Discussion:
Greatest Gathering Derby Tickets
(too old to reply)
Tweed
2025-01-31 06:55:02 UTC
Permalink
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering

Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 07:14:48 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
£30ea, plus booking fee, apparently. I wonder if I can charge them an
attendance fee?
--
Roland Perry
Tweed
2025-01-31 07:34:02 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
£30ea, plus booking fee, apparently. I wonder if I can charge them an
attendance fee?
The ticket price goes to charity. Do you expect the ticketing company to do
the work for nothing?
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 09:16:36 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
£30ea, plus booking fee, apparently. I wonder if I can charge them an
attendance fee?
The ticket price goes to charity. Do you expect the ticketing company to do
the work for nothing?
No, I expect the venue to send the majority of the profit to Charideee,
with a small amount to the booking site; but set the price such that we
know in advance how much it's going to be.

ps. It's quarter past nine, the booking site isn't showing the event,
and pressing the generic "Buy Tickets" button gives "502 Bad
Gateway".
--
Roland Perry
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 09:45:16 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
ps. It's quarter past nine, the booking site isn't showing the event,
and pressing the generic "Buy Tickets" button gives "502 Bad
Gateway".
Some progress... Firefox now reporting a broken certificate, and
clicking past that warning "403 forbidden".
--
Roland Perry
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 15:18:22 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
£30ea, plus booking fee, apparently. I wonder if I can charge them an
attendance fee?
The ticket price goes to charity. Do you expect the ticketing company to do
the work for nothing?
And if you read the small print, they say there's all sorts of other
"Costs of doing business" which will mean less than £30 goes to the
Charideees. Security is an obvious one, but you can see the full list
for yourself.

I expect the drivers of the trains arriving at the meet won't be doing
it free of charge, nor Network Rail waiving the track access fees.
--
Roland Perry
Ken
2025-01-31 09:15:03 UTC
Permalink
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 09:21:27 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling", this
isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a handful of
people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
--
Roland Perry
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 09:34:31 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
9:30 and still broken. The banner on the calendar page about 2023 dates
doesn't inspire confidence. And it's not a typo, it really does give a
set of events in 2023.
--
Roland Perry
Coffee
2025-01-31 10:02:41 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling", this
isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a handful of
people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 10:26:13 UTC
Permalink
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason it's
broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has issues.

Cloudflare now also blocking the site as a result.

ps. It's not exactly trivial to find where the tickets are on sale, so
why do you think there's likely to be even the relatively trickle of
a demand? At 09:01!
--
Roland Perry
M***@DastardlyHQ.org
2025-01-31 10:37:41 UTC
Permalink
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 10:26:13 +0000
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason it's
broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has issues.
Cloudflare now also blocking the site as a result.
ISPs don't block sites based on dodgy certs. It'll be your browser doing
that and you can always bypass it.
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 13:21:45 UTC
Permalink
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 10:26:13 +0000
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason it's
broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has issues.
Cloudflare now also blocking the site as a result.
ISPs don't block sites based on dodgy certs. It'll be your browser doing
that and you can always bypass it.
As usual, wrong again!! Why would I say Cloudflare was blocking it, if I
hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

Anyway, I've got a screenshot of it.
--
Roland Perry
M***@DastardlyHQ.org
2025-01-31 14:00:48 UTC
Permalink
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 13:21:45 +0000
Post by Roland Perry
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 10:26:13 +0000
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason it's
broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has issues.
Cloudflare now also blocking the site as a result.
ISPs don't block sites based on dodgy certs. It'll be your browser doing
that and you can always bypass it.
As usual, wrong again!! Why would I say Cloudflare was blocking it, if I
hadn't seen it with my own eyes.
Anyway, I've got a screenshot of it.
If your ISP is scanning the data in SSL connection setups then I'd move
elsewhere if i were you because thats probably not the only thing they're
looking at.
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 15:12:25 UTC
Permalink
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 13:21:45 +0000
Post by Roland Perry
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 10:26:13 +0000
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason it's
broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has issues.
Cloudflare now also blocking the site as a result.
ISPs don't block sites based on dodgy certs. It'll be your browser doing
that and you can always bypass it.
As usual, wrong again!! Why would I say Cloudflare was blocking it, if I
hadn't seen it with my own eyes.
Anyway, I've got a screenshot of it.
If your ISP is scanning the data in SSL connection setups then I'd move
elsewhere if i were you because thats probably not the only thing they're
looking at.
It was Cloudfare, who are Internet Service Provider (of various hosting
facilities).
--
Roland Perry
Clank
2025-01-31 15:45:30 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
Post by Roland Perry
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And
"Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason
it's broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has
issues.
Cloudflare now also blocking the site as a result.
ISPs don't block sites based on dodgy certs. It'll be your browser
doing that and you can always bypass it.
As usual, wrong again!! Why would I say Cloudflare was blocking it, if
I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.
Anyway, I've got a screenshot of it.
If your ISP is scanning the data in SSL connection setups then I'd move
elsewhere if i were you because thats probably not the only thing
they're looking at.
It was Cloudfare, who are Internet Service Provider (of various hosting
facilities).
They are a Content Delivery Network & Web Application Firewall provider.

They don't provide 'hosting' per-se. They do provide an awful lot of
value-add on top of the core CDN proposition though (e.g. DNS services,
'cloud workers' (small serverless functions you can deploy to do smart
stuff at the edge of the CDN), zero-trust auth integration, and
intelligent origin routing/networking.)

I'd say nothing they do is unique (Akamai can provide a lot if not all the
same services,) the key difference is they do it in an *extremely*
polished and self-service way and with extremely transparent pricing
(unlike, say, Akamai who have a very old-school "of course that's
possible, let me just quote you the day rate of our Customer Integration
Success Delivery Engineer Champion who will help you" for any request.)
And they do it bloody well.


Probably a lot of their customers first discover them because they're
being DDoSed or their site is otherwise overwhelmed, and Cloudflare can
fix it quickly. But personally, I wouldn't deploy anything facing the
Internet without having Cloudflare in front from day one unless there was
a bloody good reason. They're on an extremely short list of service
providers I genuinely admire.
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 16:33:51 UTC
Permalink
Post by Clank
Post by Roland Perry
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
Post by Roland Perry
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And
"Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason
it's broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has
issues.
Cloudflare now also blocking the site as a result.
ISPs don't block sites based on dodgy certs. It'll be your browser
doing that and you can always bypass it.
As usual, wrong again!! Why would I say Cloudflare was blocking it, if
I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.
Anyway, I've got a screenshot of it.
If your ISP is scanning the data in SSL connection setups then I'd move
elsewhere if i were you because thats probably not the only thing
they're looking at.
It was Cloudfare, who are Internet Service Provider (of various hosting
facilities).
They are a Content Delivery Network & Web Application Firewall provider.
They don't provide 'hosting' per-se.
Nobody said they did. "Hosting facilities" includes a lot of peripheral
activities, even DNS servers.
Post by Clank
I'd say nothing they do is unique (Akamai can provide a lot if not all the
same services,)
The chap who did Akamai is a friend of mine. Long since moved on of
course.
--
Roland Perry
Tweed
2025-01-31 17:17:53 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Clank
Post by Roland Perry
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
Post by Roland Perry
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And
"Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason
it's broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has
issues.
Cloudflare now also blocking the site as a result.
ISPs don't block sites based on dodgy certs. It'll be your browser
doing that and you can always bypass it.
As usual, wrong again!! Why would I say Cloudflare was blocking it, if
I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.
Anyway, I've got a screenshot of it.
If your ISP is scanning the data in SSL connection setups then I'd move
elsewhere if i were you because thats probably not the only thing
they're looking at.
It was Cloudfare, who are Internet Service Provider (of various hosting
facilities).
They are a Content Delivery Network & Web Application Firewall provider.
They don't provide 'hosting' per-se.
Nobody said they did. "Hosting facilities" includes a lot of peripheral
activities, even DNS servers.
Post by Clank
I'd say nothing they do is unique (Akamai can provide a lot if not all the
same services,)
The chap who did Akamai is a friend of mine. Long since moved on of
course.
Well if it’s any consolation, I got as far as the PayPal checkout twice (it
failed to complete) and there was no attempt to charge a booking fee.
Clank
2025-01-31 19:32:45 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Clank
Post by Roland Perry
It was Cloudfare, who are Internet Service Provider (of various
hosting facilities).
They are a Content Delivery Network & Web Application Firewall provider.
They don't provide 'hosting' per-se.
Nobody said they did. "Hosting facilities" includes a lot of peripheral
activities, even DNS servers.
Post by Clank
I'd say nothing they do is unique (Akamai can provide a lot if not all
the same services,)
The chap who did Akamai is a friend of mine. Long since moved on of
course.
Yes, that makes sense. It's very much a last-generation business.
Roland Perry
2025-02-01 08:33:16 UTC
Permalink
Post by Clank
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Clank
Post by Roland Perry
It was Cloudfare, who are Internet Service Provider (of various
hosting facilities).
They are a Content Delivery Network & Web Application Firewall provider.
They don't provide 'hosting' per-se.
Nobody said they did. "Hosting facilities" includes a lot of peripheral
activities, even DNS servers.
Post by Clank
I'd say nothing they do is unique (Akamai can provide a lot if not all
the same services,)
The chap who did Akamai is a friend of mine. Long since moved on of
course.
Yes, that makes sense. It's very much a last-generation business.
He was doing it in 2003, and if "Internet Years" still apply, that's
almost a century.
--
Roland Perry
Clank
2025-01-31 13:41:00 UTC
Permalink
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason it's
broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has issues.
Cloudflare now also blocking the site as a result.
ISPs don't block sites based on dodgy certs. It'll be your browser doing
that and you can always bypass it.
A somewhat more plausible order of events is that the site went down under
the load, somebody went "oh bollocks, what do we do now", someone else
went "hey, quick, let's stick it behind Cloudflare, they provide good
tools for managing this kind of thing" [true], and it then took them a
little while to sort out the certificate chain.

