Then and Now

Then and Now is a new feature on the website which matches, as near as possible, the location of older pictures with recent pictures. The photographers of the recent pictures have tried really hard to simulate the same view by standing in the same position if possible and using a camera lens to capture the same field of view, and so on. It's almost impossible to get an exact match for a variety of reasons but the final result can still be close enough for viewers to get a good idea of the changes over the years. There are a small number of "Then and Now" pictures now online and I hope to process more examples as and when suitable material becomes available.

Videos and Maps

Spurred on by the great webpage http://www.google.ru/intl/ru/landing/transsib/en.html showing a video taken aboard the Moscow-Vladivostok train on the Trans-Siberian Railway synchronised with a Google Map which shows the progress of the train, I looked at the code behind this superb webpage. I quickly realised that hacking the code to produce a WSR version would take a long time indeed, so put this idea on hold. Then I stumbled across the quite amazing VidMap website http://www.vidmap.de/ which enables users to build their own video-map application using YouTube videos and Google Maps which can be embedded into websites, blogs and so on. Thanks to VidMap, and to a YouTube uploader, and Google, there are now two WSR "vidmaps" online showing cab views of journeys from Minehead to Blue Anchor at http://www.wsr.org.uk/vidmap01.htm and from Blue Anchor to Watchet at http://www.wsr.org.uk/vidmap02.htm

Maps and the Picture of the Week

I've managed to add two small maps to recent Picture of the Week pages to show the location of the main subject of the photograph. One map using OSOpenSpace mapping and the other shows an aerial image using Google Maps. I do hope to explore the chances of extending the idea to the Latest Pictures pages but as there are often several images per day this will involve a lot more data inputting which might affect the website update turnaround times. Bit of a trade off I guess.

OS OpenSpace

Making good use of the OpenSpace mapping from Ordnance Survey which brings a range of OS mapping to websites. No OS imagery (yet) but the mapping is much better than the stuff served up by Google Maps. All station pages now have new OS maps to help visitor find the location. Still work in progress but several new maps being prepared including a guide to lineside photography locations.

No electronic live information at Spring Gala

The web-based Gala information system will not operate during the Spring Steam Gala. Although the system was successfully trialled at the Winter Steam Festival, it has not been possible to gain permission to run a similar process during the forthcoming Spring Steam Gala. Arrival and departure times, along with comments, are added by the Controller to a web-based database, which in turn presents basic current information to a webpage viewable by the public or staff on a standard browser or web-enabled mobile phone. Additionally the Controller is able to selectively send emails and text messages of current information to staff or subcribers. It is hoped to run the system at a future special event.

Live arrivals and departures

At the recent Winter Steam Festival, an internet-based version of the standard "special event" control log was trialled. The controller entered arrival and departure times and delay information, along with any other comment about the day's events, into a browser-based form, rather than the Word documents previously used. As such, the trial was a success, and the feedback now being received will help hone the system if and when it is adopted for full use at special events. Trains ran to time at the WSF and there were no major incidents, so it is difficult to determine the full worth of such a system. The next event is the six-day Spring Steam Gala with plenty of scope for things to go (slightly) wrong.

However, being internet and database-based, the system is capable of considerable additional uses. During the WSF trial, emails and text messages were sent out to a few volunteer receipients, some staff, some linesiders, when a train left one of the signalled places along the line. Over 500 texts were sent. The information was also made available on a read-only webpage and on a cut-down webpage suitable for mobile phones. The idea behind the additional dissemination is to provide current train running information to station staff, travellers and linesiders. Feedback as been very favourable.

The system was the idea of one of the WSR's signalmen, and developed by www.wsr.org.uk It runs on www.wsr.org.uk but if adopted for futher use, it will be transferred to the WSR Plc website in due course.

Going mobile

After some time designing and testing, a new West Somerset Railway website suitable for mobile phones has been released.

The test website is now in beta release and can be found at m.wsr.org.uk. This address is merely a subdomain of www.wsr.org.uk and when called it diverts to the single page mobile "site". The page is produced by a Perl script running locally each time the news page is updated. The script also produces the WAP and RSS files.

The page has reduced content as expected for mobile phone usage. For example, content is limited to brief news headlines, thumbnails of the two latest pictures, train times - and we are keen to receive feedback by email along with suggestions for suitable content for mobile phone browsers.

Bookmark m.wsr.org.uk in your mobile phone now...