Shed roof

Eighteen months on from reference 1, the roof of the cycle shed at Ewell West station is starting to green up. Or more properly the roof of the cycle hub - although I must go down and check the labels again, as Bing turns up all kinds of things on the search term 'cycle hub' while the blog suggests that what is here called a hub is actually a pod. See reference 2.

No idea yet whether any of the green in question is sedum (not seedum, as spelt previously).

But there is the thought that you would not want something growing on a roof to grow quickly, in the way of grass, because then there would need to be mowing to keep things tidy and to stop woody plants getting established. As it is, there is probably something close to a balance, with the rotting of dead plant more or less balancing the growing of new plant. I associate to folk or fairy tales from Russia involving goats tethered to the roofs of izbas (избы) to keep the grass under control.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/bike-shed-on-top.html.

Reference 2: http://www.cyclepods.co.uk/.

Bike shed inside

A bicycle shed has appeared in the forecourt of Ewell West Station, currently the south pole of London's Oyster card system. A very grand two-storey affair clad with what I think used, on farms, to be called Yorkshire boarding. Breaks up the wind without eliminating ventilation, and can stand up better to serious wind than solid walls. Same sort of principles as are followed in the design of breakwaters at the sea side.

This interior view shows one of the two banks of racks, together with the services pole (on the right in this snap) which provides air & tool facilities. Brought to us by a new-to-me company called Cyclepods, a company which one supposes makes most of its living by selling cycle racks to factories, towns and railways. Presumably this one has been funded by some combination of Transport for London and Network Rail. See reference 1.

Does Bullingdon Boris have a finger in this particular pie? Or one of his Bullingdon friends?

I shall try to make a point of counting the bicycles when I pass it - which, at a guess, will run at around twice a week on working days, on current routing. Something to do when there are no trolleys to be found.

PS: I was interested to read that the once exclusive Bullingdon Club is on the point of collapse for lack of members. A fate foretold more than a century ago in 'Zuleika Dobson', in the affair of the Junta, an exclusive Oxford dining club. Turning the pages of the book to check this important factlet took too long, so I was reduced to downloading a text file from Gutenburg (see reference 2) and using the Word search facility to turn up the second occurrence of the word 'club', about a third of the way through. The same trick had not worked on the kindle, as it had told to me wait while the file was indexed - with my not being at all convinced that the kindle did that kind of stuff in the background. See also reference 3.

PPS: it turns out that I had underestimated the sophistication of the kindle. What was not indexed at the time of loading the book onto the kindle, is now indexed, some four or five hours later, despite the kindle having been turned off as far as I was concerned. And gives the same answer as the MS Word search.

Reference 1: http://www.cyclepods.co.uk/.

Reference 2: https://www.gutenberg.org/.

Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/a-tale-of-two-charities.html.

Group search key: ecs.

Cold and wet

I happened to notice this striking damage to the surface of the road walking in East Street yesterday, in cold bright weather. With it so happening that I cycled over it this morning, in cold wet weather. As it turned out, the road surface was badly damaged over quite a stretch, with some of the holes being quite a hazard for the careless or unlucky cyclist. And this on a main road from London to the south coast, signposted from important junctions like the Elephant & Castle.

Furthermore, I had quite forgotten what it was like to cycle in bad weather in a yellow oil-cloth cycling cape, spectacles fogging up and all. An experience which not many people can be familiar with, as thinking about it now I cannot remember when I last saw anyone wearing one. Not something the spandex brigade go in for.

The occasion being the mortise lock on our back door more or less giving out this morning after twenty years or more service. We were fearful that this was going to be rather a pain, as this particular lock package - a mortise lock with cylinder and door furniture for one door plus with what Yale now call a traditional night latch for another - with both locks working on the same key - does not seem to be available any more.

However, I thought of the people on the by-pass from whom I had bought our entirely satisfactory key box and pedalled off there, it being a bit far to walk by then. Rather to my surprise they were able to supply a replacement cylinder for the mortice lock and cut three additional keys in what seemed like seconds. Replacement cylinder fitted and back door furniture reassembled in minutes. A lot fewer minutes than it had taken to take it apart in the first place, it having been a while since I had had occasion to do such a thing.

Bonuses to all this being that we now have top and bottom bolts to the back door, we have sorted out our spare key container and we have sorted out my box of miscellaneous ironmongery in the garage. Some of which last has been sitting in this very box for more than thirty years, just in case. The very box which used to hold the shoe cleaning equipment when I was a child. That is to say the olden days, before trainers were invented, and respectable people polished their shoes every morning before they set off for work.

PS 1: also a box which appeared to have been home or stash to a mouse at some stage, with rather a lot of husks of sunflower seeds turning up in the bottom of one of its three compartments.

PS 2: at some point during the night following, that is to say last night, I remembered, rather vaguely, about having taken the back door off its hinges, a rather more serious operation than fiddling with the lock. This taking off has now been run to ground at reference 4. I wonder whether I would attempt such a thing now, four years later? Or would I phone up our builder, who, as it happens, is carpentry trained? And then, looking again at the picture of the door off its hinges, I remember that the bench in front of it was made with timber discarded by the shuttering carpenters working on what was to be the new Croydon Art College, somewhere near East Croydon railway station, and where I worked the second summer holiday of my time at university, maybe half a century ago now.

Reference 1: PES (Southern) Ltd – Epsom Locksmiths - 4 Castle Parade, Ewell By Pass, KT17 2PR, Epsom.

Reference 2: http://pessouthern.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://www.yale.co.uk/en/yale/couk/.

Reference 4: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/who-dares-wins.html.

Bike shed counting

I first thought about counting cycles in the new shed at Ewell West station back at the time of reference 1 and today I actually did it, making it around 75 cycles occupying perhaps 100 slots, arranged in four rows, two on each side, as can be seen in the snap left. Mid morning on a working day.

It seems rather a lot for a cycle shed that has only been open for a few days, so perhaps there was some on-platform facility before.

PS: I noticed no fag ends behind this particular bike shed, bike sheds being the smoking den of choice when I was at school.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/bike-shed.html.