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Post by tod2 on Mar 18, 2016 17:12:08 GMT
I love books but got rid of a whole bunch last year. People pay very little for them on auction. Still, I am going to browse Treasure Chest Books. They might be interested in some of my rare ones..
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 21, 2016 16:54:18 GMT
What a pleasant town, Mossie, and you capture it so well! I really like the way you give us some history in with the pictures.
Rock, concrete pieces, etc. used to protect a shoreline from wave action are called rip-rap in Louisiana, but maybe that's only when it's used sideways, not heading inward as you show with the groynes. Probably effective, but sure (shore) deters beach strolling.
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Post by mossie on Mar 25, 2016 16:32:02 GMT
As our weather forecasters tell us that today, Good Friday, will be the best day of the weekend, I decided to do my constitutional at Felixstowe. I have a standard routine, park on the seafront then walk along the prom and upon of the hills into town. Then I do any shopping I need and have a coffee and then return. Well it wastes a morning and it keeps me lightly exercised. I realised that I had forgotten to show you the pier so here goes It still needs essential supplies All good seaside resorts had a pier for pleasure steamers to collect passengers for gentle pleasure trips along the coast. The war mostly put a stop to that, many piers were cut to stop the Germans using them and the resorts have lost their general attraction as holiday destinations. Cheap flights to the Mediterranean killed them, and several have had fires from which it is too expensive to recover. Anyhow Felixstowe is now unsafe because the supports are rusting away but a few hardy souls venture out to fish, but there is a move to refurbish it. Back to the seafront, as it is Easter the travelling fair has set up shop again to offer rides and entertainment, another good old throwback to a distant age. While returning to the car I saw the combined Churches were just setting up their Good Friday service. Being the heathen that I am I took this quick snap and carried on to my car
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2016 16:45:23 GMT
Spring is in the air! (More than in Paris)
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Post by whatagain on Mar 25, 2016 19:00:32 GMT
I liked this from the beginning - quite nice
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Post by htmb on Mar 25, 2016 19:11:03 GMT
Certainly looks like a nice place to walk, Mossie.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 26, 2016 5:14:45 GMT
I certainly hope Felixstowe gets its dock fixed!
Lovely addition to this very enjoyable thread, Mossie. And now I know what England has in common with Mexico -- the tradition of trotting out funfairs for important religious occasions.
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Post by mossie on Apr 17, 2016 20:34:27 GMT
I generally add a church when I visit a town. Here is an interesting one in Felixstowe. Built in 1895, but in the style of the 15th century is this . The giveaway on the dating is the nice neat brickwork instead of faced flints,
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Post by htmb on Apr 17, 2016 20:52:21 GMT
Certainly looks like it's sturdily built. Do you know if it's Church of England? I find the Jesus on the cross an interesting addition. Do all C of E churches use that representation, do you know? Here, the Episcopal and Anglican churches use only the bare cross, rather than a representation of the crucifixion.
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Post by mossie on May 1, 2016 15:11:13 GMT
Taking my little stroll at the viewpoint on Felixstowe Dock this morning one could see this monstrous gin palace, sorry cruise liner, hiding behind the dock facilities at Harwich, across the estuary. This is the Italian Costa Luminosa, 92,000 tons carrying over 2,000 passengers and 1,000 crew. Harwich has become a regular port of call to enable cruise ship passengers to visit this part of the world. As a complete contrast I walked past this little bunny grazing on the sparse grass on the shingle beach.
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Post by htmb on May 1, 2016 15:19:22 GMT
You know how I envy your location near the water, Mossie, despite the large cruise ships that occasionally pop into view.
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Post by mossie on May 4, 2016 15:29:18 GMT
Went to Felixstowe by chance this morning and caught this boat coming into port nearly empty. This shows the fences which keep the rows of boxes in order and prevent them sliding away. They are incidentally locked together by the same locking system as holds them fast on the lorry.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 4, 2016 15:50:55 GMT
I love when you add to this thread, Mossie. Is that old lighthouse in the cruise ship picture still in use? The bunny is a great capture. Are those the same blue flowers you show here? The empty container ship is a revelation. I've seen hundreds of them, but was unaware of the fence system!
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2016 15:52:49 GMT
Cargo ships + me = plans for the future.
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Post by mossie on May 5, 2016 19:46:05 GMT
I know in the past that some cargo ships had provision for a few passengers, who ate with the officers and so travelled in style and learnt how the ships worked. Could be worth making enquiries with the major shipping lines?
A life on the ocean wave, as the old song has it. Go for it Kerouac.
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Post by mossie on Jun 5, 2016 16:24:10 GMT
Here is the transtainer set up for loading trains on the Landguard terminal. Note 4 rail lines, the right hand side one the transtainer runs on, the other side of the transtainer has a single track as it does not carry as much weight. I have lifted a description of transtainers from a logistics dictionary, they are used extensively to organise the neat stacks of containers all over the dock and move the boxes from the lorries. In that case the park may have several transtainers each running on tyres on concrete tracks, in its own dedicated section of the park. A transtainer is a hoisting device for loading or unloading containers onto or from railway wagons. It is a gantry crane that usually travels on rails and is set up across a track bundle at a container terminal. The transtainer moves the containers alongside the track bundle, after which straddle carriers transport them to the storage area. Transtainers are sometimes also used in the storage areas of container terminals in order to stack containers in large blocks. In that case, the transtainer will have pneumatic tyres. In this shot this is a monster able to span the 3 tracks. here is a general view of the terminal, still under construction, but that is not allowed to hinder progress, only handle larger boats. I am sure at night large quantities of manure are shovelled into the dock this enabling these boats to grow. Here is the construction in progress, note the dust supression kit which is a general requirement nowadays, thank goodness these things were not so fashionable in my day.
