UK Rail Log Website

[The_Train]

How can you forget our dedicated 66 too ??????

66113 Our Key worker loco

Not sure how that one slipped my mind as I love what DB have done to it
Now added to the list!

Also, for anyone interested the latest updates are now live

 

[The_Train]

Latest updates have now been added to the loco section.

There have been a couple of site updates over the weekend as well:

• Class 01 to Class 07 are now fully up to date to include the relevant heritage depot they are based at and also to include preserved status including operational, non-operational, under restoration etc. I am also making good progress through the rest so hopefully this task will be completed in the coming days so I can move onto the units.
• There is now a 'Gen Submit' page for visitors to use to supply any corrections to data or to supply new 'gen' for anything listed on the website.

 

[Peter C]

Sounds good!
The "Gen Submit" section will probably be very useful. I'll definitely use it whenever I find anything!

-Peter

 

[The_Train]

Tonight's update is simply that all of the loco stock connected to preserved lines should now have a depot allocated to it as well as a more detailed status to show whether it is operational, non-operational, under maintenance etc. This has been done to the best of information that I can find on the world wide web so if you spot anything that doesn't look right then message me on here or use the Gen Submit function on the site.

This pretty much completes the loco section (until I start to add in scrapped stuff but this will be long down the line) so I can now make a start on the multiple unit stock. This will commence on Thursday after the latest loco updates are added, so keep any eye out for that

www.ukraillog.co.uk

 

[The_Train]

Firstly, apologies for the lack of loco updates over the last couple of days.
I've been focused on re-structuring the 'Railway News' section and I am pleased to now announce completion of this This can still be accessed via the 'Railway News' button at the bottom of the Home Page but you will then be directed to a new menu page (you can also access this menu page using the 'Home' navigation options in the header). From this menu you can now select either July or August in the 2020 list (manual search section only at the moment) and you will be directed to the July or August news. Here you will see that the lists are separated by the date of the update on the site and you can navigate through these by using the dropdown menu towards the top right of the screen.

I've tested it both in test and live conditions and it has worked (after many late nights of problem solving) so hopefully it works for everyone else as well Obviously, some of the wording used on the menu page is more for the future when there are more options to choose from.
As always, feedback is very much accepted!

I will now strive to get back on track (excuse the pun) with regards to getting loco detail updated - hopefully an update will come either late tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon.

www.ukraillog.co.uk

 

[Peter C]

Firstly, apologies for the lack of loco updates over the last couple of days.
I've been focused on re-structuring the 'Railway News' section and I am pleased to now announce completion of this This can still be accessed via the 'Railway News' button at the bottom of the Home Page but you will then be directed to a new menu page (you can also access this menu page using the 'Home' navigation options in the header). From this menu you can now select either July or August in the 2020 list (manual search section only at the moment) and you will be directed to the July or August news. Here you will see that the lists are separated by the date of the update on the site and you can navigate through these by using the dropdown menu towards the top right of the screen.

I've tested it both in test and live conditions and it has worked (after many late nights of problem solving) so hopefully it works for everyone else as well Obviously, some of the wording used on the menu page is more for the future when there are more options to choose from.
As always, feedback is very much accepted!

I will now strive to get back on track (excuse the pun) with regards to getting loco detail updated - hopefully an update will come either late tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon.

www.ukraillog.co.uk

The Railway News section looks to be an extremely useful resource. Finding that kind of information is normally quite hard so having it in one place is brilliant!
I look forward to the developments coming soon!

-Peter

 

[xotGD]

The Railway News section looks to be an extremely useful resource. Finding that kind of information is normally quite hard so having it in one place is brilliant!
I look forward to the developments coming soon!

-Peter

Agreed. Some good snippets of gen in there. Thanks Mr Train!

 

[The_Train]

The Railway News section looks to be an extremely useful resource. Finding that kind of information is normally quite hard so having it in one place is brilliant!
I look forward to the developments coming soon!

-Peter

Agreed. Some good snippets of gen in there. Thanks Mr Train!

Thanks both, good to know it is proving to be of use to people
Latest update has just gone live so I am back as up to date as possible with the locos!

 

[py_megapixel]

This is a very nice website and I admire the effort you've put into compiling these records.