[Likely sequence of events:

* It's easy, we just point www.mychoochoobookingsite.com to Cloudflare in
the DNS

* Great, but now where do we point Cloudflare to get the site?

* We'll deploy it on origin.mychoochoobookingsite.com, job done!

* Oh fuck, our web servers' SSL certificate is for www.mychoochoo... not
origin.mychoochoo..., and now Cloudflare is complaining about invalid SSL
certs...]

All eminently fixable in short order, but perhaps less so if you're doing
it in a mad rush because someone who wears a suit and just sent a press
release out with a URL in it is standing behind you yelling that the site
isn't working and they're going to look like fools... (BTDTGTTS).
M***@DastardlyHQ.org
2025-01-31 14:07:40 UTC
Permalink
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 13:41:00 -0000 (UTC)
Post by Clank
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
ISPs don't block sites based on dodgy certs. It'll be your browser doing
that and you can always bypass it.
A somewhat more plausible order of events is that the site went down under
the load, somebody went "oh bollocks, what do we do now", someone else
went "hey, quick, let's stick it behind Cloudflare, they provide good
tools for managing this kind of thing" [true], and it then took them a
little while to sort out the certificate chain.
* It's easy, we just point www.mychoochoobookingsite.com to Cloudflare in
the DNS
* Great, but now where do we point Cloudflare to get the site?
* We'll deploy it on origin.mychoochoobookingsite.com, job done!
* Oh fuck, our web servers' SSL certificate is for www.mychoochoo... not
origin.mychoochoo..., and now Cloudflare is complaining about invalid SSL
certs...]
Yes, I thought cloudflare was an ISP. Turns out its a web proxy site - sorry
"content delivery network" - so the above makes perfect sense.
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 15:10:30 UTC
Permalink
Post by Clank
Post by M***@DastardlyHQ.org
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason it's
broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has issues.
Cloudflare now also blocking the site as a result.
ISPs don't block sites based on dodgy certs. It'll be your browser doing
that and you can always bypass it.
A somewhat more plausible order of events is that the site went down under
the load, somebody went "oh bollocks, what do we do now", someone else
went "hey, quick, let's stick it behind Cloudflare, they provide good
tools for managing this kind of thing" [true], and it then took them a
little while to sort out the certificate chain.
Apart from the fact the certificate issue was definitely there are 09:01
(and I'm pretty sure earlier when I tried).
--
Roland Perry
Theo
2025-01-31 11:23:56 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason it's
broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has issues.
"You are now in line.
Thank you for your patience.
Your estimated wait time is 1 hour and 6 minutes.

We are experiencing a high volume of traffic and using a virtual queue to
limit the amount of users on the website at the same time. This will ensure
you have the best possible online experience.

This page will automatically refresh, please do not close your browser.

Last updated 11:18:10 AM"

"Waiting Room powered by Cloudflare" apparently.

Although I suppose it's possible the tickets.mortonsevents.co.uk site is
being thrashed by some other event. Maybe the 'Normous Newark Autojumble is
this year's hot place to be?

Theo
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 13:23:30 UTC
Permalink
Post by Theo
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Coffee
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025 06:55:02 -0000 (UTC), Tweed
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
The web site's struggling, not that surprisingly.
Have you actually found the event on the website? And "Struggling",
this isn't Glastonbury Festival and I wouldn't expect more than a
handful of people wanting to book at 9.01 today.
I would.
They are only expecting 10,000 visitors a day. Anyway, the reason it's
broken isn't the load, it's because their certificate has issues.
And they've now fixed the certificate.
Post by Theo
"You are now in line.
Thank you for your patience.
Your estimated wait time is 1 hour and 6 minutes.
We are experiencing a high volume of traffic and using a virtual queue to
limit the amount of users on the website at the same time. This will ensure
you have the best possible online experience.
This page will automatically refresh, please do not close your browser.
Last updated 11:18:10 AM"
"Waiting Room powered by Cloudflare" apparently.
Although I suppose it's possible the tickets.mortonsevents.co.uk site is
being thrashed by some other event. Maybe the 'Normous Newark Autojumble is
this year's hot place to be?
It does say "the website", but maybe they mean the booking engine.
--
Roland Perry
Roland Perry
2025-01-31 15:55:31 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
Sale site has now been taken offline "Due to high demand" ... "There are
still plenty of tickets remaining for all days, sales will resume early
next week".

What are they doing - sending out for a RAM-Pack to fit to their ZX81?
--
Roland Perry
Recliner
2025-01-31 17:12:32 UTC
Permalink
Avanti West Coast to challenge West Coast Main Line journey record as part
of Railway 200

https://www.railmagazine.com/news/2025/01/30/avanti-west-coast-to-challenge-west-coast-main-line-journey-record-as-part-of-railway-200

Avanti West Coast will attempt to break the long-standing record between
London and Glasgow as part of Railway 200.

The record of 3 hours 52 minutes and 40 seconds was set by the Advanced
Passenger Train back in 1984. However, it was allowed to travel at speeds
in excess of the current speed limit of 125mph.

The record attempt was announced at the launch event for Alstom’s Great
Gathering event, which will take place in August this year.

Andy Mellors, MD for Avanti West Coast said: “I can reveal that working
with our industry partners we are going to be running a train from London
to Glasgow with the intention of breaking the forty-year-old record set by
the Advanced Passenger Train”

A previous attempt at the record happened on June 17, 2021, when Pendolino
390044 fell short by just 21 seconds. The average speed on that occasion
was 103mph for the 400-mile journey.

It’s also been revealed that the train earmarked for the attempt will be
390016, which has only nine cars and an excellent acceleration profile.
It’s been specially renamed ‘Railway 200’ ahead of the event, and
renumbered to 390200.

Mellors added: “What better way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the
railways with a record attempt.” It’s expected that passengers on the train
will consist of 200 invited guests.

Although no date has been set for the record-breaking run, it’s thought
most likely that it will happen sometime in the spring. The attempt at the
record is just one of scores of Railway 200 events being staged around the
UK and across the world.
Bevan Price
2025-01-31 22:20:43 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket, I won't be bothering.
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of your
time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in front
of the exhibits......
Roland Perry
2025-02-01 08:53:00 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
--
Roland Perry
Tweed
2025-02-01 11:46:20 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets, but PayPal could never get back in contact with the
ticket site to say I had pressed pay. Fortunately I’ve not been charged.
Coffee
2025-02-01 12:41:06 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets, but PayPal could never get back in contact with the
ticket site to say I had pressed pay. Fortunately I’ve not been charged.
I wont use PayPal myself but I'm regularly having transactions failing
for the same reason. It has not happened to be at all in the past.
Roland Perry
2025-02-01 14:20:38 UTC
Permalink
Post by Coffee
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets, but PayPal could never get back in contact with the
ticket site to say I had pressed pay. Fortunately I’ve not been charged.
I wont use PayPal myself but I'm regularly having
non-Paypal?
Post by Coffee
transactions failing for the same reason. It has not happened to be at
all in the past.
I think there's a lot of cheap and cheerful ecommerce platforms which
don't work very well (a bit like this events booking site; not only was
the "Buy" button broken, but at 9:15 they hadn't even added the GG event
to their calendar, so no-one could possibly be ordering it yet).
--
Roland Perry
Roland Perry
2025-02-01 14:17:51 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets,
Were they only charged as £30, not £30 + [say] £2 fee?
Post by Tweed
but PayPal could never get back in contact with the
ticket site to say I had pressed pay. Fortunately I’ve not been charged.
I should hope so too. Paypal is a very mature system and shouldn't make
rookie mistakes like that.
--
Roland Perry
Tweed
2025-02-01 14:24:38 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets,
Were they only charged as £30, not £30 + [say] £2 fee?
£60 for the two tickets, no more. However their latest posting says they
are buying more compute power for next week, so perhaps the cost of that
might change their view?
Roland Perry
2025-02-01 18:55:10 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets,
Were they only charged as £30, not £30 + [say] £2 fee?
£60 for the two tickets, no more. However their latest posting says they
are buying more compute power for next week, so perhaps the cost of that
might change their view?
I'm struggling to understand why the Derby organisers have picked a
ticketing site which is so incapable of serving the trivial number of
30k bookings (a quantity known well in advance, and on their own
admission "plenty still remaining").

