What do you do while you're on a train?

[Eng274]

I find a seat preferably near the middle of the carriage, above the engine..i love the sound of it, especially on the 158.. the 170 not as much, since the radiator fans drown out any kind of decent engine noise. "Diagnosis Scud" is a good game on the ex-SWT/Alphaline units, the engines on them sound completely sh@gged and spluttery.

occasionally my the train runs parallel to another similarly timed departing service westbound from Haymarket, so its good to watch the 170 being left for dead by the 158, then see it catch up again as the 158 runs out of puff..

if theres jakeys nearby i plug in the headphones though

 

[The 158 Man]

I find a seat preferably near the middle of the carriage, above the engine..i love the sound of it, especially on the 158.. the 170 not as much, since the radiator fans drown out any kind of decent engine noise. "Diagnosis Scud" is a good game on the ex-SWT/Alphaline units, the engines on them sound completely sh@gged and spluttery.

occasionally my the train runs parallel to another similarly timed departing service westbound from Haymarket, so its good to watch the 170 being left for dead by the 158, then see it catch up again as the 158 runs out of puff..

I prefer the ex-TPE 158s. The have a lovely 'whine' that I haven't heard on any of the others.

 

[185]

The ex TPE (Northern Spirit) 158s are a little different underneath, and were excellent units before First Transpennine got their hands on them.

 

[The 158 Man]

I thought First did a pretty good job with their 158s, inside anyway!

 

[CosherB]

- with in-ear headphones that ensures nobody around me will even know I've got the sound on!

I do wish more people would use those. I note quite afew on this thread listen to various devices while on the train. Among the worst are those headphones that come as standard with Ipods. Not only is the sound quality awful, they also emit almost as much sound to everyone else in the carriage as they do to the listener! Tizz, Tizz, Tizz, tizz-tizz, tizz etc!

Drives ya barmy!

I like to look out of the window. The view from a train is quite unlike what one sees from the road; it's the 'back view' of everything - back gardens, back yards, etc. Far more interesting than the front view that's been made tidy for the viewer! Sometimes I listen to my Ipod as well, epescailly if there is a brainless 'tizzer' nearby. But I use Bose high quality earphones which sound far, far better and don't emit sound to those around.

 

[Eng274]

I like to look out of the window. The view from a train is quite unlike what one sees from the road; it's the 'back view' of everything - back gardens, back yards, etc

On that note, does anybody who travels on the Fife outer circle think Rosyth's back gardens have a disproportionately high number of trampolines...?

 

[scotsman]

On that note, does anybody who travels on the Fife outer circle think Rosyth's back gardens have a disproportionately high number of trampolines...?

I've seen quite a few along there

 

[CosherB]

Back garden trampolines breed. You never see just one. There'll be one next door as well, then another, and another.

My guess is that one kid gets one, then all the other kids want one as well!

 

[jon0844]

True. What you probably won't see is anyone using one (at least after the first few days).

 

[scotsman]

Back garden trampolines breed. You never see just one. There'll be one next door as well, then another, and another.

My guess is that one kid gets one, then all the other kids want one as well!

If you've ever been to Rosyth, you'll know that there is NOTHING for kids to do around there.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

If you've ever been to Rosyth, you'll know that there is NOTHING for kids to do around there.

They could go boat spotting

 

[6S83]

I try to hog two seats, preferably 'airline' ones, so that I don't have to look at or communicate with any other human being. I then try to read my paper until I'm overcome with the urge to kill the parents of the little **** running up and down or the suit 'touching base' loudly with their office. I then retire to the bog for some peace.
I hate travelling by train in this country, it's awful. Unfortunately I have to.

 

[scotsman]

They could go boat spotting

Touchy topic. The passenger ferry is going from December and is being 'replaced' by 2 freight only ferries.

You can't see the dockyard either from most of the town.

I once had the 'pleasure' of visiting the dockyard. I saw the hold of the HMS Ark Royal and the deck of some wee Minesweeper, as well as the rusting hulks of no less than eight Nuclear Submarines.

 

[90019]

Touchy topic. The passenger ferry is going from December and is being 'replaced' by 2 freight only ferries.

You can't see the dockyard either from most of the town.

I once had the 'pleasure' of visiting the dockyard. I saw the hold of the HMS Ark Royal and the deck of some wee Minesweeper, as well as the rusting hulks of no less than eight Nuclear Submarines.

