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Post by class411 on Jan 31, 2018 11:38:52 GMT
"The Tube - A Underground History" is repeated on BBC4 this evening at midnight (tomorrow at 0000 hours).
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Post by class411 on Jan 26, 2018 9:04:05 GMT
Pretty amazing that it didn't break after hitting the buffers at that speed. This speed is surely implausible given the (lack of) damage to the front end shown in the news articles? Clearly still nasty - run into a wall at 8 mph and you will injure yourself... My comment was a gentle dig about Chris using 'break' instead of 'brake' - only made because of the serendipitous double entendre. As I'm 100% sure he knows the difference, I suspect that this is an example of a phenomenon caused by our brain's ability to 'multi-thread' whereby the bit that knows the differences between homonyms passes off a segment of prose to the bit that is very good at typing but clueless about semantic niceties.
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class411
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Post by class411 on Jan 26, 2018 8:55:22 GMT
Does your last comment indicate that the higher entry speeds is a feature that isn't going to be used? I took it to mean that we will no longer have trains creeping into terminal stations. When I first started regularly using a terminal station I genuinely thought, on the first couple of occasions that I witnessed a train arriving, that it was being driven by an inexperienced, and thus extra careful, driver!
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Post by class411 on Jan 23, 2018 11:42:14 GMT
It seems that the train hit at significant speed, estimated by one witness in the platform as "50 to 70 kilometres an hour" (30-45mph) and that it did not appear to break Pretty amazing that it didn't break after hitting the buffers at that speed.
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Post by class411 on Dec 20, 2017 16:07:02 GMT
I know this is going to sound unbelievably sad but are the white/blue indications colour changing LEDs or two types arranged alternately? Also is every unit deicer fitted or only select units? It would be quite unusual to get blue/white colour changing LED's as blue can be produced naturally but white is either a mixed or fluorescent effect. (And although mixing is technically possible, it would yield a blue light much dimmer than the white.) All 'colour changing' LED's are actually multiple LED's in the same package - the required colours being energised as required, so there is no logical difference between, say, a red/green colour changer and having two separate components, although the former is often neater in various ways. (i.e. wiring/mounting/more even coverage.)
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Post by class411 on Dec 13, 2017 17:43:00 GMT
I have one on iPhone called London Tube Tracker. If that’s any good? London Tube Tracker by Andy Drizen itunes.apple.com/gb/app/london-tube-tracker/id441139371?mt=8I wouldn’t say it works perfectly all the time, but it was useful this morning when it showed the next nearest tube to Wimbledon was at Fulham Broadway... my it was a fun morning! It's quite amusing to watch as trains escape from the network and make their way into various parts of London. There's one little chap that likes to go for a run in Holland Park, making for the Central line, before being unceremoniously yanked back to High Street Ken District line. It's fun to see just how far he gets before being recaptured. I've seen him nearly make it to the Bayswater Road.
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Post by class411 on Dec 11, 2017 10:01:09 GMT
If everybody stood behind the yellow lines until the front of the train had passed them it would make accidental one unders prior to embarkation very unlikely (I don't suppose it's very prevalent anyway but the safety elf is a very zealous little chap).
Of course, once the train has stopped it would be helpful if people, as far as possible, moved to stand next to the train, at the sides of the doors to allow optimum egress.
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Post by class411 on Dec 6, 2017 9:12:47 GMT
What I find most surprising about that report - apart from the fact that anyone thought a large group of passengers alongside live track was a good idea in the first place, was that when the manager realised what was happening his first action was not to go through whatever process was necessary to get the current turned off - NOW.
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Post by class411 on Dec 1, 2017 14:54:19 GMT
I think the tracks were removed by two scruffy individuals in a beat-up 1970's transit open-backed truck. (also containing two old central heating radiators and a scrap washing machine) Bound for Peckham or was it Oildrum Lane Sheperds Bush? Now an up-market housing development.
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Post by class411 on Nov 30, 2017 9:10:46 GMT
Some more factually correct headlines (that have not actually appeared - yet).
