Small nerdy pleasures on the railways

[Waddon]

OK, so, whenever I travel on the Brighton line, and there is a nine car set in use, I always travel in coach 7. Why? So the Star Trek nut in me can smirk at the robot voice saying 'This is coach Seven of Nine' (if you know your Star Trek-Voyager, you will get the reference).

Does anyone else have any small, nerdy pleasures of this sort that they would like to share?

P.s. I also like the train terminating at Ore, and whenever the voice lists the destinations, it always ends '...St Leonards Warrior Square, Hastings and Ore' to which I always think 'Hastings and/or WHAT?'. Maybe I just have too much spare time on my hands...

 

[Daniel]

I love being on a Jubilee Line train terminating at Willesden Green... the auto-announcer sounds exstatic to tell us we're terminating there!

"This train terminates at WILLESSSden GREEN"

 

[O L Leigh]

"We are now approaching... where?" (Ware)

O L Leigh

 

[thefab444]

I love being on a Jubilee Line train terminating at Willesden Green... the auto-announcer sounds exstatic to tell us we're terminating there!

You should hear some of the other station recordings that woman did; Finchley Road, Canary Wharf and Waterloo are all... hock:

 

[142094]

The start up on a certain 321 sounding like the opening bit of The Final Countdown - that long dooooiiiiinnnng sound.

The ding ding on a 142, always listen out for that, and the AWS and TPWS noises too

 

[Royston Vasey]

Getting a northbound Piccadilly line train makes me giggle every time! Heh heh... Cockfosters!

 

[Waddon]

Oh yes that reminds me of another classic tube voice- "this train terminates at NEEEEEEEEsden"

 

[142094]

Also the southern pronunciation of Prudhoe (Proodhow) instead of the actual Prudah.

 

[mumrar]

Whenever I work the 08.30 New St-Cardiff, which is booked two units, it's more often than not a pair of sequentially numbered 170/5s, today I have 518&519. Someone in our fleet has nerdy pleasures too. There's also an early empty stock to Derby, which normally have sequentially numbered 170/1s on it.

 

[louis97]

Knowing platform numbers,when other passengers have no idea!

 

[gordonthemoron]

I always sing Iggy Pop's 'the passenger' to myself when riding the Berlin s-bahn

 

[NSEFAN]

Whenever I go anywhere by train, I always make sure that I go to at least one station I've never been to before.

I also love finding old BR signage. Ones that crop up a lot in London are NSE branded car stop signs, whilst regional railways still exists on many rural stations.

 

[Mojo]

I also love finding old BR signage. Ones that crop up a lot in London are NSE branded car stop signs, whilst regional railways still exists on many rural stations.

I grew up on the Chiltern lines in the '90s and used to love seeing all the NSE-branded trains and station signs where hardly anywhere else in the country used to have them. ISTR they were only phased out when I moved away from the area in 2005 but even then there were a few 'Car stop' signs that weren't on the platform that they couldn't cover up the NSE branding on!

I love these clocks: http://www.railforums.co.uk/picture.php?albumid=57&pictureid=719 (unfortunately this one has been changed quite a lot by a certain TOC), but I'm sure if you lived in South East England in the 1990s, you'll know what I'm on about when I say they have a special meaning! I particularly enjoyed trying to work out what the time was, as more often than not they were faulty, and listening to the clunking sound on an otherwise silent station as the time changed.

 

[Daniel]

You should hear some of the other station recordings that woman did; Finchley Road, Canary Wharf and Waterloo are all... hock:

I have often had a 96TS at my disposal, the Charing Cross one is interesting

 

[yorksrob]

I always make sure I'm listening to Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" when travelling through Oxford circus! - no, Baker Street really

 

[SouthEastern-465]

I really enjoy listening to "Networker" and EPB traction motors as they are leaving espicially the EPB with that loud hum and it gets louder and louder I have always found that a sound which I enjoy.

 

[EM2]

I always make sure I'm listening to Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" when travelling through Oxford circus! - no, Baker Street really

Try Foo Fighters version!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Even though I'm not a spotter, I'm always happy if I see (or travel on) 001 of a class.

 

[SouthEastern-465]

Try Foo Fighters version!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Even though I'm not a spotter, I'm always happy if I see (or travel on) 001 of a class.

I also forgot to mention that I do like to see/travel on the 001 of the Class lucky enough I have seen 465001 at Lewisham never traveled on it though.

 

[Mike Redding]

I love these clocks: http://www.railforums.co.uk/picture.php?albumid=57&pictureid=719 (unfortunately this one has been changed quite a lot by a certain TOC), but I'm sure if you lived in South East England in the 1990s, you'll know what I'm on about when I say they have a special meaning! I particularly enjoyed trying to work out what the time was, as more often than not they were faulty, and listening to the clunking sound on an otherwise silent station as the time changed.

I know what you mean, Newbury Station on the Berks & Hants line still has them, the time is normally 34:2x though... , They also have the old TV screens showing destinations/arrivals. They also have a screen showing where the trains are on a simsig type map.

