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Post by zbang on Sept 12, 2023 14:20:56 GMT
If all they do is deliver power, the USB-A outlets will last quite a long time (as long as there are A to C cables).
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Post by zbang on Sept 7, 2023 15:38:22 GMT
In that case, it wouldn't need one. I may be mistaken, aren't some of the BL's smaller than the stock they pull? Of course, if they're not moving at any appreciable speed, it also won't help much
Chris- I've read some of the past projects but aren't aware of anything ongoing.
On the side- I often find that the link redirect thing that ProBoards puts into the messages just doesn't work. It would be helpful to put the link URL as the link text instead of "this photo".
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Post by zbang on Sept 6, 2023 11:48:26 GMT
Thanks Tom, I'll pass. I know what Hot is- grew up in the Washington DC area where it regularly hits 35c in the summer with 70%+ humidity.
That aside, are there any plans to attempt mitigating the heat? Granted that having dumped probably a couple of megawatts into the tunnels every day for a hundred years, it'll take a while to cool down. (Somewhere I read about the temperature gradient outside the tunnel walls through the clay, but wouldn't be able to find that now.)
Reference- on average a human body dissipates about 100w, so think of a crowded carriage as having a 6-7KW heater in it.
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Post by zbang on Sept 6, 2023 7:11:53 GMT
Oh, yes. Many (most? all?) of the early systems depended on the trains to move the air. OTOH, don't at least some of the stations have fans? It would certainly be possible to temporarily add some. Not much comment on the costs, but I'd imagine that a few months of operation would not be cheap, and I'm not going to do the research and calculations of how much air must be moved to gain any appreciable cooling.
With a battery loco, to do this right someone would have to fit a battery loco with a baffle of a train profile (which would add air resistance and use more energy, shortening the available driving time).
Much would depend on what work is happening in the tunnels themselves.
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Post by zbang on Sept 5, 2023 21:05:24 GMT
One thing if Bakerloo went "dark" for a few months- if the ventilation was kept up it's overall temperature might drop a few degrees.
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Post by zbang on Sept 5, 2023 7:51:27 GMT
New power hungry trains, air-conditioning/cooler etc. Probably increase to the now standard 750VDC Hmm, I thought most of the tube lines were still 660v (don't know why, that's just stuck in my head). A 20% difference would be another line compatibility over any signaling differences; how would they get to Neasdon, then? (Assuming the J is 750, not 660.)
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Post by zbang on Sept 4, 2023 8:10:27 GMT
Ignoring the depot, what "modified power supply, signalling and tunnel ventilation" work is needed to accommodate new stock, at least in the tunnels?
(Any additional ventilation would be nice, that line is HOT right now.)
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Post by zbang on Sept 3, 2023 10:11:44 GMT
I would be somewhat surprised if the maintenance forces didn't have a fairly good idea of which parts fail more often and how many of anything to keep on the shelf - when the experienced fitter says "I don't think I've ever had to replace one of those" maybe keeping twenty on the shelf isn't necessary.
OTOH that doesn't always account for the extremely rare circumstances like collisions.
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Post by zbang on Sept 1, 2023 18:56:25 GMT
Not sure it matters, but are the approach profiles different? That is, does the Picc have a steeper rise leading up to the station?
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Post by zbang on Aug 30, 2023 7:49:13 GMT
Ah yes, the continuing animosity between the Deity of Farebox Recovery and the Deity of Public Convenience, and the Traveling Public giving both of them the side-eye.
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Post by zbang on Jul 5, 2023 22:53:42 GMT
And do you ask for 568.261 ml of ale ? Or milk ? Of course not -- Pubs usually serve pints and that's what I ask for. It matters not if it's an 20oz imperial pint, a 16 oz US pint, or 500ml; I'm not going to argue with the size as long as we all get the same and mine isn't half foam. Milk is sold in 500ml/1l containers, so that's what I get (rounding the package size and marking it on the package is perfectly fine).
Neither is relevant to land-based measurements made 150 years ago and where exactness is still important. (I will mention in passing that modern survey instruments are more accurate than actual chains, and that survey techniques have changed a bit over the years... go to Greenwich and you'll find multiple Prime Meridians, the position moved as techniques evolved. It's fascinating stuff.)
