EC onboard map

[LNW-GW Joint]

Our set seems to have worked the 1300 KGX-EDB and the 1900 back, with the live signal delayed 30mins.
Makes it quite hard to follow. And the freeze-jump motion makes it harder.
It used to update positon every 4-5 seconds or so, but now it can be 5 minutes between updates, with a corresponding jump of 10 miles or so.

Just done a final check today, and it's stuck at York in the signalling chaos between Doncaster and Retford, along with 7 others delayed up to 105 minutes.

Must be fun on board.

 

[jon91]

It's a great little thing.

I'm currently on a HT service caught up in the mire caused by the cable theft at Rossington on the ECML and it's confirming that I'm going nowhere fast.

I'll be here a while yet...

Regards,

Jon

 

[networkrail1]

I think our driver has gone golfing lol hock:

 

[14xxDave]

Th script in the browser window is polling for the information every few seconds but it seems that the data is not being updated at that frequency. Does make it hard to follow when it jumps a big chunk!

 

[OxtedL]

I've had another look at this today, and I'm pretty certain the following things are true:

The feed we get at home is lagged 30 minutes behind the train it's tracking. We appear to be lagging exactly 30 minutes behind the 1400 KGX to Leeds atm.

The feed (http://www.ombord.info/api/jsonp/position/) is trying to update itself every 5 seconds. Bit difficult to justify this without dumping a shedload of data on you, but I'm running something to see how often the location changes and there are definite peaks at multiples of 5 seconds.

About 90% of the time, the feed is failing to update itself at these 5 seconds thresholds. Thus we are getting some longer intervals, where the feed misses out on a refresh point and simply waits until the next one. About 25% of these misses sum up to give a cumulative effect of more than 60 seconds wait between refreshes, and we get a big jump. Which is quite annoying.

All of this is down the EC end .

 

[Diverted]

The ontrain wifi systems have been changed. They are now providing realtime info of the train running on the Wifi landing page including details of times of connecting services at the next stops, and disruption on the route.

Additionally the wifi service is also being used for monitoring train faults and train running at control.

I guess to ease the load on the system it now only updates every 60 seconds. The 30 minutes behind is unexplainable as the new system still provides the current train location on a map.

 

[Mainliner]

Well, I'll be at Kings Cross between (in real time!) 6pm and 7pm on Wednesday, so if it arrives there during that time, I'll have a look
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Interesting location at the moment... (0857) :eek:

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Well, I'll be at Kings Cross between (in real time!) 6pm and 7pm on Wednesday, so if it arrives there during that time, I'll have a look
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Interesting location at the moment... (0857) :eek:

Seems to be sat in a field half a mile off the ECML at Welwyn...

 

[sprinterguy]

It's getting weirder...It's now sitting in a field between Leicester and Oakham, miles from the ECML, and a quite a long way from any railways at all!

 

[Mainliner]

Now teleported up to Newton Aycliffe - perhaps scouting out the site of the Hitachi assembly plant?

 

[47519]

Things seem to have settled down, after a detour around Rutland and Leeming, North Yorkshire. It looks like we have a new unit working on the 0730 Kings Cross to Edinburgh just north of Newcastle, with a more reliable GPS feed and without the time delay.

 

[Karl]

Yes I think the time delay might have stopped. I was watching the new feed heading north past Cramlington and it coincided with a 225 set passing the webcam http://www.railcam.org.uk/ . The feed on this new set is also a lot more consistent.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Our GPS set made it to Edinburgh and started back on the 1430 to King's Cross.
However, after an uneventful trip south it is having trouble getting out of Lincolnshire.
Currently stationary in the middle of nowhere west of Little Bytham, having spent a while even further off route at Woolsthorpe...

Update 1907: just jumped all the way to the buffer stops at KGX.
Very odd behaviour...

 

[RolandR]

Now looks to be the 20:00 KGX to NCL. I've seen it pass through Peterborough and Doncaster and is now approaching York for it's first stop.

 

[TMLB UK]

I can confirm its live right now!

I can hear a 91 crossing the mainline at heaton ready for the reverse into heaton TMD.

Sure enough on the map it's showing 6.9mph n/bound

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Our GPS set sure makes some erratic trips.
This morning it found a new route from Potters Bar to Digwell, running up to a mile east of the ECML (it's found a way of bypassing the Welwyn bottleneck!).
Now it's heading up the A1(M) on the west side of the ECML towards Stevenage.
Might need a longitude correction...
Possibly on the 0908 KGX-YRK (or the back of a truck).

 

[bnm]

Speeds are up the creek again. I've just clocked it at 129.3mph shortly after departure from both Leeds and Wakefield Westgate. Appears to be giving incorrect speed until it reaches 129.3mph, then it falls back to 60-70mph.

Either that or the set has been modified for awesome acceleration and braking capabilities!

 

[HSTEd]

Clearly there have been some serious, secret, upgrades to rail infrastructure in and around the East Midlands.

 

[OxtedL]

Still hovering some way to the east of the ECML Oh, and now west.

