Where am I today?

[whole diary]

[Tim]

A photo of my local station.  One point for the country, one for the "system", one for the station.  Bonus for an explanation of the white signs on the grey plastic covers over the bottom contact third rail. 


(not my photo but public domain)

[Mookiemoo]

Munich airport?

Signs poiting to the two differnt terminals?

[Tim]

Munich airport?

Signs poiting to the two differnt terminals?

Sorry both answers wrong. 

The first by only a few miles (I am somewhere in Munich and the airport station uses similar coloured marble, but has OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") not third rail). 
 Your second answer is completely wrong.  The signs are not conventional direction signs, but are provided to assist passengers and are a fairly successful attempt to solve a common railway problem)

[grahame]

 
 Your second answer is completely wrong.  The signs are not conventional direction signs, but are provided to assist passengers and are a fairly successful attempt to solve a common railway problem)

Utter guess - "stand opposite here - this is where the doors will be when the train stops"?

[Tim]

 
 Your second answer is completely wrong.  The signs are not conventional direction signs, but are provided to assist passengers and are a fairly successful attempt to solve a common railway problem)

Utter guess - "stand opposite here - this is where the doors will be when the train stops"?

very close but not quite

[Electric train]

The con rail is bottom contact system covered to prevent electrocution not like out totally safe system in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)

[Tim]

The con rail is bottom contact system covered to prevent electrocution not like out totally safe system in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)

Except on the DLR^▸ (Docklands Light Railway) which I think is also bottom contact.  Presumably bottom contact is also less prone to icing (although not a problem underground).  Presumably, covered con-rail track is easier to maintain because trackworkers are allowed on the track in circumstances that would be prohibited in the UK without isolating the current?

Anyway the signs on the con rail cover are nothing to do with the rail (they are not, for example, warning signs).  The signs are simply placed there because they are in a convenient and consistant place to be seen by passegers, but does anyone know what information they convey? 

[Tim]

'No smoking'? 

nope, Grahame almost had it (but was wrong about doors)

[Tim]

It is a terminus as far as passengers are concerned (although trains run through to a siding or loop and reapear minutes later on the other track and there has been some talk of extending the tunnel)

[Chris from Nailsea]

'Kissing zone' ?

[Mookiemoo]

In that case I think the signs refer to which direction the trains depart in from each platform - I seem to remember that being fairly common

[Tim]

recap of answers (and a cryptic clue).

Country=Germany
City=Munich
System=?
Station=?  (or "ballpark area")
purpose of signs=?

I'll have another Weissbier and check again before bedtime

[Tim]

'Kissing zone' ?

I don't doubt that the Germans have a rule about that sort of thing, but no.

[Tim]

In that case I think the signs refer to which direction the trains depart in from each platform - I seem to remember that being fairly common

Half right - The signs do tell you the direction of trains, but they do more than that.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Well, I've given up squinting at those signs in the picture, trying to work out the German - never mind translate it into English! 

The system, though, is this, I think: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_U-Bahn