Railway Age plans Trans-Siberian Centennial Special - train to run original route - column

Railway Age plans Trans-Siberian Centennial Special

England Packing's distinction as one of the few companies in the country exporting broiler hatching eggs helped it to win its largest contract ever.Picture her thus, bowed down, captured for ever a woman among cabbages. Around her the landscape grins."He has a lot of insight and spends time thinking about new and innovative ways to make money," Pam Martin says of her father.There were 576,000 eggs shipped on each plane. That took 16,000 cases, or two tractor-trailer loads, to fill the plane. Over the year, England Packing was responsible for filling 70 planes of eggs to Iraq.Eyes stung with light, she blinks and vast fields of cabbage dance in her vision, like sea their colours reflect the sky bounce from her clothes spill into wood.Several years after its start, Jack England's business had grown to include contracted growers, whose chickens England sold. He bought a chicken processing plant in Pine Bluff in the late 1960s. In 1968, he sold the plant and his entire chicken processing operation to Valmac Industries Inc., which later sold it to Tyson Foods Inc.To commemorate that landmark in the world's railway history, Railway Age in May 1991 plans to sponsor a special train that will trace the route of the original Trans-Siberian Express from Vladivostok (or perhaps Nakhodka) to St. Petersburg (now Leningrad), 6,181 miles.She struggles through the gate. It is still strong, but the fence leans further palings creak from the nail, shine like bone.She is the farmer. This is her work. A cold sun turns leaves into hard silver coins.For almost 20 years, that has been the backbone of England Packing's business. And that specialty has allowed England Packing to expand its business throughout the world from little Rison (population 1,409).This 100th anniversary train will be made up of the finest equipment available. It will have the full and enthusiastic support of the Soviet Railway Ministry, which has agreed to offer extraordinary concessions in the spirit of world railway interchange of information and fellowship. While the special will follow the route of the first through train, it will run on an expedited schedule, somewhat faster than today's eastbound No. 2, the Rossiya, which takes seven days from the east coast to Moscow. Our special train will, however, make a 24-hour stopover at Irkutsk, Siberia--almost the halfway point--close by Lake Baikal.She bends into that thin soil. Dirt rasps her hands, clings like dark crescent moons under nails.

The special will be operated with a minimum of 45 passengers and a maximum of 75. It is imperative that those interested so indicate now. Write me at Railway Age, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. When there is sufficient positive response, the Soviet Railway Ministry will work with us on final preparations.

Author: Robert G. Lewis

A cabbage garden

From the painting by Jane Sutherland, 1896

"We've got a big map of the world with a red dot for every country where we ship eggs," she says. "It's full of dots."At least a dozen officials of the Railway Ministry will deadhead east to be aboard the westbound special at all times, and will be available in a dedicated conference car for daily briefings to describe the railway and to answer questions about operations. During our 24-hour stopover at Irkutsk we'll have a give-and-take session with area railway officials. A representative of each of the railway disciplines will be present.But England Packing already had put up a performance bond to complete the contract.Forty years later, England Packing Co., which sells broiler hatching eggs throughout the world, relies extensively on automation.Much of the company's exporting is to northern Mexico and islands in the Caribbean, but the eggs also are shipped to Canada, Panama, Costa Rica, Columbia, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Guyana and Europe. And a big percentage of the eggs are sold in the United States, Martin says.The trip will originate at Tokyo; transportation to the USSR will be by Far Eastern Shipping Co. steamship, departing from Yokohama--a two-day, two-night journey. All sleeping accommodations and all meals are included for the 14 days Tokyo to Helsinki.("When the line was being planned, most of the landowners refused to have the railway pass through their property. The builders took their problems to the Tsar, who called for a map, ruler, and pen. He drew a straight line to determine the route. At one point, his thumb which was holding down the ruler extended over the edge and onto the map and when he drew the line he followed the outline of his thumb. Hence the kink, which I'm told exists for no obvious geographical or civil engineering reason.")The 14-day all-expense trip from Tokyo to Helsinki will be priced at $6,500. Arrangements are planned to make best possible air fares available for those flying from the U.S. West Coast and other points to Tokyo, and returning westward from Helsinki.It is also one-third owner of Diamond Lakes Poultry, an egg production center in Glenwood, Martin says. England Packing now has 200,000-250,000 hens producing eggs, Martin says.

Picture her thus, bowed down, captured for ever a woman among cabbages. Around her the landscape grins.

Author: Carolyn Morwood

Rison firm sells worldwide: England Packing ships eggs by the millions

WHEN JACK ENGLAND BEgan his chicken business in Rison in 1953, everything was done by hand. The chickens were fed from 50-pound bags poured into a wheelbarrow. Medicine for the chickens was poured into their water.

