Technology – Made In Preston

Railway Anniversary Month and Strand Road closure

August 1968 was the month of the last steam services. Preston was involved in these services. Also in August 2018 Alstom officially closed the Strand Road West Works were trams, trains and motors had been built for over a 100 years.

Below is an extract from our website, read the whole page on the link below.

http://www.madeinpreston.co.uk/Rail/railwayhist.html

‘In 1968 two trains left Preston on the last standard steam hauled services in the UK. The Lancashire Evening Post of 2nd August 2008 has an article about a book called ‘Steam – The Last Finale’ by Alan Castle. The article relates to the 8.50pm Preston to Blackpool hauled by 45212, and the 9.25pm Preston to Liverpool Exchange hauled by 45318. The latter gaining 80mph across the flat terrain of West Lancashire. Drivers of both trains came from Lostock Hall shed – Bob Barker and fireman Roy Duckworth on 45212 and Ernie Heyes and fireman Tony Smith on 45318. The following day August 4th plenty of special steam hauled trains were run on farewell trips.

The following weekend on August 11th 1968 45110 ran from Liverpool to Manchester and was then replaced by 70013 Oliver Cromwell from Manchester to Carlisle via Bolton, Blackburn and the Settle to Carlisle route. This was the last BR passenger train called the ‘fifteen guinea special’. The return journey was double headed by 44781 and 44871, with 45110 hauling from Manchester back to Liverpool according to Wikipedia. 70013 is said to have returned to its base in Norwich under its own steam.’

A second piece of history this month is the closure of the Alstom factory on Strand Road which was formerly English Electric Traction, Strand Road West Works, Dick Kerrs, where diesel locomotives including the Deltic Prototype were built. It also has a history of building diesel shunters, trams and electric motors.

Tail winds at BAE Systems Lancashire

First there was Tornado, then there was Typhoon and what next? The concept for the anticipated next aircraft project at BAE Systems in Lancashire and the Royal Air Force has been announced as the Tempest, photographed below.

A concept design for a two engine fighter bomber with a capability to fly unmanned. The UK government has allocated £200m a year for 10 years and there is a partnership with BAE Systems, Rolls Royce engines, MBDA missiles and Leonardo of Italy plus of course UK MOD and RAF.

As usual the partnerships for the next European Combat Aircraft are being debated with rival offerings from the big players. Earlier this year Airbus and Dassault of France announced they would partner for the next Future Combat Aircraft project excluding the UK. The UK continued with its discussions with Japan, Sweden and Turkey. More recently, in fact this week, the head of Airbus proposed that BAE Systems merge its military aircraft business with Airbus and there is talk from France and Germany for the UK to join their project to strengthen European Security. Slightly ironic considering the UK is being excluded from the European GPS system due to security. The difference between politicians and industry perhaps.

The RAF is looking to be flying the Tempest by 2035 along with the Typhoon and Lightning II (F35). As future partners are unknown it can’t be said what the future workload will be locally. A partnership including France is likely to result in a debate about who leads and who gets which juicier parts of work. Other partners are likely to allow the UK to lead the project which usually means designing and building the forward end and cockpit. In any event it’s likely that Final Assembly which involves test flying will be in the UK, hopefully at Warton, for RAF aircraft.

At the Farnborough Air Show the UK also announced that Typhoon will be used as the bridge for technology on the Future Combat Aircraft. Several upgrades will be introduced later this year and future technology used to keep the Typhoon in service for another 30 years.

Work in Lancashire continues on Typhoon manufacture and development, F35 rear fuselage work is ramping up. Other concept projects like Taranis and now Tempest will hopefully lead to another 30 years of work taking the local sites to over 100 years old.

Qatar signs for Typhoon Jets

After signing a letter of intent in September a contract agreement has been signed by the UK Government and Qatar Government for 24 Typhoon jets and their support, said to be worth £5bn. The support element will extend the contract work beyond the introduction date which is said to be 2022.

Qatar joins Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia as operators of Typhoon in the Arabian Peninsula.

