Jargon...

[whole diary]

[macbrains]

 

I am a new member of the forum, and with the greatest of respect to posters who are far more knowledgeable than me, might it be possible to reduce the amount of jargon/acronyms in posts?

Some posts make little sense to folks outside the rail industry or with other specialist knowledge.

I'm just an IT professional, and that industry is bad enough for that sort of thing - but this forum, very good though it is, is worse!

rgds to all
Rob

[bobm]

Although there is an Acronyms/Abbreviations page I can see your point of view to an extent.  Whilst I can follow the jist of most posts the one thing I do stumble over are the three letter codes for stations.  Some are quite obvious but a fair few can be more obscure and I keep having to leave a thread to look one up.

[Maxwell P]

How about this format?

  e.g.  PLYmouth in the first reference to the station and then just PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains) thereafter etc...sorry etcetera :-)

[bobm]

That's an idea although some will look a bit strange where the three letters are not adjacent to each other in the full name.  I am getting used to a lot of them now. Although I still think Bristol Temple Meads should be BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) to match BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) for Bristol Parkway.

[bigdaz]

.....ok anything to stop me working 

FarNborough North (FNN)
ReaDingG (RDG^‡(resolve))
NaiLSea and backwell (NLS)
NewBurY (NBY^» (Newbury - next trains))
GaTWick airport
NewBurY
WeStBury (WSB^» (Westbury - next trains))
WarMiNster (WMN^» (Warminster - next trains))
ColNE (ANE)
SeVern Beach (SVB)
ShalFoRd (SFR)

It's up to some other sad person to continue my list!! lol!

[grahame]

I'm just an IT professional ...

IT   

So easy to do, isn't it. 

Ideally, full wording should be provided with the first time something is mentions in my humble opinion (IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion)), with the acronym bracketed thereafter.   Then, IMHO, you should be able to reuse the acronym as the post / thread continues.

[Brucey]

I'm awful with jargon.  Just a quick search through my previous posts will present plenty of SVR, CDR^▸ (Off Peak Day Return [ticket type] (formerly 'Cheap Day')), BRI^» (Bristol Temple Meads - next trains) and 1072s without any explanation!

On the other hand, you'll see that I can become equally as confused: http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=9632.msg100426#msg100426

I can write my posts in Java if you prefer... 

How about this format?

  e.g.  PLYmouth in the first reference to the station and then just PLY^» (Plymouth - next trains) thereafter etc...sorry etcetera :-)

Unfortunately, this doesn't work for every station.  E.g. Bedford is BDM (unless you refer to it as Bedford Midland).  Fortunately, however, I cannot think of any such examples in the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) area.

[Maxwell P]

.....ok anything to stop me working 

FarNborough North (FNN)
ReaDingG (RDG^‡(resolve))
NaiLSea and backwell (NLS)
NewBurY (NBY^» (Newbury - next trains))
GaTWick airport
NewBurY
WeStBury (WSB^» (Westbury - next trains))
WarMiNster (WMN^» (Warminster - next trains))
ColNE (ANE)
SeVern Beach (SVB)
ShalFoRd (SFR)

It's up to some other sad person to continue my list!! lol!

WOS^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains) e WOF fling on about?

[6 OF 2 redundant adjunct of unimatrix 01]

explains why barnstaple and poole are often frowned upon 

[Phil]

rgds to all
Rob

"rgds"?

[chrisoates]

Although there is an Acronyms/Abbreviations page I can see your point of view to an extent.  Whilst I can follow the jist of most posts the one thing I do stumble over are the three letter codes for stations.  Some are quite obvious but a fair few can be more obscure and I keep having to leave a thread to look one up.

It only gets worse - the codes on signal posts are not the same as the TLA^▸ (three letter acronym) for the Station where the controlling SignalBox resides.

I use 'Rail Planner Live' on my smartphone - a handy feature is that the Station names and the 3 letter codes are listed together.

[ellendune]

If it is a station you can always look it up using the online timetable.

[macbrains]

Just an example... picked at random, nothing personal!

The easiest option is for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to use a TPWS^▸ (Train Protection and Warning System) fitted 08 or 09 to operate the draw back moves to / from Paddington which reduces the daily requirement for 57/6 from three to two. The other loco then becomes a 'Thunderbird' at some strategic point or is available as maintainance cover at OOC^▸ (Old Oak Common (depot)).

rgds to all (regards to all)

Rob

[macbrains]

I'm just an IT professional ...

IT   

So easy to do, isn't it. 

Ideally, full wording should be provided with the first time something is mentions in my humble opinion (IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion)), with the acronym bracketed thereafter.   Then, IMHO, you should be able to reuse the acronym as the post / thread continues.

Quite agree, very sensible

Rob

[chrisoates]

Just an example... picked at random, nothing personal!

The easiest option is for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to use a TPWS^▸ (Train Protection and Warning System) fitted 08 or 09 to operate the draw back moves to / from Paddington which reduces the daily requirement for 57/6 from three to two. The other loco then becomes a 'Thunderbird' at some strategic point or is available as maintainance cover at OOC^▸ (Old Oak Common (depot)).

rgds to all (regards to all)

Rob

I'm just a passenger who loathed trains but one day wondered what the barrels are at the track side....what DMLOS could possibly mean...
I now know that TPWS things are toast racks and to understand what a Thunderbird' is you have to watch children's TV (International Rescue) - The Thunderbirds are named
57301 Scott Tracy
57302 Virgil Tracy
57303 Alan Tracy
57304 Gordon Tracy
57305 John Tracy
57306 Jeff Tracy
57307 Lady Penelope
57308 Tin Tin
57309 Brains
57310 Kyrano
57311 Parker
57312 The Hood
57313 Tracey Island
 

Some stuff is harder understand or remember because I live in Cornwall...OOC is Old Oak Common.
Lots of the Loco numbers don't mean much as I never see them - won't be seeing 'Donkeys' any more as Class 142 'Pacers' are  being replaced with Class 150's.

I used to wonder why signals are always at red when passing...why the Driver of the St Ives branch gets given a piece of tree branch when he does a trip from Penzance.

My days out are now much more interesting and I regularly talk to Station staff & Drivers asking them about stuff I don't know yet.