Is there a resource for "what is this railway thing I'm looking at" type questions?

[jfowkes]

Railsigns.uk is a great resource for, well , rail signs. If you're ever looking at a sign or signal on the railway and you're not sure what it means, generally it's on there somewhere.

I'm wondering if there's a similar resource for other things on the railway. There's lots of paraphernalia around that I don't know what it is - it would be really useful to go to a website, have a dig around and go "ah, that's a flange greaser" or whatever.

It's a hard thing to search for, but I did try and came up empty. If anyone knows of anything like that I'd appreciate knowing about it!

 

[Towers]

One might suggest that your required resource is probably this very forum!

 

[Crossover]

Whatever it is, it isn’t a datum plate…or maybe it is

 

[jfowkes]

One might suggest that your required resource is probably this very forum!

Yeah but it'd be nice to have a more structured reference. Almost by definition, you can't search for something that you don't know about. And I'm sure people must get annoyed by the semi-regular posts asking what stuff is.

 

[jfollows]

Yeah but it'd be nice to have a more structured reference. Almost by definition, you can't search for something that you don't know about. And I'm sure people must get annoyed by the semi-regular posts asking what stuff is.

I don’t think they do, personally I find it interesting and positive to pass on my own knowledge and if I didn’t I’d simply ignore the thread anyway.

 

[styles]

Yeah but it'd be nice to have a more structured reference. Almost by definition, you can't search for something that you don't know about.

Agree on this.

And I'm sure people must get annoyed by the semi-regular posts asking what stuff is.

Not so much this. I think the kind of people who spend their time giving niche information on a forum dedicated to their interest actually love people asking them things and being able to share their knowledge. Perhaps not the very basic questions, but they'd simply skip over the post probably so I doubt it annoys people per se.

 

[Gloster]

I am always happy to answer questions if the answer lies within my somewhat esoteric areas of interest. What does annoy me is when the OP posts follow-up questions that show that they have not read the answers they have been given. (I do mean ‘not read’, not merely ’hasn’t understood’.) If you are going to ask a question which results in others spending time answering, often after spending time digging out the full answer, you could at least do us the courtesy of reading what we have written.

 

[styles]

I am always happy to answer questions if the answer lies within my somewhat esoteric areas of interest. What does annoy me is when the OP posts follow-up questions that show that they have not read the answers they have been given. (I do mean ‘not read’, not merely ’hasn’t understood’.) If you are going to ask a question which results in others spending time answering, often after spending time digging out the full answer, you could at least do us the courtesy of reading what we have written.

Yes, this reminds me of a Reddit post actually.

Some person donated money to Hezbollah. They did so on the basis of their humanitarian work, arguing that their military division was completely separate. Their bank account was frozen, because Hezbollah is a proscribed organisation.

Multiple people pointed out that their motive for donating was irrelevant, and believing their military wing to be separate was irrelevant. What was relevant was that they had sent money to a proscribed organisation, which, whether you agree with it or not, is a criminal offence and the banks will freeze your assets.

The author came back time after time to argue how they didn't donate to the military wing, or that they donated on some form of humanitarian basis; despite repeatedly being told that it doesn't matter, because Hezbollah is a proscribed organisation and giving money to prescribed organisations is an offence.

This was a r/LegalAdviceUK sub, and resulted in a moderator of the sub stepping in to tell the author to stop ignoring what people are saying. For those who don't frequent Reddit, r/LegalAdviceUK moderators actually commenting as moderatorsnto give legal advice themselves is rare.

It also resulted in one of the few things on Reddit which has made me genuinely laugh out loud:

Just because you’re all “Ooh Ahh, Hezbollah!” doesn’t mean they’re not terrorists!

https://np.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/i7vwju/all_my_bank_accounts_has_been_frozen_and_none_of/

Some people do go to forums, ask questions, and ignore the answers. It's very odd.

But to come back to the original question here, for some people, a definitive reference just won't help. There is a definitive list of proscribed organisations and a simple to read gov.uk web page which makes clear what the implications of that are. That person still chose to question it all.

But for 95%+ of the rational question-asking forum goers, a definitive reference would be useful. I enjoyed browsing the signs website just now.

 

[jfowkes]

Not so much this. I think the kind of people who spend their time giving niche information on a forum dedicated to their interest actually love people asking them things and being able to share their knowledge. Perhaps not the very basic questions, but they'd simply skip over the post probably so I doubt it annoys people per se.

Fair enough, I always assume all my posts are annoying!

But for 95%+ of the rational question-asking forum goers, a definitive reference would be useful. I enjoyed browsing the signs website just now.

It's tempting to add this to my massive list of hobby projects, seeing as I want it to exist, but... no.

 

[Kraken]

As a start you can try taking a photo of the bit of kit and sending it to ChatGPT with some context. “Here is a photo of a piece of equipment in the four-foot of the up line at Chudleigh Snotterton railway station, can you tell me what it is please?”. I’m surprised at how good it is sometimes and if nothing else it will give you a good foundation for what sort of thing to search for to find out the answer. Clearly asking an expert on here would be more accurate but sometimes getting an answer straight away is valuable.

 

[duffield]

As a start you can try taking a photo of the bit of kit and sending it to ChatGPT with some context. “Here is a photo of a piece of equipment in the four-foot of the up line at Chudleigh Snotterton railway station, can you tell me what it is please?”. I’m surprised at how good it is sometimes and if nothing else it will give you a good foundation for what sort of thing to search for to find out the answer. Clearly asking an expert on here would be more accurate but sometimes getting an answer straight away is valuable.

I've had some luck with Google Lens (which may well be using their AI on the back end now, although it's been around for years). I think the important thing (stating the obvious!) is to have a good clear close-up picture with anything irrelevant cropped out

 

[fishwomp]

This must be the resource you're looking for ... Maybe volume 2 for complex objects in the four foot..

 

[DarloRich]

Would a "live" Google image search do the trick?

I have found it pretty good at identifying all kinds of strange things!

 

[jfowkes]

Would a "live" Google image search do the trick?

I have found it pretty good at identifying all kinds of strange things!

Sometimes, but sometimes you're going past on a moving train, and/or it's raining, and/or it's dark.

In the particular case that made me think about this topic it was all three, as I was on a train pulling out of Wellington (Shropshire), but that's a topic for another thread!

 

[===gricer===]

Google Lens is an image recognition technology developed by Google, designed to bring up relevant information related to objects it identifies using visual analysis based on a neural network.

https://lens.google.com/

 

[Deepgreen]

I agree that this forum is probably the best you are going to find. Having every item of railwayana on a dedicated resource would be a mind-blowing task, wheres a description, with or without photo, here is almost always fruitful.