Not in the same league obviously, but Glastonbury sold 200k tickets in
40 minutes (to a subset of reportedly "millions" of applicants).
--
Roland Perry
Tweed
2025-02-01 19:32:08 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets,
Were they only charged as £30, not £30 + [say] £2 fee?
£60 for the two tickets, no more. However their latest posting says they
are buying more compute power for next week, so perhaps the cost of that
might change their view?
I'm struggling to understand why the Derby organisers have picked a
ticketing site which is so incapable of serving the trivial number of
30k bookings (a quantity known well in advance, and on their own
admission "plenty still remaining").
Not in the same league obviously, but Glastonbury sold 200k tickets in
40 minutes (to a subset of reportedly "millions" of applicants).
Probably because the factory is more used to building trains than running
open days.
Recliner
2025-02-01 23:51:14 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets,
Were they only charged as £30, not £30 + [say] £2 fee?
£60 for the two tickets, no more. However their latest posting says they
are buying more compute power for next week, so perhaps the cost of that
might change their view?
I'm struggling to understand why the Derby organisers have picked a
ticketing site which is so incapable of serving the trivial number of
30k bookings (a quantity known well in advance, and on their own
admission "plenty still remaining").
Not in the same league obviously, but Glastonbury sold 200k tickets in
40 minutes (to a subset of reportedly "millions" of applicants).
Probably because the factory is more used to building trains than running
open days.
Google doesn’t seem to know of any previous occasions that factory has held
open days, and I don’t recall one, so none of the current employees
probably have any experience of running them. Perhaps the last was back in
BR days? Certainly, the current multinational corporation that owns the
site will be a lot more security conscious than BR would have been.

I thought the NRM was organising the Rail 200 festivities?
Roland Perry
2025-02-02 10:37:29 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets,
Were they only charged as £30, not £30 + [say] £2 fee?
£60 for the two tickets, no more. However their latest posting says they
are buying more compute power for next week, so perhaps the cost of that
might change their view?
I'm struggling to understand why the Derby organisers have picked a
ticketing site which is so incapable of serving the trivial number of
30k bookings (a quantity known well in advance, and on their own
admission "plenty still remaining").
Not in the same league obviously, but Glastonbury sold 200k tickets in
40 minutes (to a subset of reportedly "millions" of applicants).
Probably because the factory is more used to building trains than running
open days.
BZZT! The factory (actually Alstom, who are quite a serious
multinational) aren't selling tickets. That's the whole point.

They've outsourced it to a specialist ticket-selling site.

ps. If in fact the open day is being organised by NRM, then they have
quite a lot of experience of selling tickets, but even so HAVE
OUTSOURCED IT.
--
Roland Perry
Tweed
2025-02-02 12:49:48 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets,
Were they only charged as £30, not £30 + [say] £2 fee?
£60 for the two tickets, no more. However their latest posting says they
are buying more compute power for next week, so perhaps the cost of that
might change their view?
I'm struggling to understand why the Derby organisers have picked a
ticketing site which is so incapable of serving the trivial number of
30k bookings (a quantity known well in advance, and on their own
admission "plenty still remaining").
Not in the same league obviously, but Glastonbury sold 200k tickets in
40 minutes (to a subset of reportedly "millions" of applicants).
Probably because the factory is more used to building trains than running
open days.
BZZT! The factory (actually Alstom, who are quite a serious
multinational) aren't selling tickets. That's the whole point.
They've outsourced it to a specialist ticket-selling site.
ps. If in fact the open day is being organised by NRM, then they have
quite a lot of experience of selling tickets, but even so HAVE
OUTSOURCED IT.
Outsourced to the wrong outfit, so this betrays an unfortunate decision by
Alstom. I can see how it happened, Mortons would have claimed experience of
organising exhibitions. I suspect neither organisation was really expecting
such demand on day one. I’m just thankful that Alstom are doing what they
are doing. It’s very easy to make a corporate decision not to bother. Open
days anywhere are few and far between these days in a land ruled by “cost
efficiency”.
Recliner
2025-02-02 13:24:55 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets,
Were they only charged as £30, not £30 + [say] £2 fee?
£60 for the two tickets, no more. However their latest posting says they
are buying more compute power for next week, so perhaps the cost of that
might change their view?
I'm struggling to understand why the Derby organisers have picked a
ticketing site which is so incapable of serving the trivial number of
30k bookings (a quantity known well in advance, and on their own
admission "plenty still remaining").
Not in the same league obviously, but Glastonbury sold 200k tickets in
40 minutes (to a subset of reportedly "millions" of applicants).
Probably because the factory is more used to building trains than running
open days.
BZZT! The factory (actually Alstom, who are quite a serious
multinational) aren't selling tickets. That's the whole point.
They've outsourced it to a specialist ticket-selling site.
ps. If in fact the open day is being organised by NRM, then they have
quite a lot of experience of selling tickets, but even so HAVE
OUTSOURCED IT.
Outsourced to the wrong outfit, so this betrays an unfortunate decision by
Alstom. I can see how it happened, Mortons would have claimed experience of
organising exhibitions. I suspect neither organisation was really expecting
such demand on day one. I’m just thankful that Alstom are doing what they
are doing. It’s very easy to make a corporate decision not to bother. Open
days anywhere are few and far between these days in a land ruled by “cost
efficiency”.
As well as security, health & safety, etc. It's much harder to get into any sort of working factory these days. Even
depot open days are rare.

It probably helps that the factory isn't currently producing anything (I think production work on all the previous
Aventra orders has finished, even if some haven't yet been delivered, while the top-up 345s aren't yet on the shop
floor).
Roland Perry
2025-02-02 13:31:41 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after
authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets,
Were they only charged as £30, not £30 + [say] £2 fee?
£60 for the two tickets, no more. However their latest posting says they
are buying more compute power for next week, so perhaps the cost of that
might change their view?
I'm struggling to understand why the Derby organisers have picked a
ticketing site which is so incapable of serving the trivial number of
30k bookings (a quantity known well in advance, and on their own
admission "plenty still remaining").
Not in the same league obviously, but Glastonbury sold 200k tickets in
40 minutes (to a subset of reportedly "millions" of applicants).
Probably because the factory is more used to building trains than running
open days.
BZZT! The factory (actually Alstom, who are quite a serious
multinational) aren't selling tickets. That's the whole point.
They've outsourced it to a specialist ticket-selling site.
ps. If in fact the open day is being organised by NRM, then they have
quite a lot of experience of selling tickets, but even so HAVE
OUTSOURCED IT.
Outsourced to the wrong outfit, so this betrays an unfortunate decision by
Alstom. I can see how it happened, Mortons would have claimed experience of
organising exhibitions. I suspect neither organisation was really expecting
such demand on day one.
Please review the timeline. The site wasn't selling tickets when it had
crashed, for the simple reason they hadn't yet added this August event
to their calendar.
Post by Tweed
I’m just thankful that Alstom are doing what they
are doing. It’s very easy to make a corporate decision not to bother. Open
days anywhere are few and far between these days in a land ruled by “cost
efficiency”.
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
--
Roland Perry
Tweed
2025-02-02 14:16:36 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Post by Bevan Price
I won't be bothering.
Actually it's not that bad. A ticket for pretty much any attraction
these days would be more. But the non-inclusive booking fee grates.
Post by Bevan Price
The trouble with these types of event is that you waste too much of
your time trying to take photographs without crowds standing right in
front of the exhibits......
I suppose the plan ought to be to go and look, rather than take
photographs. Maybe do some snapping fifteen minutes before closing time.
Unless there is a way of adding the booking fee after
authorising payment
at the PayPal checkout, the booking fee is zero. I got as far as trying to
pay for two tickets,
Were they only charged as £30, not £30 + [say] £2 fee?
£60 for the two tickets, no more. However their latest posting says they
are buying more compute power for next week, so perhaps the cost of that
might change their view?
I'm struggling to understand why the Derby organisers have picked a
ticketing site which is so incapable of serving the trivial number of
30k bookings (a quantity known well in advance, and on their own
admission "plenty still remaining").
Not in the same league obviously, but Glastonbury sold 200k tickets in
40 minutes (to a subset of reportedly "millions" of applicants).
Probably because the factory is more used to building trains than running
open days.
BZZT! The factory (actually Alstom, who are quite a serious
multinational) aren't selling tickets. That's the whole point.
They've outsourced it to a specialist ticket-selling site.
ps. If in fact the open day is being organised by NRM, then they have
quite a lot of experience of selling tickets, but even so HAVE
OUTSOURCED IT.
Outsourced to the wrong outfit, so this betrays an unfortunate decision by
Alstom. I can see how it happened, Mortons would have claimed experience of
organising exhibitions. I suspect neither organisation was really expecting
such demand on day one.
Please review the timeline. The site wasn't selling tickets when it had
crashed, for the simple reason they hadn't yet added this August event
to their calendar.
Post by Tweed
I’m just thankful that Alstom are doing what they
are doing. It’s very easy to make a corporate decision not to bother. Open
days anywhere are few and far between these days in a land ruled by “cost
efficiency”.
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
No good deed goes unpunished with you does it?
Roland Perry
2025-02-02 16:20:36 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
No good deed goes unpunished with you does it?
Which good deed is that? Picking a ticketing site which didn't go live
when they said it would, a series of different errors, and by about
lunchtime throwing in the towel until some unspecified "next week".

