mawa's New Writeups

Deutsche Bahn Baureihe 716 (thing)

2003-12-14T15:00:04Z

Baureihe (Class) 716 is Deutsche Bahn's highest-performance class of snow blowers. Made partly by Beilhack, a company whose name has almost become a synonym for snow-clearing equipment, partly by then-Deutsche Bundesbahn's Meiningen repair facility, they were acquired in 1994 to clear the recently-opened Hanover-Würzburg high-speed line.

Two 716s exist. During winter, one each is stationed at Brunswick resp. Fulda; they spend their off-duty season at Fulda. Besides being very impressive machines, their most interesting feature is probably that the actual snow blower is mounted atop a pivot bearing and can be slewed by 180 degrees; this way the machine can clear track in both directions without having to be turned around at a station. It's also quite complex to operate a 716 as the distance between the both snow intake rotors, the height of both side ploughs, the orientation of both exhaust shafts and several other parameters can be adjusted individually for maximum…

Lentil soup (thing)

2003-12-14T11:04:18Z

Try this. It's good. And metric, too.

Great Unified Lentil Soup

1 medium-sized onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
50 g butter
1 chicken breast (or a comparable amount of other meat)
1 bunch of greens
1 bunch of spring onions
200-300 g red lentils
1250 ml broth (e.g. chicken)
2-5 potatoes
350 g mushrooms, e.g. edible boletus
250 ml milk
100 ml cream
1 tbsp tomato paste
juice of a lemon
salt, pepper, paprika, curry powder
1 bunch of chervil

Peel and dice onion and garlic. Roast gently with 30 g of butter in a large pot.

Add diced meat, keep roasting gently.

Dice greens and spring onions, add, and let it all simmer for about 5 minutes.

Add washed lentils, cover with broth.

Add diced potatoes. Cook at medium heat for about 30 minutes.

Slice mushrooms…

mouthwash (thing)

2003-09-16T12:17:11Z

Ever woke up in the morning with that incredibly bad party aftertaste in your mouth, tasting just as if a camel had slept on your tongue? And no chewing gum, no orange juice, no coffee, not even repeatedly brushing your teeth will make it go away?

Mouthwash to the rescue! It can come as a (usually alcohol-based) liquid to clean your mouth right away or as a concentrate you first have to mix with water. When gargling with it, the stuff goes farther down your throat than brushing your teeth ever will reach, and eventually it'll give you back the fresh taste you so crave.

Germany's most popular mouthwash, Odol, comes since 1893 as a concentrate in funny white glass bottles with a short, curved neck so it's easy to sprinkle a few drops into your beaker before adding the water. Its ingredients are (for "Odol ExtraFrisch"):

propylene glycol -- carrier
alcohol -- carrier
water -- solvent
aroma

…

InterConnex passenger car designations (idea)

2003-09-11T00:38:34Z

Of the three long-distance lines currently (September 2003) operated by InterConnex in Germany, the most recently-opened line (Rostock-Berlin-Cologne-Neuss) is served not by Talbot Talent DMUs as the other two, but by locomotive-drawn trains pulling refurbished Reichsbahn passenger cars.

Their designation scheme is about the same as Deutsche Bahn's, employing a capital-letter prefix indicating the car's class and lower-case letter flags appended to it.

Class codes

BE -- mixed Business/Economy car
E -- Economy car
T -- Traveller car

(Business and Economy cars are distinguished from Traveller cars only by a different colour code; the armrests, colour-code strips and exterior paint job are yellow instead of blue. Seating comfort and other amenities are strictly the same; Economy is essentially Traveller plus obligatory reservation,…

Deutsche Bahn Baureihe 298 (thing)

2003-08-26T21:35:24Z

Baureihe (Class) 298 is Deutsche Bahn's (i.e. DB Cargo's) diesel locomotive for heavy shunting and slow, midrange freight services. 298s came into being by conversion of existing locos (mainly 202 and 204) in the mid-1990s.

298 features a pneumatically-controlled fluid transmission comprising four torque converters, allowing for hydraulic braking, and a radio remote control for unmanned shunting. They can be MUed together; two 298s are pretty decent traction even for heavy trains in steep terrain.

Technical fact sheet:

Concept: B'B' layout (four axles in two bogies), both bogies driven by a diesel engine by articulated shafts from a central fluid transmission; a high-traction or a high-speed gear can be selected
Power:750 kW at 1350 rpm
Top speed: 80 km/h in high-speed gear, 33 km/h in high-traction gear
Total weight: 67.3 tonnes (16.8

…

quiche lorraine (thing)

2003-08-08T23:19:01Z

Ok. So I've got no idea what a pie shell is, probably some kind of ready-made dough thing. Anyway I'll give you a recipe where you make your own dough. Besides, this one has metric units.

Ingredients

250 g flour
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 tbs very cold water
125 g cold butter
100 g cooked bacon
100 g raw bacon
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
150 g hard cheese (Emmental, Gruyere or mountain cheese)
250 g cream
4 eggs
some pepper
1 bunch of chives or parsley

Instructions

Heap flour on table and make a little hole in the middle. Put cold water inside. Cut butter into pieces and arrange them around the "waterhole". Chop the entire heap up with a long knife until it turns into a mass of crumbs; knead them into a nice dough, but take care not to knead it too long or your hands will warm it up too much. Wrap in…