Trains not timetabled

[1e10]

I live next to a railway line and can hear trains passing from my housr. I often keep Realtime Trains open on my iPad whilst I am at home so I know what trains are passing when I hear them.

Sometimes a train will pass though and when I look at the timetable there are no trains planned for atleast 10-15 minutes. Can anyone shed anylight on why this is?

 

[Darren R]

It could be down to several reasons - trains running late/early (especially if it's freight.) Also if a train has to be diverted off its booked route then it won't appear for locations along the route it is actually taking, it merely says 'no report' for the timing points it should have passed but hasn't. (Took me a while to twig that one!)

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Does realtime trains account for VTSP?

 

[SussexSpotter]

Does realtime trains account for VTSP?

I think you mean VSTP....

 

[Darren R]

VSTP schedules appear on RealTime Trains - often at very short notice indeed! (Been caught out a time or two with that!) But a train that's diverted once it's already set off doesn't seem to get a revised schedule. So if, for example, a problem at Lancaster results in something being diverted via Blackburn, Hellifield and the S&C, it won't appear on RTT looking at services through Settle. The train merely shows 'no report' against timing points twixt Preston and Carlisle.

 

[SussexSpotter]

VSTP schedules appear on RealTime Trains - often at very short notice indeed! (Been caught out a time or two with that!) But a train that's diverted once it's already set off doesn't seem to get a revised schedule. So if, for example, a problem at Lancaster results in something being diverted via Blackburn, Hellifield and the S&C, it won't appear on RTT looking at services through Settle. The train merely shows 'no report' against timing points twixt Preston and Carlisle.

Has anyone happend to notice if 1Z99 appears or as FRGT???? From what I understand 1Z99 is the headcode for breakdown recovery.

 

[Tomnick]

1Z99 should indeed be carried by anything going to clear the line. They tend not to have a schedule entered into the system though - normally everyone's too busy to think about minor details like that . I suppose anything running as 1Z99 over a longer distance (a snowplough, for example?) might just appear though - probably as FGHT on RTT etc. though.

Trains diverted at short notice don't, as identified above, generally have their schedule revised to reflect this. This means that signalmen along the diversionary route are just as much in the dark as anyone looking at RTT - although it is possible to look up an individual train to see where it's been reported off-route (which I don't think RTT shows), it won't show on the line-up for a given location.

 

[causton]

although it is possible to look up an individual train to see where it's been reported off-route (which I don't think RTT shows)

Indeed, if you look at RTT it will show the last report and that is it. If the report is overdue because the train is delayed or diverted it will still show the last estimated time, presumably as the system does not know which locations will report (for example, many stations do not report arrival/departure properly). If the train then rejoins its route, it will then update to show 'No report' from the intermediate reporting locations then continue to show the new estimated/actual times.

 

[Tom]

For now...

 

[Darren R]

Has anyone happend to notice if 1Z99 appears or as FRGT???? From what I understand 1Z99 is the headcode for breakdown recovery.

If you mean do they appear on RTT, then yes - so long as an STP schedule has been created for it. From experience I know snowplough workings have appeared on RTT at very short notice, but it displays FRGT rather than the headcode. I would assume breakdown recovery trains would be rather less likely to appear on RTT though, for the reasons Tomnick gives.

 

[Condor7]

It could be down to several reasons - trains running late/early

This has caught me out many times.
If for instance a train (especially freight) is running early or late, RTT only shows it in the sequence at the time it was scheduled to pass.

So if you were looking at say 10am on the 'around now' section and a freight train was scheduled to run past at 11:30am but was an hour and a half early, it will still show in sequence at 11:30am (although it will show 10am as the actual time next to it).

 

[Phillipimo]

Why does RTT not show freight headcodes?

 

[D1009]

Why does RTT not show freight headcodes?

Because the FOCs were not happy about the info being made public. The same is true of charter trains run by FOCs, which are shown as FRGT. The FOC code is also not shown.

 

[Eagle]

But the headcodes are public. They're all available in the WTT (which is now publicly available on Network Rail's website).

And I didn't think FOCs had operator codes? They've always been shown as ZZ.

 

[Freightmaster]

But the headcodes are public. They're all available in the WTT (which is now publicly available on Network Rail's website).

true, but real time train running data is far more 'commercially sensitive'
than WTTs which are months out of date and don't list STP/VAR workings.

Network Rail really stuck their neck out agreeing to provide this data at all,
against the wishes of the FOCs, so surely the lack of headcodes is a small
price to pay for the wealth of data which has been made available???

MARK