At least some bits of NR use What 3 Words I believe.
That said when I've been stranded before it has become apparent that the TOC control via the miracles of Nomad GPS tracking could find my location to within a few feet anyway and though I could give a good if not precise description they asked me to confirm a couple of landmarks (disused foot crossing etc) and were thus certain of where we were.
This does rely on it working correctly - we were stuck the other week and the route controller rang up to confirm we still were as one carriage of the train was reporting we had stopped and the other was showing us travelling at 50 mph
Quite reassuring though.
On your app FSS1 will be the Engineers Line Reference (ELR) (Fenchurch Street to Barking West Junction), then the mileage from the 0 mile post in miles and yards and then a conversion into miles and chains.
I've seen control centre reports where, admittadly rather few times, they've used a facility to view the GPS of the train, the trouble is whether they can be absolutely sure it is accurate, as you mention. Good to know though. And thanks for the details on the track locator app, I'm guessing the last digits are XX.XX being MILES.CHAINS?
When Track Locator kicked off,must be best part of 10 years ago now,it used to be accurate enough to give you the the line code if you were standing in the 4ft,2100/1100/2200 for DN fast/DN slow/UP fast for instance.
Hmm, wonder what changed?
If you're on an OLE line then the nearest mast or gantry number should give the ECO all they need to know.
The trouble using an exact location such as a long closed signal box is whilst known to local rail staff trying to explain it to somebody in a remote ROC who would never have heard of it. Remember the Chocolate Poodle incident!
Of course there should also be a milepost a short walk away to remove all doubt.
I'm on DC lines so the frequency of power equipment that contains identification numbers is far fewer.
That's kind of why I ask though, as I don't know the environment of the places I mention. If all control centres, signal boxes and ECOs had a computer in front of them with Google Maps or similar software then coordinates or what3words would surely be the most accessible to all?
Chocolate what? I must google this.
Use the ELR that track locator gives and What 3 Words as the Emergency Services use that
I still need to figure out what parts of that track locator app means exactly what. The first reply suggests the "FFS" in my example is the ELR but it was the same three letters much further down the line. Didn't know that the emergency services use What 3 Words though!
Begs the question of how the alert for the location of somewhere isolated like the Grayrigg crash was sent out to the emergency services. Were 999 calls from mobiles triangulated? Or would the track circuitry be accurate enough to ID the location?
Intriguing, I'll have to do some poking about in reports to find out. I know in some similar incidents people have walked to railway telephones though.
Careful saying that round here! There are a lot of very anti-what3words people on this site!
I've never seen any
Ten figure OS map reference with the appropriate two letter prefix works for me.
But the issue is of course ensuring that the location info is correctly communicated (and capable of being understood/appropriately actioned) by whomever in control is receiving same.
Interesting, I completely forgot about OS map references and am surprised it isn't an option in the app I mentioned
We have track locator on work tablets, certain!y seems pretty accurate and give railway mileage, but never needed to use it to relay info.
What3words would be pretty good but I don't use it very often so have uninstalled it on my personal phone.
DAS systems , whether fixed or tablet will give you location info and a map on some
Tbh, soon if not already they'll know exactly where you are as I've noticed in last month or so a few GSMR units in cabs with a sticker telling maintainers that it's a GPS fitted terminal.
Interesting, but considering GSMR emergency calls can knock out other areas unrelated to where the call was initiated, I'm not terribly hopeful it will work!
Not sure about other TOCs but the majority of the fleet can be tracked via GPS, and the FFCCTV can be viewed live. You can bet all the tea in China that an incident train wouldn’t be working correctly. I would say what3words personally
I've seen this in control conter reports but still think it's good to be prepared for, sods law, you being on the train where the GPS failed. In fact I had a train the other day where the PIS kept announcing the first station as the next, and it's a GPS enabled system
Used What3Words to report a major lineside hazard, and the relevant authority found the site within minutes, albeit mentioning they had to download the app to get the exact place of the incident... so much better than "...at err.. 30Miles 56Chains 11Doughnuts on the Up Down Slow Fast line" ambiguous shenanigans from 200 years ago.
Good to know, but kind of wish there was one standard across all of the railway which is easier than this old chains thing
Theres nothing wrong with miles and chains per se and that's what's on all the infrastructure diagrams. Problem is that unless mile posts (and interval) are in place and maintained then noone can read them.
What3 is good...as long as you have a data or WiFi connection which much of the UK railway does not.
Thankfully the app I have can do some information offline, but not sure if W3W is part of that
You don't need data or WiFi to use what3words.
O.O
The app uses proprietary algorithm that converts your GPS position to words. It's no more accurate than the latitude/longitude that you could read off a GPS app or by sending your location in WhatsApp or similar.
But what would be the easiest for control centers to recieve and use?
Route knowledge
Route knowledge of several miles of identical looking fields with no identifying information nearby? Sounds like route knowledge would come in handy!
I couldn't agree more.However,traincrews expectancy of route knowledge seems to be continually eroded by TOCs. A guard seems to need to know little more these days than platform starting signals,major junctions,tunnels and ruling line speed. Ask any guards nearing Pewsey where Manningford or Wooton Rivers are and a good percentage will shrug their shoulders.
I'm only 3-5 months in to the routes I work over but can barely remember a quarter of the level crossings, few bridges and only one tunnel. The knowledge just naturally fades and, as I understand it, unlike other roles which get time to refresh on routes, I don't.