In the UK the airframes are built at Samlesbury and Warton near Preston using parts delivered from all over the UK and across Europe.

Typhoon is built by the consortium Eurofighter GmbH based in Munich of which BAE Systems is a partner. A fine example of international co-operation at an industrial and government level.

RAF Typhoon at Blackpool Air Show

Redundancies at BAE Systems

It was announced that 750 posts will go at the Warton and Samlesbury sites of BAE Systems in Lancashire. Work on Typhoon and Hawk is decreasing. Contracts with Saudi Arabia and Qatar continue to be discussed.

400 jobs will also be lost at Brough in East Yorkshire which has worked mainly on the Hawk. In total 1915 jobs will go including jobs at RAF bases, as Tornado leaves service in 2019, and some in the ships business.

At the same time BAE announced that work on the F35 Lightning II at Samlesbury will be stable from 2020 for many years. BAE makes 10% of the aircraft which is attracting orders from all over the world.

BAE also announced organisation changes which will make the aircraft business a single focus, separate from ships and land, among other changes.

How the redundancies will effect the workforce is to be announced but volunteers and early retirement are often used. Also if the job losses are spread over a few years there will be new jobs and unfilled jobs to be met. BAE has sites all over the UK and overseas. Things start to get uncomfortable when compulsory redundancies are necessary.

Transport Improvements all around Preston

PrestonStation

Trams, trains, roads are in the news.

Trampower, the company who have been promoting a light rail system in Preston, are pushing to be allowed to run a one mile test track in Deepdale. This will use the old Longridge line. PWA Planning are providing consultancy and Pre-Metro Solutions will operate the system. Pre-Metro Solutions operate the Stourbridge Light Railway which links Stourbridge town centre with the national rail system at Stourbridge Junction every 10 minutes on a one mile track using bus type diesel railcars. There are big ambitions for the tram route. Preston has quite a bit of old rail track hardly used and it could save digging up the roads. Although Manchester is increasingly ambitious with its light rail and the city centre roads seem to have been semi-closed for years with expansion after expansion. Blackpool is to expand its tram route to North Station which will dig up a stretch of road in the town centre, daring stuff.

Electrification of the line to Manchester is now restarted, after a new contractor was selected, with overhead wire supports being installed near Bolton. In April the Northern Rail franchise was taken over by Arriva Rail North and the Trans-Pennine Express franchise remained with First. A new livery has been applied to Trans-Pennine trains and orders have been placed for new trains that will see the end of the old Northern Pacer bus-style trains.

Preston station is to have improvements as part of Virgin Rail’s £20m station improvement plan. The Preston element includes changes to the Ticket Area and new Ticket Vending Machines and a new entrance at Butler Street by platform 7 to improve customer flow. Retail opportunities are to be offered.

On the roads discussions are advanced on the Preston Western Distributor linking the M55 and Riversway and in Broughton the by-pass is being built. The completion of the dual carriageway from the M65 to the A59 east and west of Penwortham will make the missing link more obvious – the western Ribble crossing. Regular closures on the M6 due to road accidents is showing an increasing need for a relief road. Although it could be argued that the better roads become the further people will commute. Also the government insistence on building new homes regardless of apparent job opportunities is also adding to transport needs.

As this is written the M6 has been closed in both directions at Junction 31, which appears to have been started by a diesel spillage, and the West Coast Main Line is closed between Preston and Carlisle until midday. How much time for delays do you add in to your journeys?

Christmas Holiday Rain Brings Floods on the Ribble

The River Ribble broke its banks twice over the holidays reaching its highest ever level at Walton Le Dale.

The Environment Agency records that 40 significant events have been recorded since 1600. The most significant was in 1866 when flooding occurred on the Ribble, Calder and the Darwen, when newspapers recorded widespread flooding of businesses and properties. More recently in 1995, 38 properties were flooded in Preston, Walton le Dale and Ribchester and a similar event in 2000 also flooded Padiham, Barrowford and Blackburn affecting 33 properties. In 2002 the Calder and Darwen flooded affecting 18 residential and 40 commercial properties around Blackburn and Burnley.