I wonder if their IT director is ex-Barclays?
--
Roland Perry
Tweed
2025-02-02 16:34:11 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
No good deed goes unpunished with you does it?
Which good deed is that? Picking a ticketing site which didn't go live
when they said it would, a series of different errors, and by about
lunchtime throwing in the towel until some unspecified "next week".
I wonder if their IT director is ex-Barclays?
The good deed of going to the trouble of opening their factory to the
public for three days. From personal experience these sorts of things
impose a lot of extra work on the staff.
Roland Perry
2025-02-02 17:06:11 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
No good deed goes unpunished with you does it?
Which good deed is that? Picking a ticketing site which didn't go live
when they said it would, a series of different errors, and by about
lunchtime throwing in the towel until some unspecified "next week".
I wonder if their IT director is ex-Barclays?
The good deed of going to the trouble of opening their factory to the
public for three days. From personal experience these sorts of things
impose a lot of extra work on the staff.
Which is perhaps one reason they outsourced the ticket sales. What could
possibly go wrong?
--
Roland Perry
Tweed
2025-02-02 18:27:47 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
No good deed goes unpunished with you does it?
Which good deed is that? Picking a ticketing site which didn't go live
when they said it would, a series of different errors, and by about
lunchtime throwing in the towel until some unspecified "next week".
I wonder if their IT director is ex-Barclays?
The good deed of going to the trouble of opening their factory to the
public for three days. From personal experience these sorts of things
impose a lot of extra work on the staff.
Which is perhaps one reason they outsourced the ticket sales. What could
possibly go wrong?
Just cut people who are going outside of their day job a bit of slack,
especially when they are doing something for the benefit of others (both us
as the public and the charities that will benefit).

Not everyone inhabits your world of never getting anything wrong.
Roland Perry
2025-02-02 18:55:56 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
No good deed goes unpunished with you does it?
Which good deed is that? Picking a ticketing site which didn't go live
when they said it would, a series of different errors, and by about
lunchtime throwing in the towel until some unspecified "next week".
I wonder if their IT director is ex-Barclays?
The good deed of going to the trouble of opening their factory to the
public for three days. From personal experience these sorts of things
impose a lot of extra work on the staff.
Which is perhaps one reason they outsourced the ticket sales. What could
possibly go wrong?
Just cut people who are going outside of their day job a bit of slack,
I would be more sympathetic if it was a glitch in the first online
ticketing platform implemented by Alstom. Except it wasn't. The
outsourced platform was one most definitely operated by people INSIDE
their day job.
Post by Tweed
especially when they are doing something for the benefit of others (both us
as the public and the charities that will benefit).
That's the overall project, I'm just concentrating on the relatively
minor (and should be well understood) aspect which is selling tickets.

Tickets for any kind of event, the railway theme here is irrelevant.
Post by Tweed
Not everyone inhabits your world of never getting anything wrong.
I'm very much in the "Measure twice, cut once" camp, choosing competent
others to assist, documenting the process step by step, and testing
things over and over again before releasing them on the public. Most of
the time that does indeed result in fewer things than average going
wrong.
--
Roland Perry
Coffee
2025-02-02 20:02:46 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
No good deed goes unpunished with you does it?
Which good deed is that? Picking a ticketing site which didn't go live
when they said it would, a series of different errors, and by about
lunchtime throwing in the towel until some unspecified "next week".
I wonder if their IT director is ex-Barclays?
The good deed of going to the trouble of opening their factory to the
public for three days. From personal experience these sorts of things
impose a lot of extra work on the staff.
Which is perhaps one reason they outsourced the ticket sales. What could
possibly go wrong?
Just cut people who are going outside of their day job a bit of slack,
especially when they are doing something for the benefit of others (both us
as the public and the charities that will benefit).
Not everyone inhabits your world of never getting anything wrong.
The trouble is that the those who are organising will take one look at
Roland's comments and say to themselves, "never again."

Roland has no idea when to keep his trap shut.
Roland Perry
2025-02-03 09:26:14 UTC
Permalink
Post by Coffee
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
No good deed goes unpunished with you does it?
Which good deed is that? Picking a ticketing site which didn't go live
when they said it would, a series of different errors, and by about
lunchtime throwing in the towel until some unspecified "next week".
I wonder if their IT director is ex-Barclays?
The good deed of going to the trouble of opening their factory to the
public for three days. From personal experience these sorts of things
impose a lot of extra work on the staff.
Which is perhaps one reason they outsourced the ticket sales. What could
possibly go wrong?
Just cut people who are going outside of their day job a bit of
slack, especially when they are doing something for the benefit of
others (both us as the public and the charities that will benefit).
Not everyone inhabits your world of never getting anything wrong.
The trouble is that the those who are organising will take one look at
Roland's comments and say to themselves, "never again."
Are we expecting another "Greatest Gathering" any time soon? If so,
perhaps they'll chose their outsourced ticket site more carefully. This
sort of hiccup is as old as the hills (I can remember instances going
back to the last century).
Post by Coffee
Roland has no idea when to keep his trap shut.
I was looking at the site to answer the question I'd already posed
"what's the booking fee". The fact it was crashed from before 9am,
before they'd even loaded the event into their dairy, attracted
attention.

Meanwhile, they've now suspended sales for that event (their others are
OK) awaiting some sort of enhanced capacity. So it's obviously not
cloud-based platform because all that takes is one phone call.

I'm wondering if there's some issue with their gateway to the payments
system, maybe that's running on a box which can only do about one a
second (that's my estimate of the run-rate involved).
--
Roland Perry
Recliner
2025-02-02 22:29:39 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
No good deed goes unpunished with you does it?
Which good deed is that? Picking a ticketing site which didn't go live
when they said it would, a series of different errors, and by about
lunchtime throwing in the towel until some unspecified "next week".
I wonder if their IT director is ex-Barclays?
The good deed of going to the trouble of opening their factory to the
public for three days. From personal experience these sorts of things
impose a lot of extra work on the staff.
Which is perhaps one reason they outsourced the ticket sales. What could
possibly go wrong?
Just cut people who are going outside of their day job a bit of slack,
especially when they are doing something for the benefit of others (both us
as the public and the charities that will benefit).
Not everyone inhabits your world of never getting anything wrong.
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc. So
there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Roland Perry
2025-02-03 10:15:32 UTC
Permalink
Post by Recliner
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
No good deed goes unpunished with you does it?
Which good deed is that? Picking a ticketing site which didn't go live
when they said it would, a series of different errors, and by about
lunchtime throwing in the towel until some unspecified "next week".
I wonder if their IT director is ex-Barclays?
The good deed of going to the trouble of opening their factory to the
public for three days. From personal experience these sorts of things
impose a lot of extra work on the staff.
Which is perhaps one reason they outsourced the ticket sales. What could
possibly go wrong?
Just cut people who are going outside of their day job a bit of slack,
especially when they are doing something for the benefit of others (both us
as the public and the charities that will benefit).
Not everyone inhabits your world of never getting anything wrong.
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Post by Recliner
So there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Not forgetting the organising of the press event which triggered this
current palaver.
--
Roland Perry
Ken
2025-02-03 10:39:44 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
They should be able to do better than that! The site's rail-connected.
Roland Perry
2025-02-03 10:53:40 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ken
Post by Roland Perry
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
They should be able to do better than that! The site's rail-connected.
Parry People Mover! But of course the normal trains are still running,
so maybe not many paths available.
--
Roland Perry
Graeme Wall
2025-02-03 11:15:06 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering,
stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.
Ken
2025-02-04 09:20:34 UTC
Permalink
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering,
stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Graeme Wall
2025-02-04 09:28:19 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering,
stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.

