Railway Myths (2013)

[ert47]

Urban Myth 150: There are no direct trains from London Charing Cross to London Bridge, you have to change at Waterloo for the Jubiliee Line.

 

[OuterDistant]

Myth: Norton Bridge station will reopen as part of HS2 under the name "Eccleshall Parkway".

Actually, I might have dreamt that.

 

[thelongestroad]

Urban myth 152: On a 8 car train with all doors unlocked for boarding, only one door is available for passenger boarding.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Myth: Leeds station is in no way a displaced suburb of London, and the ticket barriers, "stand on the right" escalator signs and presence of a Wetherspoons are in no way indicative of it not really being in Yorkshire.


((I *really* hate Leeds station. And, indeed, Leeds))

Myth 6,300: Eventually, the users of Leeds City station will get the hang of both ticket gates and the idea of standing on the right on escalators.

 

[Eagle]

Myth: The asterisk printed after some station names on tickets has some special significance.

Myth: A ticket which says U1256 is not valid in zones 3 or 4.

 

[455driver]

Myth number ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

Croydon's Variobahn trams cannot work to Wimbledon.


They can and do and during the recent blockade 5 of the 6 were diagrammed daily on that section.

I believe they had to "adjust" the stopping place otherwise the rear door (on arrival) was very close to the railings at the end of the platform, the first one I saw at Wimbledon 1/2 the rear door was the wrong side of the barrier.
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Urban myth 152: On a 8 car train with all doors unlocked for boarding, only one door is available for passenger boarding.

Thats true.

It must be the amount of stations it happens at.

 

[Muzer]

Myth: The asterisk printed after some station names on tickets has some special significance.

Myth: A ticket which says U1256 is not valid in zones 3 or 4.

OK, I'll bite - why does it say 1256 then? Did they run out of room for the 34?

 

[Eagle]

Exactly right.

It's also the same reason why the asterisk doesn't appear after every station name. (The asterisk is to prevent tampering, but there isn't enough room for it with some.)

 

[Bald Rick]

Urban Myth 150: There are no direct trains from London Charing Cross to London Bridge, you have to change at Waterloo for the Jubiliee Line.

Myth today becomes reality in 16 months...

 

[Eagle]

Myth today becomes reality in 16 months...

Get on a northbound Northern line train at Charing Cross, and when it turns round at Edgware or High Barnet hope it runs via Bank on the way south :P

 

[Rapidash]

Myth 9042

Everyone leaving Paignton in the mornings, must, by law and ancient decree, get on the 10:07 XC service, even though they don't have a reservation, and will insist that there must be a seat available, even though there isn't, when they could, in theory, just get on the local service that leaves 7 minutes later which generally has more space than the short form Voyager that inevitable trundles in. Its an ancient charter or something......

 

[Flamingo]

Myth 401547: If a signaller ever allows a train straight into a platform at Reading without stopping at a signal first, their bum will fall off and they will be visited with a plague of locusts!

 

[gordonthemoron]

Myth 666

Trains never get held at signals outside Euston Station

 

[60163]

Myth 90046

All freight going through Norton Bridge actually pauses there. If you made it onto the platform, they let you in for a cab ride.

 

[Eagle]

Myth: Due to their inflated fares, increasing passenger numbers and overcrowding, XC are obviously turning a profit.

 

[Oswyntail]

Myth: the liveries of Northern and Arriva show such great colour sense they must have been designed by a professional team, and not a kitten with a paintbox.

Myth: If a proposed traffic flow was investigated and found to be unprofitable ten years ago, it remains off limits for all time. Similarly any completely new traffic flow.

 

[tbtc]

Myth number 26104:

If enough people on an internet forum suggest Class 508s for the Lymington branch, it will eventually happen

 

[PermitToTravel]

Myth 401547: If a signaller ever allows a train straight into a platform at Reading without stopping at a signal first, their bum will fall off and they will be visited with a plague of locusts!

Myth 401547b: The signaller has a choice whether or not to hold your train, and chooses to hold it.

 

[AndyLandy]

Myth number 26104:

If enough people on an internet forum suggest Class 508s for the Lymington branch, it will eventually happen

Myth 26104b: Class 508s for the Island Line.

 

[60163]

Myth 5Z43:

There is a position in the UK where you can see every single freight train that is running that day.

 

[AndyLandy]

Myth 5Z43:

There is a position in the UK where you can see every single freight train that is running that day.

That's in front of a computer, with a web connection to RTT, isn't it?

 

[Muzer]

Myth 5Z43:

There is a position in the UK where you can see every single freight train that is running that day.

...do people really think this?

 

[island]

Myth number 08712441545: You should use thetrainline.

 

[Beveridges]

Myth 56303: A Colas or DCR Class 56 has managed to work more than 100 trains between failures
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Myth 5Z43:

There is a position in the UK where you can see every single freight train that is running that day.

Barnetby comes closest to this IIRC yet you'd only see 10-15% of Britains freight that is running.

 

[Eagle]

Myth: East Coast is the only TOC to have been nationalized (I've actually seen people claim this one).

Barnetby comes closest to this IIRC yet you'd only see 10-15% of Britains freight that is running.

Willesden might also get a significant chunk.

 

[34D]

I would hazard a guess it depends how good your phone's GPS is (and how good at blocking GPS signals the train is!). Though I haven't tried it yet, I expect newer phones that use GPS in conjunction with GLONASS (the Russian equivalent of GPS) might work better at measuring speed in a train.

When I've done it on my BlackBerry it was very accurate. On EC it was always reading 125moph with a class 91 leading (electric speedo) but with a class 43 or class 82 (sorry) leading (with cable speedo) there was more variation.

 

[quarella]

There is a station in Plymouth called North Road.

 

[heart-of-wessex]

When I've done it on my BlackBerry it was very accurate. On EC it was always reading 125moph with a class 91 leading (electric speedo) but with a class 43 or class 82 (sorry) leading (with cable speedo) there was more variation.

I'd assume a Class 60 is cable? I tried it on the Taffy Tug tour with my Galaxy S2, using the a paid for GPS speed reader. It read that we were doing 38-39mph on the relief to Newport, which is about right as the linespeed is 40, and down Filton Bank and into Bristol we achieved 57-59mph, which I'd believe as the loco's are limited to 60, and the brakes were used well on the downhill run.

My mate installed the free version, and the speeds from my paid version were something else. Mine registered that we stopped outside of Newport at 0mph, my mates free version reckoned we were still chugging along at anything between 7 and 10mph!

 

[D365]

Myth: East Coast is the only TOC to have been nationalized (I've actually seen people claim this one).

Yes, how many times that one has been believed... Only TOC run under DOR, but it's a different regime now.

 

[TheEdge]

Myth: My pram wont fold