If you have gotten yourself a copy of The Sunday Times (Singapore Press Holdings), flip to Lifestyle and on page 8 ‘Hot’ section you will find an article on aviation, bus and railway enthusiasts in Singapore.

The press approached my friends last week for an interview and I gave my views on the two hobbies that I have, buses and railway. Credits to the two friends who gave us enthusiasts an opportunity to speak to the general public about our hobbies.

In case you are not residing in Singapore and/or have not gotten a copy, here are the scans courtesy of Wei Xiong.

Among the articles, I feel that the aviation one had been well-written on. Not being biased, furthermore not trying intentionally to lower attention of myself, I feel that aviation fans are those who need the most coverage. Many fans overseas have been caught by police, ‘suspected’ of terrorism activities and spend hours interrogated, problems that bus and railway fans have yet been involved in, at least not in a large scale.

Some points I would like to add on to what was quoted from myself, obviously the papers are not big and not everything can be dissected clearly.

From the train article:

Quote:
“has met female train fans overseas but, even then, “men tend to dominate the group”.”

I have seen train fans in Japan who are female and also seen blogs by some of them. True to say, they like the cute side of trains like advertisements and drawings, especially like the recent Sebu trains that feature Galaxy Railway 999. Such things attract females more than just the electric motor and inverters that are not always the mens’ cup of tea as well.

Quote:
“I think men tend to like trains more. Maybe it’s in the genes.”

True to speak, just like above, genes play a large part. Although there are females who like technical aspect of things, the numbers do not exceed that of men. But think on the bright side, there are less men who like cute things than things cold. So isn’t that an equivalent?

From the bus article:

Quote:
“I will check if the air-conditioner duct is leaking, or if the engine is making noise or emitting too much heat in the carriage, and feedback to the operators.”

By common sense I wouldn’t do that every trip, every day. I would only look out for serious cases of engine malfunction. Ears not only play a good part here but identifying the correct component of error. An ‘engine vibration’ is different from the compressor vibrating, hence this takes experience. So far I have only feedback about serious problems that will lead to operational hazard and they are too kept confidential from others.

Nonetheless because I love the technical aspect and spending so much time on it, feedback to operators is not really the thing to do all the time, cause I came to the understanding that operators cannot tend to every small problem. So in the future if you want to try doing the same thing, think about the money going in to this problem, whether there will be any operational problems arising, before making the move.

A tour on the Mercedes-Benz O 405 and Dennis Dart was organized by Bus Culture group on 30th January 2010. SBS278S and SBS8009A were chartered. Some photos of the event as follows.

First day of 963R as passengers ask for directions

A clear sky as the Dart is being caught attention of

The side views

The upright inline-6 of the Dennis Dart (Cummins 6BT)…

to the horizontal inline-6 of the Mercedes-Benz O405 (OM447h, 447.908)

Letterings on the original Cummins product

On the way to cross the Yishun Dam

One generation apart; the Mercedes-Benz O 405 G Euro 1

Square butts

Under the Winter Skies

Strong wall of reporters

The unique shape of gear selector on the Dennis Dart

A service that it will probably not run in the future

Flatted factory unit at Bukit Batok St 23 catches fire

SINGAPORE: A fire broke out in a unit at Bukit Batok Street 23 on Tuesday morning.

The ground floor unit of a flatted factory at Block 2019 was in flames when civil defence officers arrived at the scene at around 10am.

The unit deals in electrical products.

No one was injured in the fire, which was brought under control in 20 minutes.

- CNA/yb

A fire occurred at Blk 2019 Bukit Batok Industrial Estate yesterday (26 Jan 2009), 0958 hrs, destroyed two warehouses and damaged another one.

Following photos are taken around 1800 hrs.

The fire gutted at least a vehicle outside the warehouse

Large amount of black smoke darkened the exterior walls and windows of units above

Note the melted office structure

Spent extinguishers in the attempt to put out the fire

Water constantly pumped into the scene of the fire

Extinguishing extends into the night as the Light Tender comes

Three Toyota forklifts and several crates of electronic goods were the only items saved from the fire. No one was injured in the incident.