Does Railpage still exist for those interested in the wider Rail Industry:

• To ask questions
• Provide advice
• Disseminate information
• Exchange the occasional joke
• Source data
• Generally have a bit of fun

OR

• To circulate self satisfying coded, incoherent, unintelligible, jargon and gibberish between groups of specific interest narrowly focused (both geographically and topic) individuals to the disadvantage of the wider rail interest group?

Read what you have written:

• Is it good English?
• Will the information/comment (whatever) stand alone in the context of the thread in which it is posted?
• Does it make sense?
• Will it inform others?
• Is it an instantaneous, incomplete thought bubble?

Remember you will not suffer from a little forethought nor will you wear out your fingers by not using little, parochial or otherwise unknown acronyms.

End of Rant.

(Edited twice to fix formatting).

The way people write now has changed over the period away from more structured english.   If read anything on farcebook you will note this idea of sending more as less is alive and well as is the twittersphere.

It is something we will all need to live with moving forward if we like it or not.

The way people write now has changed over the period away from more structured english.   If read anything on farcebook you will note this idea of sending more as less is alive and well as is the twittersphere.

It is something we will all need to live with moving forward if we like it or not.

It's a race to incoherence in which I will not participate.
I am old fashioned enough to still spell English with a capital letter. It takes no longer to write sense here regardless of 'what' is posted elsewhere.

OK, Boomer.

Comrade YM,

You very well know the reason this site exists. Its for Gunzels to sprout there unrealistic dreams and guess what's going happen with some projects. The other integral reason is for me to defend the Greatest Gauge on the planet.

The way people write now has changed over the period away from more structured english.   If read anything on farcebook you will note this idea of sending more as less is alive and well as is the twittersphere.

It is something we will all need to live with moving forward if we like it or not.

It's a race to incoherence in which I will not participate.
I am old fashioned enough to still spell English with a capital letter. It takes no longer to write sense here regardless of 'what' is posted elsewhere.

It does make you wonder what the schools are teaching these days when it comes to the queens english.

The way people write now has changed over the period away from more structured english.   If read anything on farcebook you will note this idea of sending more as less is alive and well as is the twittersphere.

It is something we will all need to live with moving forward if we like it or not.

It's a race to incoherence in which I will not participate.
I am old fashioned enough to still spell English with a capital letter. It takes no longer to write sense here regardless of 'what' is posted elsewhere.

It does make you wonder what the schools are teaching these days when it comes to the queens english.

Queen's ( King's ) English !

BigShunter.

I am old fashioned enough to still spell English with a capital letter.

I had always considered English to be a small e, but it turns out Grammarly does not like that.

I am old fashioned enough to still spell English with a capital letter.

I had always considered English to be a small e, but it turns out Grammarly does not like that.

"English" is a proper noun and as such is capitalised. As an aside you must have Grammarly set to US English, because it is complaining about "capitalization" rather than "capitalisation".

Comrade YM,

You very well know the reason this site exists. Its for Gunzels to sprout there unrealistic dreams and guess what's going happen with some projects. The other integral reason is for me to defend the Greatest Gauge on the planet.

Only a 66% correct score DD - only the dreaming and guessing answers were correct. The BG one was not!

You could have done much better had it not been for your ongoing, stubborn, obstinate, obdurate, intractable, unbending, dogged, persistent and, dare I say it, recalcitrant attitude in support of the BG.

Mind you, on one of my retirements from the rail industry, I was described on a framed certificate by a group of workmates as being both 'recalcitrant' and 'recidivist' (amongst other things ..........). An honour that I still treasure.

"English" is a proper noun and as such is capitalised. As an aside you must have Grammarly set to US English,

"US English"; the world's greatest oxymoron.  On principle, I will not take note of US English as it tells me to use spellings like liter, color, aluminum, et al. Similarly, when I want any advice on English grammar, the Yanks are the last people I would ask. One horrible example I heard in Philadelphia was an announcement that "the bus will be leaving momentarily".

As it was once said, England and America are two countries divided by a common language.

"English" is a proper noun and as such is capitalised.

It is, yes - but I'd always differentiated the English (people) vs the english language. Alas, I have been wrong.

"English" is a proper noun and as such is capitalised. As an aside you must have Grammarly set to US English,

"US English"; the world's greatest oxymoron.  On principle, I will not take note of US English as it tells me to use spellings like liter, color, aluminum, et al. Similarly, when I want any advice on English grammar, the Yanks are the last people I would ask. One horrible example I heard in Philadelphia was an announcement that "the bus will be leaving momentarily".

As it was once said, England and America are two countries divided by a common language.

Oh how true.
The Americans have done some wonderful things over the years but their grasp of the English language is not one of them.