That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.
Recliner
2025-02-04 10:47:38 UTC
Permalink
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
He’ll have to remember to bring his special mobile phones suitcase.
Roland Perry
2025-02-04 17:18:07 UTC
Permalink
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
I thought Amsterdam-St Pancras required a change at Brussels. And no, I
don't have an e* railcard.
--
Roland Perry
Recliner
2025-02-04 17:33:33 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
I thought Amsterdam-St Pancras required a change at Brussels. And no, I
don't have an e* railcard.
Yes, and no:

Our direct trains from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to London will be
temporarily back in service between 10 February and 29 March 2025. They’ll
then take a break due to essential works at Amsterdam Centraal and restart
again at the end of April 2025.

Want to travel when the direct trains aren’t running? You can take the
Eurostar to Brussels-Midi/Zuid, go through border control, and then catch
the train to London.

https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/train/amsterdam-to-london
Tweed
2025-02-04 17:37:36 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
I thought Amsterdam-St Pancras required a change at Brussels. And no, I
don't have an e* railcard.
No through trains from Amsterdam to StP from 30th March to 30th April, but
otherwise there are. I’ve done it.
You still would need your railcard for StP to Derby.
Graeme Wall
2025-02-04 22:04:10 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as
it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's
understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
 Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
I thought Amsterdam-St Pancras required a change at Brussels. And no, I
don't have an e* railcard.
Doesn't E* still serve Amsterdam? Been a long time since I went that way
so it may have changed again.
--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.
Recliner
2025-02-04 22:27:57 UTC
Permalink
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as
it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's
understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
 Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
I thought Amsterdam-St Pancras required a change at Brussels. And no, I
don't have an e* railcard.
Doesn't E* still serve Amsterdam? Been a long time since I went that way
so it may have changed again.
It does, but as often discussed here, building work at Amsterdam has meant
the international facilities have been closed for a while. So passengers
from Amsterdam have had to travel as domestic Schengen passengers to
Brussels, where they participate in the security and passport theatre
before boarding an international train.
Tweed
2025-02-05 07:17:41 UTC
Permalink
Post by Recliner
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as
it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
 Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
I thought Amsterdam-St Pancras required a change at Brussels. And no, I
don't have an e* railcard.
Doesn't E* still serve Amsterdam? Been a long time since I went that way
so it may have changed again.
It does, but as often discussed here, building work at Amsterdam has meant
the international facilities have been closed for a while. So passengers
from Amsterdam have had to travel as domestic Schengen passengers to
Brussels, where they participate in the security and passport theatre
before boarding an international train.
Through trains with clearance at Amsterdam resume in April. Hopefully with
better passenger facilities, which were pretty terrible.
Recliner
2025-02-05 10:19:30 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Recliner
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as
it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
 Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
I thought Amsterdam-St Pancras required a change at Brussels. And no, I
don't have an e* railcard.
Doesn't E* still serve Amsterdam? Been a long time since I went that way
so it may have changed again.
It does, but as often discussed here, building work at Amsterdam has meant
the international facilities have been closed for a while. So passengers
from Amsterdam have had to travel as domestic Schengen passengers to
Brussels, where they participate in the security and passport theatre
before boarding an international train.
Through trains with clearance at Amsterdam resume in April. Hopefully with
better passenger facilities, which were pretty terrible.
Specifically, as I posted upthread:

Our direct trains from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to London will be
temporarily back in service between 10 February and 29 March 2025. They’ll
then take a break due to essential works at Amsterdam Centraal and restart
again at the end of April 2025.
Graeme Wall
2025-02-05 09:04:47 UTC
Permalink
Post by Recliner
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as
it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
 Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
I thought Amsterdam-St Pancras required a change at Brussels. And no, I
don't have an e* railcard.
Doesn't E* still serve Amsterdam? Been a long time since I went that way
so it may have changed again.
It does, but as often discussed here, building work at Amsterdam has meant
the international facilities have been closed for a while. So passengers
from Amsterdam have had to travel as domestic Schengen passengers to
Brussels, where they participate in the security and passport theatre
before boarding an international train.
As it is a highly theoretical trip that, I doubt anyone will actually
do, I'll leave it as a through journey. NB E* trains should be running
again by the time of the GG so it will be valid.
--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.
Ulf_Kutzner
2025-02-05 09:13:02 UTC
Permalink
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Recliner
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as
it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
 Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
I thought Amsterdam-St Pancras required a change at Brussels. And no, I
don't have an e* railcard.
Doesn't E* still serve Amsterdam? Been a long time since I went that way
so it may have changed again.
It does, but as often discussed here, building work at Amsterdam has meant
the international facilities have been closed for a while. So passengers
from Amsterdam have had to travel as domestic Schengen passengers to
Brussels, where they participate in the security and passport theatre
before boarding an international train.
As it is a highly theoretical trip that, I doubt anyone will actually
do,
Those who don't want to fly?
Post by Graeme Wall
I'll leave it as a through journey. NB E* trains should be running
again by the time of the GG so it will be valid.
Does E* propose a E* Continental train for the
Amsterdam - Brussels part?