It's a pity they're getting rid of it, though the rumours about it happening have been around for years.


You can see the submarines clearly on google maps

 

[ainsworth74]

You can see the submarines clearly on google maps

Looks to me like there are 4 Resolution class missile boats as well as HMS Dreadnought (always liked that name) and two others not sure about them, might be Swiftsures. And the one by itself is probably a Trafalgar.

 

[LE Greys]

Looks to me like there are 4 Resolution class missile boats as well as HMS Dreadnought (always liked that name) and two others not sure about them, might be Swiftsures. And the one by itself is probably a Trafalgar.

Depends on when it was taken, but I think she may be Tireless, the one that was damaged in 2007 because of an explosion. The others do look like the R-boats and Dreadnought, but I'm not sure about the others, they may be Valiant and Warspite (a submarine called Warspite is a 'heroine' ship in one of my books BTW).

Actually, ship spotting happens to be something I do whenever my train gives me the chance. I've seen various cruise ships and tankers from the Forth Bridge, and plenty of container ships in various places. However, the Royal Albert Bridge is my favourite, you never know what's going to be in Devonport.

 

[ainsworth74]

Depends on when it was taken

I've been thinking about when the shot could be from. Only thing I can find to date is the Carrier, it has the deck letter N which would make it Vince. But seeing as she was decommissioned in 2005 that would make it a very old shot.

 

[deltic1989]

i ususally have my laptop out playing simsig or MSTS, listen to music, read the paper, stare out the window and look for signs of old crumbleing inferstructure.

 

[Death]

Personally, I'm one of the "contemplative" lot...Although what I contemplate and how I contemplate it may differ *slightly* from the norm...

Simply put though, it tends to depend on what stock I'm on:

• Classes 43, 158, 159, 220, 221, 370, 373, 390, 395:
  As a general rule, I like to find myself an isolated vestibule somewhere towards the rear of the train - Somewhere that's sound-isolated from other passengers - Where I can stand, have freedom of movement to lean-in to bends (Those blasted Pendos can never get the angle right!), start one of the high-speed playlists on my MP3 player going at high volume (Hence the vestibule...Chosen in consideration of other passengers), headbang/thrash/air-guitar to my heart's content, and dream of the day when speed limits along the WCML and ECML will finally receive their long overdue 550mph increases! hock:
  .
• Classes 14x, 168, 170, 180, 350, 41x, 42x, 442, 444, 450:
  Similar to the above with regard to standing for freedom of movement and ability to lean into bends to compensate for certain features that should've been fitted to these trains, but havn't. The MP3 player still goes on with a slightly less empowering playlist, but only after I've let my hearing adjust to the current environment so I can listen at a volume which won't disturb other passengers.
  .
• All other classes running under 125mph:
  Normally just sit down with the MP3 player if I feel like listening to it, and just idly watch the scenery go by. These services normally feel far too slow for me to enjoy them in any way...Unless it's a Heritage working of some description with some decent grunt on the front!

I do wish more people would use those. I note quite afew on this thread listen to various devices while on the train. Among the worst are those headphones that come as standard with Ipods. Not only is the sound quality awful, they also emit almost as much sound to everyone else in the carriage as they do to the listener! Tizz, Tizz, Tizz, tizz-tizz, tizz etc! Drives ya barmy!

The trouble with that desire is that those headphones don't come cheap, aren't that comfortable, and not everyone can afford them.

As ye can probably imagine considering my musical preferences, I blow sets of headphones on a regular basis...Which would make a switch to "plugs" an extremely expensive preposition in my case. On the other hand, a job-lot of 50 pairs cheap in-ear headphones that I bought off of eBay a while ago seems to have served me well enough, and at about 12.5p a pair I can at least afford to blow those!

I have demoed more expensive brands and designs on home approval trials before (With most of them dying quickly) and one problem that I found with noise cancelling ones is that - Though they isolate the listener from the sound around him - At higher volumes they don't isolate the area around the listener from what he's listening to!
I acknowlege that I use cheap open-backed earphones for my listening, which leak sound badly as one would expect. This though is why I choose to stand in the vestibule and enjoy my music there insted...It allows me to enjoy myself, in the way that I choose, whilst at the same time keeping my "noise" away from other pasengers!