Fifth anniversary

It was on this day five years ago that Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist of RUSH died after having suffered brain cancer for three years.

RUSH music definitely holds a place in my heart.

Thoracic Jurassic

Who would have guessed that this would be the very first day of a year that as a number is not a prime number?

I did not stay awake last night to witness the changing from the previous year to the current year; I was content to witness that as I awoke this morning.

My plans for this year are as yet vague, certainly for the first few months there is little that will change in terms of work, attending church regularly, having book group monthly, exercising regularly, writing blog posts and watching sports on TV.

I can still wish that for myself, and for the few readers of this blog, that we all have a pleasant next twelve months.

X cross

Get comfortable.

I watched this video over a year ago and this one more recently; both concern the idea of removing rail level crossings to improve the passenger rail traffic speed which can also raise the frequency.

So in the last day or so I had the idea of creating a company that does this. With the help of Chat GPT4.0 I got some refinements to my ideas and some answers to questions that troubled me about the idea.

The idea of the company is to have a majority of people on a salary, rather than on a per project, as there are hundreds of level crossings that need to be removed which could take 5+ years. Ideally we would get federal and provincial governments to kick in some of the funding, as well as the rail companies and municipalities.

In terms of staff we would have

• a project manager who would treat each level crossing we remove as a separate project, to oversee each one that it sticks to budget and timeline and coordinates between the various teams and liaises with stakeholders (the federal and provincial governments for funding)
• a geotechnical engineer to conduct soil testing and analysis to assess ground stability during excavation
• a structural engineer that specializes in the design of both temporary and permanent structures and ensures compliance with safety standards and load requirements
• an environmental consultant to assess environmental impacts and ensures compliance with environmental regulations, works with geotechnical engineer to plan for drainage systems
• Safety officer to implement and enforce workplace safety standards and conducts safety audits and safety training sessions for all employees both onsite and at the factory
• traffic management coordinator to develop and implement traffic management plans in coordination with the local municipality
• Community engagement specialist to communicate with local residents and businesses to address concerns and keep them informed, to handle public relations and manage complaints
• Rail operations coordinator to work directly with the rail company consultants to schedule rail closures to ensure minimal disruption
• Heavy machine mechanic to keep all of our heavy machinery in good working order and do all required maintenance
• Procurement specialist to manage the sourcing of supply of materials and equipment for both the factory and for on-site needs
• Survey team - conducts initial and ongoing site surveys to guide excavation, structural placement and alignment
• Crane and heavy equipment team to operate the cranes, hydraulic jacks and any heavy equipment
• QA/QC team to inspect completed work to ensure it meets design specs and regulatory standards
• Electric and Utility team to handle the relocation or adjustment of utilities
• Drainage and Erosion control team to install drainage systems and stabilize surrounding terrain to prevent erosion
• HR and Recruitment - to manage hiring, payroll, benefits and employee relations
• IT specialist to maintain digital infrastructure including design software, project management tools, communication systems and anything else
• Legal advisors to handle contracts, permits, regulatory compliance and advise on liability and risk management, to make contractual offers to rural land owners to close permanently any private level crossings
• Insurance specialist to assess and arrange needed insurance for equipment, workers and liability coverage
• Accountant to work out the accounting and reporting for the company
• Rail Signal Specialists to advise on rail signaling adjustments during and after crossing removal including the removal of the crossing signals
• Design consultants - assist with the adaptation of standard designs to unique site conditions and to provide 3D modeling and simulation as needed
• General Workers - broken up into different teams:
• Excavation team, with excavators, for any ground removal for example, doing an underpass under an elevated ground raised rail bed
• Temporary structure team; to create, put in place and remove any temporary structures, for example, to support the rail bed using a temporary system to then allow for digging and then for permanent structural components to be installed beneath the rail bed
• Construction team to put the new factory built permanent structural components into place
• Road and ground finishing team to pave the new road section and do any ground scaping work once the actual new structure that removed the level cross is complete
• Factory workers who build the standardized and non-standard structural components

Let us say that the very first level crossing we do is a pair of CN tracks that are flat and level with the surroundings. The project manager will have already enlisted funding from the different sources, 33% from the federal government, 33% from the provincial government and 34% from the rail company.