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Post by zbang on Jul 5, 2023 21:17:14 GMT
Don't you think it might be relevant for a 1st-time user to know if the train is going to stop more (~tube) or less (~mainline) often [or have a higher (tube) or lower (mainline) frequency service]? Not as much, more that it stops where they want to alight and the departure/arrival times. And the first-time visitor to London is likely to be within zones 1-4(?) which AFAIK are all all-stop services, at least for most services. (Don't forget there may be fare differences between modes, line identification cannot convey that.) In practice it means a trip e g taking 12 vs 21 min West Ham-Upminster mainline vs tube (yet 36 vs 43 Marylebone/BakerSt-Amersham) The same thing applies to Elizabeth vs DLR, etc = 8 vs 17 Woolwich~Canary Wharf [but, again, the frequency is another question] As an occasional tourist, I'm more interested in getting somewhere than shaving a few minutes off the time. Also, most visitors are more likely to use the mode they're already familiar with, which is probably the TfL metro lines, than saying "If I take the DLR, I'll get there faster but I've never been on the DLR; how does it work?" Or "Why take the Overground when I can take the Central to Oxford Circus and change to Victoria there?"
And.... I suspect that fewer visitors are trying to puzzle out journeys with a paper map and more with mobile phone transit planners (I'm tolerably familiar with the Tube and still use google maps). A different set of nomenclature will not help there.
(A fair number of systems simply rely on route name/color/number & terminus station. That seems to work.)
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Post by zbang on Jul 3, 2023 18:01:11 GMT
Without going deep in the weeds, miles & chains were the land survey units used when the railways were build, to use anything leads to a lack of precision just where it's needed. Since surveyors often need to reference original documents, might as well use those units.
1 mile 27 chains 5 links = 1 mile 1785.29724 feet = ~~1.338125 miles = ~~2.15350344km
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Post by zbang on Jun 25, 2023 16:51:35 GMT
What would be interesting to know (and probably difficult to find out) is how many stations are no-cash and their locations, and of the stations that do accept cash, how many machines they have for both cash/card and card-only. For extra clarity, separate the counts for each entrance. (If somebody wishes to fund my research, I'll give it a go ). As a single data point- last summer I probably spent less than £100 cash over two weeks (I think buying a £3 coffee with a card is silly); the rest was all card.
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Post by zbang on Jun 24, 2023 17:05:52 GMT
Why do the machines still require a PIN? Most likely because they still work and there's no good case to spend any money to change it.
BTW, if you want a story about fiddly mechanisms and equipment maintenance, read Mr. Gibson's Ticket Machine (not rail-related so it's not on my book list).
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Post by zbang on Jun 23, 2023 16:42:09 GMT
(following up on my own message and I am not a solicitor)
As I understand the laws, a business can reject cash as payment if the debt doesn't yet exist - eat a meal in a restaurant they're then obligated to accept cash* for payment, OTOH Costa isn't obligated to hand you the coffee if you're not willing hand them a card for payment (I assume they still accept cash). Since transit is usually paid in advance, the same rules -may- apply. How this squares with public policy is a different discussion (and one I'm not having).
*which possibly would be only coins, but most include banknotes in the definition
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Post by zbang on Jun 22, 2023 18:43:08 GMT
Um, what does AI have to do with the ticket machines? They hardly need any "I" at all, accepting cash and dispensing change is a well-understood process.
The real issue in most places is cash handling- the machines need to be emptied of notes and the coin dispenser refilled, and that needs people and has a risk of theft; there's a cost involved that may be more than the cost of processing card transactions (including fees). The mechanisms also need to be maintained; a touch-card reader doesn't have any moving parts.
BTW, this is little different from trying to swing people from paper tickets to oyster cards to touch cards & mobile apps- less and simpler field equipment for TfL to maintain and which leads to less need for "costly" maintenance staff.
(Many electric and gas companies in the US have installed "smart" meters, a main reason being they don't need to send anyone around to read them, and that was a large amount of union-represented labor that becomes redundant.)
