#SimSigChallenge - a day of running trains in and out of Kings Cross for charity!

[Mike395]

(Note - whilst I'm an administrator, this has been approved by other members of the staff team )

Just a brief note to say that, tomorrow, I'm part of a team running a full railway day in the old Kings Cross PSB using SimSig, covering the ECML between King's Cross and Hitchin - and raising money for Samaritans at the same time! If you'd like to find out more you can find a full explanation on our JustGiving page (I'll also quote this below!), where we'll also have a live feed from the sim running tomorrow.

Hi! We're Mike, Jon, Matt and Tom, and we'll be taking over the Kings Cross signal box for a day on Saturday 30th January! Whilst we'll be doing our best to keep trains moving, expect delays galore, thousands of very fed up passengers and 4 very tired signallers by the time we get to midnight!

Of course - anyone with any sense isn't going to let us near the controls of a real signal box as we'd probably delay everyone indefinitely! So we're using SimSig (a signalling simulation modelled on the real 2000s-era signal box and track layout), running from the start of passenger traffic at around 4am in-game and working through until midnight.

We'll be putting regular progress updates on Twitter (#SimSigChallenge) and also looking into the possibility of streaming the challenge in its entirety via Twitch, so you can pop in and see just how late your virtual train would be with us at the controls! (we'll confirm exact real-world timings as soon as we've finalised these so you know when to tune in to the chaos! The sim actually will run at around 1.2x speed, so we're probably looking at around a 8am-9am start to aim for a finish as close to midnight real-time as we can)

Back in the real world, the Samaritans do some excellent work with the rail industry and they're always offering anyone a friendly voice at the other end of the phone whenever they might need it, so we thought (particularly as this year we're unable to do a railway challenge, some of us have completed the Tube Challenge for charity in previous years) it'll help us pull through knowing we're doing some good (and hopefully providing some entertainment to anyone watching in a 'what on earth are they doing?!' sense!) whilst trains are queued up here, there and everywhere due to a signal failure affecting the lines into one of the UK's busiest railway terminal several hours into a long day!

I've also written an introduction talking about SimSig (if you're unfamiliar with it) and the challenge in this blog article.

 

[Peter C]

(Note - whilst I'm an administrator, this has been approved by other members of the staff team )

Just a brief note to say that, tomorrow, I'm part of a team running a full railway day in the old Kings Cross PSB using SimSig, covering the ECML between King's Cross and Hitchin - and raising money for Samaritans at the same time! If you'd like to find out more you can find a full explanation on our JustGiving page (I'll also quote this below!), where we'll also have a live feed from the sim running tomorrow.



I've also written an introductory blog article talking about SimSig (if you're unfamiliar with it) and the challenge in this blog article.

Sounds like a brilliant way to raise money for a brilliant cause! I'll tune in at some point tomorrow and see if I can donate. I expect you'll all be very tired by the end!

-Peter

 

[Cowley]

It’s not my thing but I wish you luck Mister Mike. Well done for doing it.

 

[Trainfan344]

We are live! Tune in on https://www.twitch.tv/simsigchallenge and please donate to our chosen cause, the Samaritans if you can using https://www.justgiving.com/fundrais...DwiRtmqmjBv7cL6eCxUrjTP5bNpZ2WIIlNEDkx8HqjtYI

Update, things are going well with the Moorgate trains running up to 2 hours late. Our fundraising total currently stands at a massive £744 which is simply amazing. We never thought we'd get this level of support! If you'd like to support us you can do so here https://www.justgiving.com/fundrais...DwiRtmqmjBv7cL6eCxUrjTP5bNpZ2WIIlNEDkx8HqjtYI