Government could reopen Whitstable to Canterbury line. HS2 could be built as MagLev. A new bridge could be built across the channel to take road traffic.
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Post by class411 on Nov 23, 2017 8:13:50 GMT
I presume you mean apart from sensing the ambient noise? It could sense a variety of things (volume, frequencies et cetera), as to what LUL do with these data - perhaps that is the question? Nice.
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Post by class411 on Nov 18, 2017 19:28:15 GMT
There are even weirder ways of doing things.
My mother used to talk about five week months making it hard for people to budget. I could never understand this as most bills came in monthly and (February apart) there was only one day difference between the other months.
Eventually I asked her how you could get a five week month when all months were four weeks and three days or less.
It turns out that there are some companies who use (or used) a system of paying people (you're not going to believe this) on, e.g. the Tuesday after the first Thursday of the month - meaning you could get paid anywhere from the 6th to the 12th. God only know who came up with this bizarre scheme, or why, but there it was.
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Post by class411 on Oct 30, 2017 16:48:15 GMT
The Jaquard Loom was the very first programmed machine.
Joseph Jaquard deserves a place alongside Ada, Countess Lovelace, the pair being parents of programming.
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Post by class411 on Oct 9, 2017 16:21:56 GMT
I would suspect that there are four things at play:
1) Disruptions 2) Methods of statistics gathering and subsequent analysis 3) Normal random fluctuations 4) Older people who started commuting when services were better stopping commuting, and not being replaced by younger workers who see the state of services and choose not to use rail.
We really need to see at least one more year's worth of data before we can even tentatively decide if this is part of a trend, or merely a singular anomaly.
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Post by class411 on Aug 16, 2017 10:10:12 GMT
According to the FFTF Station by Station Review for the Northern Line Goodge Street has a minimum staffing level of two from 05:30 until 06:30 when it rises to three then goes up to four at 08:00 before going back down to three at 09:30. It goes back up to four between 16:30 and 19:00 finally going down to two after 21:00 until close of traffic. Goodge Street is part of Northern Cover Group C which also includes Tottenham Court Road, Warren Street and Camden Town (but not Mornington Crescent which is Cover Group A), if they're short staffed its obvious why they'd decide to shut Goodge Street rather than the other three. But does not explain why they are going to have an 'exit only' policy that includes the period when they have maximum staffing whilst allowing entry during most of the time they have minimal. I suspect that this planned restriction does not have anything to do with staffing.
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Post by class411 on Aug 16, 2017 9:54:35 GMT
The station is exit only during (and a little after) morning peak from September the 17th until Oct next year.
It seems unlikely that this is due to lift work as by their very nature lifts (particularly those with separate entrances and exits) don't really suffer from extra congestion when there is two way traffic.
Given Goodge Street's unusual separated flow structure, it will be very interesting to learn the reasons for this restriction - if anyone here knows.
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Post by class411 on Aug 9, 2017 10:23:31 GMT
...(and to an extent all three Shepherd's Bush stations). Shepherd's Bush has a lot more than three stations: East Acton (Even though it's quite clearly mainly serves East Acton) Goldhawke Road Shepherds Bush Market Shepherd's Bush (Central Line) Shepherd's Bush (LO) White City Wood Lane Of course, people will argue until the cows come home about where areas of London start and end, but this map, is what you will initially be led to via a Google search and agrees with what local people (AFAIAA) consider to be Shepherd's Bush.
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Post by class411 on Aug 8, 2017 8:22:44 GMT
It's a section of track that can be used for testing. Yes, the clue is in the name.
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Post by class411 on Aug 7, 2017 9:16:52 GMT
Well, it seems nobody knows why.
It would be unfortunate if this was something that was tried out in the early part of the last century, before modern plastics, and was shelved as unworkable because the bristles eroded too quickly, and has never been revisited.
Particularly as it could be fitted to passenger stock and, possibly, dramatically reduce slippage/flats, etc..
