Random Transport Chatter

[Pilot]

Nah, you can run a train through that! Just go nice and slow!

[YNM]

How ? The platform was very full then ?

According to a friend I know from up that way, the Class 333 EMUs have a thing where if the cab door at either end is open and the driver puts the master switch into forward, then the door closes.
Could have heard two beeps from somewhere and mistaken it as his signal or something.

Not the first time it's happened somewhere At least it isn't the train leaving without the driver

Well they should've go for the other cab door... Or, I don't know.

Here we do still have station master thing which does oversee all departures and pass through trains, least not those on the commuter lines (those on the commuter lines have platform security guard instead which doubles the job of overseeing the whole thing). Also the trailing cab is too often manned. Perhaps uncoupling the doors from the reverser would fix it ?

[Redirect Left]

Out of boredom, i'm going to try making a little text browser game. You have to direct incoming trains to a spare platform, and make sure it sets off again within it's departure time, failure to do this too frequently you lose the game. Starts off easy, but as time goes by, it dynamically adds more platforms trains become more frequent, until you're having to do something nearly every second (1 minute in game time). It randomly generates stations as destinations, which is where I instantly came across a station i'd never heard of before, and actually had to look up to make sure the game hadn't gained sentience and wasn't pulling station names out of its rear instead of the list of National Rail stations.
List of random stations - Starts off fairly normal, Crewe, Harpenden, Euston, Filey, places (probably) everyone knows to be real. Then it decided to really throw me a curveball with 'Blaenau Ffestiniog'. Had to read it twice, and then i had to google it. It is indeed a real station in Wales (where else, right?)

Also yes, i know due to the random station generation it attempts to send trains to stations that would never feasibly be a terminus. It gives me serious OCD problems too.

[Pilot]

Then it decided to really throw me a curveball with 'Blaenau Ffestiniog'. Had to read it twice, and then i had to google it. It is indeed a real station in Wales (where else, right?)

Aye, it's on the Southern End of the Conwy Valley Line, running from Llandudno Junction through places like Llanwrst and Betws-y-Coed. The Conwy Valley Line isn't really a valley, but more a climb up to Blaenau. From Blaenau, you can get on the Ffestiniog Railway to Porthmadog. From there you can go West to Pwllheli or East to Shrewsbury via Barmouth, Dovey Jn, Machynlleth, etc. At Dovey Jn, the line from Aberystwyth comes in as well. From Shrewsbury, you can head south on the mainline to Hereford, Newport and Cardiff, however, if you take the junction at Craven Arms, you will end up on the Heart of Wales Line through places like Llandrindod and Pontarddulais to Swansea (I think). Yes... Wales has some stupid place names and random little railways.

I could tell you really boring info relating to my job about most of them lines, but I won't bore you all

[Redirect Left]

I'm sure this little game will pull out a few more later down the line I need to look up. Good way to learn stations if nothing else

[Redirect Left]

The Office of Road & Rail (ORR) in the UK have announced their wish that rail companies do more to make their ticket machines more easier to understand, and that those who pay too much for their journey through confusion or lack of information provided by the machines should be refunded.

The ORR commissioned a series of mystery shoppers to use the machines, and found that;

• Nearly two-thirds (65%) could not see any information on the machines about the type of tickets which could or could not be bought
• More than half (57%) said the machines did not explain the times when peak and off-peak tickets were valid
• And nearly one-third (32%) said there was no information on the machines about ticket restrictions

BBC News
Hopefully this is the start of making these infernal machines more helpful.

[Geo Ghost]

I remember some ticket machines wouldn't have all the stations installed in them. Ebbsfleet used to be one missing from a number of machines!

It would be great to be able to enter the 3-letter code for stations on machines. Making it a lot quicker and easier for regular travellers.

[Kevo00]

I find it fascinating to track passengers through networks in OTTD using CargoDist to see which routes they use and in which volumes.

So do TfL in the real world - http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2017/02/heres- ... -the-tube/

[Redirect Left]

A second interim report into the Sandilands tram crash of Nov 2016 has been released. It states that some of the victims with fatal or severe injuries were ejected out of the smashed windows, and there were around 70 people onboard, instead of the 60 reported originally. The tram was found to be travelling at 46 MPH, instead of the 43.5 originally thought, the speed restriction of the area was 13 MPH, the data recorder reports that the driver applied the brake for two and a half seconds before the crash. There has so far been no indication of any fault with the tram that would have been a causing factor.

"Of the seven passengers who died, one was found inside the tram; two were found partially inside the tram; three were found underneath the tram; and another was found on the track close to the tram."

The late application of the brakes, and the absence of emergency braking, suggests that the driver had lost awareness that he was approaching the tight, left-hand curve. The RAIB is continuing to investigate the factors that may have caused this to occur

BBC Report after new info released
RAIB 2nd Interim Report.

The initial discussion on TT-Forums starts here for anyone wanting to re-read the event here, and the original BBC report is here.

[Kevo00]

So far it seems fairly open and shut that the vehicle was travelling too fast. Indeed, increased precautions have now been taken on the Croydon system and elsewhere.

[Pilot]

And, the BBC have some cheesy railway headlines yet again, this time with HS2 (See here)

One thing I do love is the fact that the farmer they interview is saying that a state of the art, 250mph railway will be "outdated in 10-15 years", whilst farming the old fashioned way

[Kevo00]

Wonderful! But how long will it be before they assign so much as a single bloke in a JCB to actually do some work on it?

[Redirect Left]

ugh, they've actually approved that.

[Translink]

So what's the story so far with the Great Central Railway bridge over the MML?

[Pilot]

So what's the story so far with the Great Central Railway bridge over the MML?

You can find information on what they're up to with it here.

[Redirect Left]

Does anyone know where I can download an icon set for rail routes? Looking for icons like this that I can arrange into any order I want, same as how Wikipedia does is where that image is taken from. I can't seem to see an easy way to download them off there in bulk for each possible route eventuality.

Have an idea to expand my current WIP browsergame with a bit extra.

[Dave]

I'd keep looking on Wiki - those will be licensed so you can use them. I'm sure they must be somewhere in bulk?

[Kevo00]

Possibly from Wikimedia?

[supermop]

Does anyone know where I can download an icon set for rail routes? Looking for icons like this that I can arrange into any order I want, same as how Wikipedia does is where that image is taken from. I can't seem to see an easy way to download them off there in bulk for each possible route eventuality.

Have an idea to expand my current WIP browsergame with a bit extra.

I've actually looked into those before - as I recall the line maps are written in some kind of mark up language. Take a look at the edit page for an article that features them. Frustratingly I never was able to find good documentation of how to use them or standards to follow (some editors/contributors seem to use the maps in quite different ways)

[Redirect Left]

I'd keep looking on Wiki - those will be licensed so you can use them. I'm sure they must be somewhere in bulk?

They are indeed of no licence, as they are "simple geometric images" (or words to that effect on wikipedia)

Possibly from Wikimedia?

I've not found a download link, other than the generic backup / mirror files for Wikipedia that'd take a month of sundays to download and sift through (it's > 500GB compressed i think).

I've actually looked into those before - as I recall the line maps are written in some kind of mark up language. Take a look at the edit page for an article that features them. Frustratingly I never was able to find good documentation of how to use them or standards to follow (some editors/contributors seem to use the maps in quite different ways)

The documentation i found was here. A good example of how it gets put together (that i found) is the page for the West Coast Mainline in the UK.