Then visiting the site will be:

• The surveyor team to get all of the required measurements to develop a plan
• the community engagement specialist will engage with the community around the level crossing,
• the designer, structural engineer, environmental assessor, traffic management consultant and the rail consultant will develop the plan for a bridge to go over the train tracks

After formulating a site and project plan for the bridge that will go over the train tracks:

1. The traffic management consultant and the project manager would coordinate with the local municipality to propose the level crossing project and to enlist their help to put in place a traffic management plan for the location, that the city will provide detour signs 
2. The road gets closed
3. The on-site office is placed, this is for the engineer, foremen and so on to have the plans, a desk and computer and anything needed
4. the road and ground team move in to destroy the road that is immediately adject to the train tracks and works with the rail operations coordinator to remove the crossing signals and the pavement that exists between and around the train tracks, this would require a short rail traffic  unavailable window
5. the construction team would install the standardized components that are delivered from the factory to put in the support structures on the North and South sides of the rail tracks and to create the up and down ramps on either side
6. Working with the rail operations coordinator, the crane crew will install the pre-fabbed span pieces that connect the supports that are already in place on the N and S sides, this will require a 4-8 hour window of rail traffic unavailability
7. The road and ground scape crew comes in to pave what is needed, ensure there is work done to manage drainage system and erosion control

The second level crossing removal we have is a pair of CP tracks on a raised ground elevated rail bed that is high enough that very little digging will need to be done beneath the tracks to have an appropriate height to pass beneath it. A slope up towards the crossing exists on both sides.

Once the traffic management consultant has finished developing and implementing the traffic management plan for the project 1 above, this consultant and the project manager can coordinate with the local municipality to propose this level crossing project and to enlist their help to put in place a traffic management plan for the location.

Once the site and project plan is done for project 1, the designer, structural engineer, environmental assessor, traffic management consultant and the rail consultant will develop the plans for the rail overpass that will now have the car and pedestrian traffic pass beneath. Some of these people will travel back and forth between project 1 and 2 as they are needed.

For project 2:

1. The traffic plan developed will get put into place and the road gets closed on both sides of this ground elevated rail bed
2. The excavation team will remove the slope material on both sides leaving and/or shoring up enough to keep the elevated rail beds sufficiently supported
3. The temporary structure team will, with the help of the excavation team, excavate what is needed to put support posts and put in the temporary structure which is made up of four support beams, on the left and right side of both the N and S sides which have a span beam secured to them at the top as close to the rail bed as possible
4. Dig near the rail bed as much as possible that can still maintain rail structural integrity in preparation for the rail traffic down time
5. close rail traffic, raise gently and by a small amount the rails, dig out from beneath them, put supporting cross braces that rest on and are secured to the temporary span beams, lower the rails, inspect and test the rails, open rail traffic
6. Fully excavate under the temporary structure, monitor frequently the temporary support structure to check for settlement or movement
7. once crane team is done with project 1 that team can come to project 2 to help move into place the standardized prefabricated support posts on the left and right side and the new span that goes beneath the rail bed
8. close rail traffic, raise gently and by a small amount the rails, remove the temporary support structure, and then lower the rails, inspect and test the rails, open rail traffic
9. The road finishing and ground scaping team, once finished from project #1 can come to project #2 and pave the new road passing underneath the train tracks

So as each project phase is reached, releasing the consultants and teams, they can move on to the subsequent project. Conceivably the project manager and the traffic management consultant will always be three to five projects ahead so as to have scheduled work available to every team in quick succession. By doing this over and over, each of the teams will gain more experience and find ways to improve efficiency, both to lower the total project time, and more importantly, to lessen the duration that rail traffic is interrupted. As a goal we would want to have a project completion time that is well under what can be reasonably estimated. Another goal would be to have any level crossing removal site idle as little as possible. This might include having certain teams work overtime at specific times; for example, if it is a large excavation compared to normal we might bring in an additional excavator and work much longer shifts.

The factory would be located in an industrial zone to receive cement either already formed in the shapes and sizes we need, or, we fabricate them into our own standardized shapes. Similarly, we would receive steel and either fabricate what we need, or receive what we need and modify it slightly as needed. The factory will also have a distribution organization to ship out to work sites the various components as they are needed.

