Friday, November 25, 2005

Train transposing?!?

When trains run late, train controllers "transpose" them by altering the stopping pattern of the late train. This will usually involve the train missing scheduled stops "for today only". That way, the train can catch up lost time and hopefully start the next run either on time or just a bit late.

So for example, today at Wynyard a train's stopping pattern got transposed to Town Hall, Central, Strathfield and Liverpool only. No Redfern, no Ashfield, no Lidcombe. It probably ran via Regents Park and Sefton as well to catch up on even more time.

Hmmm that train must have been running pathetically late...
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hehehe, I guess it's like transposing a melody into a key with less sharps or flats =P

27/11/05 3:47 PM
unkoh said...

I actually worked in the rail before, and signallers used to use scrolls with the timetables hand written on them. They just had 4 character codes written on top of each other. It's like you've stepped back into the 1960s... which was probably when they all started working as signallers.

To us a late train is irritating, but to a signaller, it means having to re-route the thing and try not to get the train in the way of other on-time trains, etc. To do something like that was actually a bit of logistical genius. Perhaps.

I think things are easier now with some train controlling systems.


Quad City DJs once said...

Come on, ride the train,
hey, ride it, woo woo
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hey, ride it, woo woo
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hey, ride it, woo woo
Come on, ride the train
Woo woo, hey, ride it, woo woo
Come on, ride the train
It's the choo choo, ride it, woo woo
Come on, ride the train,
it's the choo choo train
Come on, ride the train,
it's the choo choo
Ride it, woo woo
Come on, ride the train,
it's the choo choo train


Ahh the finer things in life are but trains.

29/11/05 2:26 PM

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