Hello and welcome back to The Traffic Circular! r! This is our second edition - yes, we are also impressed we’ve actually kept somewhat to schedule - and we have a fair amount to report! Don’t forget, The Traffic Circular is our regular newsletter where the Discord staff team will provide updates about the community, advise of any upcoming events, keep you updated on the latest server news, where to go to talk about certain topics in threads (rather than channels)... and other bits and bobs. We aim to release a new edition every month; the link will be posted in #public-address on our Discord server, and you’ll also be able to find the whole archive on this wiki.
Whilst The Traffic Circular is kept up to date by our staff team, don’t forget that we want your input too! Drop your feedback and ideas into the thread in #feedback-and-suggestions - and, if you want to, your birthdays for the next month too (but only if you want others to know)! If you’d like to get involved in the production of The Traffic Circular we’d also love to hear from you too!
Salisbury Incident
Most members will be aware of an incident that took place near Salisbury station on Sunday 31st October, involving GWR and SWR services. Our thoughts go out to all affected by the incident, including those on board and involved with the subsequent response, recovery and investigation stages. As this is a major incident with the involvement of the British Transport Police and Rail Accident Investigation Branch, discussion and speculation on the server is currently prohibited; factual updates from primary sources may be posted. We appreciate the support of the membership in this decision.
A full list of ‘Do Not Discuss’ incidents can be found as a pinned post in #thats-not-gone-well. The list will be kept under review by OOL staff and events will be removed at the appropriate time, usually at the conclusion of the investigation and/or legal proceedings.
All Change!
As you may have (or now will have) noticed, we’ve had a little (big) reshuffle with some of the channels, and many have been renamed or moved. These are the biggest changes you’ll see:
The topic areas have been renamed so they’re less confusing. We now have:
Ticket Hall, which is where you go for information, where we welcome people to the server, and where we host our #automatic-train-zone, the place for the bots you can use to give yourself roles and to set your pronouns (if you want to!);
Main Concourse, where you’ll find all chat about anything on rails;
Rail Replacement, for anything that’s not on rails;
Our Community Lines, which is where we have Pride and Trainbows, the events channel, and (if you’re into that kind of thing) RailMiles;
and finally the Waiting Room - for anything and everything else, including gaming and off-topic chat.
You’ll notice a few channels have been archived in our Railway Museum... that’s because we’ve consolidated these channels down to avoid duplication and make the server a tidier, less confusing place, but you can still read the old messages here.
If you’re looking for anything SimSig related, this will be in games-with-trains (in the Waiting Room), and for organised SimSig sessions, there will be a thread created to keep everything together there. If there is interest to start up Among Us sessions again too - or indeed any other kind of multiplayer game - you’ll also find these here.
If you’re looking for anything tickets and passes related, that can be discussed in
#tickets-and-passes-please (in the Main Concourse) - anything to do with timetables, scheduling or planning your own adventures, meanwhile, can be found in the #travel-agency.
Signals etc? They now sit in #location-location-location alongside stations and other fixed infrastructure. You can find this in the Main Concourse.
Anything relating to rolling stock (including the former #the-hst-graveyard) can now be found as #trains-on-our-lines, which is also in the Main Concourse.
Finally, the Eurovision channel has been carefully packed away and sent off to the museum too, to be replaced by a thread for the 2022 contest nearer the time in the #tea-rooms (part of the Waiting Room).
If you are still confused about where to put something, a very easy-to-follow guide is available in the #network-map (in the Ticket Hall). If you’re still confused after that (or have any other questions) then do please ask and someone will be happy to help.
We’ve also reduced and simplified the roles available in the server, as well as adding exclusive icons for some. As ever, you’ll find a full list of the various roles, and their meanings, in the #rule-book. Notable changes include Oyster cards for our @Ticket Holders and @Train Maintainers, and coloured roundels for participants in our Transport Races and Pride Of Our Lines gatherings.
Moving forwards, every On Our Lines event will have a different icon as a ‘thank you’ for joining us, and we’ll keep your profile up to date with the three most recent events you participated in.