The Environment Agency report in 2009 said 2,300 properties are at high risk of flooding in Preston and Walton Le Dale. This will grow to over 5000 due to climate change.

The sources of flood risk vary, from the risk of direct flooding from the River Ribble in areas of Preston and Walton-le-Dale, to the flood risk associated with culverts in Preston such as Moor Brook, Swill Brook, and Eaves Brook. In addition, the influence of the tidal Ribble estuary, into which many of the rivers in this area drain, can lead to rivers ‘backing up’ during high tide conditions, which can increase flood risk as flows start to build up at tidal outlets.

Large amounts have been spent on Watery Lane near the docks improving drainage. These projects are big, expensive and disruptive. The Ribble reached its previous record in 2012 and you might wonder if dredging the Ribble will be an option long after the last Port of Preston dredgers and sand pumps were disposed of.

What’s my train franchise, announcement for North of England

Photo of Northern Rail train and station 2015 — Northern Rail train and station 2015

The new rail franchises for the north of England effecting most Preston services, except Virgin, were announced this week and beginning 1st April 2016 the train operators will be:

Arriva / Rail North to operate the Northern Rail Services until March 2025.

First Trans-Pennine Express, no change until March 2023.

Arriva have offered to increase services, improve stations, improve ticketing, operate 281 new carriages. The old 142 type, Pacer, locos which are like buses on rails are to be replaced by December 2019.

First Trans Pennine are to receive new trains and increase services between Liverpool and Manchester to Scotland and more services all round. The routes cover Newcastle, Leeds and York who will also get improved services.

Preston station is operated by Virgin although the smaller stations around about tend to be operated by Northern.

Services from Preston to Manchester, Liverpool, East Lancs, Blackpool are operated by Northern. While services to Manchester Airport, some Scotland and some Manchester are operated by First Trans-Pennine. Virgin operate the London, Midlands to Scotland trains.

As part of devolution to the north the Arriva services will be jointly managed by DfT and Rail North representing 29 local authorities. A big objective is to move the services from needing a subsidy to providing the government with a premium.

Denis Healey RIP and his Preston Effect

Denis Healey, a forceful Londoner brought up as a Yorkshireman, died this weekend at the grand age of 98. After impressive war service, gaining an MBE in 1945, he joined the Labour Party becoming an MP in 1952. He was a minister through a turbulent time in British politics between 1964 and 1979 and in the shadow cabinet up to 1987, retiring in 1992. As new Defence Secretary in 1964 he made decisions that had a major effect in Preston.

The TSR2 was a big project to build Britain’s next bomber. Stuffed with the latest high technology it was a large aircraft to be able to fly at supersonic speed beneath the Iron Curtain at night. The British aerospace industry had been restructured around the aircraft with Preston’s English Electric Aviation plants transferring to the newly formed British Aircraft Corporation.

On election in 1964 the new government significantly cut defence expenditure and with it the TSR2, which was to be replaced by the American F111, an order that was also later cancelled at some cost.

At the time this resulted in thousands of redundancies, but it also spawned the beneficial era of international collaboration in defence projects. At the Preston area sites this includes; the Anglo French Jaguar, the Anglo-German-Italian Tornado and 4 nation Eurofighter Typhoon which have brought expansion, good jobs and continuity of work to the area despite ups and downs.

Sometimes major disruption can be for the better in the longer term although the cycle continues.

Just a footnote perhaps in the career of Denis Healey. RIP.

Preston’s new University Engineering Centre

University of Central Lancashire, UCLan, recently announced a new Engineering Innovation Centre to be opened in 2018. The new building will be located near the Adelphi close to the heart of the UCLan Campus. It will contain equipment to enable technology demonstration and specialist work with an objective of producing engineers trained with a broad scope of relevant technical and personal skills and the ability to use teamwork and project management. The centre will also liaise with local schools to promote engineering and provide the skills that will be needed in the future.