In some cases the level crossing comes at an angle to the rail tracks, where possible, we would alter the road to now go below or above the rails at a 90 degree angle so as to facilitate the construction and to continue to use standardized structural components.

We would do our best to schedule any rail traffic stop durations to be as short as possible and at times where it would be least impactful to rail traffic, which includes overnight work.

As we move from level crossing to level crossing, wherever there is excavation required, we would contract with local excavation companies to have their dump trucks come and pick up all of the excavated material. The actual excavators themselves we will move from site to site. In special cases the excavated material from a rail over pass can be used to build up the slope to a road overpass over rails at a subsequent cross level removal project site.

And finally, as mentioned earlier in the law section, there are some private level crossings out in rural areas that join a farmer's two parcels of land. We would devote funds to buy out farmers in cases like this to have land exchanges done such that the need for that crossing is eliminated. Similarly, in some cases where two level crossings within a small town exist very near to each other, we would remove one of them altogether since the other will no longer be a crossing, but a bridge or rail overpass that makes crossing always possible.

well then

If it wasn't for the door stop, the door wouldn't be stopped.

If it wasn't for the paper weight, the paper wouldn't be weighted.

That's about all I have to say today.

in keeping with the neighbours

A composite yuletide carol visited Carol. Carol received the composite yuletide carol with equanimity; she's received all manner of types of variations of carols. This includes carols concerning the left front armpit of a barn dog named 'Barry'.

That we are ever so gradually approaching the day that has the fewest number of daylight nano-seconds comes as no surprise to the author of this post. It would appear for at least half the year we are approaching just such a day.

In just a few short days we will begin the ever so gradual ascent to the day the the highest number of daylight nano-seconds.

Out of curiosity (thanks to Carol and her carols) I investigated the number of nanoseconds in the shortest day this year. There are 31,334,000,000,000 nanoseconds of daylight.

a little bit of this, a little bit of bat

At my job we have an intranet that has a social side; so I have been writing posts there every weekday; well, TBH, I have a weeks ahead queue of posts and as I come up with more ideas I write further into the future. On Tuesdays I have come into the habit of writing a Tuesday-Chooseday post where I list four pairs of like items or similar ideas and ask people to respond to indicate their preference. An example could be: prefer to awaken and start the day early or sleep in; prefer to swim in a natural body of water or a swimming pool; prefer INXS or Men at Work, or, prefer eating green grapes or red grapes.

Given my excessive writing there I have been remiss at posting here.

Having moved back to my parent's house to keep my dad company as my mom has been moved to a long term care home I now have a house to which I can come up with ideas that I could possibly implement - some examples of which I couldn't have done at all in my previous apartment.

One idea I had was to attempt to grow Giant Redwood Sequoia trees from seed and then guerilla plant them once they are saplings in a variety of places. These trees can live as long as 3000 years, so of course well past my remaining lifespan. I would monitor them and be curious to see how they progress over the remaining years of my life in their clandestine locations. I did tons of research about how to go about doing this and if it was appropriate for my climate zone (it is).

My latest idea, inspired by a few YouTubers I follow (Colin Furze and Tornado Dave and from a few years ago ModernSelfReliance) is to build a small (7'x7') underground bunker in the backyard in a surreptitious way, well, as secret as I would be able to receive a delivery of construction materials. With Chat GPTs help I have accumulated a lot of information; including about the W4x13 H steel beams that will be the roof of the bunker being supported by 4" 0.21" square steel tubular posts. Structural plywood (3/4") will be used for the walls attached to the exterior of the steel framing, FlexSeal or equivalent will be painting on the exterior of the plywood, then a radiant reflective barrier will be applied, and then finally 2" rigid foam insulation boards so as to keep the heat in that I explain below.

