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Tool for Education or American propaganda

Is Wikipedia a resource for education and carrying FACTS or a tool for American propaganda? I have edited out reticules claims by Americans in the Land speed record for railed vehicles and Empire State Express only to have arrogant Americans delete them and accuse me of pov can we have a neutral observer look at these sections Oxyman 02:20, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

See Talk:Empire State Express and Talk:Land speed record for railed vehicles for further discussion. Slambo (Speak) 15:16, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Bias and other

I noticed that almost ALL articles related to generic elements of railroads here shows a dramatic bias and limited point-of-view towards US (and, sometimes, UK) stuff. This when this country, today, is notably well behind Europe in railway techonology and development (just to mention, I had some time ago a clash with one users claiming that diesel-electric locomotives were better than electric ones... ridiculous; compare their power-per-ton and have a laugh, please; not to speak of economicity of use). Is there anybody wanting to help? Presently, I've added numerous articles about Italian electric locomotives (see FS Class E428 for example - btw, they'd need some cleanup of language, as ain't so much into English jargon); I think, SNCF and DB locomotives would need something similar at least. Also, i noticed that the infoboxes used are a bewildering variety. Is there anybody wanting to collaborate to uniform them? Tanks and good work... and remember that this is not an American encyclopedia, although written in English. --Attilios 12:57, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

While I am a resident of the USA, I've been trying to show a more worldwide perspective here on the portal. For example, in the Did you know (DYK) section, I avoid listing two items from the same country at one time (today's items are from Switzerland, England, Australia and Norway). I try to rotate different nations' content into the other sections in a similar manner. The biggest problem that I've run into in this effort is a lack of suggestions on the intro image, selected article, selected picture, did you know and news suggestion pages. When I update the Anniversaries section, I do an internet search for "date in railway history" and assemble the section based on the search results. If I don't get a suggestion to look at a specific article or image for the other sections, then I will usually work with and start from subjects that I am familiar with. In the last couple weeks, I've had some terrific suggestions for DYK items, but they've all been from one or two other editors. When there are no suggestions, as the portal maintainer, I pick something to show in each of the sections. If you want to see something specific in each section, please make the suggestions on the appropriate pages linked above (they're all on my watch list, and I look at them all before making updates to the associated sections).

As to the infoboxes, that discussion has come up on the Trains WikiProject talk page a couple times. Some consolidation has taken place as a result (for example, using {{Infobox Station}} for station articles in several nations, or {{Infobox Locomotive}} for locomotive articles, or the set of succession templates that includes {{s-line}}). More can be done; the Trains WikiProject talk page is the best place for further infobox and template consolidation discussion. Slambo (Speak) 13:32, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Thank you Slambo. Can I feel myself also authorized to put the {{Infobox Locomotive}} for ALL locomotives present now (fortunately, I used it for my new articles on Italian ones)? If you've time, check them... I think there's just tocorrect some unavoidable minor typos, as ain't English motherlanguage. Bye and good work. --Attilios 19:20, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, {{Infobox Locomotive}} should be used in all locomotive articles, and you don't need authorization anyway. Matthew Brown (Morven) (T:C) 18:32, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Its a fair comment but bare in mind that the systematic bias is going to happen in a world with 300 million odd Americans and 60 million odd Brits, with everyone else (in the English stakes) queueing up behind. Thats not to say in anyway thats right, but its somewhat inevitable. Pickle 08:29, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, also the fact that people use drugs and that there are massacres has been unavoidable in human life. Attilios 09:10, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

It might be a good idea not to make comparisons between unequal coverage of railway systems in Wikipedia to massacres and drugs, Attilios. It shows a lack of perspective that will not improve the odds of your being taken seriously. Matthew Brown (Morven) (T:C) 18:30, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

Portals inviolable?

So how does one go about attempting improvements to portals? Is there any way through the thickets of {{ and }}? Or is that "__NOEDITSECTION__" the Wikipedia equivalent of "Bugger off"?

