DMI at Earl's Court

Cor, have to check this out!

I've always thought they could have put "Charing Cross Jubilee Line" style-DMIs in the centre of each island platform at Earl's Court - with the DMIs arrowpointing which the platform the train was due to arrive at as it approached. Sort of like:

1 BARKING -> 1 min
2 <- EDGEWARE ROAD 3 mins

This would still allow them to retain those museaum-pieces that everyone's so fond of, for some reason.

It's not that anyone is fond of them (although many of us are); the reason they were kept and restored is that they are items of historical interest as decreed by English Heritage.

The new DMI's are a nice addition, but they're only of use if you arrive on the platforms via the stairs at either end - if you arrive on a train and change to another, you'll not know they're there and the benefit is lost.

Also, the station staff doing the announcing from their position in the middle of the platforms cannot see them, so I wonder how that will pan out.......

And as Jim mentioned, I wonder how they'll stand up to last minute service recovery interventions...

Having seen them now turned on (the DMIs, not the station staff) I believe that the DMIs take the approaching train information from Trackernet. Don't think it is from the TD reciever/holding set.
It does predict the platform in advance - but only for the trains ex West Brompton or High Street Kensington!

I would hope it does

I don't think it can guess departure times of Olympia - HSK Shuttle trains, that would be useful, as those punters still don't know when there train is due until 1-2 mins before.

If the system could "see" the timetable, and realise the train is sitting in Olympia expected to leave on-time, display the arrival time for that train.

Surely they could flash the "CORRECTION" mesage and readjust the information accordingly?

I really don't see this issue as insurmountable. The fact that any DMIs are there at all (and function OK) blows that old chestnut that DMIs would be impossible at Earls Court firmly out of the water.

As others have mentioned on this thread, the siting of these small DMIs means many people won't see them. Nonetheless, they seem to work and are able to obtain their data from trackernet, so I really cannot see a valid reason why full-size DMIs could not be installed at EC anymore. They could easily install full DMIs whilst leaving the old indicators to keep English Heritage happy.

Confirmed, Earls Court DMI is derived from Trackernet - and is one of my colleagues projects.

There are a goodly number of tweaks in the software between Trackernet and what is displayed. Being myself an infrequent user of Earls Court station I've not been through there since commissioned, but something was certainly needed for those of us less familiar with the place.

--
Nick

The current DMI/TD system on the likes of the District and Piccadilly uses 1960's based signalling technology - trackernet, which is only intended as an internal information tool, gets it's information from the same 1960's based signalling technology.

Trackernet is still a new thing and is notoriously unreliable - if I had a pound for every time I compared what I see on trackernet with the view outside the window at Upminster, and how often the two differ, I wouldn't need to work again.

Bottom line is there will never be a major improvement in the information available whilst the current signalling system is in place - what we are getting now is already pushing the limits of it's capabilities.

Trackernet is atleast nearly 10 years old first time i saw it it was installed in whitechapel cabin to help to know when a reverser was approaching on the e/b. It took its info from the Baker st computer which controls Aldgate / Aldgate East.

it has been around alot longer then 5 years at first only a select few were privy to the internal site where trackernet was i.e signal ops and DOM's now service managers and of course line controllers. I beleive they done the computer control lines first as it was more easier to do then they started on the more conventional lines. Whitechapel only got it to see the junction at Aldgate and Aldgate East it served 2 things

1 To see a reverser on the approach to Whitechapel
2 If a train was on the curve between Aldgate East and Liverpool St waiting so a Met or Circle could get in front. They didnt send another H&C towards Aldgate East just for it to sit in the platform buggering up the District. It was also good to see when a ELL train was approaching as the T/D system is not very good at Whitechapel never has been.

This link will work

www.flickr.com/photos/24772733@N05/3958705689/

A good one today!
(apologies shaky pic)

tinyurl.com/ybmrx8r

Dam I saw that as well, though didn't take a pic ! Quite interesting, wonder where tracker-net gets that description from?

Also it was getting all the destinations wrong this AM, then when the train arrived instead of correcting the screen to show the correct destination, it just disappeared off the screen as though there was no train, even though the train was sat in the platform!

Then later I noticed it had changed and was just displaying "Next train information is not available. Please ask a member of staff" on both sides, for several hours at least it seems!!

because of the way earls court works it will show a wimbledon non stop as a wimbledon on the sign. its like a BS (barking siding) will show a barking and a ES (ealing then ealling common depot / stow) will still show as a ealing broadway on a t/d or dot matrix sign.

They are (still?) showing that as of today, as well.

Oh well, so much for that. It was nice while it lasted ...