There would be floor cross beams that are planed down in such a way to create a path that any water inside the bunker could follow to a drain pit dug 3' deeper than the bunker for the purpose of allowing any excess water to flow into the surrounding ground. Atop the floor beams are floor boards and then 2" rigid foam insulation boards that conform to that flow channel; the insulation to help prevent cold from seeping from beneath the bunker into the floor. Atop the 2" rigid foam boards a circuit of 1/2 PEX that is buried in a thin layer of slope screed so as to continue the water slope to the pit. Atop the screed will be 3" square stone paving stones, the small size to allow for conformity to the water drain slope.

Connected to the 1/2 PEX sinewy circuit is a underfloor electric heating system that I really benefitted from ChatGPT to help me understand what was needed and what specific components would work well. From pipe end A that exits the floor will first be a T junction that has a valve on the T and a garden hose adapter, the purpose of this is to increase the pressure of water inside the system as initial setup. After that T junction is a 93W recirculating pump that can be powered down to 40W which produces about 5 gallons per minute (5GPM). After the pump is a pressure regulator reducer which can smooth out the pressure in the system and also drop the flow rate; for my purpose, to drop it to 0.5GPM. Next are a few sensors to measure the pressure, flowrate and temperature of the water in the system. Next is a 1440w mini tank heater - my initial plan had a tankless heater but the smallest tankless heater I found used 3000W which was too much for the power supply (a single household extension wire with a power bar at the end) so I will get a 4 gallon mini tank heater that with the 0.5GPM low flow rate ought to allow water to spend enough time in the heater to raise it in temperature. After the mini tank heater is a 2 gallon mini expansion tank - this is used to protect the life of the system and to accept any increase in pressure due to increase in temperature. Following the mini expansion tank is the highest point of the system where there will be a T junction with a valve and with a garden hose opening. To prime the system I will boil 15L of water and then add 2L of room temperature water and using a funnel pour that water through this opening at the top of the system. By being at the top it will fill all of the PEX circuit, the mini tank heater and all other nooks and crannies until it finally bubbles out the top. Once this prime load of hot water is added I will add an automatic air release valve. And then finally the PEX returns into the floor, nice and heated.

So to prime the system I put the hot water in through that top T junction opening until it is full; then, I attach a household garden hose with house pressure to the T junction at the bottom, before the pump and then open the water pressure to push more water into the system aiming for a system pressure of 13PSI at initial load. Once I reach that pressure I close the valve at that bottom T junction, disconnect the garden hose, so now the hydronic floor heating system is primed and pressurized.

I asked about the ideal temperature for the water to raise the bunker temperature to 25c and then what was the required temperature to maintain it. ChatGPT recommended 50c as a temperature to use to raise the bunker's room temperature and then to lower the mini heater's heating temperature gradually to see what the lowest value can be that still maintains the desired temperature. I would attach a thermostat that has a relay to control the pump, so once the thermostat reaches a desired temperature the pump would stop and the water inside the mini tank heater would be still and would warm up. At initialization I would use an air thermometer to see what the temperature is of the bunker air and I would set the thermostat to reach a temperature that 2c warmer than that to test it out and see how it works and see if there any leaks or adjustments that need to be made. Subsequent to that I would increase the thermostat temperature one or two degrees every other day or so until I have it reach my goal temperature.

The PEX running through the screed will conduct the heat through the screed to the stone tiles making the floor warm with enough BTU to warm the entire bunker. My goal is to be comfortable in shorts and T-shirt down there at any time of year. I will have an outdoor sofa, a nice TV, sound bar and DVD player so I can watch movies down there, I could also read or write while down there.

For ventilation I will have a long 4" tube whose bottom enters the bottom of the bunker on a wall that faces the already present garage with the top of that tube entering the garage. At the garage side of this ventilation tube will be a vent fan on a timer to blow garage air into the bunker for 12 of every 24 hours. The garage air is fine as it is an uninsulated out building with the garage door open frequently for fast voluminous exchanges of air, and with an EV being stored in it there are no toxic ICE car fumes to enter my bunker. As an exit vent I will have a 2" exit tube at the shaft entrance that ends up beneath a deck where it will have a U shape and mosquito net and chicken wire covering the enclosure. Having a 2" exit with a 4" vent fan blowing air in will create the positive air pressure that will help evacuate the bunker of radon.

