaries - but was run down soon after the independence of Sudan in 1956 as the government in Khartoum did not want any competition for its own agricultural industries in the north, nor indeed any real development in what was then southern Sudan.

The Arabs of the Sudan treated the Nilotic south very badly. It's a great pity the British didn't split the country into two parts.

Some photos of the steam engines in Nzara in 2003, 2011 and 2016 - http://www.friendsoftherail.com/forum/v ... 47&t=14916" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

johnthefireman wrote:Some photos of the steam engines in Nzara in 2003, 2011 and 2016 - http://www.friendsoftherail.com/forum/v ... 47&t=14916" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The only time I have been in the Sudan was changing planes in Khartoum. I was flying on a cheap deal to Kenya from London. It was during a relatively peaceful period when there was an elected government. It didn't last long.