Google Earth Trainspotting

ForburyLion · Post by **ForburyLion** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:25 pm

Not sure which forum to put this into.

Here we have what appears to be a FGW HST heading west out of Reading without a rear powercar

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en ... 704417&t=k

I've got google earth application instaled and have zoomed in to maximum and it looks real to me, i.e. not a join in two pictures.

Has anyone else spotted anything interesting on google earth?

staticxfreak · Post by **staticxfreak** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:39 pm

Hmmmm strange... if you look at the end without the powercar though, the shadows going in the wrong direction. All the shadows on the picture are going from right to left... yet the shadow at the back (end without the powercar) is going left to right...

Whitemoor · Post by **Whitemoor** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:40 pm

it is aswell!

7 coaches to, maybe a join tho?

ForburyLion · Post by **ForburyLion** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:51 pm

Hmm, now I think it is a join!

staticxfreak · Post by **staticxfreak** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:52 pm

I dunno, it looks weird... it looks like thats the only shadow on the entire picture going in the wrong direction, like the end of the trains been erased or something

Post by **martinhodgson** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:09 am

It's probably coincidence of when the photos were taken. If you look at Heathrow, you'd find the controllers should have been fired based on the photos - aircraft using 3 different runways, with no distance between them etc. It's just the way it is done - and its a niggle I'm willing to overlook

Whitemoor · Post by **Whitemoor** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:29 am

for eveidence of overlapping images, just look at March

One the entrance to Whitemoor yard is one shade of green, the rest of it is a totaly different shade of green

(by the way, those images was taken before whitemoor was re-opened)

Also, theres a 153 in march station and a 3-car 158 approaching it

chriscooper · Post by **chriscooper** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:11 am

Here is an interesting one.

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.534137, ... 014634&t=k

Look at the tracks leading from St Pancras. Coming out of St Pancras, they follow the temporary alignment that was used whilst the interim station was being construted. This though fades out, and instead their is the previous alignment, still modified from the original in places (you can see the old and new track in different areas), but much more like the original layout before work began. A 3 Car Turbostar can be seen apporaching St Pancras on the Up Fast, apparently about to fall of the end of the tracks!
Oviosuly, this was made up of two images, one taken before the realignment and start of the work on the interim station, one after.

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=51.534137, ... 014634&t=k

This is very odd. It's only a little way up from the first area, just before Camden Road Tunnel. Their is what looks like a HST heading North on the Down Fast. The strange thing is, the rear powercar and one coach can be seen, then it goes under the bridge. Their should be about 2 coaches under the bridge, leaving another 5 and a powercar coming out the other side an well into Camden Road Tunnel, if this was a standard 2+8 set. There is nothing though, the train vanishes. The shortest set MML have operated is 2+4, but that was a one off. I've seen a 2+5 before, around the time I presume the shot was taken. Even those though would come out of the other side.
Again, it seems that this is really a break in the pictures, and they were taken at 2 different times.
If you head south, you can see the back end of a Thameslink 319 just about to disapear into the tunnel towards Kings Cross Thameslink.

Finally, nothing to unusual, but an interesting train.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=51.554 ... 003659&t=k

This is about 5 miles north of St Pancras, just south of Cricklewood, and shows what seems to be a test train top and tailed by two locos (47s it seems). The rear coach is interesting. It's oviously got a generator, judging by the black patch on the roof at one end.

sootyxfd · Post by **sootyxfd** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:28 am

they dont seam to have finnished around my area yet

barrymcguire9999 · Post by **barrymcguire9999** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:37 am

chriscooper wrote: This is about 5 miles north of St Pancras, just south of Cricklewood, and shows what seems to be a test train top and tailed by two locos (47s it seems). The rear coach is interesting. It's oviously got a generator, judging by the black patch on the roof at one end.

I know the one you mean, I was (and could still be!) convinced that this might be the royal train.........
Lat 51.554917 Lon -0.209490

Not much on the line out of Euston to be seen, quite a bit in the GE main line in East London though, a few Merseyrail sets visible in Merseyside......some yards/depots have great detail (Old Oak Common, Wembley etc)

Barry

chriscooper · Post by **chriscooper** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:56 am

Sadly I don't think it's the Royal train. The coaches are all the same length, and when measured using the measuring tool in the downloadable version of Google Earth, they are all 20m long. This means they are Mk1s or Mk2s, the Royal train consists of a mixture of Mk3s (23m long) and Mk2s though. Most likely it's just a test train on it's way back to Derby, probably with a pair of Fragonset 47s. They are quite common on the MML. On the Video 125 DEV you can see one waiting for a path on the fast lines at Brent Curve Junction (on the far left, between Cricklewood and the North Circular Road viaduct), an another on the Slow lines just before St Albans.

staticxfreak · Post by **staticxfreak** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:27 am

http://maps.google.co.uk/?t=k&ll=51.572 ... 005032&t=k

Somewhere in London...

spinemaligna · Post by **spinemaligna** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:56 am

Too easy

viperskil · Post by **viperskil** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:10 pm

It DOES have a rear power car you can just see the yellow surrounding a black rectangular window. Either the picture was taken at an angle or it's on an incline but I am certain it's there

viperskil · Post by **viperskil** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:10 pm

And on the later pictures very weird indeed