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Post by zbang on May 30, 2023 19:08:38 GMT
You may find something in Reconstruction London's Underground (Follenfant), I don't have the time to look at the moment.
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Post by zbang on May 21, 2023 19:02:57 GMT
ATP? (I'm not up on all the acronyms and initialisms.)
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Post by zbang on May 17, 2023 6:09:21 GMT
I don't know yes or no, but removing the batteries would make a huge difference in the weight (and mass ).
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Post by zbang on May 7, 2023 15:48:06 GMT
All the lights on the train later went out, No batteries to keep a few lights on? That doesn't sound right.
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Post by zbang on May 4, 2023 23:12:35 GMT
If the derailed loco is shorting on the current rail it won’t be possible to recharge that section. However, the loco had already been rerailed and nothing suggests that other stock was entangled with the current rails.
That said, work on the points would require discharge, but clear-site/recharge/move trains/discharge & make safe/resume work could still presumably happen.
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Post by zbang on May 4, 2023 15:03:30 GMT
I take it then that it's not practical to clear the site, energize the current, move a couple of trains out, then discharge again? That would get a few more trains on the line.
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Post by zbang on Apr 28, 2023 22:27:17 GMT
Possibly just a different supplier who might not be in business and more ? That I would buy, although "unavailable" now is not "bespoke" when installed (implying it was made made special to order). One could as easily say "those were a one-off so some of the parts are now unobtainable" and probably be more accurate. Assuming that's true for KT.
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Post by zbang on Apr 28, 2023 17:06:45 GMT
By that token, -all- escalators (and elevators) are bespoke as they are built-to-order for a specific job and location, albeit with as many standard parts as the manufacturer can manage. What makes Kentish Town so special that necessary parts are hard to come by? (One thing I can imagine is tread width. If the maker uses, say, 5cm increments in width, and KT used a 97cm wide tread, that would qualify. OTOH we could also ask why TfL didn't go with 95cm for standardization. Just guessing here.) Regarding build standards, from what I can tell most makers have multiple "grades" of machine, specifically because some will operate with lower loads and duty than others (e.g department stores vs busy transit centers). US-centric, but it came up in a quick search- "Heavy-Duty Transportation System Escalator Design Guidelines" www.apta.com/wp-content/uploads/Standards_Documents/APTA-RT-EE-RP-001-02.pdf
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Post by zbang on Apr 28, 2023 15:49:34 GMT
Breaking this off the Kentish Town thread- Does anyone know why that station would need bespoke escalators at all? Or what specifically is/was out-of-ordinary?
I have to assume that there would have been only a few variations installed (other than length and tread/step width), so something must have driven a decision to install these different machines.
Are there other stations with uncommon but modern escalators?
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Post by zbang on Apr 28, 2023 5:54:42 GMT
I see very little ambiguity with calling an opening a "door", whether it has one or two moving parts (doors? leaves? slides? does it matter?), and even when there are two sliding things those are almost always are opened/closed together, forming the impression of a single unit.
Also consider that the general public isn't concerned with what we or TfL calls the individual parts, they want to know if they have to move forward to get off the train. They probably don't even use the word "alight".
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Post by zbang on Mar 19, 2023 17:27:42 GMT
Wifi would not be better from the technology side. If nothing else, the cellular radio technologies are built for devices to enter & leave their coverage areas with a minimum of disruption; the wifi/801.11 process for associating with a new access point is a gigantic mess and has never scaled well.
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Post by zbang on Mar 17, 2023 17:23:50 GMT
Why Earl's Court? Probably/partly as it's a place to hold trains for their scheduled departure (if the train arrives early), at most other stations the train might not have that 45 seconds.
(I'm not coming up with anything useful about station dwell times at the moment, but at most stations it's probably under 45 sec.)
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Post by zbang on Mar 16, 2023 16:51:36 GMT
Dirty and scratched scan windows would definitely be a problem (though more environmental than technology).
(I prefer the touch-cards since they read in any flat orientation and are far more robust than a slip of paper.)
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