A Bridge Too Far (2 - mini blpg) ...

 ... And It IS a Viaduct!

The only slight improvement in the truth from the above YouTube video is that it does mention a railway, albeit briefly! But thanks to fbb's somewhat brief researches on line, this blog can begin to redress the balance.

We are talking about the Beijing to Shanghai High Speed Railway.

A separate company runs the line ...

... but a selection of operators runs the trains. Doubtless they are all tightly controlled by the "assembly" which is equally tightly controlled by the central committee!

This logo ...

... is used for the vast network of high speed lines (coloured red) throughout the eastern half, the most populous area, of China.

On the above map, the Beijing Shanghai line is shown in blue to highlight its recent upgrade.

The above extract lacks detail and a simpler diagram may help. The Viaduct part of the route is outlined in blue.

The line is 1318km long (that's 819 miles in real money!); i.e. about 50 miles less than Lands End to John o Groats!

The fastest train of the day takes 4 hours and 18 minutes!

Pause for thought ...

How is the UK's High Speed rail network getting on, Heidi?

Wikipedia, as ever, outlines the line out of Beijing.

The Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway (or Jinghu high-speed railway) is a high-speed railway that connects two major economic zones in the People's Republic of China: the Bohai Economic Rim and the Yangtze River Delta. Construction began on April 18, 2008, with the line opened to the public for commercial service on June 30, 2011. The 1,318-kilometer (819 mi) long high-speed line is the world's longest high-speed line ever constructed in a single phase.

Just in case our readers suspect a typical fbb musprant, please note that the line was built as one contract and took just four years to complete.

Such is the advantage of building railways in a political dictatorship!

Pause for thought ...

When will the very titchy bit of HS2 be up and running, Heidi? And how long will that have been in total?

Wikipedia also tells us what travel was like on an equivalent route in 1933.

In 1933, a train ride from Beijing to Shanghai took around 44 hours, at an average speed of 33 km/h (21 mph). Passengers had to get off in Pukou with their luggage, board a ferry named "Kuaijie" across the Yangtze, and get on another connecting train in Xiaguan on the other side of the river.

There are five very fast through trains each day and four, much, much slower overnight trips. The line carries about 53 trains a day, although the sources are a little coy about whether that is in one direction or two and whether such frequency applies along the whole line.

fbb had to give up searching for actual timetables as it was hurting his brain too much and he had used all July's tranquillisers already! His knowledge of the Chinese language is, erm, nil!

Tomorrow, your aged ferroequinologist will look at trains and stations on the route of the viaduct.

You will be impressed.

And So To Sheep.

Most readers will be familiar with creatures of the ovine kind and their preponderance in fields in the countryside.

Modellers of rural railways will usually scatter a few of these fluffy beasts around a very small patch of grass to create an impression of bucolic tranquility.  Small herds of sheep are readily available from manufacturers like Peco (used to be sold by Merit) ...

... and Hornby just for example.

But these sheep are made of plastic and are not really fluffy!

So now you can buy one of these ...

... for £60. It is a "static grass" applicator! First you paint the bits of your sheep black, bits like face and feet that don't have the fleece attached.

Next you cover the white bits of the sheep with glue. Then you electrocute each poor OO gauge lambkin ...

... by connecting it to the other end of the circuit from that £60 box. There is flock (bits of furry stuff) on the electrified plate on top of the box.

Due to the wonders of Humphrey Davey's invention (electricity!) the volts cause the flock to leap from metal plate and adhere to the pre-glued animal.

You now have proper fluffy sheep.

Squeamish sheep-lovers ne9ed not shrink from this process - it does notbyse9 mains voltage!

Why not just stick the fluff straight to the sheep without the expensive electronics? 

O foolish and ignorant sheep modeller! 

The electric "static" causes the fluffy bits to stick end on to the sheep, so they don't just look fluffy, they feel fluffy.

No, fbb won't be start plastic sheep farming at Peterville!

There is a rumour that the manufacturer of the fluff'n'paint kit considered including a small sachet of OO scale sheep poo c/w artificial non toxic aroma.

In the end this addition was not flavour of the month.

But surely a manufacturer will soon produce a sound chip of sheepish bleats; with a speaker to be buried in the field?

And a farmer whistling to his sheep dog with responding barks?

Perhaps using Faller road technology you could have sheep and dog running round said field.

fbb notes that wealthy and highly committed modellers will pay anything and do anything to out-detail their modelling chums!!

Talking Of Preparing Plastic Sheep ...

fbb is reminded of a Giles cartoon which your blogger enjoyed aged 10 in 1955, a General Election year.

The caption reads, "Watch the candidate pick up my little brother ... I've painted him all over with glue."

 Next Viaduct blog : Friday 11 July