(Actually, not quite as straight as the crow flies. There's one kink, and IRJ Editor Mike Knutton reminds me of the following story purporting to explain it:She thinks of her brother planing wood into shape, hammering in long evening light, years past. He is dead now, drowned in a flashflood, rescuing stock.England Packing's own fleet of nine tractors and trailers delivers the eggs throughout the country, to the Mexican border and into Canada."With |the North American Free Trade Agreement~, we're hoping we can expand even more into Mexico and Canada," Martin says.Martin is England's oldest child. Her brother, Jay England, is president of the company and Jack England is chief executive officer.She grasps the wheelbarrow's solid shafts, hands fit the smooth places the work of years honed into wood.Among the cabbages, she is alone, again.Jack England, 72, is still involved in the business. "He's had a lot of good ideas in his lifetime," his daughter says.Those invited to join the special include all members of the rail fraternity--railroaders, transit authority personnel, suppliers, and consultants to the industry.At Vladivostok on May 19, 1891, Russia's Tsarevich Nicholas filled a wheelbarrow with earth by his own hands and emptied it onto an embankment to commence construction of the easternmost section of the great Trans-Siberian Railway.Baikal is the world's deepest lake, at 6,365 feet; it is said to contain one-sixth of the world's fresh water. When the railway was opened, trains crossed Baikal by car ferry; in winter, track was laid across the ice. Now the line arcs around the southern tip of the lake.Nothing moves in her landscape but the wind is restless, frays smoke from the fire she left burning in the hearth, thin soup for lunch.The special will be operated with a minimum of 45 passengers and a maximum of 75. It is imperative that those interested so indicate now. Write me at Railway Age, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. When there is sufficient positive response, the Soviet Railway Ministry will work with us on final preparations.In the 1970s, England Packing began buying and selling broiler hatching eggs."Now we have automatic feeders, automatic water, automatic lights, automatic curtains, automatic egg gatherers," says Pam Martin, vice president of the company."At the time, the |Middle Eastern~ country everyone was concerned about was Iran, not Iraq," Martin says. "My father made three trips to Baghdad and my brother and I went there once. When we went there, we could see things were not as they should have been, that the people were oppressed."The train will lay over two days at Moscow, with time allotted for a wrap-up session with members of the Railway Ministry. A final run over the October Railway will take us straight as the crow flies from Moscow to Leningrad.Martin says it's hard to estimate how many countries receive England Packing exports.Through the rough cloth of her dress her hands push at her bones She straightens her back, and turns.England Packing, with 30 employees, has grown significantly in the past several years and plans to add two new chicken houses at Rison (Cleveland County) this spring to double its total to four.

"With |the North American Free Trade Agreement~, we're hoping we can expand even more into Mexico and Canada," Martin says.

Author: David (American novelist) Smith

Wheelbarrow screener: sifting soil or compost is easier with this two-piece screener that fits into a wheelbarrow

This Gardening Tool puts screened soil and compost exactly where you need it - in your wheelbarrow. The screener has two parts: the base that fits securely over the tray of the wheelbarrow, and a shallow screener box that slides along the base. Screener boxes can be built for various uses, from a 1/4-inch mesh for fine sifting to a 2-inch inch for coarser work.

The idea evolved innocently enough from a conversation last summer with a friend named Caroline. She and her young family had recently moved into a stately old house whose gardens were in even worse shape than the gutters. All summer long the yard was in an uproar. One day, during a lull in the landscaping. I noticed a rusty old wheelbarrow filled with bushy heads of green and red leaf lettuce. The vegetable garden, it seems, was being dug up to make way for the pool.Truth told, Bud took the concept of lettuce in a wheelbarrow a whole lot more seriously than Caroline and I had. Bud's idea was to create a gourmet salad bar on wheels. Like Caroline, he considered portability a key benefit of this mobile propagation technique, although he used the wheelbarrow to roll his tender crops out of the harsh afternoon sun rather than into it. To foil slugs, he parked the wheelbarrow in a slightly different spot in the Sunset test garden each night. Gophers? No problem here, he announced with a smile. Drainage? Rust had taken care of that. And Bud knew that the short root systems of lettuces and similar plants lent themselves perfectly to the average wheelbarrow's shallow dimensions.COMPOST BINS ARE a free source of the best organic material for your garden beds. Just toss in garden clippings and kitchen scraps, and soon you'll have nutrition-rich plant food. However, to get top-quality compost, you need to separate twigs, rocks, and undecomposed vegetable matter from the good stuff.Next construct the screener box out of four lengths of 2x4 lumber. Make sure the screener box is wider than the base by at least 3 inches. This width will allow you to rest the screener box on the base as you move it back and forth while screening soil. Notch the lumber to create handles, as shown in the technical drawing.Enter Bud Stuckey, Sunset's resident horticulturist and ace gardener. Bud quickly got into the spirit of things. He filled a beat-up wheelbarrow with potting soil and compost fertilized with fish emulsion, then planted it with various kinds of lettuces as well as endive, parsley, nasturtium, basil, and chives.Sand the wood surfaces and seal the frame and tray with polyurethane. The final step is to rub a candle on the bottom of the tray and the tops of the frame's 1-by-1s so the tray slides easily.