Anyway, might I request the indulgence of whoever CAN edit this page to consider my suggestion for an alternative to the current introductory sentence, which I take to be intended as a definition but which I feel could be improved. My suggestion, which I post here for others to have the opportunity to tear to pieces, is:

A train is a vehicle or (more frequently) a string of vehicles capable of being moved along a continuous line of rails or other guideway for the purpose of conveying freight or passengers between points on a predetermined route. The train may be hauled or propelled by one or more vehicles designed exclusively for that purpose (locomotives) or may be driven by a number of motors incorporated in all or several of the vehicles.

I would have liked to have added a final parenthesis corresponding to "(locomotives)"; I have, however, deliberately refrained from doing so as in the present state of play usage of the term "multiple unit" remains controversial on Wikipedia. What a pity that English does not seem to have one unambiguous term corresponding to the German Triebzüge and the French Rames automotrices ! -- Picapica 12:13, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

The NOEDITSECTION call is to prevent multiple edit links that point to the same place within the page. Each of the boxes on the portal page has an edit link in the title bar. When I created this portal in 2005, I used the definition as it was written in the train article. I have no strong preference to use either the existing text or your proposed text. Slambo (Speak) 12:37, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Quote: >> The NOEDITSECTION call is to prevent multiple edit links that point to the same place within the page.<<

Wow, such technospeak* is still well beyond the level of competence of this contributor - but I appreciate your reply very much nevertheless, Slambo ;). "Edit links in the title bar" -- Doh! Now I see it. Why don't they tell us these things at "Wikipedia for Dumbos"? I still have this sneaking suspicion, nevertheless, that there is a level of WikiElitists who go out of their way to keep the bare-footed and unwashed out of messing with their refined world by launching nests of {{{{}}}} et al. Is there, perhaps, a support group for the victims of {{{{}}}}?

*"call" = ???? (it's hard to resist the temptation to believe that "if you don't know" = "get lost") and that, however much one might know about railways, ignorance of computer programming means "there's no place for you on Wikipedia" :(

-- Picapica 14:51, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Technospeak... well, I'm a programmer by trade, but that's something I'm trying to get away from in my daily life (I'll know more about part of my strategy in a week, but it seems that I'll be trading one set of jargon for another equally arcane set soon). On elitism, all I know there is that I'm told there is no cabal. B-) I'm curious what other editors think of the intro text now... Time to post a message to WP Trains... Slambo (Speak) 19:38, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Hello. I like the new proposed definition of train for our portal. I would say I supported change. CCMichalZ 23:14, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Seeing no objections, I've updated the intro section with the new definition text. Slambo (Speak) 13:27, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Naming of railway station article

This suggestion refers to Talk:Kowloon-Canton_Railway#Station Names. User:Bourquie and I concluded that the railway station articles such as most of MTR stations and Moscow Metro stations are inappropriate to name without the word Station being addressed behind the station name. User:Bourquie has already been working on moving the article title with the word Station behind in all KCR station articles. I here want to make an appeal to any railway station article writers to respond with this suggestion or discuss if you have any opinion. -- Sameboat - 同舟 23:01, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Convention in the UK (and some parts of the english speaking world) is "X railway station" (see Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (UK stations)), while stateside they use "x station (train company)". However check the talk at Talk:Jordanhill (railway station), (the millionth article). The techies tell us that the "x (railway station)" format helps the software that runs wikipedia. Pickle 06:01, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Britomart

Did some tweaks to improve the reading ease for the lede of Britomart Transport Centre. Maybe you could update the short for here too. Ingolfson (talk) 09:18, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the note. I'll take a look later today. Slambo (Speak) 11:46, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Lena Guerrero

You may remove Lena Guerrero from this category, for the Texas Railroad Commission no longer has anything to do with railroad regulation and has not for many years. The U.S. government handles railroads across state lines, which nearly all traverse.Billy Hathorn (talk) 03:04, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

News needs updating?