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Post by class411 on Aug 7, 2017 9:12:09 GMT
One good idea used on trains overseas, It is a lighting strip of LED's adjacent every doorway, which remains dark when the train is in motion, and turns Green once the doors begin to open. The strips turn to red just before the doors begin to close, and the door close buzzers begin to sound a few seconds after the strips turn red. When the doors are securely shut, the strips go dark again, and the train moves off. I was in China last week and some of their subway trains also use that strip of LEDs to indicate which side the doors will open on just before arriving at the station The Amsterdam ones do that as well. They have three colours, red, green and white. IIRC: White: Approaching station, this door will open. Green: egress/ingress Red: Door about to/is closing. It really is a very passenger friendly system. Much better than LU's occasional "The doors will open an the x hand side" (in English only, of course).
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Post by class411 on Aug 7, 2017 8:09:58 GMT
One good idea used on trains overseas, It is a lighting strip of LED's adjacent every doorway, which remains dark when the train is in motion, and turns Green once the doors begin to open. The strips turn to red just before the doors begin to close, and the door close buzzers begin to sound a few seconds after the strips turn red. When the doors are securely shut, the strips go dark again, and the train moves off. croydon trams has one that has LED lights above doors however the asterdam metro newer trains has led strips on sides of doorway frame red will flash when doors are closing Yes, I've used these and they work really well.
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Post by class411 on Aug 5, 2017 13:18:04 GMT
Does this mean the chimes will last for 3 sec or start 3 sec before door closure? Both. Not sure how else it would work...? Yes, of course. I was already thinking about the dual frequency chimes, but if you are only having one frequency, obviously you would sound then until the doors closed. Duh.
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Post by class411 on Aug 5, 2017 12:12:31 GMT
Does this mean the chimes will last for 3 sec or start 3 sec before door closure?
If the later, it's a fine balancing act.
Start too soon and people will get used to that, ignore them and continue to board. Start too late and they will close on people boarding.
I'm sure I've boarded a train somewhere where there is a low frequency chime a few seconds before closing and a higher frequency immediately before the doors close. This had the advantage that people could walk along the length of the train and feel safe that they would be able to get to a door before they closed.
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Post by class411 on Aug 4, 2017 14:04:18 GMT
The current system always seems rather complicated compared to the obvious solution of rotating brushes fitted to rolling stock, leading one to believe that the later idea wouldn't work.
Does anyone know if it's because:
1) It's just not effective 2) The brushes would wear away too quickly 3) The brushes would rapidly clog 4) It would be too difficult to maintain the correct pressure 5) Something else
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Post by class411 on Aug 1, 2017 8:58:48 GMT
On London Underground, yes engineering trains have a battery loco at each end. This is because a large proportion of journeys to and from worksites involve at least one reversal. Both locos have a driver as it is not possible to walk from one end to the other in a tube tunnel (and even if it were it would take longer). On National Rail I think it varies depending on the location of the worksite and the route to get there. Do you know how drivers pass control from one end to the other?
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Post by class411 on Jul 31, 2017 17:13:35 GMT
Any chance of getting back on topic?
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Post by class411 on Jul 30, 2017 14:53:08 GMT
hmmm reading the above I will tell my wheel chair bound friend that it is best to stick with the taxi. I do wonder if we discriminate against more people by removing seats... A very good point. I have often pondered if the money spent on wheelchair accessibility by LU would be far better spent in providing free taxi journeys to people in wheelchairs. Such a move would allow less stressful journeys for wheelchair users, and would allow LU to use capital for other improvements.
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Post by class411 on Jul 29, 2017 7:26:19 GMT
TBTC abd BCT anyone?
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Post by class411 on Jul 28, 2017 8:01:08 GMT
OLE? Object Linking and Embedding?
I've seen telecom masts with full metal jackets at the base that I always assumed were to deter casual climbing attempts.
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Post by class411 on Jul 26, 2017 16:17:22 GMT
Is the running of the 38 planned to be a regular (if not frequent) occurrence?
I wanted to go on this trip but my brother is getting married that weekend and the selfish sod wouldn't postpone it.
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