You can use the screener to mix potting soil, then pot plants directly from the wheelbarrow. Soil or compost screened into the wheelbarrow is also easy to transport to another location.

Author: Andrew Malik

Build a compost sifter on wheels

It's easy to build and easy to use

Galvanized 14-gauge staplesCut the wood according to the dimensions in the drawings. Assemble the frame by screwing the 1-by-1s flush to the bottom of the inside face of the 2-by-4s with the 2-inch screws (predrilling will help prevent splitting). Screw the two 1-by-4 crosspieces to the bottom of the 2-by-4s.Cut a rectangle of hardware cloth larger than the screener box. Bend the edges of the wire over the screener box and fasten it to the sides with heavy-duty staples. An alternative to the staples is small finishing nails; hammer them in halfway, then bend them over and hammer them flat.Meanwhile, back at my house, the family lettuce patch was producing so much that we were buying balsamic vinegar by the gallon. Unwittingly, our older son, Sam, added the final element to this mobile gardening story. As most children do, Sam took great pride in the garden he helped plant. He enjoyed the gentle act of harvesting ("Prepare to die!" he'd bellow as he hacked at the heads). Most of all, he loved washing the newly picked greens. His method was, and is, singular--a rinse with the garden hose in a child-size plastic shopping cart. After an invigorating spin around the lawn, he would pronounce the lettuce washed--and drained. Call me indulgent, but if that's all it takes to get him to eat his greens, so be it.6 feet of 1-by-1Now, if I could just figure out a way to make eggplant fun...SandpaperYou can use the screener to mix potting soil, then pot plants directly from the wheelbarrow. Soil or compost screened into the wheelbarrow is also easy to transport to another location.LETTUCE IN A wheelbarrow? Don't look at me--it wasn't my idea. Blame it on Caroline. I didn't even plant the stuff. Blame that on Bud.8 #10 3 1/2-inch drywall screwsTo use the screener, place the base in the wheelbarrow tray and lay the screener box on the base. Place two or three shovelfuls of soil or rough compost in the screener box and sharply jerk the screener box back and forth on the base. The material will sift through the screen.The measurements shown in the technical drawing fit my wheelbarrow. Since not all wheelbarrows are the same size you should adapt the plan to fit your own wheelbarrow. The most important measurement is the width of the top rim of the wheelbarrow tray. This measurement will determine the size of the base, which should fit snugly over the top of the wheelbarrow.10 feet of 1-by-2Screw the tray's 2-by-4 side and end pieces together using 3 1/2-inch screws. Cut the screen to size with tin snips and secure it to the bottom of the 2-by-4s with galvanized staples. Screw the 1-by-2s to the tray's bottom, and screw a handle to each end.Instantly, Caroline's wheels started turning. "If you grew lettuce in a wheelbarrow," she mused, "you could move it around to catch the afternoon sun." Sun, in fact, is a problem in her yard, which is shaded by mature redwoods and oaks.5 feet of 1-by-4OKAY, BUT WHY LETTUCE? WHY A WHEELBARROW?Candle1 2- by 3-foot piece of 1/2-inch-square galvanized metal screenThe sifter consists of two parts: a frame that straddles most wheelbarrows (lengthwise or sideways), and a tray with a bottom made of metal screening. You fill the tray with material from the compost bin, slide it back and forth in the frame, and dump the leftovers from the tray after the good compost has fallen into the wheelbarrow.

Sand the wood surfaces and seal the frame and tray with polyurethane. The final step is to rub a candle on the bottom of the tray and the tops of the frame's 1-by-1s so the tray slides easily.

