CrossCountry Trains V Trainspotters: The Twitter Showdown

Energy · 6 Jan 2020

If say there was dirt covering the number on the outside of the train so you couldn't see it, I would consider asking fine.

RailUK Forums

coradiafan2000 · 6 Jan 2020

greatvoyager said:
I think it depends, if you see it but couldn't see the number, I don't think it's cheating because you actually watched the train.
If you are just collecting numbers and are asking randomly however, that to me is cheating.

I'd agree with that, going back to the HST I mentioned for an example, I refuse to believe that I haven't seen it at all, it seems highly unlikely. I think I must have seen it under conditions where I couldn't note the number, such as if it was passing through a station at speed, or if I was in too much of a hurry to note it down. So in reality I probably have seen it, but not under spotting rules, if that's what you want to call it.

coradiafan2000 · 6 Jan 2020

Energy said:
If say there was dirt covering the number on the outside of the train so you couldn't see it, I would consider asking fine.

Oh I've happily given other spotters numbers if they ask, even if I know for a fact they didn't see it. Back in December someone asked me for the number of a 66 that went through while he had gone to the toilet! If nature hadn't called, he would have seen it anyway.

Besides, I'm never going to decline to answer a question if I know the answer.

greatvoyager · 6 Jan 2020

coradiafan2000 said:
I'd agree with that, going back to the HST I mentioned for an example, I refuse to believe that I haven't seen it at all, it seems highly unlikely. I think I must have seen it under conditions where I couldn't note the number, such as if it was passing through a station at speed, or if I was in too much of a hurry to note it down. So in reality I probably have seen it, but not under spotting rules, if that's what you want to call it.

Totally agree with that.

RLBH · 7 Jan 2020

coradiafan2000 said:
So in reality I probably have seen it, but not under spotting rules, if that's what you want to call it.

Bottom line, it's not like the Spotting Police are going to knock your front door in and haul you off if you don't follow the rules. The standard any given spotter works to is entirely a matter for them.

As far as 'security' goes, it's become a cousin to 'health and safety' as a lazy excuse that people use to not allow things. Citing either when they don't really apply diminishes the effect for things that do apply. Equally, people don't generally like 'it's against policy' as a reason for not getting their way.

Peter Bonner · 7 Jan 2020

coradiafan2000 said:
Grand Central 180s are the worst for numbers. Some have them on the couplers, but I don't think all of them do. If they don't then you have to either look for the carriage number and search online for the unit it's part of, or hope it's one of the named ones.

Try doing that as they roar through Doncaster on a KX to Sunderland service!!!!

mpthomson · 7 Jan 2020

hwl said:
One simple solution to this for XC would be to put the numbers on the units in more visible places then no one would have to ask them on twitter...

Why should they do that? TOCs don’t exist to facilitate someone’s hobby.

Timrud · 7 Jan 2020

mpthomson said:
Why should they do that? TOCs don’t exist to facilitate someone’s hobby.

Exactly right, safety and the customers come a long way first.

The entitlement of the spotters amazes me.

Bikeman78 · 7 Jan 2020

Peter C said:
I fully understand that TOCs are not here online to help trainspotters find specific units every day, but saying a unit number can't be disclosed due to that being a security risk is a bit much.
-Peter

The Dutch railways have a number of websites that can identify the location of almost any NS train or unit allocated to a particular service.
rijdendetreinen.nl
treinenradar.nl
treinposities.nl

The last one has a whole host of information. You can look up unit diagrams, what a particular unit has done for the past few weeks. There are fleet summaries, you can look how many kilometres a given unit has done today, yesterday or this month. You can do a line up at a station which shows the allocations for the next hour or two, or historic alloactions going back several weeks.

I have no idea who has set up these websites, or how they get the unit info.

Master29 · 7 Jan 2020

Timrud said:
Exactly right, safety and the customers come a long way first.

The entitlement of the spotters amazes me.

Should we shoot them all then?

Peter C · 7 Jan 2020

Bikeman78 said:
The Dutch railways have a number of websites that can identify the location of almost any NS train or unit allocated to a particular service.
rijdendetreinen.nl
treinenradar.nl
treinposities.nl

The last one has a whole host of information. You can look up unit diagrams, what a particular unit has done for the past few weeks. There are fleet summaries, you can look how many kilometres a given unit has done today, yesterday or this month. You can do a line up at a station which shows the allocations for the next hour or two, or historic alloactions going back several weeks.

I have no idea who has set up these websites, or how they get the unit info.

Interesting. Shows it can be done I suppose

-Peter

J-2739 · 7 Jan 2020

mpthomson said:
Why should they do that? TOCs don’t exist to facilitate someone’s hobby.

Timrud said:
Exactly right, safety and the customers come a long way first.

The entitlement of the spotters amazes me.

Christ, I can't believe non of you are getting the sarcasm...

TrainTube · 7 Jan 2020

Energy said:
If say there was dirt covering the number on the outside of the train so you couldn't see it, I would consider asking fine.

There was a large bird on the bumper of 68019 today, luckily the number is on the side, rather than the bottom right of the cab!

CrossCountry Trains V Trainspotters: The Twitter Showdown

Energy

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RailUK Forums

coradiafan2000

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coradiafan2000

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greatvoyager

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RLBH

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Peter Bonner

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mpthomson

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Timrud

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Bikeman78

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Master29

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Peter C

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J-2739

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TrainTube

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