RTWP Blog Index
The Railway Technical Web Pages site has its own blog. This contains technical and operational updates, discussions on railway issues and comments on some of the myths, legends and exaggerated stories that the industry sometimes fall victim to. This page is the index to all the blog postings published up to July 2011. August's postings will be added at the end of the month.
Blog Index
| Post Title & Date | What it's about | |
|---|---|---|
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New Infopaper Published today 13 September 2011 | RTWP has published a new Infopaper, "Metro Operations Planning". |
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Rail Factoids 6: Community Railways 10 September 2011 | Here I offer some facts about the railways in Britain that are nominated as "Community Railways" by the Department for Transport (DfT). |
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Return from Blackpool 9 September 2011 | My return trip by rail from Blackpool |
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A day trip to Edinburgh and Blackpool 7 September 2011 | The blog of my trip by rail to Edinburgh and Blackpool |
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Darwin moves out of the jungle 6 September 2011 | The railways in Britain have been developing an information system called "Darwin". An interesting article about Darwin, has been written by Clive Kessel of Rail.co. |
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Back to Work 6 September 2011 | A quick update following my trip away. |
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Rail Factoids - 5 GWML Electrification 23 August 2011 | The head of electrification for UK's Network Rail, Peter Dearman, gave some statistics on the GWML electrification in an interview with Rail Technology Magazine (June/July 2011). |
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Do railway staff need better training? 22 August 2011 | Some seriously long delays on the railways in Britain, show a desperate need for better staff training so trains can get moving after failures. |
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Time for lean thinking on the railway 20 August 2011 | Lean thinking is a new way of approaching how work is done throughout an organisation's project delivery process, with the principal aim of maximising value and minimising waste. It's long overdue on the railways. |
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Rail Factoid - 4 19 August 2011 | Passengers carried in the Underground and the UK. |
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Jerusalem LRT opens tomorrow 18 August 2011 | An article in The Guardian newspaper describes the tensions and problems that have caused the project to stall and restart several times over the last decade. |
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High Speed Rail - Yes or No? 17 August 2011 | With all the debates about high speed rail and whether it should be provided or not in various countries around the world, it's difficult to decide the rights and wrongs of the issue. |
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More on UK rail fare increases 16 August 2011 | A passenger asks why trains fares are "so expensive". |
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New UK rail fare increases 16 August 2011 | Again, an attempt to price people off trains to reduce overcrowding. |
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Australian High Speed Rail 11 August 2011 | How much? |
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Rail Factoid - 3 11 August 2011 | Cost of a monorail in Sao Paulo. |
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So you want to build a metro? 10 August 2011 | Some basic ideas about city size and possible costs. |
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Rail Factoids - 2 9 August 2011 | More facts. |
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"Go by Plane" - says National Rail 9 August 2011 | The UK's National Rail Enquiries website is advertising plane travel! |
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Rail Factoids 8 August 2011 | A new series of information about railways to try to get some real and verified facts, particulary costs. |
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Some Definitions 7 August 2011 | There are many names used to describe railways in their various forms. Just to clarify any confusion, here I offer some definitions. |
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Letters to First Great Western 6 August 2011 | A commuter on the British route between Oxford and London, has blogged his correcpondence with the Managing Director of FGW every time he is delayed going to and from work. Brilliant and amusing. |
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New station design guidelines. 3 August 2011 | Network Rail has posted new station design guidelines. |
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New technical papers uploaded to RTWP 2 August 2011 | Two new technical "Infopapers" have been posted to the website. |
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Why Up and Down? 1 August 2011 |
Why do British railways refer to opposite directions of movement as "Up" and "Down"? This article explains all. |
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Thameslink ATO - I'm struggling 31 July 2011 | Thameslink is intending to introduce Automatic Train Operation (ATO) on their core section, using the European Train Control System (ETCS), and to get up to 30 trains per hour per direction with it. I'm wondering how they will do it.. |
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Diesel Page Update 30 July 2011 |
This just notifies readers that I posted an update to the Diesels Page. |
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Idling Diesels 29 July 2011 |
People often complain about idling diesel locomotives in stations and railway yards. This article looks at the issues. |
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Teach your childern railway safety 27 July 2011 |
A new campaign telling us that now the school holidays are here, it's time to make sure your children are safe when they're out playing. |
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High Speed Work 26 July 2011 |
How the Norfolk & Southern Railroad in the US managed to upgrade a 100-mile section of track in an 8-day blockade. |
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High Speed Rail in Brazil 25 July 2011 |
Reasons for the difference between the price the government expected to pay what the bidders wanted. |
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"Kettled" passengers 21 July 2011 |
Some comments on how railway operators are failing to recover from their shutdowns in a reasonable time. |
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New Fleet on London's Victoria Line 20 July 2011 |
There's a new fleet of trains on London Underground's Victoria Line. The old stock has gone and there's a history of it being written. Memories welcome. |
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High Speed Rail in the US 19 July 2011 |
A great new map of the various high speed routes proposed in the US. |
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The Big Issue 12 July 2011 |
What is it? Costs? High Speed Rail? Upgrades? Suggestions welcome. |
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The ATC Bump 11 July 2011 |
The ATC bump is that jerk that you feel when the ATC controlled train stops. |
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Braking Curve 10 July 2011 |
I show how a braking curve is used to calculate how long it will take a train to stop from a given speed. |
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The 3-minute Rule 9 July 2011 |
I suggest that it's time the railways in Britain got to grips with what passengers expect in timekeeping. |
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Why Bombarider lost Thameslink 8 July 2011 |
There's a view that it seems to have been due to financing costs. The Thameslink deal was based on financing the order as well as building trains. |
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Disabled Toilets 30 June 2011 |
This is a bit of a rant about the idea that the use of such facilities should be restricted to disabled people. |
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Question about US diesel locomotives 30 June 2011 |
The answer was posted here. |
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Richard Trevithick's Birthday 13 April 2011 |
It was celebrated with a really nifty Google graphic. |
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New LU Signalling Contract 13 April 2011 |
This means that LU will have three different ATO systems, two of them on the same railway. |
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Electrify to Swansea 7 April 2011 |
There's a strong argument in favour of extending the Great Western electrification to Swansea. Actually, it'd be stupid not to. |
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Crow and cuts 7 April 2011 | I make some comments about Bob Crow the RMT union leader. About some things, I say, he's got a point. |
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New Class 379 in London 28 March 2011 |
A few criticisms of the new trains being used on the UK's Stanstead Express route. |
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Class 357 Corrosion 27 March 2011 |
Some caustic comments about the discovery of corrosion found on a train of mixed steel and aluminium construction. |