In the news

Apparently the Twitter chat is that RNT opposed AI driven trains.

Which would be crazy, seeing as there isn't a single AI driven train anywhere in the world...and that AFAIK there has only ever been one proof of concept test and that only happened last year.

Damm those RMT sponges for refusing to implement technology that doesn't exist!

Mick Lynch on Question Time is confirmed

The RMT want zero compulsory redundancies, arguing staff can be redeployed. Talk of moving ticket staff onto platforms for example. Then you run into a single member of staff working in a ticket office behind a screen feels reasonably safe but on a platform on their own might not and it all gets complicated fast.

Cue Tory minor ministers running round licking all the door handles, trying to get covid...

It seems as though things are going to get really rough in the UK.

It's just struck me who Mick Lynch sounds like. It's Billy Bleach from The Fast Show 😂

https://youtu.be/YZYMnmHgIks

:)

There are some quite right wing sounding candidates in this list (I include the tories in that):

Eight candidates are running in Honiton and Tiverton.

They are (listed alphabetically):

Jordan Donoghue-Morgan, Heritage Party
Andy Foan - Reform UK
Richard Foord - Liberal Democrats
Helen Hurford - Conservative
Liz Pole - Labour
Frankie Rufolo - The For Britain Movement
Ben Walker - UK Independence Party
Gill Westcott - Green Party

I think Ashlea "you can't be British and Black" Simon is running for Britain First in Wakefield.

I thought she was in prison.

Wtf? So would this be running in service?

Assume you would need review of the video so may as well send in the staff.
Also what about gauging that requires calibrated measurements. Just use an on train scanning system that at least runs a known distance from the ground.

Drones sound like another "everyone can get jobs in cyber" solution

Nothing seems to be learnt from the potters bar incident safety was placed on a sub sub contractor not checking the spreader bar resulting in the train leaving the track and crossing the platform sideways.

pantograph cameras are already a thing

Almost all vehicles are fitted, they can be spotted on a night by the illumination they throw on to the contact wires. As far as i know though they are only viewed after an incident, have never heard it being requested for maintenance purposes. The footage can be viewed immediately in the control rooms, as can the view from all the other onboard cameras.
Working for a TOC, train operating company, we have referred damage we have seen when we view footage that has been found after we inspected the pantograph heads.
The use of drones above live running rails would be frowned upon by drivers, especially after dark if having to use illumination.
Working in a Control room, you hear lots of requests for track inspections after rough rides reported by traincrew. Depending what the driver has said to the signaller the line may be stopped, or line speed reduced awaiting inspection a person, suppose this is where a drone could be used, but unsure of the range they have to be flown.
In wet areas and areas likely to slippage there are loads of sensors which report centrally. As do signal and track circuit monitoring equipment.
All faults still need men on the ground to fix.

There's a sign in a tunnel on Thameslink that I always notice. It says "Lower Pantograph" and it makes me snigger every time I see it. That is my only pantograph contribution.

The solution is that only rich guilty people should be able to chance their arm?

You can request footage for maintenance purposes, you just have to know the headcode, I've had to do it previously.

NMT and structure gauging train already do this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Measurement_Train

By-election exit polls should be available any minute now

Except apparently there aren’t any 🤦‍♂️

I shouldn’t have to wait for 6 hours to hear the real result when I could have speculation now - Y U no exit poll?

Yep, Ive done work with track monitoring vehicles. I was just saying if you wanted data based on the bland statement of "using drones" then some of this equipment is already there and in a better location for collecting hard data.

And drones flying round a live railway is a stupid idea.

On the way to Edinburgh for a weekend many moons ago one of the pantographs detached itself and smashed through the buffet car window. Stranded for 9 hours, weekend ruined.
First time I'd heard the word pantograph and also my contribution

You can request footage for maintenance purposes, you just have to know the headcode, I've had to do it previously.

Makes sense, in the ROC where I work we only work 'live' or within the day

The only place I ever see the word pantograph is on bike nerd forums. Why are they related?

The only place I ever see the word pantograph is on bike nerd forums. Why are they related?

It comes from the parallelogram type action of the gear. To keep gears in parallel and to keep contact wire pick up parallel to the vehicle.
But what the etymology of the two words is I don't know

OED (via library card login) etymology of pantograph:

Etymology: < panto- comb. form + -graph comb. form, after French †pentographe (1723 in the source translated in quot. 1723 at sense 1: see below on the form), pantographe (1743). Earlier currency of the word in Latin is suggested by post-classical Latin pantographice the art of drawing by means of a pantograph:
1631 C. Scheiner (title) Pantographice, seu Ars Delineandi res quaslibet per parallelogrammum lineare..mobile.
In Bion and his translator Stone (see quot. 1723 at sense 1) the first element appears as pento- , as if it were derived from ancient Greek πεντα- five; so also penta- (compare quot. 1728 at sense 1; occasionally still used) and pente- . Pantagraph and (rare) pantigraph show irregular forms of panto- comb. form.