This set it having some issues picking up satellites by the looks of it, consistently hovering around 4. The "speed = 0 if satelites < 3" thing is having rather interesting effects around tunnels .

Glancing at the rather clever code the OP is using, if the speed gets above 130mph then it automatically switches units to compensate (or something a bit like that), which is why there is that sudden change as the set increases.

I wish they wouldn't change the feed so much.

 

[RolandR]

Just checked in to see the progress of our train to see it stuck north of Peterborough. The Peterborough board is showing delays for several trains. A passenger on Twitter has complained that their train is stationary north of PBO.
As I write, it has moved on and stopped at the station.

 

[D6975]

Speeds are definitely up the creek - I just watched it go round Morpeth curve at 127!!!!

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Our GPS signal is off round the Hertford Loop for the first time I've noticed.
Signalling problems at New Barnet.
Working the 1200 Edinburgh-King's Cross.

UPDATE 1745:
I missed the arrival time at KGX but it was about 30min late.
Meanwhile half a dozen earlier trains are still stuck on the main line, running up to 124 minutes late.
Our set must have been lucky to be sent round the loop.

 

[OxtedL]

Looks like it was the first one round the loop, the delays are causing havoc on live departures. They've just cancelled their first service (1720 to Hull) and there maybe more following.

I think the set is pencilled to be the 1730 off KGX to Edinburgh as soon as they can turn it round.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Disruption getting worse.

NRES:
Overhead wire problems are causing disruption near Hadley Wood.
Because of this, there are delays of up to 90 minutes between London Kings Cross and Peterborough. This will continue until further notice.
Passenger Information
Hadley Wood station is closed
Lines are blocked between Alexandra Palace and Welwyn Garden City
Customers are advised to make alternative travel arrangements if possible

 

[OxtedL]

Four EC services made it round the loop Northbound but they haven't sent anything since 1705.

Most of the services trapped on the main line seem to have got through now, so maybe we'll see some movement in a minute.

They seem to have scrapped the 1730 to Edinburgh idea.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Scratch that then, it's just left as the 1730, 54 minutes late.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I've just noticed the background map has been changed today.
It's now got more detail, and lines which previously were annoyingly omitted are now present.
eg Shaftholme Jn-Knottingley, and Allington-Barkston near Grantham.

Our set worked to Glasgow Central last night, and is now on 1335 to Leeds after getting back to KGX.
Seems unaffected by the bad weather (so far).

Update 2000:
After reaching LDS and heading back south, became stuck at PBO with disruption further south.
Turned round at PBO to form a service to LDS, and is now on the 1945 back to KGX.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


Update Wed 14 Dec 0900:

A broken down train is causing disruption near Darlington.
Because of this, there are delays of up to 45 minutes between Darlington and York. These delays are expected to last until approximately 10:00

I think our GPS set may have disgraced itself this morning and might well be the "broken down" train referred to by NRES (does anybody on the real railway actually use this term?)
Currently sat at Darlington (was at Heaton overnight).
Anybody know what is happening?

Might be working the 0600 ex Berwick (on time to Darlington 0731 then "delayed").

0910 - just set off southbound so can't be too bad...

 

[dbrb2]

The map now includes service headcode

I don't know if there is a static mapping from headcode to train route, or if the code for a given route may be different from day to day.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The map now includes service headcode

I don't know if there is a static mapping from headcode to train route, or if the code for a given route may be different from day to day.

How do I get this to appear from home?
All I can see is the word "Train" by hovering the mouse over the moving graphic.
Or is it only on the onboard version?

 

[MCR247]

It works for me sat at home on the desktop?

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I don't know if there is a static mapping from headcode to train route, or if the code for a given route may be different from day to day.

The Headcode will apply to the same service each day (with variations at weekends) and is uniquely applicable to only one service with an operator and within a route on any one day, though the same headcode may be allocated to 2 or more different services in different parts of the country on any one day. For all I know, there may be Icomera equipped sets on TOCs other than EC which operates services using an identical Headcode to a service on EC, which may be a challenge!

I'll use 'n' to indicate any numeral 0-9.
There is a general correspondence between the first 2 characters and the destination (or route): For EC passenger services:
1Ann Southbound to London from Leeds and Skipton (used to include from Newcastle but maybe none now)
1Ynn Southbound to london from Newcastle
1Enn Southbound to London from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen (and some fm Newcastle)
1Dnn Northbound to Leeds and Skipton
1Nnn Northbound to Newcastle
1Snn Northbound to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen
1Bnn appears to be both Southbound and Northbound between London & Lincoln

For ECS movements (when the sets are being moved to & from depots):
the first digit becomes a 5 (usually) or else a 0 or a 3, and the remaing 3 characters are usually the same as they will be for the subsequent service that the set is about to operate, or if it is moving to a depot, the last 2 digits may become 99 or similar unused pair of digits.
Some Edinburgh Waverley to Cragentinny ECS movements are in the form 5Bnn and some Kings Cross to Bounds Green are in the form 5Ynn.

That's all I recall, someone else may be able to add more detail.