Regards, ULF
Graeme Wall
2025-02-05 09:53:34 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ulf_Kutzner
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Recliner
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as
it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure,
etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering,
stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
  Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail
before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
I thought Amsterdam-St Pancras required a change at Brussels. And no, I
don't have an e* railcard.
Doesn't E* still serve Amsterdam? Been a long time since I went that way
so it may have changed again.
It does, but as often discussed here, building work at Amsterdam has meant
the international facilities have been closed for a while. So passengers
from Amsterdam have had to travel as domestic Schengen passengers to
Brussels, where they participate in the security and passport theatre
before boarding an international train.
As it is a highly theoretical trip that, I doubt anyone will actually
do,
Those who don't want to fly?
It is specifically for anyone wanting to travel from the Dutch Railway
Museum to the Great Gathering, just as a gag.
--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.
Recliner
2025-02-05 10:35:28 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ulf_Kutzner
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Recliner
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Ken
On Mon, 3 Feb 2025 11:15:06 +0000, Graeme Wall
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as
it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure,
etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering,
stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Perhaps a shuttle train would be appropriate, like the one to the Dutch
railway museum from Utrecht.
 Good idea. I've never travelled from Utrecht to Derby by rail before.
Maliebaan - Utrecht - Amsterdam - St Pancras - Derby.
That assumes Roland can find his railcard before the end of the trip.
I thought Amsterdam-St Pancras required a change at Brussels. And no, I
don't have an e* railcard.
Doesn't E* still serve Amsterdam? Been a long time since I went that way
so it may have changed again.
It does, but as often discussed here, building work at Amsterdam has meant
the international facilities have been closed for a while. So passengers
from Amsterdam have had to travel as domestic Schengen passengers to
Brussels, where they participate in the security and passport theatre
before boarding an international train.
As it is a highly theoretical trip that, I doubt anyone will actually
do,
Those who don't want to fly?
Post by Graeme Wall
I'll leave it as a through journey. NB E* trains should be running
again by the time of the GG so it will be valid.
Does E* propose a E* Continental train for the
Amsterdam - Brussels part?
No, the returning 374, running as a domestic Schengen service to Brussels.
All passengers then alight, being replaced by the London passengers from
the previous train, who have now cleared security and Immigration.
Passengers for London take part in the performance, while those for
Brussels just leave the train at Midi.
Recliner
2025-02-03 11:57:18 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Tweed
Post by Roland Perry
They have the expertise to organise a press launch with all sorts of
VIPs, getting the ticketing site briefed to start selling should be far
easier than that.
No good deed goes unpunished with you does it?
Which good deed is that? Picking a ticketing site which didn't go live
when they said it would, a series of different errors, and by about
lunchtime throwing in the towel until some unspecified "next week".
I wonder if their IT director is ex-Barclays?
The good deed of going to the trouble of opening their factory to the
public for three days. From personal experience these sorts of things
impose a lot of extra work on the staff.
Which is perhaps one reason they outsourced the ticket sales. What could
possibly go wrong?
Just cut people who are going outside of their day job a bit of slack,
especially when they are doing something for the benefit of others (both us
as the public and the charities that will benefit).
Not everyone inhabits your world of never getting anything wrong.
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Post by Recliner
So there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Not forgetting the organising of the press event which triggered this
current palaver.
That’s something the factory will be used to organising, every time there’s
a new train type to show off, or a big new order announced, or deliveries
started. They also set up the Greg Wallace Factory programme, which will
have had squads of PR people just off-camera the whole time. What they’ve
not had for over 50 years is a large public event.
Roland Perry
2025-02-03 14:45:22 UTC
Permalink
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Post by Recliner
So there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Not forgetting the organising of the press event which triggered this
current palaver.
That’s something the factory will be used to organising, every time there’s
a new train type to show off, or a big new order announced, or deliveries
started. They also set up the Greg Wallace Factory programme, which will
have had squads of PR people just off-camera the whole time. What they’ve
not had for over 50 years is a large public event.
But I expect they are outsourced. You can't have squads of PR people
drinking tea and twiddling their thumbs in Derby for months, in between
those types of event need publicity.
--
Roland Perry
Recliner
2025-02-03 15:20:59 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Post by Recliner
So there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Not forgetting the organising of the press event which triggered this
current palaver.
That’s something the factory will be used to organising, every time there’s
a new train type to show off, or a big new order announced, or deliveries
started. They also set up the Greg Wallace Factory programme, which will
have had squads of PR people just off-camera the whole time. What they’ve
not had for over 50 years is a large public event.
But I expect they are outsourced. You can't have squads of PR people
drinking tea and twiddling their thumbs in Derby for months, in between
those types of event need publicity.
There will be a small in-house press team working for Ben Goodwin, with others obviously employed by Alstom's UK PR
agency.
Roland Perry
2025-02-04 08:47:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Post by Recliner
So there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Not forgetting the organising of the press event which triggered this
current palaver.
That’s something the factory will be used to organising, every time there’s
a new train type to show off, or a big new order announced, or deliveries
started. They also set up the Greg Wallace Factory programme, which will
have had squads of PR people just off-camera the whole time. What they’ve
not had for over 50 years is a large public event.
But I expect they are outsourced. You can't have squads of PR people
drinking tea and twiddling their thumbs in Derby for months, in between
those types of event need publicity.
There will be a small in-house press team working for Ben Goodwin,
He's in charge of "UK and Ireland", not just that one facility. And
given he's quoted as the press contact, are you sure he has a team at
all?
Post by Recliner
with others obviously employed by Alstom's
Outsourced
Post by Recliner
UK PR agency.
--
Roland Perry
Recliner
2025-02-04 10:45:26 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Post by Recliner
So there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Not forgetting the organising of the press event which triggered this
current palaver.
That’s something the factory will be used to organising, every time there’s
a new train type to show off, or a big new order announced, or deliveries
started. They also set up the Greg Wallace Factory programme, which will
have had squads of PR people just off-camera the whole time. What they’ve
not had for over 50 years is a large public event.
But I expect they are outsourced. You can't have squads of PR people
drinking tea and twiddling their thumbs in Derby for months, in between
those types of event need publicity.
There will be a small in-house press team working for Ben Goodwin,
He's in charge of "UK and Ireland", not just that one facility. And
given he's quoted as the press contact, are you sure he has a team at
all?
He’ll have a small in-house team, and will be responsible for all Alstom
press and PR activities in the UK and Ireland, not just for one site.
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
with others obviously employed by Alstom's
Outsourced
Post by Recliner
UK PR agency.
That’s how the PR business works. The agency will have a number of staff
assigned to the account (part-time), who are well-briefed on it, plus other
specialists who can be brought in for particular events or projects.

The agency may also assist with crisis management if needed, or another
specialist agency may be on call for that. The PR agency will also work
with the parent company and its PR agency, and may be a subsidiary of it.
Roland Perry
2025-02-06 18:21:45 UTC
Permalink
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Post by Recliner
So there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Not forgetting the organising of the press event which triggered this
current palaver.
That’s something the factory will be used to organising, every time there’s
a new train type to show off, or a big new order announced, or deliveries
started. They also set up the Greg Wallace Factory programme, which will
have had squads of PR people just off-camera the whole time. What they’ve
not had for over 50 years is a large public event.
But I expect they are outsourced. You can't have squads of PR people
drinking tea and twiddling their thumbs in Derby for months, in between
those types of event need publicity.
There will be a small in-house press team working for Ben Goodwin,
He's in charge of "UK and Ireland", not just that one facility. And
given he's quoted as the press contact, are you sure he has a team at
all?
He’ll have a small in-house team,
Given they outsource that, I'd surprised if he needed more than one
person.
Post by Recliner
and will be responsible for all Alstom press and PR activities in the
UK and Ireland,
That comes with the territory of being "in charge f UK and Ireland".
Post by Recliner
not just for one site.
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
with others obviously employed by Alstom's
Outsourced
Post by Recliner
UK PR agency.
That’s how the PR business works.
And getting back to the point, events ticketing generally "works by
outsourcing".
Post by Recliner
The agency will have a number of staff
assigned to the account (part-time), who are well-briefed on it, plus other
specialists who can be brought in for particular events or projects.
The agency may also assist with crisis management if needed, or another
specialist agency may be on call for that. The PR agency will also work
with the parent company and its PR agency, and may be a subsidiary of it.
--
Roland Perry
Recliner
2025-02-08 15:07:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Post by Recliner
So there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Not forgetting the organising of the press event which triggered this
current palaver.
That’s something the factory will be used to organising, every time there’s
a new train type to show off, or a big new order announced, or deliveries
started. They also set up the Greg Wallace Factory programme, which will
have had squads of PR people just off-camera the whole time. What they’ve
not had for over 50 years is a large public event.
But I expect they are outsourced. You can't have squads of PR people
drinking tea and twiddling their thumbs in Derby for months, in between
those types of event need publicity.
There will be a small in-house press team working for Ben Goodwin,
He's in charge of "UK and Ireland", not just that one facility. And
given he's quoted as the press contact, are you sure he has a team at
all?
He’ll have a small in-house team,
Given they outsource that, I'd surprised if he needed more than one
person.
You clearly don't understand the different roles.

I know you like the child-like never-ending, "But WHY?" questions, but I think this thread has exhausted your knowledge
of both factories and PR.
Tweed
2025-02-08 15:21:48 UTC
Permalink
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Post by Recliner
So there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Not forgetting the organising of the press event which triggered this
current palaver.
That’s something the factory will be used to organising, every time there’s
a new train type to show off, or a big new order announced, or deliveries
started. They also set up the Greg Wallace Factory programme, which will
have had squads of PR people just off-camera the whole time. What they’ve
not had for over 50 years is a large public event.
But I expect they are outsourced. You can't have squads of PR people
drinking tea and twiddling their thumbs in Derby for months, in between
those types of event need publicity.
There will be a small in-house press team working for Ben Goodwin,
He's in charge of "UK and Ireland", not just that one facility. And
given he's quoted as the press contact, are you sure he has a team at
all?
He’ll have a small in-house team,
Given they outsource that, I'd surprised if he needed more than one
person.
You clearly don't understand the different roles.
I know you like the child-like never-ending, "But WHY?" questions, but I
think this thread has exhausted your knowledge
of both factories and PR.
Saturday tickets now sold out. It’s going to be busy.
Recliner
2025-02-08 16:38:45 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure,
etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering,
stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Post by Recliner
So there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Not forgetting the organising of the press event which triggered this
current palaver.
That’s something the factory will be used to organising, every time
there’s
a new train type to show off, or a big new order announced, or deliveries
started. They also set up the Greg Wallace Factory programme, which will
have had squads of PR people just off-camera the whole time. What they’ve
not had for over 50 years is a large public event.
But I expect they are outsourced. You can't have squads of PR people
drinking tea and twiddling their thumbs in Derby for months, in between
those types of event need publicity.
There will be a small in-house press team working for Ben Goodwin,
He's in charge of "UK and Ireland", not just that one facility. And
given he's quoted as the press contact, are you sure he has a team at
all?
He’ll have a small in-house team,
Given they outsource that, I'd surprised if he needed more than one
person.
You clearly don't understand the different roles.
I know you like the child-like never-ending, "But WHY?" questions, but I
think this thread has exhausted your knowledge
of both factories and PR.
Saturday tickets now sold out. It’s going to be busy.
Yes, I’m sure all three days will sell out. So that’s 10,000 people milling
around each day, but to see what? The published list of visiting stock
isn’t terribly exciting (only two kettles, neither older than 1937, and
both well known on GB mainlines). Nothing from the railway’s early days?
The list of diesel locos isn’t particularly exciting, either, and no
electric locos are listed. There don’t seem to be interesting visitors from
heritage lines or museums. Conceivably, charter trains bringing visitors to
the event might have more interesting traction than that on display!