Author: Peter O. Whiteley

Lettuce in a wheelbarrow - gardening technique

How a crazy idea became a reality, and why it might not be so crazy after all

46 #6 2-inch drywall screwsFor tools, you'll need a handsaw, combination square, drill, hammer, screwdriver, tin snips, and paintbrush.The best way to do that is to use a sifter with a wire mesh bottom. Most sifters require you to hold them up as you shake them back and forth. The wood-framed sifter shown here gets a vigorous workout in Sunset's test garden, but, since it rests on a wheelbarrow, it puts little strain on backs and arms.The device is constructed from 2x4 lumber and a single piece of hardware cloth (or welded wire fencing). It can be assembled with nails, but for more strength, use 3-inch galvanized wood or lag screws in predrilled holes.2 sturdy metal handlesOur sifter was built with redwood, but you can use fir, cedar, or a pressure-treated wood. You'll need:Cut two pieces of 2x4 lumber to a length that will overlap the wheelbarrow by at least 1/2 inch on each end. Cut a notch in each end of both lengths of 2x4 by first sawing halfway through the lumber about 2 inches from the end, then using a wood chisel to finish the notch. Connect the two notched base pieces with shorter lengths of 2x4. Use a file to shape the notches so that the base fits snugly into the wheelbarrow tray.16 feet of 2-by-4

Now, if I could just figure out a way to make eggplant fun...

Author: Ben Marks

GUNS, BOMBS & RIOTS ..WE THOUGHT WE'D DIE

HOLIDAYMAKERS told of their terror last night after fleeing mobs armed with guns and clubs in Tunisia - as the Foreign Affairs Department insisted Irish people were safe.

She said that in December 2002 they shared a one-bedroom flat in Abington, Ouston, Chesterle-Street, before moving to a bigger two-bedroom home in nearby Milbanke Street in January 2007.He added: "The impression is that the relationship was a bit rocky and it only carried on because he was away."(c) Over what intervals is the graph of y above the x-axis, and over what intervals is the graph of y below the x-axis?(a) Find the equation that best describes the spread of the disease by plugging m and b into (2). Use this equation for the rest of this problem.(c) The graph of y is concave up at the beginning of the pandemic, and shifts to concave down by the end of the pandemic.In recent years, the calculus curriculum at Hollins University has included several interesting QR projects. For example, "Design of a Thrilling Roller Coaster" [2] and "Estimation of the Area of Virginia using Integration" [1] both use an interactive and technological approach for the application of curve sketching, optimization, and numerical integration in the solution of real-life problems. In these projects, students "collected" data by simply pointing and clicking within interactive JAVA applets. During fall 2009, students completed two livelier and more active QR projects, where they actually worked physically to create the data they were to analyze. Sharing these two projects is the purpose of this article.There are around 50 people who live in the troubled north African country.To collect data, one student kept track of the number of sharks after each minute. In each of the final two simulations, everyone had been exposed within 15 minutes. I pooled the data from these two rounds and calculated the percentage of students that were sharks after each minute. In addition, I entered 750 ordered pairs of data in the form (minute, ill) into MlNITAB. For all i e [0, 1, . . ., 14), I would enter the ordered pair (/, 0) into MINlTAB once for each student that was still a minnow after the /"' minute, and I would enter the pair (/', 1) into MlNlTAB once for each student who was already a shark after the /"' minute. I had MINITAB calculate best fit values of m and b based on these 750 ordered pairs using logistic regression, and I gave students these values along with a table of the percentage of students that were sharks after each minute.At Gatwick airport, relieved Jill Roe hugged sobbing daughter Lizzy, 18, after her return from the riot-torn nation.Ms Douglas, who was at Pauline's home when the family learned of Jacky's death, was forced to take sick leave from her job at South Tyneside Council."He was in a committed relationship and he lived with me - if he didn't, then why did he come home to me every weekend?" Mr Walling said: "The impression that's given from the statements is that he would break up with you and you would beg him to go back. He thought he was going back to the camp tomorrow and he would give in to keep the peace."(a) The graph of y is always above the x-axis.The purpose of this article is to present two very active applied modeling projects that were successfully implemented in a first semester calculus course at Hollins University. The first project uses a logistic equation to model the spread of a new disease such as swine flu. The second project is a human take on the popular article "Do Dogs Know Calculus?" [3]. These projects take interactivity to new levels in mathematics courses by actually requiring the students to engage in physical activity to generate the facts that they will analyze using calculus, while also presenting students with a life lesson to take with them after the course. The benefits that students get from these projects outweigh the loss of the small amount of lecture time required to collect the necessary data.Mary Grist, 66, of Chesterfield, arrived without any warning that the situation was deteriorating. She said: "Had I known that there was already trouble I would not have gone."CAPTION(S):

Police reportedly shot escaped prisoners and by-standers.

Author: SUSIE BONIFACE