We also have a full list of the changes that have been made on the Bradshaw, which you’ll
find at Restructure November 2021.
Meet the Staff
This bit is back again, and we’re running through a brief introduction to the staff - the @Operations Superintendent, @Controller and @Signaller grades.
If you’re wondering why some people have coloured names where others don’t, that’s related to the roles that they have. Not all are staff - only the above colours on a person’s server name indicates they have a staff role (other colours indicate non-staff roles like Patreon supporter). If you don’t know what a role or colour does or means, you can have a quick look in #rule-book, where each role is explained. (While we’re guiding you there, we thought we’d remind you that this is where the rules of the server live… obviously… and if you do break any of them, someone in the admin team will let you know.)
This month our featured staff member is Mitchel (@MitchelMor#6969) AKA @Witchel Moriarty 🎃, one of our @Controllers. The floor’s yours, Mitchel!
Mitchel with his genuine airline drinks trolley
Hi, I’m Mitchel (He/Him), one of On Our Lines’ Discord admins and an all around geek. I love traveling to new places and meeting new people and I’ve already met some fantastic people through the On Our Lines Discord. Now that we can travel again, I’m excited to meet more of you at future On Our Lines events or days out on the rail network.
I’ve had an interest in railways since childhood and I’m fascinated by the design and engineering that go into all parts of the railway, whether it be posters and graphic design; architecture; or the complex mechanical systems involved in the day to day running of the railway. In the grand scheme of things I know next to nothing, especially compared to some of you, but I love to learn how things work and get a feel for the effort that makes it possible.
When I’m not at work driving a train, you can occasionally find me riding one at a heritage railway or on a railtour. Since my biggest interest is in the London Underground, my favourite train is the 1938 stock for its art deco styling and classic red livery. On the mainline I like a nice trip behind a steam engine, though I know very little about them. I would love to see more vintage electric traction on the mainline and I’ve been lucky enough to travel behind 86259 ‘Les Ross’ and the locos on GBRf’s charity railtour in September. I can’t wait to see more and I can’t wait to see you all out there enjoying them too.
Until then have fun, take care and keep the Discord safe for work!
Tips and Tricks
If there are particular things that you’re really not interested in, you’re welcome to mute these channels - and it’s easy to do! If you’re on a desktop or laptop, you can right click the channel in particular and click ‘Mute Channel’, selecting how long you want to mute said channel for. On your mobile device, you simply press and hold the channel you want to mute, and select ‘Mute Channel’. This way, you don’t have to get notified of things that don’t interest you!
Do you have a topic that you would like to have a proper discussion about? Why not create a thread in the relevant channel! It’s really simple, too. Just click or tap the # icon in the channel name banner at the top, and select ‘Create Thread’. This works on all platforms, including mobiles, tablets, laptops, desktops and the web app.
Threads get archived after a period of inactivity. You can still find them by clicking or tapping the # icon and choosing the “Archived” tab. Sending a new message in an archived thread will unarchive it for everyone.
Getting too many (or too few) notifications from threads or channels? Don’t worry, just right click on or long press the name of the thread/channel, choose ‘notification settings’ from the menu and select which option suits your preference.
You’ll notice the staff will be creating a few threads, and we’ll plug certain ones occasionally in The Traffic Circular. We definitely haven’t been doing that already… 👀
Bradshaw
If this is your first visit to this wiki, welcome! We already have a huge range of information on here - about On Our Lines, our SimSig games and the community in general. There are glossaries for a range of transport terminology, too, as well as joke dictionaries (notably Jishlish). We’re also expanding specialist pages for some of the lesser-known areas of the transport world, with huge thanks to Amir (@goldenarrow#8573) in particular for creating detailed and accessible histories of many of London Transport’s erstwhile signal cabins.
