The opportunity is already there, isn't it?  Change at New Street.

We find that dogs need to pop outside for the call of nature occasionally (usually at 3 a.m.)

I may be going off topic here, but I have been unimpressed by the reported (to me, in conversation) inefficiencies of the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) making a number of suggestions to the Department for Transport with regards what they clearly regard as sensible changes which do not progress.  Clearly the TOCs in question think they make good sense - otherwise they would not spend time and company money/resources suggesting them, but as reported the suggestions are [refused / delayed / not answered / met with a "thank you" and no more].   

Of course there need to be multiple levels of review / discussion / consultancy but have we gone too far and having top executives, who we can assume are well paid, at TOCs come up with good ideas from there teams, does it show a degree of mistrust in them or a desire for excessive control from HMG if they are not allowed to do what they are paid to do in terms of coming up with and implementing sensible ideas?   

Streamlining this process could save jobs - but we so much need to take care that the jobs that are saved / removed are not the ones that have built up a great deal of expertise over the year.  There are some very good people in government circles (civil servants and politicians) but very often they are generalists who come from different backgrounds.

There is no public attendees list that I know of , but the organisations involved are shown in the advert for the event, which I shared in public on the Coffee Shop at https://www.passenger.chat/t30027.html . As a result of that, perhaps, I saw a number of other members and people I know physically there and some may have been online.

Yet - Clapham Junction on the Mildmay Line, Romford on the Liberty Line, and the line to Barking Riverside is indeed the "Suffragette Line".  I too am having trouble with the names. Only the line out of Liverpool Street not visited and I will have to look up that name .... time will tell how well these become known just as we all know where the Jubilee, Bakerloo, Central and Circle (Teacup!) go.

The last 48 hours have been ... frantic ... and I *think* that just about everything is back.  Missing are imaged from my posts from about summer 2023 to summer 2024 - I know why and I would expect them to return, largely unnoticed, in the next few days.

A really interesting exercise.   The "story" for backing up is that you should always assume that your server is going to crash DURING the taking of backups, leaving the backups incomplete at the same time as the system itself is broken. That did not happen, and in any case we have a multiple level backup scheme, and the local backups on the server itself were almost sufficient as I only had to restore part of the system. Lesson for me - take careful note of all the config files scattered around the system - those are the hardest to re-create with obscure but tiny changes made over the years.    Having said which, I do have twice weekly backups of the config files but in precise restored these scattered changes from "first principles".

The principle of all of this - just like with the railways - is that it's very complex behind the scenes but that the customer should not care / be worried / need to know how it's done. Cathartic for me to write it up and to learn lessons, but as far as you members and guests are concerned,  no need to know and the paragraph above may have been written in Akkadian.   And good that it provided me with a refresh course in the sort of thing I used to teach.

This sort of unexpected event WILL happen from time to time. We at the Coffee Shop do not employ a full time team (heck, we don't employ anyone) and the cost and time of a full time, fall over on fail second system with all the complexity of keeping them in sync and ensuring the fail-over actually works would be an awful lot of resource for very little return.   The pragmatic "solution" is to have (a) backups and an ability to rebuild if worst comes to worst and (b) if it falls over get the message out there however it can be done that we are on to it, with updates as we go along.

The Coffee Shop - yeah - is part of my life these days, and judging by the returning post volume yesterday afternoon (even when it came up a few hours earlier than my final estimate) and the utter understanding from people so much confirms how this place is important to others too and what a wonderful bunch of people you are.  Thank you.

I travelled on five out of the six (by name) overground lines on Monday - still not familiar with the names but getting there.   Pictured:

1. To be identified

2. Crystal Palace on The Windrush Line - identified by Phil Wakely

3. South Hampstead, on the Lioness Line - identified by Chris from Nailsea

4. Barking Riverside on the [not stated] line - identified by eightonedee

5. To be identified

Not used nor pictured:

6. Can anyone tell me?

Trains on most of the lines fast and frequent and on all the lines modern and electric. Those that I knew to be timetabled were on time or within a couple of minutes, and connection to and from other bits of public transport worked well.  No problem finding a seat on any of them, though one train filled well beyond the seating capacity at an intermdiate station. Much to write about when all identified, but catching up here after the last 48 hours of meetings (2), server issues, and life in general.

More seriously, but still a blindish guess - Stan Drew's Road?

It looked interesting and I had been planning to attend, along with another member of our local rail group. But emergency  repairs here getting the Coffee Shop re-opened took priority.

My image handling system with the Coffee Shop also back and working.  Some images from before last July still need to be restored - but I am watching mode at the moment, and headed for early sleep.

Looks like the steps when I visited Breich a few years back when it was suggested closure.  Must go back.

Let's see if my image system (shares the same database engine) is fully functional.   Just one pair each please

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Yes.

When the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) came in, the first one of the day was put on this route, really to provide a commuter service from Westbury and the Kennet Valley into London, and that service survives.  The return service took the curve and avoided Westbury, again very much a Kennet Valley service and quiet by the time it got to Trowbridge.

That Westbury avoider had no regular passenger service prior to this train starting, and so it ran as an "experimental service" and was pulled a few days before it had been running for three years to avoid getting into a permanence that would make it somplex to close.   The train now calls and Westbury and terminates at Frome, then runs back to Westburt and on, Empty, to Bristol.


To .... this is why I am careful to always say (well, not to the Amazon delivery man) that Trowbridge was no direct train service from London.

Indeed ... but the multiple ways of getting information to people and people to trains don't all have to work for everyone. There is little point in announcements for the deaf,  stairs for those in wheelchairs, or car parks for those walking or cycling to the station.