 

[Mojo]

Just found this video of a clock in NSE colours, and you can just about make out the clunking.

[youtube]pSaxIoHXNjY[/youtube]

 

[Daimler]

I grew up on the Chiltern lines in the '90s and used to love seeing all the NSE-branded trains and station signs where hardly anywhere else in the country used to have them. ISTR they were only phased out when I moved away from the area in 2005 but even then there were a few 'Car stop' signs that weren't on the platform that they couldn't cover up the NSE branding on!

I love these clocks: http://www.railforums.co.uk/picture.php?albumid=57&pictureid=719 (unfortunately this one has been changed quite a lot by a certain TOC), but I'm sure if you lived in South East England in the 1990s, you'll know what I'm on about when I say they have a special meaning! I particularly enjoyed trying to work out what the time was, as more often than not they were faulty, and listening to the clunking sound on an otherwise silent station as the time changed.

Yes indeed!

Sadly, at Hemel Hempstead London Midland took them down when replacing the roof. That wouldn't be so bad, but it's been nearly a year now and they still haven't fitted any clocks on the platforms - even the PIS is the old CRT type, and therefore doesn't have the time on it. Useless!

 

[Waddon]

Just found this video of a clock in NSE colours, and you can just about make out the clunking.

[youtube]pSaxIoHXNjY[/youtube]

I remember the earlier versions of these clocks, where instead of all the numbers switching over at the same moment on the hour, they would go one after the other, so you would get a clunk at 58 seconds, a clunk at 59, and then a clunk clunk clunk clunk clunk as each digit reset itself, one after the other.

p.s. this is extremely nerdy to the extreme, but some friends and I went onto a station at 1am sometime in the 90's on the night that summertime switched to wintertime, to watch the clocks change over (They didn't...)

 

[poshbakerloo]

When ever I'm waiting at Stockport station they announce trains that stop at Liverpool South Parkway I always laugh to myself a lil bit at the woman's voice suddenly going deeper. lol

 

[theblackwatch]

Try Foo Fighters version!

Or the Undercover version which was a bit more successful, produced by someone mentioned on a thread earlier this week, Pete Waterman.

 

[ChrisTheRef]

Playing Warwick Avenue and Baker Street when passing through said stations?

 

[317666]

When ever I'm waiting at Stockport station they announce trains that stop at Liverpool South Parkway I always laugh to myself a lil bit at the woman's voice suddenly going deeper. lol

A bit like at Kings Cross the voice says 'East Coast' and it's obviously been edited in. Also at Birmingham New Street the Phil Sayer announcement 'CrossCountry' is always pronounced in a higher voice!

As for me, 'nerdy pleasures', I always love to sit under the pantograph on AC EMUs, as there is always lots of noise.

 

[jon0844]

You should hear some of the other station recordings that woman did; Finchley Road, Canary Wharf and Waterloo are all... hock:

NEEEEASDEN is definitely the craziest one for me. How did the voice artist not get told to re-record that one? Did she turn up, say everything quickly (and seemingly sarcastically) then walk out?

 

[dan_atki]

NEEEEASDEN is definitely the craziest one for me. How did the voice artist not get told to re-record that one? Did she turn up, say everything quickly (and seemingly sarcastically) then walk out?

Before the 96TS had the dual voice announcements (also before the 'next station' announcements) it was just voiced by NEEEEASDEN lady.

Upon opening the doors she would just 'say' the name of the station followed by 'Mind the gap', 'Change for xxx line' (if necessary) and then 'This train terminates at yyy'.

I think the idea would be if an announcement was just 'Neasden. This train terminates at Stratford' to make the first word as emphasised as possible to draw attention to the announcement.

 

[thefab444]

I should imagine that that is the main reason.

However, the lady that did the voice samples for the Jubilee line also did some tape recordings used at London Bridge ages ago. These were pretty stroppy as well...

"LONDON BRIDGE! THIS SIDE OUT PLEASE. THIS IS LONDON BRIDGE. THIS TRAIN AT PLATFORM 4 CALLS AT CANNON STREET OWNNNLEEEEE." etc.

 

[jon0844]

I would have thought you had to record a name a couple of times so you could say it at the start, or end, of a sentence. One size does not fit all.

I still can't understand why hardly anyone is using a text-to-speech system though - which allows any announcement at any time. These are incredibly good quality now, and the only issue is pronunciation of certain words - and that is easily solved for place names by programming it phonetically. It also solves the add-in recordings of TOC names or new stations.

My TomTom has it, my Bluetooth car kit has it and many smartphones have it. My BlackBerry can also read my emails incredibly accurately (drivesafe.ly). The technology is there.

Talking of nerdy things; the old voice at King's Cross Underground was the same system as used by Nokia on their S60 smartphones.. so you could actually make a message saying anything and play it back on the phone to sound EXACTLY like the tube announcements. I wish I'd rigged up the phone to a loudspeaker and broadcast some spoof announcements one day!