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Excessive delay to road users

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Excessive delay to road users 14/02/2010 at 12:11 #711
postal
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5189 posts
To give touch of aggravation on top of the points lost for excessive delay to road users, would it be possible for the signaller to receive a phone call on the lines of "How much longer are we [expletive deleted]-well going to sit here?". You would probably need responses on the lines of "The crossings broken so you'll have to wait", "There's another train coming" and "I'm just lifting the barriers now".

JG

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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Excessive delay to road users 14/02/2010 at 12:11 #6683
postal
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5189 posts
To give touch of aggravation on top of the points lost for excessive delay to road users, would it be possible for the signaller to receive a phone call on the lines of "How much longer are we [expletive deleted]-well going to sit here?". You would probably need responses on the lines of "The crossings broken so you'll have to wait", "There's another train coming" and "I'm just lifting the barriers now".

JG

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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Excessive delay to road users 14/02/2010 at 23:06 #6699
clive
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2736 posts
MCB crossings, which are the ones that completely block the road, often/usually don't have phones for road users.
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Excessive delay to road users 15/02/2010 at 00:05 #6701
postal
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Clive

I don't understand quite what you are saying.

The Network Rail definitions of the various types of level crossings includes:

"Manually controlled barrier (MCB)

Protected by barriers, across both carriageways of the road and are operated by a railway employee. The operation of the road traffic lights signals and audible warning devices is interlocked into the signalling system. Typically, the crossing operator would be situated within a 50m clear view distance of the crossing.

Manually controlled barrier protected by closed circuit television (MCB-CCTV)

Similar to the Manually Controlled Barrier. The only difference is that the railway employee uses a CCTV system to monitor and control the operation of the crossing."

Full text at http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/5269.aspx#mcb

Is the point that the crossings that will invoke excessive delay penalties in SimSig are all of the MCB type and thus every crossing which may incur the penalties will have an operator typically within 50m of the crossing? I'm not sure that this applies to (for example) Beighton Crossing on the Sheffield sim where I regularly fail to act as a competent signaller. Google Earth does show a shadow of what appears to be CCTV mast in that instance, which implies some sort of telephone link as well because the signaller is not within hailing distance.

If my initial suggestion is not technically feasible, then that's the end of it. If it is also an exercise which where the work involved exceeds any potential benefits in terms of defining which crossings are both subject to excessive delay sanctions and also have telephone communication with the signaller, again there is no point in taking if forward.

Still, it was only an idea.


JG

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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Excessive delay to road users 15/02/2010 at 15:05 #6719
UKTrainMan
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Personally I think it is actually a very good idea. It will certainly be beneficial in both solo-player and in multi-player, particularly the latter since currently only the host will know if an 'excessive delay penalty' has occurred and they may miss the message or even ignore it without telling the players/panel signaller involved. If the panel signaller received a phone call about it then it would make them aware of this and hopefully they'd take action (i.e: raise the barriers, if possible).

I can't see this as being too difficult to implement (then again, I am not a developer) and finding out what each type of crossing is should be pretty easy, in-fact I would happily volunteer to do this myself if I were given a list of crossing names to find out about - something which wouldn't take me very long (up to a week, perhaps).

Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for.
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Excessive delay to road users 15/02/2010 at 15:42 #6721
afro09
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I personally think JG's idea is an excellent one as it regulates the amount of penalty incurred by barries being left in the lowered position. This would be really help on the Bristol sim where the Portbury LC has no auto raise feature and it gives an "excessive delay to road users" penalty every 10 seconds from the first message, So in a multiplayer game, there has been 3 or 4 penalties incurred by the time the host alerts the panel signaller and the barriers are lifted.

On the other hand I can also see where Clive is coming from. If we are to make sim as realiatic as possible then it would defy the point if we are to place public line side phones where the are actually none in real life.

So the questions here are

1. Can JG's Idea be Implemented?
2. What information is needed to do so?
3. Can we get volenteers to gather the required information?
4. Are we willing to sacrifice a tiny bit of the the realism in order to implement the idea?

So maybe JG can find out if the comunity would run with this idea, Clive could discuss its feasability with other developers. And if the idea can be implemented and the comunity will run with it then certainly myself and UKTrainMan would gather any information we can.

Just some food for thought.

Alan.

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Excessive delay to road users 15/02/2010 at 17:08 #6727
postal
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5189 posts
For the record, I've made a suggestion. I am not in the business of running a political campaign or taking the temperature of some community to which it seems I have been nominated.

If others wish to take things forward, then please fell free, but please do not assume that I have the time or the inclination to join in.

JG

“In life, there is always someone out there, who won’t like you, for whatever reason, don’t let the insecurities in their lives affect yours.” – Rashida Rowe
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Excessive delay to road users 15/02/2010 at 17:14 #6729
afro09
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JG,

You have not been nominated for anything. I merely suggested that as It is your idea you should see if other siggers like the idea, then if they do, the development team can then see if it is a practical idea.

Alan.

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Excessive delay to road users 15/02/2010 at 20:24 #6738
clive
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2736 posts
There are two separate issues here.

Firstly, the "excessive delay" messages only come from MG, MCB(L), MCB(R), and MCB(CCTV) crossings, all of which work the same in SimSig. Those crossings don't normally have telephones as far as I'm aware, though there are exceptions (e.g. Appleford on SwinDid). Sims can be coded to provide telephones, in which case people will call when they want to cross, but that's normally only done for crossings where the barriers normally stay down.

Secondly, if I understand correctly, there's an issue in multiplayer games where the "excessive delay" message isn't going to the right workstation. That can be fixed and I'll add it to the bug board.

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