UCLan already provides courses in aerospace and motor sport, robotics, electrical and mechanical engineering. This new centre will enable specialist and project based work and support local industry also new courses in oil and gas safety and aerospace engineering.

This sounds an interesting scheme, we frequently hear that companies like Rolls Royce Aero Engines have to recruit qualified engineers from Germany. There is a skills gap in the UK caused largely by the decline in engineering base since 1950, and its lack of modern image. Yet working on unmanned aircraft and cars, creating apps and devices we don’t yet know about is surely an exciting prospect for anyone with a willingness to seek the future. It’s vital to the UK to keep abreast with technology if we’re to create jobs needing specialist skills with good salaries, and pay our way in the world.

UCLan Engineering Innovation Centre planned for 2018

Transport Plans for Central Lancashire

It’s always pleasing to read about new transport and infrastructure projects. Transport is recognised as a key factor in enabling development.

This week Transport for Lancashire announced new road schemes. Their plan of laying infrastructure is to enable the proposals for housing and industry in the City Deal. It brings a new by-pass for Broughton and a link from the M55 to Springfields and the Warton Enterprise Zone. These are worthy plans but they’ll probably take at least 5 years. Couple that with electrification of the Manchester to Blackpool line and well into the future high speed rail trains, if not the track, should lay a good foundation for the area.

Most of this is headed by the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, chaired by our favourite grocer, Edwin Booth. This is localism allowing local authorities the ability to plan and implement what the elected representatives agree is best for the future.

For Lancashire, Aerospace and Shale Gas are the two key economic opportunities seen by the councils. While loss of traditional industries, over reliance on the public sector and lack of suitable housing are seen as the challenges.

Let’s hope it works. Aerospace has the potential to continue to be big although the role of the local factories is changing from heading huge European projects to a smaller role in bigger American projects, with future European projects thin on the ground. Depending on aerospace might contain risks but it’s here now and to encourage it to stay we need to make sure it has the best support. The UK aerospace industry has always benefitted from big investment in R&D and science in the UK along with a basic skill base, these are also key factors needing encouragement. Locally one of these can be helped through engineering education.

4G mobile signal in Preston area

Mobile phone companies are racing to roll out the new 4G service. This will speed up mobile internet making video more viable and there is a commitment to making the signal more usable indoors. Although it will be interesting to see how good it is in practise.

EE have rolled out their initial offering using a piece of spectrum made available in 2012 and Vodafone and O2 will begin on 29th August 2013 in London.

After that a number of large cities will get the Vodafone and O2 service by the end of 2013. In the north west that means Manchester and Liverpool. When the Preston and surrounding area will get a service hasn’t been declared but it could be a year away.

We haven’t heard how Three are going to roll out their service although they have said they will maintain their existing tariffs, unlike the other companies. However 4G might use up your allowance a lot faster if it’s allowance based.

The expectation is that coverage of most of the UK will be achieved by the end of 2015.

4G operates on 3 frequency bands. These are 800MHz, 1800MHz, 2600MHz. EE are using 1800MHz now and will also use 800MHz and 2600MHz, Vodafone will use 800MHz and 2600MHz, O2 and Three will use 800MHz.

800MHz is able to cover a wider distance and so will be better outside cities, 2600MHz will enable more users simultaneously so is more suited to cities.

I’ll buy a new phone when 4G is widely established and a lot of phones have it. That might be over 15 months away. My own experience with internet on mobile is pretty poor and not something I’d pay a lot of money for. I seem to have a habit of being in places where there is inadequate signal when I want to sit and enjoy.

Broadband Speeds accelerate across Lancashire

The recent roll out of fibre by BT has brought high speed internet, 80MB maximum, to areas outside of the towns and cities covered by Virgin and more choice within. Fibre lines are available through BT, Plusnet, Talk Talk, and Sky. Not all areas are covered as yet but it’s getting fuller.

I bought a Plusnet line a few weeks ago and the transfer from my old provider was easy and happened within 2 weeks of order. The engineer took about an hour in our house.