Mind you, on one of my retirements from the rail industry, I was described on a framed certificate by a group of workmates as being both 'recalcitrant' and 'recidivist' (amongst other things ..........). An honour that I still treasure.

Intriguing YM, had to check on the correct meaning of both words and it makes me wonder, what in your behavior within the railway's, prompted such a description ?

On here you play a very straight bat.

recalcitrant; adjective, having an obstinately uncooperative attitude towards authority or discipline.
                  noun, a person with an obstinately uncooperative attitude.

recidivist; noun, a convicted criminal who reoffends, especially repeatedly.




BigShunter.

Mind you, on one of my retirements from the rail industry, I was described on a framed certificate by a group of workmates as being both 'recalcitrant' and 'recidivist' (amongst other things ..........). An honour that I still treasure.

Intriguing YM, had to check on the correct meaning of both words and it makes me wonder, what in your behavior within the railway's, prompted such a description ?

On here you play a very straight bat.

recalcitrant; adjective, having an obstinately uncooperative attitude towards authority or discipline.
                  noun, a person with an obstinately uncooperative attitude.

recidivist; noun, a convicted criminal who reoffends, especially repeatedly.




BigShunter.

You got it Big Shunter.
The description was probably the greatest backhanded compliment that I could have wished for.
It was from a unique group of professionals within the industry and it was for this reason that I especially treasure the award.
YM

Mind you, on one of my retirements from the rail industry, I was described on a framed certificate by a group of workmates as being both 'recalcitrant' and 'recidivist' (amongst other things ..........). An honour that I still treasure.

Intriguing YM, had to check on the correct meaning of both words and it makes me wonder, what in your behavior within the railway's, prompted such a description ?

On here you play a very straight bat.

recalcitrant; adjective, having an obstinately uncooperative attitude towards authority or discipline.
                  noun, a person with an obstinately uncooperative attitude.

recidivist; noun, a convicted criminal who reoffends, especially repeatedly.




BigShunter.

You got it Big Shunter.
The description was probably the greatest backhanded compliment that I could have wished for.
It was from a unique group of professionals within the industry and it was for this reason that I especially treasure the award.
YM

Perhaps the 'unique group of professionals' could look in the mirror as to why staff may have an uncooperative attitude.

BigShunter.

Mind you, on one of my retirements from the rail industry, I was described on a framed certificate by a group of workmates as being both 'recalcitrant' and 'recidivist' (amongst other things ..........). An honour that I still treasure.

Intriguing YM, had to check on the correct meaning of both words and it makes me wonder, what in your behavior within the railway's, prompted such a description ?

On here you play a very straight bat.

recalcitrant; adjective, having an obstinately uncooperative attitude towards authority or discipline.
                  noun, a person with an obstinately uncooperative attitude.

recidivist; noun, a convicted criminal who reoffends, especially repeatedly.




BigShunter.

You got it Big Shunter.
The description was probably the greatest backhanded compliment that I could have wished for.
It was from a unique group of professionals within the industry and it was for this reason that I especially treasure the award.
YM

Perhaps the 'unique group of professionals' could look in the mirror as to why staff may have an uncooperative attitude.

BigShunter.

I look back on what was a great team.

Mind you, on one of my retirements from the rail industry, I was described on a framed certificate by a group of workmates as being both 'recalcitrant' and 'recidivist' (amongst other things ..........). An honour that I still treasure.

Intriguing YM, had to check on the correct meaning of both words and it makes me wonder, what in your behavior within the railway's, prompted such a description ?

On here you play a very straight bat.

recalcitrant; adjective, having an obstinately uncooperative attitude towards authority or discipline.
                  noun, a person with an obstinately uncooperative attitude.

recidivist; noun, a convicted criminal who reoffends, especially repeatedly.




BigShunter.

Odd, I have always understood "recalcitrant" to be a Malaysian Prime Minister.

Odd, I have always understood "recalcitrant" to be a Malaysian Prime Minister.

That is technically known as the Keating Definition.

Some of us use Railpage for serious research, both in the historical aspect of events of the long past, as well as gathering records of present day activities, remembering todays' events are tomorrows history. Quite a few threads from Railpage's earlier times are now priceless records of events, with input from a range of very well informed recorders. That includes reliable posts from acknowledged real life experts who have since gone to the big roundhouse in the sky.

I think Railpage forums definitely has a place. In theory at least, it gives the opportunity for more developed threads of information you might only otherwise find in a reddit style forum. It, again in theory, allows for more considered comment, and passing along of information. Makes tracking of things long term that's near to impossible on a facebook group. Imagine something like a level crossing removal project thread on a facebook group?