However, I'm having a bit of an issue. It's taking around 10 seconds to load pages. For comparison, the RUK home page takes me about 2 seconds. This makes it a bit of a nuisance to use. Is anyone else finding it to be this slow?

Another minor irritation is the fact that for some reason the tables aren't taking up the entire width of the screen, which means lots of scrolling.



The other thing I'd really like to see is an adaptation to make it usable on mobile, which would probably involve an option to hide the enormous background photos as well as something to stop the table data spilling out of the tables.

But overall this is a fantastic website idea and I look forward to seeing what this develops into in the future.

 

[Peter C]

This is a very nice website and I admire the effort you've put into compiling these records.

However, I'm having a bit of an issue. It's taking around 10 seconds to load pages. For comparison, the RUK home page takes me about 2 seconds. This makes it a bit of a nuisance to use. Is anyone else finding it to be this slow?

Another minor irritation is the fact that for some reason the tables aren't taking up the entire width of the screen, which means lots of scrolling.
View attachment 82138


The other thing I'd really like to see is an adaptation to make it usable on mobile, which would probably involve an option to hide the enormous background photos as well as something to stop the table data spilling out of the tables.

But overall this is a fantastic website idea and I look forward to seeing what this develops into in the future.

I've found the site to be slow in the past as well - see posts #2 - #5.
The size of the tables is alright if you're just looking for current information on a loco (in my experience), but I agree - it could be a bit wider. I expect having a different version for mobile is something @The_Train will have to do as a separate thing - IIRC a website editor like Wix allows you to edit the mobile and desktop versions of the site separately.
But I'll let the developer explain the ins-and-outs of everything!

-Peter

 

[The_Train]

However, I'm having a bit of an issue. It's taking around 10 seconds to load pages. For comparison, the RUK home page takes me about 2 seconds. This makes it a bit of a nuisance to use. Is anyone else finding it to be this slow?

The speed of the site is out of my control as using Wix means I use Wix servers - as do many other people I guess. I had hoped that this would improve when I upgraded my account as my upgraded account offers unlimited bandwidth compared to an extremely limited variation on their free accounts but clearly that hasn't been the case so far.

I do have quite a number of 'hidden' pages which I have used for testing purposes which may be impacting on the speed of the live pages loading. I will be going through those shortly to remove ones I no longer need so will have to see if that improves things.

You are not the first to mention the speed - in fact on the Abrail thread another user used the terminology 'outrageously slow'! If it continues to be an issue then I will have to consider the limitations and reduce the content or alternatively scrap it altogether until I can find ways to make a workable website.

Another minor irritation is the fact that for some reason the tables aren't taking up the entire width of the screen, which means lots of scrolling.
View attachment 82138

Check out the 01-17 page - I've stretched the Class 01 and Class 02 tables, showing the 01 table with all columns showing and the 02 table with all but the 3 'previous' information columns at the end showing. I have also stretched the 08 table further down the page and have shown this with all columns showing as this will give you an idea of how a table will look when it has more information in it whilst showing all columns. Let me know if this is more suitable or not

It was simply a preference of mine to have the tables limited to the middle section of the page, but I am happy to adapt if people prefer a full page width version. In terms of the scrolling, my original thinking was that the table would show all relevant 'now' information without any scrolling and the 'Previous' information would be hidden to the right and require scrolling. That stops the rows becoming cramped with information and becoming extremely long, as you will see in the 08 table I have set up.

The other thing I'd really like to see is an adaptation to make it usable on mobile, which would probably involve an option to hide the enormous background photos as well as something to stop the table data spilling out of the tables.

The mobile side of things has been a slow burner in terms of development as I have mainly focused on the desktop site. The table pages should be working as I have updated these on the mobile site. Again, visit the 01-17 table page on the mobile site and you will see that the background image is gone. However, I wasn't quite sure what you meant about the 'table data spilling out of the tables' so if you could elaborate on that, I will check it out.

 

[py_megapixel]

Check out the 01-17 page - I've stretched the Class 01 and Class 02 tables, showing the 01 table with all columns showing and the 02 table with all but the 3 'previous' information columns at the end showing. I have also stretched the 08 table further down the page and have shown this with all columns showing as this will give you an idea of how a table will look when it has more information in it whilst showing all columns. Let me know if this is more suitable or not

It was simply a preference of mine to have the tables limited to the middle section of the page, but I am happy to adapt if people prefer a full page width version. In terms of the scrolling, my original thinking was that the table would show all relevant 'now' information without any scrolling and the 'Previous' information would be hidden to the right and require scrolling. That stops the rows becoming cramped with information and becoming extremely long, as you will see in the 08 table I have set up.