There are even more in-the-weeds ideas and details to this plan that I have come up with, but for now I suppose this is enough.

sometimes no times no thyme

A basket made of stealth and holding zones made all of the elbows of the people who were waiting for their lunch meal at the cafeteria slide ever so slightly northwards.

A lunch meal at the holding zone had a basket made of the elbows of people who were stealthily sliding northwards while slightly waiting in the cafeteria.

If all of the pecans and the pecan'ts

If I hadn't swallowed the entire envelope made of cheese, a red-winged blackbird's feather and a toe nail clipping from a Minke whale, I'm sure that I would be in a better position to have an opinion on a more topical topic.

In other news, a slobbering poultry donation expert played chess against a moderately flatulent blocky iceberg named Jesse. The spectators at this event, well, most of them anyhow, did remember to brush their teeth earlier that day.

Celebrate! It is Tuesday!

two times fourty seven thousand eight hundred and twenty-two

A wallet, a shelf and a bottle of profundity walk into a bar.

An enigmatic, a burrow of wealth and a pinch of celestial lint walk into a bar.

That a bunker under the Sun would keep the ideas from riding a horse would be the least likely of an event that were it to have begun before it started, the time play would lapse while doing laps.

I'd have voted for the ceiling to be raised by one and two/thirds of a picometer.

How small is a picometer? Why don't you ask the tip of a pin. 

umph, ugg

The US presidential election yesterday pitting dem Kamala Harris against felon Donald Trump resulted in a Trump win. I do not understand the electorate that supports the buffoon.

In terms of the Russo-Ukraine war I can see Trump siding with Putin in a disadvantageous deal to Ukraine that would end the war. Yes, it would be great for the war to end, but not at a dear cost to Ukraine.

In terms of addressing the reduction of GHGs to address anthropomorphic climate change, Trump goes by the 'drill baby drill' strategy which will push our global environment to repeated environmental catastrophes.

In terms of economics he is an incessant proponent of tariffs, which so many economists have indicated would simply translate to a tax on consumers as the tariff payers will simply increase the consumer cost to pay the tariff. The end result is inflation. Also, he is purported to have in mind to cut taxes for the wealthy people doing nothing for the lower four quintiles.

In terms of trade with Canada; it is unclear, though, in 2026 the existing free trade agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico is due for revision, and it is likely that Trump will want to eek out of the new deal unreasonable concessions with Canada and Mexico.

In terms of immigration he has promoted the idea of taking 10 million 'illegal' immigrants out of the country. This may easily include legal immigrants that Trump and his peons deem deportable due to race. Of course this will tank the economy as a majority of the people he wants to deport do the jobs that other Americans would not do, like work in agricultural or slaughter houses.

In terms of misogyny he has already done the damage by adding to the Supreme Court enough judges to strike RoeWade. I have heard that two judges are set to retire during Trump's mandate meaning he could add two more Trump judges rendering the Supreme Court but a Trump stamp device.

Trump is old and is already showing signs he is losing acuity; his running mate JD Vance does not show as presidential by any stretch, so that is hardly a welcome panacea.

yay, train

News article about the government of Canada having chosen a consortium to build a new passenger rail service from Quebec City to Toronto with various major stops in between. We will only get the choice of consortium in the next week or two, but what was leaked was that the plan now is to have high speed rail along this corridor with the goal of 300kph stretches. Apparently the consortium who proposed this said that doing the high speed will come under their estimated budget of 80B$ that was first thought for the high frequency rail project.

This news excites me as it is many years over due to get high speed rail in Canada; we are behind so many other nations in this respect. For sure the populations of Toronto and Montreal warrant this new passenger service.

A major obstacle is that presently the federal minority government is unstable and actively teetering, and it looks like, based on popularity polls, that the Conservative party would form our next government and in past Conservative governments, rail projects such as this would be cancelled.

 I just hope that once the project starts, that it moves quickly. Also, I hope that, though it is over long distances, that it goes automatic and driverless, so as to lower operational costs. I also hope for Ottawa's station, that the train stops closer to the city. I also hope for Montreal it stops at Central station and in Toronto at Union station, where there are already Via Rail stations and there are big transit hubs.

Anyhow, I will be following this closely; well, as closely as I can from someone not at all involved in it.