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Post by mossie on Jun 5, 2016 16:26:29 GMT
Forgot to mention in my first snap, the third rail line is occupied by a train of "skellies", skeleton wagons to which the containers are locked.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2016 13:20:13 GMT
With my vague plans to take a cargo ship next year, I am cursing containers because their invention causes most ships to spend only 24 hours in any port now.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 7, 2016 17:18:04 GMT
Great pictures as always from you, Mossie, and a super job of explaining elements of a working port. I'm fascinated by the trainstainer photos and explanation.
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Post by htmb on Jun 7, 2016 19:39:36 GMT
I am always blown away at how huge it all looks!
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Post by mossie on Jun 8, 2016 12:44:06 GMT
There is about 2 and a half miles of quay now. I have pinched a view from Google Earth which I hope gives some idea of the size and location
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2016 18:56:03 GMT
Since I had never heard of this port before you made your report about it, do you know how it ranks among English ports?
In France the top three are Marseille, Le Havre and Dunkerque. Marseille isn't even in the top 50 of world ports. (14 of the top 20 are in China, surprise, surprise.)
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Post by mossie on Jun 9, 2016 20:37:12 GMT
Felixstowe is ranked 7 in UK ports by freight tonnage. It handles 44% of the containers off loaded for onward transport. Dover handles a greater total volume, being the largest roll on/roll off port, i.e. containers loaded onto lorries which are also landed. These figures come from 2014
Dover has much better road links, with the A2 dual carriageway to Canterbury where it joins the M2 motorway up to the M25 London ring. The M20 motorway runs directly from Dover to the M25. Felixstowe has the A14 Dual carriageway which runs to The M1 and joins the A12 dual carriageway at Ipswich down to The M25. All these roads are very busy and one can rarely travel any distance without seeing a lorry hauling a container.
In addition to the ports there is also a bit coming through the Channel Tunnel.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2016 20:54:53 GMT
I was recently reading a book by a French globetrotting journalist who described his trip from Antwerp to Istanbul on a container ship. Actually, there isn't a huge amount of information about the trip itself -- I would have wanted to know more -- because not all that much happened, there was only one other passenger, who kept mostly to herself, and contact with most of the Filipino crew was limited. So the author filled his own containers with stories of his missions to Kabul, Timbuktu, Benghazi, Bangui, etc., all during the most recent extreme events. Obviously he finally arrived in Istanbul and was immediately nostalgic about the time spent at sea. I suddenly remembered one sentence that he wrote in his hotel room. "Without me, the MSC Cordoba is off to Felixstowe." And here it is. There is every chance that you have seen it. www.hafen-hamburg.de/images/800x533/fotos/schiffe/msc_cordoba.jpgI just tracked in on Google and it has just left Hamburg, on its way back to Turkey.
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Post by mossie on Jun 13, 2016 15:35:36 GMT
I am not a ship spotter, it is just that the viewing point at Felixstowe offers a spot for a change from my four walls here and a photo opportunity. This boat has been to Felixstowe but I don't keep any details of boats I have seen. Looking at passenger travel on them sounds very expensive and boring, a chance to escape from the normal world.
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Post by mossie on Jul 20, 2016 19:45:22 GMT
Took another trip down to Felixstowe today, trying to find a cooling breeze to escape this heat wave, 29C here but 33 in places. Anywat one of the giants had a little spill and this little workboat was trying to contain it
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2016 22:04:46 GMT
It's good to know that there are craft specially designated to handle such problems.
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Post by mossie on Aug 21, 2016 15:21:44 GMT
Had a bit of luck today at Felixstowe. Although it was a dull day with avery stiff westerly breeze I went to my favourite cafe at the dock viewing area. My attention was soon caught by one of the tugs heading out. This I guessed was to collect an incoming boat, so I walked along to the jetty by the fort at the dock entrance. Sure enough this boat appeared, what I would call a supertramp. That is it takes containers from large ports and distributes them to lesser places, in this instance t has just come from Russia, via several Baltic ports. It can serve ports which do not have the large cranes to load and off load containers because it has three derricks so it can do the job itself. Derrick is named after Thomas Derrick who was the London hangman about 300 years ago and devised this type of crane to assist him. On the extreme right of the shot one can just see the tug waiting to take up position to take the bow rope to help the cargo boat. That was really necessary as the breeze was at right angles to her course and she was lightly loaded, presenting a lot of windage. As they came in front of me the tug was in reverse to maintain station whilst the cargo boats handling crew stood by to get the rope onto the tug. Not a job I would envy, but here is the rope on its way heading for Harwich church spire.
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Post by htmb on Aug 21, 2016 15:29:16 GMT
Wonderful, Mossie! I never fail to learn something from your posts. That second to last photo is especially framed very nicely.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2016 16:31:50 GMT
I really like the third picture with the crew as well. This sort of event is probably a sort of compensation for the workers after boring weeks at sea. Then again, it just takes them away from their videos and the internet.
Well, it would have been a compensation in the old days...
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