The factory itself will be on its summer shutdown, but even without that, I
don’t think any orders are currently being built. There won’t be factory
tours, though indoor exhibits will be inside a building, and there will be
joyrides on the one mile test track (which we’ve all seen on TV).

It just doesn’t sound very exciting.
Roland Perry
2025-02-10 10:37:59 UTC
Permalink
The published list of visiting stock isn’t terribly exciting (only
two kettles, neither older than 1937, and both well known on GB
mainlines).
Yes, the list you've seen is like that, but sadly you misread the blurb
which says it's a list of exhibits **ON THE LAUNCH DAY OF 30th JANUARY**

As there's only eleven listed, that means they either can't, or won't,
yet reveal what the other thirty-nine are going to be.
--
Roland Perry
Roland Perry
2025-02-10 10:06:35 UTC
Permalink
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably
outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc.
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial either, so perhaps some
shuttle-buses might be in order.
Post by Recliner
So there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be
NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
Not forgetting the organising of the press event which triggered this
current palaver.
That’s something the factory will be used to organising, every time there’s
a new train type to show off, or a big new order announced, or deliveries
started. They also set up the Greg Wallace Factory programme, which will
have had squads of PR people just off-camera the whole time. What they’ve
not had for over 50 years is a large public event.
But I expect they are outsourced. You can't have squads of PR people
drinking tea and twiddling their thumbs in Derby for months, in between
those types of event need publicity.
There will be a small in-house press team working for Ben Goodwin,
He's in charge of "UK and Ireland", not just that one facility. And
given he's quoted as the press contact, are you sure he has a team at
all?
He’ll have a small in-house team,
Given they outsource that, I'd surprised if he needed more than one
person.
You clearly don't understand the different roles.
You clearly want have some agenda to spread disinformation about what
you claim I understand.
Post by Recliner
I know you like the child-like never-ending, "But WHY?" questions, but
I think this thread has exhausted your knowledge of both factories and
PR.
It's pretty much exhausted my desire to refute your preposterous claims,
other than to observe that whatever you say on such matters, the
opposite is the truth.
--
Roland Perry
Marland
2025-02-03 16:07:10 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
In
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial
We really have become a nation of lazy buggers when a 15 minute walk is
regarded as not being trivial, no wonder there are so many obese people
about.
Yes there are those who can’t help being unfit through medical conditions
but it seems more and more the case that the missus and I have to step
aside to enable someone in a mobility scooter the size of a golf cart to
pass, and I’d put money that many have got that way by living on Coke
,Pizza and Nicotine and never using their legs for a good part of their
lives. There is at least one couple who rock up to places each with one
of the large red buggies creating havoc especially as his has been
equipped with a tow ball and tows a trailer .

GH
Ulf_Kutzner
2025-02-03 17:04:20 UTC
Permalink
Post by Marland
Post by Roland Perry
In
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial
We really have become a nation of lazy buggers when a 15 minute walk is
regarded as not being trivial, no wonder there are so many obese people
about.
Yes there are those who can’t help being unfit through medical conditions
but it
depends also on rain and, although not mainly for
the given event, luggage.

Without both of them and without infernal heat,
I am happy to walk to my relative from the
second next busstop which is located in a
village nearby.
Graeme Wall
2025-02-03 17:24:15 UTC
Permalink
Post by Marland
Post by Roland Perry
In
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial
We really have become a nation of lazy buggers when a 15 minute walk is
regarded as not being trivial, no wonder there are so many obese people
about.
If that 15 minute walk was up-hill I would be hard pushed to make it.
--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.
Ulf_Kutzner
2025-02-03 17:46:33 UTC
Permalink
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Marland
Post by Roland Perry
In
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial
We really have become a nation of lazy buggers when a 15 minute walk is
regarded as not being trivial, no wonder there are so many obese people
about.
If that 15 minute walk was up-hill I would be hard pushed to make it.
Well, could be downhill but back to your parked car...

And do I understand right you might take more than
15 minutes on the "standard 15 minutes" uphill walk?

Regards, ULF
Graeme Wall
2025-02-03 18:28:45 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ulf_Kutzner
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Marland
Post by Roland Perry
In
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's
understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial
We really have become a nation of lazy buggers when a 15 minute walk is
regarded as not being trivial, no wonder there are so many obese people
about.
If that 15 minute walk was up-hill I would be hard pushed to make it.
Well, could be downhill but back to your parked car...
And do I understand right you might take more than
15 minutes on the "standard 15 minutes" uphill walk?
No car and I might not make it to the top at all.
--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.
Bevan Price
2025-02-03 20:00:55 UTC
Permalink
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Marland
Post by Roland Perry
In
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial
We really have become a nation of lazy buggers when a 15 minute walk is
regarded as not being trivial, no wonder there are so many obese people
about.
If that 15 minute walk was up-hill I would be hard pushed to make it.
From memory it is mostly flat, with maybe a gentle slope across the
railway bridge. (Or one or two stops on the local bus service that stops
outside Derby station. )
Ulf_Kutzner
2025-02-04 07:11:32 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Marland
Post by Roland Perry
In
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial
We really have become a nation of lazy buggers when a 15 minute walk is
regarded as not being trivial, no wonder there are so many obese people
about.
If that 15 minute walk was up-hill I would be hard pushed to make it.
From memory it is mostly flat, with maybe a gentle slope across the
railway bridge. (Or one or two stops on the local bus service that stops
outside Derby station. )
If they run just the regular bus service,
there might not be enough space in the buses
even for standees.

Regards, ULF
Marland
2025-02-03 20:52:47 UTC
Permalink
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Marland
Post by Roland Perry
In
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial
We really have become a nation of lazy buggers when a 15 minute walk is
regarded as not being trivial, no wonder there are so many obese people
about.
If that 15 minute walk was up-hill I would be hard pushed to make it.
So would a lot of people your age, because many have medical issues which I
mentioned as a reasonable get out, but would you have been unable to do so
10 or 15 years ago?

You are not the target of my criticism , its those that have got into the
state from their teenage years and never done anything then when their body
finally has deteriorated too far then expect the rest of us to help them.
So a person who has been an unfit lard arse since puberty* expects a
priority seat or disabled parking bay over someone who is just a bit “
tired” but otherwise okay who is a lot older.
But its no longer PC to say so ,instead the NHS is expected to work
miracles.Hopefully although he is an extreme character Trumps views on
Wokeism will spread and and the trend to treat all sorts of people with kid
gloves in case they get offended and need a comfy safe space will roll
back.

*That awful rude kid in the “On the Beach” holiday commercial aimed at a
certain class may be fictitious but is representative of of thousands of
real ones.

GH
Graeme Wall
2025-02-03 21:27:43 UTC
Permalink
Post by Marland
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Marland
Post by Roland Perry
In
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial
We really have become a nation of lazy buggers when a 15 minute walk is
regarded as not being trivial, no wonder there are so many obese people
about.
If that 15 minute walk was up-hill I would be hard pushed to make it.
So would a lot of people your age, because many have medical issues which I
mentioned as a reasonable get out, but would you have been unable to do so
10 or 15 years ago?
I'd have been fine two years ago, never mind ten. But that's life.
--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.
Ulf_Kutzner
2025-02-04 07:15:25 UTC
Permalink
Post by Marland
Post by Graeme Wall
Post by Marland
Post by Roland Perry
In
And they are still looking into whether they can run some sort of P&R
for visitors arriving not-by-public-transport, as there's understandably
no parking on-site (except disabled). Apparently it's a 15 minute walk
from Derby station, which isn't trivial
We really have become a nation of lazy buggers when a 15 minute walk is
regarded as not being trivial, no wonder there are so many obese people
about.
If that 15 minute walk was up-hill I would be hard pushed to make it.
So would a lot of people your age, because many have medical issues which I
mentioned as a reasonable get out, but would you have been unable to do so
10 or 15 years ago?
You are not the target of my criticism , its those that have got into the
state from their teenage years and never done anything then when their body
finally has deteriorated too far then expect the rest of us to help them.
So a person who has been an unfit lard arse since puberty* expects a
priority seat or disabled parking bay over someone who is just a bit “
tired” but otherwise okay who is a lot older.
But articular surfaces might suffer not only from
obesity or age but also from sports and accidents.
Ken
2025-02-03 10:35:02 UTC
Permalink
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc. So
there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
It could even be outsourced to Mortons. They are an event organiser
after all. But it's absolutely clear that traffic estimates, whether
provided by Alstom or estimated by Morton based on their experience,
or were woefully out. The fact that they could get a CloudFlare front
end in place quickly shows that somebody knows enough about technology
to do this. Perhaps Morton often use them for their events, but just
didn't anticipate the demand for this one?
Roland Perry
2025-02-03 10:52:21 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ken
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc. So
there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
It could even be outsourced to Mortons. They are an event organiser
after all. But it's absolutely clear that traffic estimates, whether
provided by Alstom or estimated by Morton based on their experience,
or were woefully out.
Even if they sold all 30k tickets in a day, that would only be about one
a second.
Post by Ken
The fact that they could get a CloudFlare front end in place quickly
Sorry, but you aren't following the timeline.