I'm surprised to see that the inauguration of FrontRunner has not made the news on the trains portal. Dave (talk) 01:53, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

That would be mostly because I haven't seen anything about the event. As I find headlines that should be added, I usually add them to the Newsroom page so anyone who updates the section can see other items that should be listed. If I have time to write a few sentences, I will go through the headlines and add them starting with the oldest and working my way forward. Slambo (Speak) 12:56, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

John Bull (locomotive) FAR

John Bull (locomotive) has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. Halgin (talk) 00:29, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

commons cat name

Hi,

may someone be so nice to help finding an appropriate English term for German "Bahnwärterhaus". That's a residence of a low-rank rail employee responsible for controlling the safe operating condition of the rail track, they were historically widely used in central Europe, but probably neither in England nor in America. The Discussion is at commons:Category talk:Watchman's houses. Thanks --dealerofsalvation 21:11, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

AfD nomination of RailDriver

An article that you have been involved in editing, RailDriver, has been listed for deletion. If you are interested in the deletion discussion, please participate by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/RailDriver. Thank you. Jezhotwells (talk) 15:33, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

CfD Standard gauge etc

See my proposal to delete Category:Standard gauge etc to bring the categories for Category:Standard gauge railways in line with those for Category:Narrow gauge railways Hugo999 (talk) 01:53, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

New Category: Standard gauge railways in the United States

Surely the new category Category:Standard gauge railways in the United States should be broken down by state as for Category:Narrow gauge railroads in the United States; it will become a large category. And perhaps call it “Standard gauge railroads …. … “ ? Hugo999 (talk) 14:38, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Did you know claim

The current Portal:Trains/Did you know claims that the Highland Falls Railroad Depot ..."is one of only two remaining passenger stations along the west side of the Hudson River" (sic). Please see Talk:Highland Falls Railroad Depot#Dubious for a discussion of the doubts I have regarding that claim and how it appears to have made it into the two articles (on Highland Falls Railroad Depot and Milton Railroad Station respectively). I decided to post on this talk page, instead of the one for Did you know?, since this one appears to be in use. Can the claim be reworded to read "is one of only a few remaining passenger stations along the west side of the Hudson River"? Thank you. 69.126.127.193 (talk) 16:58, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

This matter has been resolved with some editing. 69.126.127.193 (talk) 15:53, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Manson's Janus

It may be a very insignificant engine, but I would awfully much like to learn about Manson's Janus - It's just so pretty to look at that thing. Yotwen (talk) 12:17, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Proposal to categorise accident articles by cause

I have made a proposal to categories rail accident articles by cause. Please comment at Category talk:Railway accidents by type. Thryduulf (talk) 07:33, 19 July 2013 (UTC)

I am looking for a Spanish speaking narrow gauge railway enthusiast

Camber Railway, 1915-1922. The loco has 'Falkland Island Express' handwritten on the tank. The wooden wagon bodies carry removeable seats at each end for workmen and 1st class, 2nd class, 3rd class and 'Smoker' legends

I am looking for a Spanish speaking narrow gauge railway enthusiast who could help on expanding the article on the Camber Railway on the Falkland Islands according to the following references:

• Ferrocarril Camber (Spanish)
• Historias poco conocidas: Un ferrocarril en las Malvinas (Spanish) --NearEMPTiness (talk) 19:47, 21 December 2014 (UTC)

Listen!

...to this. Sca (talk) 16:21, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Trains Portal and Railways Portal Merger Proposal

I propose that the portal for Trains and the portal for Railways be merged. The content in both portals is close to identical, and it can be confusing in terms of determining which of the two portals is the most appropriate to include in train/railway-related articles. This proposal has also been posted on the other portal's talk page. Jackdude101 (Talk) 8:43, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

To ease coordination in the discussion, and since there is already active discussion there, let's keep this all on the other talk page. I will add my comments there. Slambo (Speak) 12:09, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Hoax?

