Recent content by Telcontar

This depends on whether there is anyone else entering or leaving the carriage in question (or even anywhere along the train) who opens a set of doors first. The assumption being I imagine that people have sufficiently good close-up vision to find the door controls so long as they can see, from a...

Wow. The doors are completely invisible. Siemens have been using the same scheme in their publicity documentation (where the doors do come out a shade darker in greyscale — I know my camera over-brightens blue quite badly), but yes, the design may have been revised since that version was made...

Probably a tip of the hat to Rev W Awdry.

Eeek. What have they done? Is it just me, or does that look exceptionally drab? Livery by committee — a design that offends nobody, yet pleases nobody? I miss the NSE livery on the 365s, and to me, 377s looked their best in their bare indigo/pink paint job with the white doorway outlines...

Midland Main Line — if I understand it correctly, 125 MPH trains on a 110 MPH line. As such, I presume no 222s currently reach their maximum speed, although they would have done on the ECML when four of them belonged to Hull Trains.

Duh, why didn't I think of that. Thanks.

Does anyone know whether APT-E had C-APT, or only APT-P? i.e. which page on Wikipedia I should add this to.

Ah, if I spell it '"C-APT" advanced passenger train' instead of '"CAPT" advanced passenger train' in Google search, it actually finds that page. Lots of things are easy to find when you know the correct spelling or the correct terminology! I was thinking only the other day about this, but I...

Thanks!

I just watched this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSMSSdL2yeo I always wondered what that little square window on the APT driver's desk did -- apparently it's "CAPT", some sort of in-cab line speed indicator. (First mentioned at 3:12) Anyone know anything about this? And what happened...

Wow. That second one is humbling – shows how little I really know :) There I thought that you had to use only notches 1 and 2. From Anthony's BVE driver's guide for the Class 323 (well, it was back when I read it): "As you pass beneath the next over bridge, you should begin to decelerate...

I just meant electropneumatic braking in general, not Southern's EPB stock. I don't know what the driver in the Yahoo! Answers question was driving, although having a solenoid-driven valve held in position by power appears to be the answer. The implication here is that if you switch off the...

Apparently it depends whether you have a classic one-pipe braking system or a modern two-pipe braking system: http://www.railway-technical.com/air-brakes.shtml#Two-Pipe-Systems The two-pipe system seems to be like an air-driven version of EPB, using one pipe to supply air pressure and...

I presume you're referring to ECP or something else more sophisticated than the basic air brake, which requires full release in order to begin recharging. Sorry, I meant EPB as in the braking system, not the Southern designation. Love the MS Paint diagrams. The Wikipedia article implies...

Not with ordinary air brakes – the compressor charges up a reservoir in each vehicle via the train line (end-to-end air hose) and that limits the braking capacity. If you apply the brakes too many times, you willl run out of air. Not likely with UK passenger trains, but with a long freight train...