Eureka Models

      In our last post it was pointed out that the Eureka team was about to head off to the factory in China, partly to escape from the extremes of winter weather then being experienced back home.
      On this point alone the trip succeeded beyond our wildest dreams when we exchanged Sydney's  winter conditions for the most extreme summer heat which Nanjing and its environs were suffering at the time of our arrival.
      In the seven days we spent in Nanjing the day time peak temperature was over 42 degrees C every day. Two days of site-seeing were made extremely difficult by the heat.
      Fortunately as the accompanying photo shows, the factory was well aware of the problems posed by the heat and deployed a sophisticated array of equipment to improve the working environment of the staff in these extreme heat conditions.
     Unfortunately, the impact of the deployment of these advanced cooling devices may not have achieved the desired outcomes as whilst we were there the assembly line staff placed a ban on the daily hour of scheduled over-time because of the difficult working conditions. 

      Fortunately though, largely due to the heroic endeavors of the workers on the assembly line the 40 class is now almost complete with only the fitting of the sound decoders remaining to be carried out. The decoders have arrived in China from the manufacturer in Canada and will be fitted and tested this coming week.
      Half of the total shipment will then be air-freighted to Aus with the remaining half following as normal by sea.      
      The Eureka staff took the opportunity to bring back three models from the production line (see accompanying photos).