You will always get flamers and people who's sole purpose in life is to have a go at others. Another big frustration people who have differing opinions not being able to accept that people have the right to have those opinions, even if perceived, believed, or in fact, to be completely stupid, dumb and just plain not right. Also not unusual about here is critical responses to questions that those that have been about for years would seem as newbish. We all have to learn some of these things, jargon especially, as well as state based differences. This form is not immune from this.

In saying all this, If you wanted to start something like this today, i doubt you would do it on a bulletin board style forum. Your more likely to choose a reddit style forum, or subject based Facebook groups. Even possibly a discord server, where you can have audio as well. Railpage started in the early days of the internet in this country, and has grown significantly. It has a lot of history, and goodwill. Mixed levels of respect outside of those that visit unfortunately, i suspect from those that have been given a perma-ban.

Some of us use Railpage for serious research, both in the historical aspect of events of the long past, as well as gathering records of present day activities, remembering todays' events are tomorrows history. Quite a few threads from Railpage's earlier times are now priceless records of events, with input from a range of very well informed recorders. That includes reliable posts from acknowledged real life experts who have since gone to the big roundhouse in the sky.

Very true Petan. This highlights one of my reasons for starting this thread.  

Your post highlights so well the need why all posts should be intelligible and informative both for today and in the future.

Sadly, so many either don't understand our reasoning, don't want to understand or couldn't care less and would rather post material which is either, jargon, cryptic, incoherent or otherwise uninformative both for today and tomorrow.

There are still a number of knowledgeable, thoughtful and informative posters here on RP but there is an increasing number who post rubbish which for a few extra keystrokes and a bit of thought could be useful into the future.

"English" is a proper noun and as such is capitalised. As an aside you must have Grammarly set to US English,

"US English"; the world's greatest oxymoron.  On principle, I will not take note of US English as it tells me to use spellings like liter, color, aluminum, et al. Similarly, when I want any advice on English grammar, the Yanks are the last people I would ask. One horrible example I heard in Philadelphia was an announcement that "the bus will be leaving momentarily".

As it was once said, England and America are two countries divided by a common language.

I thought that many of the English words ending in our were changed to make them more European (read French) and that in at least some of these cases the American English spellings are correct. Or at least more traditionally correct.

Language (to my eternal regret) changes all the time. Go back 500 or so years and try to read a document written in "English" and you probably wouldn't understand a bloody word of it!

Does Railpage still exist for those interested in the wider Rail Industry:

• To ask questions
• Provide advice
• Disseminate information
• Exchange the occasional joke
• Source data
• Generally have a bit of fun

Great thought provoking thread Yard Master. I reckon that the simple answer is that RP exists in a different way for each of us.

I don't come from the Rail industry. I was a rail enthusiast as a kid and my Grandfather worked at Islington so I got a bit of an inside view into the hobby which he tried to foster but bikes, girls, alcohol and other substances (not necessarily in that order) took me away from the hobby in my mid to late teens.

Fast forward around 30 years and an interest in environmental aspects of transport brought me to RP where I lurked for a few years before taking the plunge.

This in turn led to me becoming a VGR volunteer as my interest was rekindled.

Takes all kinds eh!

Does Railpage still exist for those interested in the wider Rail Industry:

• To ask questions
• Provide advice
• Disseminate information
• Exchange the occasional joke
• Source data
• Generally have a bit of fun

Great thought provoking thread Yard Master. I reckon that the simple answer is that RP exists in a different way for each of us.

I don't come from the Rail industry. I was a rail enthusiast as a kid and my Grandfather worked at Islington so I got a bit of an inside view into the hobby which he tried to foster but bikes, girls, alcohol and other substances (not necessarily in that order) took me away from the hobby in my mid to late teens.

Fast forward around 30 years and an interest in environmental aspects of transport brought me to RP where I lurked for a few years before taking the plunge.

This in turn led to me becoming a VGR volunteer as my interest was rekindled.

Takes all kinds eh!

Thanks BG.
Yes, RP does exist in different ways for different people. At the two extremes there are those who ask questions (however naive they may be) and those who use the site to inflate their own egos on the basis that 'I know and you don't'. In the middle are the vast majority of members who, collectively, are willing and able to provide information that they may have and to help each other.
It is the 'I know and you don't' group who often talk in gibberish, local jargon, acronyms and thought bubbles who, in my view, contribute little or nothing to the site. Some could also do well to learn the word 'please'.
I remain happy to help anyone who seeks information that I may have or who I can help.
My thoughts, suggestions (whatever) will, of course miss the target audience completely and I trust that no one else is offended.
Keep up the good work at Maldon - haven't been there for years - but one day ................