Basil Jet wrote:
On 2017\08\14 09:43, Anna Noyd-Dryver wrote:
Basil Jet wrote:
On 2017\08\10 21:55, Recliner wrote:

Note the 10:22 Addlestone train on the board is shown as the "Front 8
coaches of the train".

I wish they'd say "Near" and "Far": I never know what "Front" means!


At certain locations I can understand your confusion - though 'near' and
'far' don't help either if the entrance to the platform is in the middle,
or if it's a multi-platform through station whether or not your train is
already present when you arrive on the platform (especially if it's an
unfamiliar location and you don't know which direction the train will
depart).

However at a terminus station where you walk past stop blocks to get to the
platform I'd have thought that 'front' and 'rear' were fairly obvious
descriptors?

Obvious to the guy sat at the pointy end! But in general, the front of
something is the side that's facing me, and the back is the side that's
facing away from me. It's a bit different with cars because they are
asymmetrical: the business end is always the front even if it's facing
away from you. The front of a train coming into the terminus is the back
leaving, so while it's stationary it doesn't have a front or back.


The front of a stationary train is the end towards which it will next be
moving, surely? If it's a through station, or you enter at the middle of
the platform, I can understand the confusion - but surely walking onto the
platform past the end of the track and a huge set of stop blocks should
help you know which way the train will move?

Perhaps the solution we need is the Swiss 'Sektoren A B C D' or even BR's
own Gold, Orange, Blue etc zones, the last remnants of which have recently
been erased from the GWML.


Anna Noyd-Dryver