Welcome to the latest edition of the On Our Lines periodical newsletter, The Traffic Circular! You can find the entire archive of past Circulars here, and you can also sign up to receive the newsletter direct to your email inbox here. For those of you on our Discord server, we’ll also post every edition in #public-address as it’s published.
A Busy Start
January has absolutely flown by, and it seems like I only yesterday when I was penning the introduction to the January edition of The Traffic Circular. We’ve been here, there and everywhere this month, with our first few in-person events of the year being well supported.
Sunday 8 January saw us head out to the Overground for OverGround and Hills to 2023, with something on offer for everyone. Rare track, unusual platforms and two Stations of the Month, as well as plenty of time to socialise with friends new and old, was well appreciated, and we had a lovely day – thanks to everyone who joined us.
The London Underground also celebrated its 160th birthday this year and we threw a small birthday party to mark the occasion! With bunting, balloons and – of course – cake, a small group of On Our Lines friends took a journey from Farringdon to Paddington and back to Baker Street, along the route of the original Metropolitan Railway, on the historic day.
Our first Transport Race of 2023 also took place on 21 January, with 10 teams taking part this time round. Blessed with good weather – albeit a little chilly – this edition took on a distinctive ‘Tube 160’ theme, with participants incentivised to spend time on the original Met section. A fortuitous coincidence with an official TfL event also provided the opportunity for participants to win a ‘Love The Tube’ shopping bag, which was taken up by a number of teams. As always – we’ll keep running Transport Races for as long as people want to keep seeing them, and we still have plenty of ideas to keep them fresh! It’s always nice to see faces new and old.
Our next Transport Race will be a London ‘EXPERT’ mode on 25 March – tickets are available now via EventBrite. The next ‘ordinary’ London event will be on 22 April, with a third helping for 2023 now able to be announced for 8 July – we hope to see you there! Tickets for both dates are also available on EventBrite.
Why do we explicitly mention London? Well – we’re pleased to announce that we are currently working on Birmingham’s Transport Race. We don’t quite have a date yet for the first public (but trial) run, but we’re hoping it to be towards the end of Spring or early Summer. Watch this space – but do let us know if you have any ideas or thoughts for this event!
And, if you can’t wait to get out and about in Birmingham, we’re going to be holding our next social in Birmingham on 26 February. We’re still finalising the plan for the day, but it will likely involve a mid-morning meet in the centre of Birmingham and a combination of riding trams, trains and buses and exploring the local area, before retiring to somewhere for food. We’ll be making free tickets for this social available via EventBrite as soon as things are finalised – whilst we do encourage you to book so that we can manage numbers, there won’t be any obligation to do so.
We had hoped to hold our first SimSig Session of 2023 this month too, however unfortunately we’ve run out of time to put together a full plan to make this happen. However, we will still be having an informal SimSig game on Saturday 4 February from around 7pm – the simulations are to be confirmed, but let us know your preferences in #games-with-trains.
Stations of the Month
Our Stations of the Month challenge is off to a great start this year! We’ve already had plenty of entries for the January pick, and we’re sure this will only continue to grow in 2023.
During January, we have had submissions for Bicester Village (@jarley#2168, @Thryduulf#8980), Burton Joyce (@Thryduulf#8980), Lambeth North (@dlpb#7369, @jarley#2168, @laurencec123#3791, @Lcawte#2212, @cso#3672, @CallMeFlick#9351, @Nick Brunning#8155, @Thryduulf#8980, @isbsp#7614, elthebasket, @88Kristina#3801), New Hythe (@dlpb#7369, @Thryduulf#8980, @jarley#2168), Oakworth (@jarley#2168, @CallMeFlick#9351), Pollockshields West (@dlpb#7369), Southchurch Drive North (@Thryduulf#8980), St Budeaux Ferry Road (@dlpb#7369) and Sydenham (@dlpb#7369, @jarley#2168, @Lcawte#2212, @Nick Brunning#8155, @cso#3672, @Thryduulf#8980, @Raphidash#9426, @CallMeFlick#9351, @laurencec123#3791, elthebasket). Full details can be found here.
And so, without further ado, it’s time to reveal the first look at the 2023 Stations of the Month leaderboard:
For those new to the Stations of the Month challenge, all you have to do is visit one (or more) of our randomly selected stations from around the country, snap a photo and share it with us! There will be one National Rail station from each region of the country, one London Underground / DLR, one light rail/tram and one heritage railway station each month. Plus, the more creative your selfie is, the better – we’ll award a bonus point to the most creative in each category every month.
The stations for February have been chosen and are listed below and in the February 2023 Stations of the Month thread in #challenges-on-our-lines, where you should post your pictures.
The Stations of the Month for February 2023
RailMiles
Our RailMiles leaderboard is back for 2023, and we’ve already got some hefty distances being racked up! We’ve wiped things afresh and reset the board to active members of the community – but if we’ve removed you in error, do let us know and we’ll add you back in! Here’s the standing as at 0000 on 1 February…
Discord username
RailMiles username
Points
@laurencec123#3791
laurencec123
4117mi 69ch
@jarley#2168
jcmg
2345mi 45ch
@CallMeFlick#9351
Slaffter
2061mi 16ch
@NickBrunning#8155
Nick_on_Platforms
1151mi 23ch
@deadly#3721
deadly
1039mi 08ch
@J_Finney#8905
J_Finney
653mi 55ch
@Lcawte#2212
lcawte
321mi 75ch
If you’ve got RailMiles but you’re not part of the team, just ping @jarley#2168 on Discord or get in touch on our social media if you would like to be added.
Our first monthly challenge for those of you who don’t use RailMiles or don’t travel as much will be dropping towards the end of February… watch this space!
Picture of the Month
Don’t forget that you can enter up to three photos each month for our Picture of the Month competition! The winning photo, as chosen by our Patreons (@Ticket Holders) and Staff team, will be shared across our social media platforms for the following month, and immortalised here in The Traffic Circular forever!
Our first winning entry of 2023 comes from @dlpb#7369, of a Lego tube train in front of the ‘Love The Tube’ anniversary roundel at Baker Street.
Lego Tren - @dlpb#7369
The February competition is open now and you can submit up to three of your best photos in the Picture of the Month - January 2023 thread on Discord.