Please double-check the following links and the related entries in the table of Whyte notation:

• 4-6-2+2-2-4
• 2-6-0+2-4-2
• 8-8-8

Please do not remove this hoax-warning from this talk page, until this issue has been completely resolved! NearEMPTiness (talk) 13:09, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

And why are you incapable of checking them? KirksKeyKard (talk) 13:50, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

I personally think, all three articles should be deleted, but I need a second opinion, please. --NearEMPTiness (talk) 14:15, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

Delete all three. "it only exists as a model or in games" - that even makes it original reserach. --Janke | Talk 08:43, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

Thank you, Janke. I have removed them from the table and have requested speedy deletion of all three articles, which were neither useful nor amusing. --NearEMPTiness (talk) 08:06, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

Need a second opinion on the Ion rapid transit article (Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada)

Pls. see the Talk section of the article, topic: Change title to ION

One User insists on using Ion instead of ION when all published documents refer to the LRT system as ION. Links to relevant Web sites in the Talk page confirm the use of ION. For example, see http://rapidtransit.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/projectinformation/system.asp

and http://www.grt.ca/en/travelwithus/ION.asp

(The letters I, O and N are not an abbreviation for anything.)

I wonder if others agree? Peter K Burian (talk) 19:37, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

2018 in Rail Transport.

2018 in Rail Transport.

This is years out of date and there seems to be no way to edit it. Looks a bit silly to say the least.

Can we get this back on track? I am willing to look for topicsWickifrank (talk) 23:57, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

I have started to update this. My knowledge is very US and UK oriented. It would be good to have other views. I am trying to find things other than accidents.Wickifrank (talk) 21:45, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

Identifying photos from Belgium

Hello,
I've uploaded a bunch of scanned dia photos from Flickr, mostly showing trains and stations in Portugal in the 1980s. Among these photos there were also some from Belgium. I could identify most of them, but for these three information is missing. Could you help me?

• 
  Mechelen train station, obviously. But what kind of train class is the train in the background? I couldn't identify it via railfaneurope.net
• 
  (presumably) a train station in Belgium. Any idea where it could be?
• 
  A ticket box, seems to be in a train station. Any idea where it could be?

While 1) is definitely manageable, 2) and 3) are a bit more tricky. Others photo of the set were taken in Vilvoorde and Mechelen. I would really appreciate your help! Thank you, --Jcornelius (talk) 00:18, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Frankly, these photos are of low quality and have no real single point of interest. They are boring, and are simply photos for photos sake. I am not sure what you think Wikipedia will do with them, but if you think that Wikipedia is a store for your photography, then please think again. If you have some good quality pictures of something interest, then that's different. - Morphenniel (talk) 09:06, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Frankly, that's not the nicest message of you. The photos have indeed historical value, furthermore, they are stored on Wikimedia Commons and not on Wikipedia. Aside from your comment, any hint regarding the photos? --Jcornelius (talk) 18:18, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

"... historical value"? Seriously! As I said before, using Wikipedia (or the Commons) is not a store for personal pictures that have no encyclopedic use. If what you claim is true, that they have value, then I suggest you donate them to a local museum. But do not be surprised if they give you a similar response. Your pictures are valueless, and a just adding to the clutter that Wikipedia (and Commons) seems to collect these days. Morphenniel (talk) 11:19, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

Pictures 1 and 3 are resolved. Picture 2 is probably station Weert in the Netherlands. See Dutch discussion in [1] and [2]. Smiley.toerist (talk) 11:38, 3 February 2018 (UTC)

Electric?

. These is stil slam door stock. I uploaded other 1996 pictures. Smiley.toerist (talk) 23:25, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

• Very clearly not an electric train, and even the picture itself declares it to be a diesel unit! It's actually a British Rail Class 117. - Morphenniel (talk) 15:46, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

Notice from the Portals WikiProject

WikiProject Portals is back!

The project was rebooted and completely overhauled on April 17th, 2018. Its goals are to revitalize the entire portal system, make building and maintaining portals easier, support the ongoing improvement of portals and the editors dedicated to this, and design the portals of the future.

As of May 2nd, 2018, membership is at 60 editors, and growing. You are welcome to join us.

There are design initiatives for revitalizing the portals system as a whole, and for improving each component of portals. So far, 2 new dynamic components have been developed: Template:Transclude lead excerpt and Template:Transclude random excerpt.

Tools are provided for building and maintaining portals, including automated portals that update themselves in various ways.

And, if you are bored and would like something to occupy your mind, we have a wonderful task list.