My preference would be for something similar to the 01 table, but possibly with a tiny bit of padding at each side just so it doesn't look squashed up against the edge.

But either way I'm not massively bothered. It is after all your website.

The mobile side of things has been a slow burner in terms of development as I have mainly focused on the desktop site. The table pages should be working as I have updated these on the mobile site. Again, visit the 01-17 table page on the mobile site and you will see that the background image is gone. However, I wasn't quite sure what you meant about the 'table data spilling out of the tables' so if you could elaborate on that, I will check it out.

sorry, that's something I was incorrect about. The tables on mobile are actually fine.

 

[The_Train]

My preference would be for something similar to the 01 table, but possibly with a tiny bit of padding at each side just so it doesn't look squashed up against the edge.

I shall look to get the tables amended accordingly then

But either way I'm not massively bothered. It is after all your website.

It is my website in the sense that I am setting it up, but it is not just for me so I am more than happy to take on and action feedback offered by you guys. It's massively appreciated and I want to make it a bit of a community effort!

sorry, that's something I was incorrect about. The tables on mobile are actually fine.

Good news Do the background photos have any negative impact on the use of the mobile site - is it just better to keep the mobile site as plain as possible? Thinking about it, the background photo's could have a negative impact on the loading speed of the desktop site as well so I may have to consider removing them altogether anyway

Anyway, thanks again for your feedback - feel free to continue to offer more in the future

 

[py_megapixel]

Do the background photos have any negative impact on the use of the mobile site - is it just better to keep the mobile site as plain as possible?

The main issue with background images on the mobile site is firstly you don't see much of it, so it looks rather odd on the small screen.

Secondly, if I'm out and about and I fancy looking up a specific loco then it makes it a lot more difficult as the background images are large files and so use quite a bit of mobile data!

 

[The_Train]

The main issue with background images on the mobile site is firstly you don't see much of it, so it looks rather odd on the small screen.

Secondly, if I'm out and about and I fancy looking up a specific loco then it makes it a lot more difficult as the background images are large files and so use quite a bit of mobile data!

2 very good points
The background pics on the mobile version will be removed this evening!

 

[The_Train]

A message to all - I have now amended the Class 01-Class 17 page to stretch out the tables and increase the number of columns on view (as per discussions above). I would appreciate feedback on this from others (can't be giving @py_megapixel free reign ) before I go through and change the other pages to match so if you have a spare few minutes to check it out here is the direct link to it - https://www.ukraillog.co.uk/01-17

 

[Murray J]

A message to all - I have now amended the Class 01-Class 17 page to stretch out the tables and increase the number of columns on view (as per discussions above). I would appreciate feedback on this from others (can't be giving @py_megapixel free reign ) before I go through and change the other pages to match so if you have a spare few minutes to check it out here is the direct link to it - https://www.ukraillog.co.uk/01-17

definitely prefer the class 01-17 tables to the previous tables.

 

[The_Train]

definitely prefer the class 01-17 tables to the previous tables.

Thanks mate - will take that on board. Will probably leave it how it is for tonight and allow a few of the others who've helped out to have a glance at it and let me know their thoughts before changing it. I have to be honest though, now I have changed it I actually prefer it as well -wish I had tried it from the start now but never mind haha.

 

[The_Train]

On a slightly different topic, I have continued the work on the new look Railway News Home Page (https://www.ukraillog.co.uk/railway-news-menu) and have now got the dropdown search function working correctly. It is simple to use - pick from the year dropdown (only 1 choice to make there for now) and then the month dropdown will come live and you can select the month you wish to go to (just July and August work on this dropdown for now) and once you click on a month you will automatically be redirected to that page

 

[xotGD]

Class 19: "Prototype conversion from Class 82"

Can I respectfully ask that you reword this statement. It ain't no Roarer!

 

[The_Train]

Class 19: "Prototype conversion from Class 82"

Can I respectfully ask that you reword this statement. It ain't no Roarer!

Oh god, have I really done that?

