| nopylon.co.uk Proposed Substation for Network Rail
Substation Action Group
Nopylon.co.uk Visitors' Page |
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| nopylon.co.uk Proposed Substation for Network Rail
Substation Action Group
Nopylon.co.uk Visitors' Page |
|
Our server logs continue to show frequent and varied interest in the nopylon site, but time for detailed analysis is scarce. Last week (wk 42) we recorded over 3MB of text (nearly 15,000 item requests). Top (recognizable) guests were Network Rail, who called to see us on at least three days in their NR and Railtrack personae ; others included Herbert Smith, the prominent London lawyers with special expertise in utilities litigation. Coincidence? Plus Energis, the IEEE, the BBC, and other media organisations. Some of these hits will be as a result of people seeing the prominent banners on Station Road, which carry the site's URL.
Every week is busy, but June's week 24 log was our biggest ever, at nearly 4MB (18K+ items), perhaps coinciding with the publication of National Grid's Supplementary Report. Top visitor recently has been Network Rail, though, seen daily (or more) with their new NRIS identity, rather than as Railtrack (still at Euston Road).
March saw continued growth in site traffic : our weekly log files regularly exceeded 3.5MB and took a lot of analysis. Our number one fans, Olealliance, toned down their visits from an obsessive several-per-day rate to just a few times a week - Railtrack, National Grid, ABB (various sites) remained regulars. We've also seen visits from a number of local authorities and universities, and electricity operators. Oh, and Ineos, Hyder and some media interests. Come one, come all.
A less wholesome visit, on 14. January 2004 at 17:45 to be precise, was from Hammond Suddards Solicitors from Leeds. Leeds is where National Grid (and Lynx PR) are based, and Hammonds list National Grid Transco among their clients. Perhaps this visit was meant as just a bit of nasty (and unnecessary) intimidation, but as I've said here before - if National Grid, Network Rail or Lynx PR find anything on this website that is factually incorrect, please tell me, and I will gladly amend it. If you just don't like the adverse publicity you are getting, well, sorry, but it's up to you to change your ways.
A quick trawl through the 2.9MB server log for the week of the Parish Council meeting on 5. January 2004 showed a dozen or more page impressions from Network Rail (aka Railtrack), with a particular fascination for the image of the Parish Council meeting, which was downloaded about a dozen times. How very odd. On Wednesday evening, Network Rail also re-checked our claim about plugging "400kv+substation" into Google (oh Ye of little faith), and got the result we predict, a direct hit on our main substation page.
Other relevant visitors last week included National Grid, of course, and their prime customer at their Runcorn / Frodsham 275kV substation, Ineos Chlor ; the Olealliance (at one stage apparently visiting "in concert" with Network Rail); and various contractors such as Alstom, Bechtel, Mowlem... ...I could go on.
I'm afraid time hasn't yet been found for detailed analysis of the preceding two weeks' logs, they are really big files (over 2.5MB of text per week), but we did notice visits from several existing and potential contractors to Network Rail, and firms in the heavy electrical engineering field, so the nopylon.co.uk story is certainly getting about within the industry.
W/e 19/10/2003 : in what was more or less a repeat of the previous week's visitors' log, the usual suspects turned up to see what there was to see, including the new page about a comparable installation in Runcorn.
Log for week to 12. October : phew, what a scorcher!
Well, nopylon.co.uk received so many hits last week (w/e 12/10/2003) that it's taken quite a while to trawl through the 12,074-line server log, and pick out the more interesting ones*. In addition to the clearly private hits, this week's haul includes (in no particular order) many happy returns from National Grid (in various guises) and Network Rail (or Railtrack, as their IP address is still called); and from the great and good of the rail industry, including WS Atkins, Balfour Beatty, (and, separately, their "Olealliance" joint venture); Alstom (from the UK and Switzerland), and Transco. We also welcomed Cheshire County Council, had a slightly unexpected encounter from Kosovo (really), and an interesting French visitor, whom I'm keeping under wraps for the time being.
It's gratifying that traffic to our humble website has already been so intense that an "I'm Feeling Lucky" Google search on "400kV substation" brings up nopylon.co.uk as the one-shot result. Imagine how much that will bring in the next few weeks, and how many casual visitors will see what National Grid and Network Rail (and their contractors) are trying to do to our villages. What goes around, comes around.
Week ending 5. October
National Grid visited our web pages several times on Friday 3.October (and late in the evening, and into the weekend, from at least two different servers). It was also visited (within 15 minutes of each other) by Network Rail and Lynx PR, as you might expect. Gentlemen, if you find anything here that you think is factually incorrect, please advise (e-mail link below) and I'll be delighted to correct it. I have no wish to mislead my readership.
*
Log for w/e 9/11/2003
A quick analysis shows that the principal interested parties are still very interested in what we are saying, and how the campaign is going (or what we let them they know of it). Network Rail, National Grid and their PR company Lynx all dropped in, as did ABB on 3. November, who (coincidentally or not) announced the same day that they had won a $13 million (say £8M) contract from National Grid to upgrade the West Coast Main Line. Providing Network Rail with two 400/25 kV connections, it will involve the installation of two new ABB supergrid transformers at the 400 kV National Grid substation, one connected into an existing spare bay, the other into a new bay. This doesn't sound like the wholly new Acton Bridge proposal, but it might explain ABB's repeated visits to the website! Getting nervous? You can now read the original PR on their ABB news page
(if the link fails, go to www.abb.com, News Center (sic), Press releases, and look for "2003-11-03: ABB wins US$ 13 million contract to enhance railway power supply in United Kingdom").
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