• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Train Describer Messages

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

TheEdge

Established Member
Joined
29 Nov 2012
Messages
4,489
Location
Norwich
Where does NAKA come from?

Knackered.

Its worth pointing out again if people are compiling a list that these really are mostly electronic post it notes for each signaller and will vary depending on the man or woman manning the panel. So there will probably be hundreds if not thousands of variations of these.
 

ComUtoR

Established Member
Joined
13 Dec 2013
Messages
9,397
Location
UK
You have a point, although I'm slightly concerned that one signaller could possibly be confused by another!

Because local jargon is well, only known locally. So if a Signaller put in a locally known message that someone else didn't know or understand then it can lead to an incident.

I've heard a few phrases on here that I have no idea about. I've been driving 10+yrs and some posts from other Drivers on here still confuse me. Safety critical communication does not and should not include Jargon.
 

Sunset route

Member
Joined
27 Oct 2015
Messages
1,176
How many of these messages are official or are they local jargon ?

They are all jargon as the only official use of train describer is to describe trains, the rest are just aids that signallers use as local reminders. Which in no way replaces signalling reminders, be it lever collars, button or electronic.
 

LAX54

Established Member
Joined
15 Jan 2008
Messages
3,753
How many of these messages are official or are they local jargon ?

None of them are official, they are all just made up by individual siggies to remind them of what is there, or going on.
 

Ken H

On Moderation
Joined
11 Nov 2018
Messages
6,271
Location
N Yorks
I've also seen -EO- for electricity off.

Actually maybe we could start an alphabetical "glossary" for these terms and add their alternatives as we come across them?

but people would make up silly ones

Freight At Rail Terminal ...
 

Sunset route

Member
Joined
27 Oct 2015
Messages
1,176
You have a point, although I'm slightly concerned that one signaller could possibly be confused by another!

Your forgetting that we have to go through a proper handover at change of shift or for meal breaks, where what has happened, is happening and is going to happen is all explained, with the limits of incidents fully explained, any note left in TD berths would also come under this if not understood. Iffour signallers work in a signalboxe and use codes in certain berths then I can’t see where the confusion would be as it what they themselves have come up with, the same goes at multi panel/workstation locations would still be local to them. The real protection stoll comes from using the signalling reminders as per the rule book, the rest is just a visual aid.
 

pompeyfan

Established Member
Joined
24 Jan 2012
Messages
4,181
Quite often you’ll get 4377, 4450, 5444, 8450 3158 and so on so the signaller knows if there’s any unallocated stock and it’s length.. doesn’t work if it’s 10x444 or 12x450!
 

kev1974

Member
Joined
28 Nov 2017
Messages
53
Location
Ely
Lots of "-LB-" all over the Waterloo and adjoining maps through Clapham to both Barnes and Surbiton at the moment (02:05). Any idea on that? Some of the berths closer to Waterloo have "-T3-" on them which I know to be an engineering possession, so I guess the many LB entries are related to the relatively small area of T3.

Could be "Local Block" or "Line Block" ?

They also currently have the times of the first morning departures in the Waterloo platform berths, which is quite common to see overnight there, not just when it's all going wrong.

2018-11-30_021028.jpg
 

LAX54

Established Member
Joined
15 Jan 2008
Messages
3,753
Lots of "-LB-" all over the Waterloo and adjoining maps through Clapham to both Barnes and Surbiton at the moment (02:05). Any idea on that? Some of the berths closer to Waterloo have "-T3-" on them which I know to be an engineering possession, so I guess the many LB entries are related to the relatively small area of T3.

Could be "Local Block" or "Line Block" ?

They also currently have the times of the first morning departures in the Waterloo platform berths, which is quite common to see overnight there, not just when it's all going wrong.

View attachment 56032

Indeed -LB- is a Line Blockage, nothing to do with a T3, there seems to be more and more Line Blockages these days, and less T3's, but..... it saves on staff ! However if there is an Engineering Train / OTM working etc, then it still has to be a T3 possession.
 

_toommm_

Established Member
Joined
8 Jul 2017
Messages
5,843
Location
Yorkshire
Northern often stable a 319 or 323 in Piccadilly P12 throughout the day, signallers normally write A319 or A323, 3CAR or 4CAR.

When other units are stabled, the describer is normally the booked departure time of that train if it has a while to wait.
 

swt_passenger

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Apr 2010
Messages
31,262
Knackered.

Its worth pointing out again if people are compiling a list that these really are mostly electronic post it notes for each signaller and will vary depending on the man or woman manning the panel. So there will probably be hundreds if not thousands of variations of these.
Many of which, such as NAKA, had already been posted and explained months ago when this thread first got going.

As someone ressurected the thread only a few days ago, we’re now seeing a load of repeats, unfortunately...
 

GB

Established Member
Joined
16 Nov 2008
Messages
6,457
Location
Somewhere
NOPC No Person In Charge
STBL Stable
SHUT Closed
SHNT Shunt move
ITxx Item number for engineering works from weekly operating notice eg IT23

A train description (particularly freight)without the first number usually means no loco attached...eg -L23
 

GW43125

Established Member
Joined
8 Dec 2014
Messages
2,045
ITxx Item number for engineering works from weekly operating notice eg IT23
Ixxx also often seen for three-digit item numbers.

A train description (particularly freight)without the first number usually means no loco attached...eg -L23

Also often seen at Waterloo to denote a train missing something (eg half the train, driver or guard)

-J-- also often seen at Waterloo for a train awaiting a join.
 

spark001uk

Established Member
Joined
20 Aug 2010
Messages
2,325
Quite often you’ll get 4377, 4450, 5444, 8450 3158 and so on so the signaller knows if there’s any unallocated stock and it’s length.. doesn’t work if it’s 10x444 or 12x450!
I have before seen 2444 and 3450 used to overcome this, denoting the number of units rather than cars.

EDIT: Just seen DETS, assuming that means detonators in place.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top