Ex Bibliotheca

The life and times of Zack Weinberg.

Thursday, 1 April 2004

# 10:20 PM (GMT+1)

Sod it, the shuttle bus doesn't run this late, I have to get a cab. That'll chew up my remaining small handful of pounds sterling nicely.

# 8:50 PM (GMT+1)

mind the gap ... mind the gap ...

I got a room for the night at a cheap hotel close to the airport; the best way to get there is to ride the London Underground out to the airport itself and then get a shuttle bus. It is a long, long ride, twenty-four stops, on the Piccadilly line from King's Cross to Heathrow. And so I have heard a robot intone this, the unofficial slogan of the Tube, many times now.

What is this gap? See, unlike every other subway system I have ever ridden on, the doors on the trains do not line up neatly with the platforms. At most stations there is about a four-inch step up from the platform to the train. At some, however, there is a four-inch step down from the platform to the train. And at many there is a sizeable distance — a gap — between the train and the platform. The robot is to remind people so they don't trip and break their legs or something.

I wonder why they do not re-grade either the track or the station platforms to eliminate both the gap and the step. It could be done (would have to be done) a few stations at a time. It would probably be easier to redo the platforms than the track. In the outer regions, each station could be taken out of service for a week or so on a rotating schedule; in the inner regions, where stations cannot close even for a single day, the platform could be re-graded in sections.

Another odd quirk of the Tube is that the tracks have four rails. Two are the usual bearing rails, a third is the usual live rail that powers the train, and I don't know what the fourth is for. It sits between the bearing rails and is insulated from the earth in the same way the power rail is; but why would two power rails be necessary?

# 4:30 PM (GMT+1)

TJ and Jane were both busy today so I went into Edinburgh by myself and walked up into Edinburgh Castle. There's sign of human habitation here as far back as 950 BCE; the castle was the home of the Kings of Scotland from the time of the Romans. Now it's a museum, but I think some people still live within the walls, notably in the old castle governor's house, and the fortifications are kept up (more out of tradition than any expectation that the place will be attacked).

One of the things they exhibit here is the regalia: the crown and sceptre used by the kings of Scotland, and the "Stone of Destiny" on which they sat to be crowned. The Stone is still used in the coronation ceremony for the United Kingdom (they put it under the ceremonial throne at Westminster; for several hundred years it was kept there but now it's just flown down for the occasion ... that is, it will be, the next time; it was only returned to Scotland in 1996). The Act of Union (1707) stipulated that the crown and sceptre remain in the historical territory of Scotland, whence they were shut up in a chest in the castle and forgotten about until 1818, when Sir Walter Scott got permission to take them out and put them on display.

Curiously, they made a new sceptre for the reconvened Scottish Parliament which meets even today in Edinburgh. I went down and sat for a few minutes in the visitors' gallery and listened to Question Time. Topics ranged from technology for harnessing wave power for electrical generation, to programs to discourage youth from engaging in lives of petty crime, to budgets for the universities (this last is apparently an issue of nationwide controversy, Mr Blair attempting to put them on more of a user-fee model as is done in the US, but contrary to public sentiment; the Tories don't like it either but they don't seem to have a better idea).

Along the "Royal Mile" in the old part of Edinburgh there are a lot of quirky little mini-museums. They've got one for the making of tartans (chiefly interesting to see a Jacquard loom up close, which I have never before done) and one for the history of whisky production, and one devoted to memorabilia of Scots authors (notably Robert Stevenson, Walter Scott, and Robert Burns).

I'm writing this on the train back to London, where I must be to catch my plane back to the states tomorrow at noon. Alas, this train does not have the helpful power outlets at each seat like the last one did.