Gricing - how does it work?

[mjc43]

I'm trying to find out about gricing for a personal project. The sort of questions that spring to my mind are:

1/ What data gets recorded? Does it vary according to interest?
2/ Does it get shared with others? How?
3/ How do photos get linked to spotting notes in the notebook?
4/ What is the competitive element?
5/ Does the data from the spotting activity get combined with reference data such as loco history/manufacturer/owner etc etc?

Can anyone volunteer their opinions and experiences?

Apologies if any of my questions reveal an embarrassing ignorance!

Cheers, Mike Collins

 

[142094]

You'll probably find a lot of different people do a lot of different things in a lot of different ways. I'll put down what I usually do.

1) I only usually record the loco/unit number, and if I have it the headcode. Plus of course if it is a passenger service, the date, time, working and start/destination. All either written down on a cheap pad or as a memo on the phone. No dictation machines and coach/wagon numbers for me.

2) Don't usually share mine with others unless they ask on a station etc. Most people know more numbers off by heart than me.

3) Each trip I do has a seperate file on the computer. I put the info onto a word document and save it to that file. Nice and simple. However, I'm also in the process of creating an Excel file with every loco/unit number I've seen, dates etc to show which ones I still need. Also thinking of putting up one about the different tickets I have as well, but will both take time.

4) No competetive element for me, I do it for my own pleasure and not as a sport. However it is nice to know that you may have a picture that no-one else has.

5) I don't as it would be too complicated for me. Easier just to look it up on wikipedia or in a book.

 

[37401]

Gricing? thats spotting right? well I dont really do that now but

1. I dont record unit numbers only loco numbers, since using railmiles ive jotted down the number and time and where from and where too.

2. I do photos, they get posted on my fotopic

3. They go into a certain collection on fotopic so itll be in a March collection for this month, on galas and tours they get a certain collection too

4. No competition, however I do beat a few mates on mileage on certain classes of loco i.e 37,20,50 ect

5. no, I just put the loco number, where i did it from-to and mileage on that loco, no need to look anything up

 

[Chester025]

4. No competition, however I do beat a few mates on mileage on certain classes of loco i.e 37,20,50 ect

My god, they musn't have had much.

 

[theblackwatch]

My god, they musn't of had much.

HAVE

Keeping on topic, I don't think many people seriously 'compete' with each other - although there is obviously a bit of rivalry between people. Myself and a few others had an 'Empty Book Merchant' and 'Empty Atlas Merchant' competition for railtours a few years ago, but it was all just to add a bit of fun to our days out and the hobby in general.

With regard to what people record, again it varies considerably. On journeys, I record what the power was, the from/to point and route, plus the mileage. I don't bother with things like the headcode, and am not interested in how many minutes late i was at the start and finish of the journey. Others are. Similarly, some will even record which carriage they travelled in, and which direction the loco was facing on the journey (in the case of something like a Class 20). There is no doubt someone who records whether HST power cars were at the front or back of the set.

 

[87015]

Do what you want.

Enjoy.

 

[Chester025]

HAVE

 

[43021HST]

This is how I do it, I will print off the stock list and then travel around and try to get every number of that class, at the moment its HSTs. There are a few complications, like if a train is in repair or you do get those occasional ellusive numbers you can never get.

 

[37401]

My god, they musn't have had much.

Yeah , do you know the phrase "main man of the insects" haha