Westend simulations

Don't you find the sounds and visuals of movement, coupled with lack of actual movement makes you want to puke? I, and most of my colleagues come out of that thing with hamster cheeks.

Now that is very, very snazzy! (He says as somebody who does this sort of thing at the amateur end of the scale). I presume the main image is projected?

As for the lack of movement, it's theoretically possible to build a simulator which uses hydraulics or suchlike to simulate movement. Exactly how much that would cost is another question entirely! Airline simulators do this already, but I suppose it's a more integral part of their training!

The old simulator was made out of what looked like a metal shipping container. Entranced through a door in the side it had two sims at either end of it, with the "controllers" sitting inbetween the two. It too was front screen projection from an old fashioned, though for then high tec, red, green, blue CRTs projector. The video source being from a laser disc, which took an age to load and frequently crashed out. Comparing it to the new sim, the graphics were crude, of Sinclair Spectrum quality, and were overlaid on top of the video. The video featured 62's coming at you from the opposite direction and the colour light signals and BMBs floated in mid air, such was the crude alignment to the video. It also featured SVHS video recorders so those on the sim could bring in a tape and record themselves simming it............ermm, no thanks. A horrid piece of kit, that was over air-conditioned to keep the electronics cool, and the thing had a sinister halon fire extinguisher system installed inside, along with gas cylinders on the inside walls to protect the then valuable gear, which by today's standards would be worth about £2.50. It was primarily located behind the old White City training school, but was later relocated, by helicopter I believe to Hainault depot where it was used for awhile. What happened to it I don't know, maybe it's still around, but hopefully it was filled with dynamite and detonated far out to sea, or space.

The new sim by comparison is far more welcoming, but vomit inducing like it predecessor. The graphics are very good, but Australian looking as far as the punters go. Oh, and they bizarrely do sharp 90 degree turns when the exit the platforms. A good introduction the the stock and job, but for someone who's been on the real thing since we've had them, it's a novelty.

So the T/Ops don't get lulled into a false sense of security: it reinforces the dividing line between reality and training?