From your friendly neighborhood Portals WikiProject. Hope to see you there. Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   07:48, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

I thought Portals had been superseded by Outlines. Both appear to serve the same function. Vincent Poloz (talk) 09:03, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Name for category

horizontal

in the slope

What is the name (in English) for this funicular car that tilts due to the variable slope? (tilting car?). What is the appropriate name for the category in wkimedia.commons? thanks --JotaCartas (talk) 04:33, 15 May 2018 (UTC)

Missing article "Track plan" or "Schematic track plan?

I was searching for an equivalent of de:Gleisplan, found no article on that topic, but found

• 270 railway-related articles mentioning "track plan" and
• 62 railway-related articles mentioning "trackplan".

The first set is dominated by articles on stations or lines in German-speaking countries, the second by articles mentioning Sydney. There may be an article under a third title that escaped my attention or just no established name for such plans in AE/BE, or an obsession with plans among German-speaking WP editors (one of them somehow related to Sydney). Any hint? --Rainald62 (talk) 12:51, 16 September 2018 (UTC)

Proposal to delete all portals

The discussion is at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Proposal to delete Portal space. Voceditenore (talk) 16:11, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

Potential item for the news section

In big news for US Railfans an offer has been made for the dormant since 1997 Tennessee Pass Line [3]. While I think this is exciting news that this massive work of engineering that was once the primary route across the Rocky Mountain, there is a problem. There currently is no article for the Tennessee Pass Line. So I don't know what to do with that and will leave this for more experienced portal editors. The line, however, is mentioned several places in other rail and Colorado related Wikipedia Articles including Tennessee Pass (Colorado), Dotsero, Colorado, Interstate 70 in Colorado#Rocky Mountains, Royal Gorge Route Railroad and Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad#Heritage railways. Dave (talk) 01:05, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

FYI: Properties for railway rolling stock on Wikidata

Hi all, just in case you're interested: I've tried to added some locomotive and Diesel Multiple Unit classes to Wikidata (e.g. CP Class 5600 und Ghana Railway Diesel Multiple Unit), but I've noticed, it's really hard, as many properties are missing or are unclear how they can be used on railway vehicles. I've created a subpage for that here: Wikidata:Wikidata:WikiProject Railways/Properties for rolling stock. Would be great to if you could have a look and give some feedback! Thanks, best --Jcornelius (talk) 23:02, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

Portal now in error list

All sections work in mobile but new section on random images . as per Template:Transclude files as random slideshow.--Moxy 🍁 11:35, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

Wow, THIS is promoted?

I was coming here to let you know how some articles are unintelligible for someone that doesn’t know every single thing about trains which defeats the sole purpose of an ENCYCLOPEDIA and a most than aparent bias towards certain country but i see this issue has been blatantly ignored since this page inception.. so at the end im just here to let you know how it’s still noticeable and that it is still one of the best reasons to justify why a page supposed to gather human knowledge is forbidden to be used for actual school and study purposes. AstralChojin (talk) 09:56, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia is a work in progress. If you have suggestions to improve articles, you are of course more than welcome to suggest them or implement them yourself. But simply complaining about vague accusations of "bias" and how articles are "unintelligible" accomplishes nothing. And that has nothing to do with why Wikipedia isn't a reliable source for schoolwork. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 14:42, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

Outdated news column

I've looked at the news column of this portal, and it's basically outdated, as it's full of news that are over a year old, now. Does anyone think they could dramatically update that with more recent train-related news? Someone who likes train writing (talk) 16:20, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

There is no doubt that we should add some newer information. Examples are the opening of 2 new stations in London in 2022 or Ohio's rail derailment. Perhaps, we should add a few of these this year to make the segment it more fresh with information. User:HimSur9 (talk) 6:10, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

Sleepers or Ties

Sleepers should be used since the first railways called them sleepers and it is still the term used to this day outside of North America. Only North America uses the word Tie, this could get very quickly confusing with the item of clothing tie. So Sleepers is better since there is no possibility of there being any confusion. I Like The british Rail Class 483 (talk) 19:01, 21 April 2023 (UTC)