ARM Club 1/ARM_CLUB_CD.iso/contents/sillies/silly8/T/TrainSpot

Text File | 1994-02-18 | 6KB | 105 lines

        Discussion on the theory & practice of "Train spotting".
                             by G4BLT and G4OUG


Like many other Britons above a certain age, I am fascinated by interesting
railways, including of course STEAM railways. However, despite spending many
happy hours as a kid sticking old-fashioned pennies onto the railway line,
(so the steam trains would squash them into interesting shapes), I have
never really understood the common-or-garden TRAIN SPOTTER.

I had thought that these once-common creatures were now extinct, but I
discovered today that this is most certainly not the case. Indeed, far from
being extinct, the train spotter has actually EVOLVED! Let me explain...

My XYL and I were on the 16:10 from London Kings Cross to Wakefield Westgate
today, when we espied some train spotters. The first two were of the
familiar variety - a father and son carefully noting numbers in notebooks.
However, following on behind was an interesting specimen, who was talking
rather earnestly into his Pearlcorder (or similar pocket dictating machine).

No sooner had we marvelled at this spectacle, when something even more
advanced hove into view. Super-train-spotter, (as I shall call him), was
walking along the platform, carefully entering all the details of
locomotives and rolling-stock into his portable PSION ORGANISER!!!! We were
mightily impressed I can tell you. (I promise you this is true, and not just
another 'BLT wind-up.)

This set me thinking how the train-spotter, (a much misunderstood and
maligned creature), might evolve even further. Suddenly, I realised the
obvious step for him to follow. In future, all locomotive and rolling-stock
will have giant BARCODE labels painted on the side. Super-dooper-train-
spotter will be armed with a highly-sensitive infra-red laser barcode
reader. All he has to do is wave this reader at any loco or carriage as he
passes, and the appropriate information will be immediately transferred into
a portable computer. In the case of moving trains, the spotter merely has to
remain still, with the reader pointing towards the track, and the details
will be read as the train passes at speeds up to and above 225km/hr
(140mph). Simple!!

Some things will probably never change however; evolution has yet to improve
on the traditional ANORAK protection against the elements!

With tongue very firmly in cheek...

73 from Rick G4BLT @ GB7WRG in Wakefield - Sat 05 Oct 1991 23:08 UTC

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          Hi all, Chris here. Further to Rick's (G4BLT) missive on
train-spotters, I offer the following totally useless information....
          It would seem from photographs of early steam locomotives that
bar-coding in an elementary form was evaluated many years ago, by painting
stripes around the boilers of the said locos. These varied in colour,
depending on the region or railway company. They were only capable of
identifying a particular type of locomotive from the spacing of the
stripes; individual locomotives were not uniquely identified by this
system.
          The system failed. Although it was easy to implement the coding
system during the manufacture of the locomotives, the bar-code
("stripe-code") reading equipment occupied a volume equivalent to that of a
medium-sized signal-box. It also ran very hot, due to the number of valves
involved with early computer designs. These problems put the system beyond
the reach of the average train-spotters' pocket, and caused great annoyance
and inconvenience to the signalman.
          Rolling-stock was not stripe-coded anyway, thus limiting the
potential use of the system as a whole.
          Although some major organisations could afford to install the
stripe-code reading apparatus, they soon discovered another snag. The speed
of the decoding system was not high. Processor clock speeds even lower than
4.77 MHz were the order of the day. This meant that any locomotive passing
a decoding station at greater than 5 miles per hour could not be
identified.
          Things are very different now. All a train-spotter needs is a
bar-code reader and a portable packet radio system. He (or she) places this
apparatus at the track side, ready to read any and all vehicles passing by.
He (or she) then goes home.
          The trackside system detects the passing vehicles, and sends the
information via the packet link to the train-spotters' home computer. The
computer is also connected to a CD-ROM, containing the latest version of
the Ian Allan "ABC of Locomotives".
          On receipt of the packet data, the computer system presents, on
the VDU, a picture of the locomotive and/or rolling-stock which recently
passed the trackside equipment. Super-VGA is available as an optional
extra, but many software houses feel that only grey-scale is necessary,
bearing in mind the average condition of most rail vehicles these days.
          Passing vehicles can, of course, be stored on disk, allowing the
enthusiastic train-spotter to pursue his (or her) hobby while they are out.
          Having said that, the only reason to go out is to install another
trackside bar-code reader. This can be done at any time, so special
clothing is not necessary in order to take up this modern version of the
hobby of train-spotting.

          Well, thats enough from me. I would just add, that we (the whole
family) are keen railway enthusiasts. We always make a point of visiting
"preserved" lines when on holiday, etc., and have spent many a happy day
breathing a mixture of steam, carbon monoxide, hot oil fumes, and so on.

This bull is not intended to be taken seriously!

          But ...... Could it actually happen?

73 de Chris G4OUG @ GB7SAM.

*** EOF