Plusnet are a small Sheffield company that was bought out by BT and seem to be selling cheaper packages than BT using BT lines, although without the frills that BT offer such as wireless hotspots.

The instructions seemed pretty straightforward but if you’re not keen at all on technology I’d buy fully assisted set up.

An upside is you don’t need filters, on the other hand they fit a second wire from your master phone socket to the router.

Running the www.thinkbroadband.com speedtest and looking at their map of results shows that people are getting 69MB in Preston and in the surrounding countryside. Although speeds vary according to how far from the exchange and cabinet you are.

The fibre connections are what is called FTTC. That is ‘Fibre To The Cabinet’. The cabinets being the green boxes at the end of your street or nearby. So there is a fibre cable from the exchange to the cabinet and then it runs on your ordinary telephone line from the cabinet to your house. Speeds up to 120MB are forecast for this technology in the next few years.

To check if you can get fibre run a check on the BT website if you have a BT line. Click here to go to the BT page.

High speed broadband, what do you do with it? Pages load faster. Downloads sometimes happen almost immediately. Uploading at nearly 20MB makes the ‘cloud’ very usable. If you have a few people doing their own thing then you won’t notice they’re on.

Typhoon Sale to Oman

Some good news at Christmas – The Sultanate of Oman announced the purchase of 12 Typhoon and 8 Hawk aircraft in a deal said to be worth £2.5bn. The announcement was made as David Cameron visited Oman and brings more continuity to the local aircraft factories and a significant export boost.

The UK has long associations with Oman going back some 200 years and 7,000 UK citizens work there. The Royal Air Force of Oman operated Hunter and Jaguar aircraft and then planned to buy Tornado but it was not finalised. They purchased Hawk aircraft in the 1990’s and the American F16. This further purchase of the latest type of Hawk and the Typhoon extends and strengthens the UK link to the country and is great news.

Owner of the former BTR Leyland sells off rail interests

When I left school I went for an interview at BTR (British Tyre and Rubber) in Leyland but luckily they didn’t want me. That factory closed with the downturn in manufacturing and end of Leyland Motors as a stand-alone company. BTR then became part of Invensys, makers of control systems. It was announced yesterday that Siemens of Germany will buy out Invensys Rail for £1.74bn. Invensys will then become a software, systems and control equipment company for oil, gas plants and domestic appliances, and be able to pay off its large pension debt. Invensys shares have risen, shareholders will take a payment from the deal as well.

Regretfully another British industrial activity is heading for overseas control. Invensys have interests in Chinese railways and are working on Crossrail in the UK. It seems that as British rail investment has increased we have become mainly importers of trains and now the signalling technology is going to be controlled overseas. Our prolonged debates about transport and infrastructure in general is no help to creating the stable strategy that investment in manufacturing requires. Yet this seems to be financially a good deal for the company.

Preston Guild 2012 – I was there – Saturday 1st September 2012

Preston Guild is once every 20 years so we weren’t going to miss this one. We loved the Royal Jubilee, the Olympic Games and we were sure we’d enjoy Preston Guild.

It seemed everyone was in a great mood, the weather was good. The streets were packed and the Square Food Festival ram jam full. The Vintage Weekend filled after the procession and Miller and Avenham Parks were in good form.

Read our account with photos on the webiste.

http://www.madeinpreston.co.uk/General/PrestonGuild2012report.html

Local TV applicants in Preston

The government is planning to grant licenses for up to 65 local TV stations. Applications are now in and successful ones will be announced later this year. They will be expected to start broadcasting within 2 years with many expecting to start well before then. Freeview Channel 8 in England is to be used and Sky are proposing a Yellow Button option.

Whether this is a good idea is open to debate. There are plenty of local and regional radio stations and newpapers. Although some of these are under stress with competition from the internet which gives the ability to read and listen anywhere at any time to almost anything.

No doubt not all will succeed but if enough begin there is more chance that some will find a successful formula that can be spread about. Although different places are likely to have different markets.

Interesting times; nothing ventured, nothing gained.