I'm ashamed and shall rectify it shortly

 

[The_Train]

I've now amended the above and I apologise to any Class 82 fans for classing a DVT as such
We all love a DVT though.....right?!?

Anyway, I did a loco update yesterday so that side of things is updated. Didn't feel appropriate to make a song and dance about it considering we were still in the aftermath of the tragic events of Wednesday

I've also been doing a bit of background work to try and improve the page load timings and after a bit of research I have decided to amend the following:

• The scrolling photo gallery on the Home Page has been removed and replaced with a single static photo.
• All of the background images on the fleet data pages have been removed.
• Any images that remain on the site have been thoroughly compressed. Wix claim that they do this as standard but their compression takes you from 5mb to 2mb whereas making use of other compression facilities can take the sizes down to 0.1-0.2mb.
• I've amended the caching settings on the fleet data pages.

I've run a test and these changes do seem to have improved the loading, particularly on the fleet data pages where it seemed to be at its slowest. It's not perfect and I do have one more thing up my sleeve but for now hopefully everyone else notices at least a slight improvement.

 

[The_Train]

The DMU section is now (finally) up and running - use the DMU button on the Home Page to access the DMU menu.
Only the Class 139 - Class 144 section is live at the moment but I have set it up slightly differently to the Loco fleet data sections.

So, as always, feedback on the structure of the information (in comparison to the equivalent pages on the loco sections) is welcome but more importantly, feedback on whether this setup creates faster page loading times compared to the loco fleet data pages (which is where it appears the biggest issues in this regard occur).

www.ukraillog.co.uk

 

[xotGD]

It might just be me, but on my tablet the left and right hand sides of the tables of loco information are chopped off. This has the slight drawback that I can no longer see the loco numbers.

 

[The_Train]

It might just be me, but on my tablet the left and right hand sides of the tables of loco information are chopped off. This has the slight drawback that I can no longer see the loco numbers.

It might just be because I've changed the style on desktop and this has impacted on the mobile/tablet view. I shall check it out later.

Out of interest does this happen in both portrait and landscape (if we still class it as these haha)?

 

[Peter C]

The DMU section is now (finally) up and running - use the DMU button on the Home Page to access the DMU menu.
Only the Class 139 - Class 144 section is live at the moment but I have set it up slightly differently to the Loco fleet data sections.

So, as always, feedback on the structure of the information (in comparison to the equivalent pages on the loco sections) is welcome but more importantly, feedback on whether this setup creates faster page loading times compared to the loco fleet data pages (which is where it appears the biggest issues in this regard occur).

www.ukraillog.co.uk

I've just been looking at it and not having a photo as the background definitely speeds up the loading times for all pages. Having a DMU page is nice and I look forward to seeing more additions made to it, but I'm not too sure if I like the pink tables: it might be because I've got used to the blue ones from the loco pages, but it also helps in reading it for them to be blue I think. Obviously it's your site to change!

-Peter

 

[takno]

I've just been looking at it and not having a photo as the background definitely speeds up the loading times for all pages. Having a DMU page is nice and I look forward to seeing more additions made to it, but I'm not too sure if I like the pink tables: it might be because I've got used to the blue ones from the loco pages, but it also helps in reading it for them to be blue I think. Obviously it's your site to change!

The pink/red is pretty aggressive. If I was going with pink I'd probably go for a much lighter pink with dark text, just to improve contrast.

It occurs to me that a lot of the problems are coming from the use of Wix. I'm not sure what your experience is with coding techniques, or your appetite for learning new technologies. You would be able to achieve something a lot more usable without a massive spend though if you were willing and able to go a bit more technical

 

[xotGD]

It might just be because I've changed the style on desktop and this has impacted on the mobile/tablet view. I shall check it out later.

Out of interest does this happen in both portrait and landscape (if we still class it as these haha)?

Yes, same issue both ways round.

BTW - I didn't know that 37308 had been moved to the SVR so thank you for providing that gen.

 

[xotGD]

Yes, same issue both ways round.

BTW - I didn't know that 37308 had been moved to the SVR so thank you for providing that gen.

Checked on my laptop and there is no problem - just a tablet thing.

 

[Peter C]

I've just been having a look at the Railway News section of the site and I was wondering where you get the information from? Not saying it's no good or anything like that, it's actually very useful: just curious

-Peter