The original fault arose before the site was going to be selling tickets
(ie before 9am) and before they'd put this particular event in their
online calendar. The later Cloudflare error was reporting a bad
certificate, something which an hour earlier browsers had been
reporting. And before that it was "502 Bad Gateway".
Post by Ken
shows that somebody knows enough about technology to do this. Perhaps
Morton often use them for their events, but just didn't anticipate the
demand for this one?
Whatever was going on, the bookings for GG weren't loaded up and ready
to go at 9am, a deadline they must have had weeks notice of.
--
Roland Perry
Ken
2025-02-04 09:28:11 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc. So
there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
It could even be outsourced to Mortons. They are an event organiser
after all. But it's absolutely clear that traffic estimates, whether
provided by Alstom or estimated by Morton based on their experience,
or were woefully out.
Even if they sold all 30k tickets in a day, that would only be about one
a second.
Post by Ken
The fact that they could get a CloudFlare front end in place quickly
Sorry, but you aren't following the timeline.
The original fault arose before the site was going to be selling tickets
(ie before 9am) and before they'd put this particular event in their
online calendar. The later Cloudflare error was reporting a bad
certificate, something which an hour earlier browsers had been
reporting. And before that it was "502 Bad Gateway".
Post by Ken
shows that somebody knows enough about technology to do this. Perhaps
Morton often use them for their events, but just didn't anticipate the
demand for this one?
Whatever was going on, the bookings for GG weren't loaded up and ready
to go at 9am, a deadline they must have had weeks notice of.
You've referred to this several times. I first tried at 9.12 and it
appeared to be running then, just timing out when I tried to pay. But
I used Tweed's link to Alstom. Morton's site never had it listed, or
if they did I missed it. Probably because it isn't their event, it's
an outsourced Alstom event.

As to the CloudFlare thing, I'm pretty sure that the message on the
Alstom site yesterday actually said they'd put it in place during the
morning. It doesn't say that now, just that they're 'onboarding' a new
ticketing provider.
Tweed
2025-02-04 09:57:19 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ken
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc. So
there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
It could even be outsourced to Mortons. They are an event organiser
after all. But it's absolutely clear that traffic estimates, whether
provided by Alstom or estimated by Morton based on their experience,
or were woefully out.
Even if they sold all 30k tickets in a day, that would only be about one
a second.
Post by Ken
The fact that they could get a CloudFlare front end in place quickly
Sorry, but you aren't following the timeline.
The original fault arose before the site was going to be selling tickets
(ie before 9am) and before they'd put this particular event in their
online calendar. The later Cloudflare error was reporting a bad
certificate, something which an hour earlier browsers had been
reporting. And before that it was "502 Bad Gateway".
Post by Ken
shows that somebody knows enough about technology to do this. Perhaps
Morton often use them for their events, but just didn't anticipate the
demand for this one?
Whatever was going on, the bookings for GG weren't loaded up and ready
to go at 9am, a deadline they must have had weeks notice of.
You've referred to this several times. I first tried at 9.12 and it
appeared to be running then, just timing out when I tried to pay.
Exactly my experience. Nothing to do with certificates.
Ulf_Kutzner
2025-02-04 10:11:30 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Ken
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc. So
there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
It could even be outsourced to Mortons. They are an event organiser
after all. But it's absolutely clear that traffic estimates, whether
provided by Alstom or estimated by Morton based on their experience,
or were woefully out.
Even if they sold all 30k tickets in a day, that would only be about one
a second.
Post by Ken
The fact that they could get a CloudFlare front end in place quickly
Sorry, but you aren't following the timeline.
The original fault arose before the site was going to be selling tickets
(ie before 9am) and before they'd put this particular event in their
online calendar. The later Cloudflare error was reporting a bad
certificate, something which an hour earlier browsers had been
reporting. And before that it was "502 Bad Gateway".
Post by Ken
shows that somebody knows enough about technology to do this. Perhaps
Morton often use them for their events, but just didn't anticipate the
demand for this one?
Whatever was going on, the bookings for GG weren't loaded up and ready
to go at 9am, a deadline they must have had weeks notice of.
You've referred to this several times. I first tried at 9.12 and it
appeared to be running then, just timing out when I tried to pay.
Exactly my experience. Nothing to do with certificates.
But what nasty Roland Perrybot wrote about his
error reporting bad certificate experience might
well be true.
Roland Perry
2025-02-04 17:27:18 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tweed
Post by Ken
Post by Roland Perry
Whatever was going on, the bookings for GG weren't loaded up and ready
to go at 9am, a deadline they must have had weeks notice of.
You've referred to this several times. I first tried at 9.12 and it
appeared to be running then, just timing out when I tried to pay.
Exactly my experience. Nothing to do with certificates.
So explain why I was getting errors like "502 Bad Gateway" at 9:14, and
after that sundry bad certificate errors.
--
Roland Perry
Roland Perry
2025-02-04 17:24:42 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ken
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc. So
there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
It could even be outsourced to Mortons. They are an event organiser
after all. But it's absolutely clear that traffic estimates, whether
provided by Alstom or estimated by Morton based on their experience,
or were woefully out.
Even if they sold all 30k tickets in a day, that would only be about one
a second.
Post by Ken
The fact that they could get a CloudFlare front end in place quickly
Sorry, but you aren't following the timeline.
The original fault arose before the site was going to be selling tickets
(ie before 9am) and before they'd put this particular event in their
online calendar. The later Cloudflare error was reporting a bad
certificate, something which an hour earlier browsers had been
reporting. And before that it was "502 Bad Gateway".
Post by Ken
shows that somebody knows enough about technology to do this. Perhaps
Morton often use them for their events, but just didn't anticipate the
demand for this one?
Whatever was going on, the bookings for GG weren't loaded up and ready
to go at 9am, a deadline they must have had weeks notice of.
You've referred to this several times. I first tried at 9.12 and it
appeared to be running then, just timing out when I tried to pay. But
I used Tweed's link to Alstom. Morton's site never had it listed, or
if they did I missed it. Probably because it isn't their event, it's
an outsourced Alstom event.
I was following Alstom's instructions to buy from Morton's and they have
a calendar with all their events, which it appears to be necessary to
select the event you want. At a quarter past nine it wasn't listed, but
later in the morning (when the certificate errors had gone away) it was.
Post by Ken
As to the CloudFlare thing, I'm pretty sure that the message on the
Alstom site yesterday actually said they'd put it in place during the
morning.
The Cloudfare error message appeared about 10am (I don't have access to
my screenshot right now).
Post by Ken
It doesn't say that now, just that they're 'onboarding' a new
ticketing provider.
Who are "they"? Cloudfare isn't a ticketing provider.
--
Roland Perry
Ulf_Kutzner
2025-02-04 10:08:59 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Ken
Post by Recliner
It occurs to me that most of this operation is probably outsourced, as it’s
so far outside the factory’s normal work. There will need to be
coordination of the train delivery operators (ROG, RailAdventure, etc), the
owners of the various stock on display, security, catering, stewarding, the
NRM, insurers, the police, fire service, coal suppliers, NR, EMR, etc. So
there’s probably an overall event owner, which might be the NRM, a
subcontracted organiser, and a host of specialist contractors.
It could even be outsourced to Mortons. They are an event organiser
after all. But it's absolutely clear that traffic estimates, whether
provided by Alstom or estimated by Morton based on their experience,
or were woefully out.
Even if they sold all 30k tickets in a day, that would only be about one
a second.
With stable buyers' activity over the day?
JMB99
2025-02-10 10:26:11 UTC
Permalink
Every time I see this subject heading, I imagine a railway worker
drinking his mug of tea with 'pinky' up in the air.
Nick Finnigan
2025-02-01 15:07:26 UTC
Permalink
Post by Roland Perry
Post by Bevan Price
Post by Tweed
https://www.alstom.com/greatest-gathering
 Tickets available from 0900 today 31st Jan.
At £30 per ticket,
Plus the booking fee, which we still don't know.
Sometimes it read £30 including £1 booking fee ... but not today.
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