There are two applicants for Preston and these are:

Service name: Metro8 Preston
Contact: Romen Podzyhun
Public address:2 Park Lane, Leeds LS3 1ES
Email address: info@metro8.co.uk
Phone number: London: 0 203 603 9221 x.226
Toronto: +1 416 492 1595 x.226
Website: www.metro8.co.uk

Service name: YourTV Blackpool & Preston
Contact: Tony Carr
Public address: YourTV Blackpool & Preston Ltd c/o Flat 2 The Royals, 11 Links Gate, Lytham St Annes, FY8 3LJ
Email address:anthonydavidcarr@btinternet.com
Phone number: 01253 344 123
Website: www.yourtvblackpoolpreston.co.uk

Preston Guild 2012 turns up the heat

Preston comes together as events are announced for the 2012 Guild. Here are four unmissables:

The new multi-million pound ‘Discover Preston’ display in the Harris Museum, opened on 28th July, is something I’ve been burning to see. On Friday 17th August 12noon to 3pm it will be closed for it’s official opening. There’s a joke there somewhere. Read about it on the Harris Museum website:

http://www.harrismuseum.org.uk/current-exhibitions/7-new-history-gallery

The Vintage Guild Weekend website and video have been produced with style and the food, craft, art, music, dancing, pop-up theatres will show Preston off in the attractive and decorative Miller and Avenham Parks and the Winckley Street area on September 1st and 2nd: http://vintageguildweekend.com/

Watch the Vintage Guild Weekend YouTube video with Paul Hemingway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXH_8iNrgKM&feature=player_embedded#!

The Deltic prototype at the Ribble Steam Railway in Preston is something I never thought I’d see and represents one of the most iconic things ever made in Preston. Deltic locomotives were the pride of the East Coast Main Line hauling the top link expresses from Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley for over 20 years. Find out more on their website:

http://www.ribblesteam.org.uk/

The Made in Preston theme has been adopted by the Guild and 9 projects covering an imaginative range of themes including memories of English Electric and Leyland Motors will be presented.

http://www.prestonguild2012.com/made-in-preston

It can never be allowed to pass that Made in Preston has been the name of this website for over 10 years and will support the Guild whole heartedly but has no official links with it and gets no thanks. None wanted though and no worries. Come together, right now:

http://www.madeinpreston.co.uk/

New Hawk aircraft order from Saudi Arabia

Some good news. The government of Saudi Arabia has ordered 22 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers as part of a package of training equipment which includes 55 Pilatus PC21 basic training aircraft. The Hawks will be delivered in 2016.

This will reduce the number of redundancies previously announced at the factories at Warton, near Preston, and at Brough, near Hull. There was discussion about work being moved from Brough to Warton, whether this order will affect that isn’t known. Although the Daily Telegraph reported that the bulk of the work will take place at Warton and only 200 jobs at Brough will be saved out of 850. This seems to imply that some work will move.

The orders from the Government of Saudi Arabia have been a boon to the UK aircraft industry, the locality and the UK balance of payments since the early 1960’s when Lightning fighters were supplied. This was followed by Tornado and more recently by Typhoon.

Preston area Rail Electrification dates announced

Network Rail have announced the dates for electrified rail services near Preston as follows:

Manchester to West Coast Main Line and Newton-le-Willows, December 2013
Newton-le-Willows to Liverpool Lime Street; Hyton to Wigan, December 2014
Preston to Blackpool, December 2015
Manchester Victoria to Preston, December 2016

Electrifying the line to Newton le Willows enables services from Manchester and Liverpool to Scotland through Preston to use electric traction.

The work is already showing effect to Blackpool with plans raise bridges and close roads along the route being announced.

Electrification of the Manchester to Blackpool line

The Chancellor confirmed in Wednesday’s budget what had been stated before. That the line from Manchester to Blackpool via Preston will be electrified. Just to remind us that some money is flowing into the North West, although it doesn’t compare with the £50+ billions spent on the Olympics, Crossrail, Thameslink, a possible new sewer and a possible airport expansion for London.