Today, I took the Armidale XPlorer from Hornsby to Broadmeadow [*]
This route has lots of bends in it, which keeps speeds down. The XPlorer
is taking the turns at about the maximum speed that would be comfortable
to the passengers.
I had an Android tablet with me, and recorded the path and speeds taken.
On one of the few straight stretches, the XPlorer reached its maximum permitted speed of 140km/h, and maintained it for a full 17 seconds.
That route is crying out for a tilt-train.
As an aside I was also recording the return trip on the Intercity train.
At one point the path shows the train abandoning the track for an
escapade northwards at speeds up to 225 km/h. Clearly, GPS technology
still has its bugs.
Sylvia.
[*] The first stop where one is allowed to get off.
Tried the same thing today on the Grafton XPT from Maitland to Hornsby,
but none of three devices could get a GPS lock, and cell coverage was
very flaky too. Seems there's something about the XPT that interferes
with, or blocks, high frequency signals.
On 20/11/2018 5:21 pm, news18 wrote:
On Tue, 20 Nov 2018 15:50:15 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:
Tried the same thing today on the Grafton XPT from Maitland to Hornsby,
but none of three devices could get a GPS lock, and cell coverage was
very flaky too. Seems there's something about the XPT that interferes
with, or blocks, high frequency signals.
The fact that it is made of aluminium/steel would be the factor. Had the same problem with mobile phones under our "colorbond" until they
installed a local tower LOs out the window.
It did occur to me that the XPT may be made from aluminium, and the
other trains of steel, and that that might be the difference - aluminium
is a much better conductor than steel - but I can't find any documentation.
Sylvia.
| Sysop: | Amessyroom |
|---|---|
| Location: | Fayetteville, NC |
| Users: | 63 |
| Nodes: | 6 (0 / 6) |
| Uptime: | 492973:01:48 |
| Calls: | 840 |
| Files: | 1,301 |
| D/L today: |
14 files (28,374K bytes) |
| Messages: | 264,597 |