Bridges and how to model them

 

Jeff Wilson. Bridges & Trestles Vol. 2 (2012) Another of Kalmbach’s compilation of articles from past issues of Model Railroader. Well illustrated, with captions that supply sufficient guidance for the seasoned scratch-builder, and text that guides the novice. The first chapter gives a good grounding in the basics of bridge design for those who hesitate to decide on what to build. The book fills a need. I’ve seen too many poorly conceived or modelled bridges on otherwise well done layouts. This book shows how to build a variety of bridges, trestles and culverts.
     A bridge is a complex object. The exigencies of geology, traffic, and available capital combine to ensure that no two are identical, despite efforts at standardisation. The available models are of limited variety. The most common ones, intended to fit sectional track, exhibit dubious engineering. But modellers need and want bridges. Building a good model bridge is a daunting prospect. This book will reassure the reader that building a good model is possible, enjoyable, and affordable. Recommended. ***

Christmas Wishes

 

The Winter Solstice has been marked in the Northern Hemisphere throughout human history, and certainly before. The feast celebrates the return of the Light, the victory over the darkness.

 Whatever tradition  guides your celebrations, I wish you all possible comfort and joy. My the Light that shines in each of us vanquish fear and give you hope.

Update to Mathematics in the News

I've added an update to Mathematics in the News.

Bridges around Edmonton: Rivers and Rails

 

     Alan Vanterpool. Rivers & Rails (2014) A survey of bridges on the former Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk Pacific Railways, as well as the CPR’s High Level Bridge, and couple of road bridges within the city. The selection criterion was “Edmonton and district”, with a bit of stretch on the “district” part.
     Basically, a catalogue raisonnée, with a diagram, statistics, and dates for each bridge, and whatever other data (location maps, photographs, news reports, etc) that Vanterpool was able to find. The photographs are generally too small, and at best adequately printed. The information seems to be as complete as Vanterpool could make it, with records of personal visits to some of the sites. The deeply-cut river valleys of the prairies required large bridges, which extended the technology of the time to its limits. Several were for a short time the longest and/or highest in the world. In short, they were pioneering efforts at spanning large valleys. A general essay introducing the book could have stressed this and other aspects of the history of bridge-building in western Canada.
     Occasional Paper No. 1 of the Edmonton & District Historical Society. Worth having as data. **½

Banks Solves a Cold Case

 

Peter Robinson. In A Dry Season (1999) Banks’s career is in bad shape, his marriage has just about fallen apart. Supt Riddle gives him the job of solving a very cold case when an imaginative boy seeking the Talisman finds a skeleton in the remains of a village long submerged under water but revealed when the reservoir dries up. Banks is assigned DS Annie Cabbot to assist him. The skeleton dates from the second World War, and bears signs of violence. Discovering the killer depends on the usual combination of carefully sifted and collated data, a couple of lucky breaks, and the imaginative empathic insight that Banks relies on to give him the necessary feel of the relationship between victim and killer.
     The book is structured as a parallel narrative: one of the participants in those long-ago events has written a memoir-novel, which provides us, and eventually Banks and Cabbot, with part of the solution. The usual niggling details lead to the rest, justice is done, and some of the damage is healed.
     An interesting experiment, this structure works reasonably well. I found the wartime story more than readable. I recall a few details of the last year of the war in Austria, and much more than a few details of post-war England, where we lived and visited between 1945 and 1954. That made Robinson’s evocation of war-time England more than a little engaging.
     A well done novel, recommended. ***

Banks and Gristhorpe hunt a psychopath.

Peter Robinson. Wednesday’s Child (1996) An early DCI Banks tale. A child goes missing, a gruesomely killed corpse is found above the town, DCI Banks and Supt Gristhorpe split the load, but the two cases converge (of course). The perp is a text-book psychopath. Robinson’s plotting is near immaculate.
     I find these books a good read. Robinson’s ability to invest even secondary characters with enough suggestive detail for realism, and his leisurely but steady narrative pace make for a better than average entertainment. He keeps the gore to a minimum, sets the scenes well, and traces the twisting and turning and occasionally dead-ended path of the investigation clearly. Recommended, as is the TV series. ***

Rumpole's Swan Song

 

 John Mortimer. Rumpole and the Primrose Path (2003) The last collection of short stories. Rumpole has recovered from his heart attack, but it takes some time for his career to restart. These tales show him in all his glory, objecting to and fighting against the inevitable miscarriages of justice caused by police tunnel vision and occasional corruption, presumptions of guilt by respectable lawyers who should be assuming the opposite, and biased judges. The impression that Mortimer is using Rumpole to vent his flustration at the misnamed justice system is stronger than ever. I won’t spoil you pleasure by recounting any of the tales. Buy or borrow the book, and enjoy finding out for yourself. For more information, check Wikipedia. Four novels were published after this last series of short stories.

Recommended ****