Bradshaw can be edited by any of our members very easily (it uses the same software as Wikipedia) and we encourage you to do so! There are help pages, places to experiment and, as it’s a wiki, there is nothing you can do that can’t be fixed if you get it wrong or just doesn’t work as you want. If you have questions about how to do something on the wiki, then you can do worse than ask Chris M (@Thryduulf#8980).
Now we’ve got The Traffic Circular up and running, you’ll find the current edition and all historic editions at Bradshaw:The Traffic Circular.
RailMiles
The RailMiles league is gaining more traction as our leaderboard gets bigger and bigger.
For those who don’t know what RailMiles is, it is a very niche website for rail enthusiasts who want to compile information about their train journeys, unit or loco numbers and see how many miles they accumulate in the year. This subscription service is provided by @swlines#4808, who also owns and runs the Real Time Trains website. See http://www.railmiles.me/ for more info. (This is not a sponsored or advertising post, we promise!).
Currently, we see @laurencec123#3791 is out in first place with 27,756 miles 45 chains; second place is @jcmgio#2168 with 16,874mi 34ch; and bringing up the rear in third place is @Coastway Will#7285 with 14,814mi 50ch.
Keep on adding your journeys and see how you stack up in our On Our Lines league. Ask @jcmgio#2168 to be added to the On Our Lines RailMiles league if you are not already in it.
Coming soon, we will also be having monthly challenges with different themes designed so that those who can only travel less frequently can compete with those who pile on the miles commuting or working on the railway. Stay tuned for details!
Stations of the Month
Each month we randomly select one National Rail station from each region of the country, one London Underground / DLR, one light rail/tram and one heritage railway station every month to be the Stations of the Month.
To earn points, just take a selfie at one or more of the Stations of the Month and at the end of the year there will be a prize for the person with the most points in each category - and maybe some bonus prizes too, so be creative with those selfies!
NR Winners: @Jarley (@jcmgio#2168) - Kirk Sandall; @trapped on the overground (@soundsystem#3141) - Kings Sutton; @Chris M (@Thryduulf#8980) - Fenny Stratford, Nutfield. White Hart Lane was won jointly by @Chris M (@Thryduulf#8980), @mimneon jish (@Minion_Josh_#8802) and @Charlotte (@casimmons#3091) as a special launch bonus!
LU/DLR Winner: @Chris M (@Thryduulf#8980) - Royal Albert
Heritage Winner: (no entries)
Light rail/Metro winner: (no entries)
The stations for November have been chosen and are listed in the November 2021 Stations of the Month thread in #challenges-on-our-lines, where you should post your pictures. Full details are on the Stations of the Month page here.
The stations of the month for November 2021
The Bonus category is new this month and gives a second chance to capture a location that was a station of the month previously but had no submissions. If it gets no submissions again then it will go back in the pot for another chance in the future.
=Upcoming Events
The next edition of London’s Transport Race - a fun jaunt around London’s Transport network with no running allowed - is provisionally happening in mid-December so watch this space.
You’ve Got Mail?
Want to stay in touch by email? If you'd like to receive future editions of The Traffic Circular by email, just let us know. Send an email to [email protected] and if there is interest we'll set it up in time for December's issue.
Picture of the Month
The inaugural picture of the month competition saw a total of 9 entries from @deadly (Adrian) (@deadly#3721), @livPlays (@livPlays#6969), @Chris M (@Thryduulf#8980), @60118 "tunbridge wills" (@Coastway Will#72851), @Jarley (@jcmgio#2168) and @Chiel (@chielmeiberg1112#5821).
The winner, as voted for by Ticket Holders and staff, is @60118 "tunbridge wills" (@Coastway Will#72851) with “A long exposure shot at Cwmbach of a class 150 conducting an empty working to Radyr.”
A long exposure shot at Cwmbach of a class 150 conducting an empty working to Radyr.
Credits
Written and edited by Chris M (@Thryduulf#8980) and Jarley (@jcmgio#2168).
Photo of the month by @60118 "tunbridge wills" (@Coastway Will#72851). Other graphics by Arturs (@arturs#0001).
If you've made it this far, well done.
