XC Voyager dot-matrix displays.

[Mugby]

Something I noticed for the first time on a Voyager on Saturday evening:

The rolling display was giving the time, temperature outside and current speed, all the way from Derby to Birmingham.

Is this a new feature? I havn't seen it before. The current speed was interesting with a maximum of 122 mph. in the Elford area!

 

[Ash Bridge]

Yes I've seen this also on an XC Voyager although this was several years ago now, I seem to recall the max speed displayed was similar (121 mph) between Stafford and Wolverhampton in my case.

 

[virgintrain1]

Part of every Voyager TMS, but disabled by default so this would have been re-enabled by one the train crew.

 

[LOL The Irony]

If the story goes correctly, Virgin had them on by default when the Voyagers & Pendolino's first entered service. They advertised them as 125 MPH trains but they rarely reached 125 so were disabled out of embarrassment.

 

[grumpyoldman01]

I've also experienced it - once! - on an XC Voyager going north-east from Plymouth, and it was also many years ago. However, it was intermittent, and totally absent north of Bristol; that was a great disappointment, as I'd hoped to see at what speed it climbed the Lickey!

 

[anamyd]

Huh, didn't know this was a thing. whenever I'm on Pendolinos I do feel like I'm going fast and tilting but not a whole lot else. i think Virgin even boasted about how they "whizz people along" to their destination!

 

[hexagon789]

Something I noticed for the first time on a Voyager on Saturday evening:

The rolling display was giving the time, temperature outside and current speed, all the way from Derby to Birmingham.

Is this a new feature? I havn't seen it before. The current speed was interesting with a maximum of 122 mph. in the Elford area!

While quite rare on UK trains, these details are quite common on Passenger Information Screens on many Continental European trains in my experience; the Frecciarossa in Italy for instance - the weather, journey details and speed were shown through the journey, though that was on a flat screen monitor rather than an LCD scrolling display.

I've often though UK trains, at least long-distance InterCity ones should provide this sort of information.

 

[whhistle]

Train Managers can enable the extra info in the TMS.
Many don't bother.
I wonder if the above absence was to do with a change of crew at Bristol?

 

[Jonfun]

I'm not sure the circumstances when they do it, but I know they *can* do it. It might well be one set is running around with it activated; it isn't the sort of thing anyone is ever going to go in and deliberately turn on or off, unless they were playing around with it and just pressed the relevant button. I couldnt even tell you how to turn it on and off tbh.

 

[Andyh82]

If the story goes correctly, Virgin had them on by default when the Voyagers & Pendolino's first entered service. They advertised them as 125 MPH trains but they rarely reached 125 so were disabled out of embarrassment.

Could you also get a situation where the display may show 126mph, which might lead to a load of knashing of teeth on social media?

 

[LOL The Irony]

Could you also get a situation where the display may show 126mph, which might lead to a load of knashing of teeth on social media?

This was around the time facebook started. Rabbid Internet users were still several years away.