Wessex Electric Nutter's Site

Railworks Work
Other Sims Work
Work In Progress Blog
Copyright statement
LinkedIn profile logo

Category: Travelling

  • PPQG (for Trainz) – minor update

    PPQG (for Trainz) – minor update

    … Passenger Point Queue Generator, the program that took my site offline once.


    Its not often you hear a site taken offline for a program that well, does what its not supposed to. I spent quite a while developing PPQG (Passenger Point Queue Generator – for Trainz) and it’s suppose to help with randomising and creating queues for rolling stock for passenger trains. I might enhance this to include freight queues as well, as some of my projects also have freight queues (parcels) included. Not unusual for Railbuses.

    I wrote this about 8 years ago in Visual BASIC 6, yes, really, on the train to and from work and it took quite a while. Across several computers and never finished. The reason why I never considered it finished, is because I left a module unfinished and never went back to it. Yes, I use it a lot, I’ve offered it out with its source code on this site which was fine for a number of years, until suddenly, my site got shut down because of it – because it contained malware. Got it back online, hosted it on Google Drive and it looks like its been deleted again. I have scanned it and some sites saying its clean, some are saying it has malware.

    It looks like this, doesn’t actually do any file handling and its only 40KB long. I hope it’s bugless but it can probably be buggy accidently. (If you do find some, let me know please).



    So used VirusTotal and it says 3 out of 71 providers consider it to have a virus which isn’t bad news, it just means that there is a way and style of my code writing matches a pattern in a Trojan or Virus. After all, all virus scanners look for is patterns in the code, if it matches that pattern, its a false positive. This could also be related to the VB6 libraries and embedded code to identify it as a VB6 programs but without asking a question to why, I will probably never find an answer. Nor would they tell me how their virus scanners work, because of intellectual property and secrecies that could be used to beat the virus scanner. So with that in mind, I started thinking about completely re-writing from scratch, this time, I used Visual Studio Community edition and the skills I already learnt.

    The thing I find is that to understand the language as VB.net is vastly different than VB6 (the language structure is different and its more Object Orientated and its compiled rather than interpreted. I could develop it in C++ which isn’t beyond my capabilities, or C# or Java, just all 3 take a lot longer for me as I rarely program in those languages. When I go over to Linux, I might look at that, but then I may end up using GAMBAS anyway.

    ARRGHH - PPQG virus results.



    So, I started off like this on an old laptop that I was going to get rid of and ended up in use on my desk. (Dell Latitude E6430 ATG).

    PPQG in Visual Studio Community Edition

    To get the randomisation to work took…. ages! But I worked it out with little help from the internet, which shows that I understand the basic language structure. When I started programming, I had high expectations of myself, thinking an experience programmer would understand off by heart all the required libraries. C++ is a strictly typed language and my god, it can be hell to work with. (Actually, in the office, that is a point, I wonder if the other 2 capable programmers understand C++?) until one of my tutors at the time pointed out that there is 25,000 libraries from memory, approximately! Yeah, I can’t memorise 25,000 libraries and what they do, that would be nearly impossible. Its bad enough understanding union rules for train crew or understanding the limits what you can do on the infrastructure. I know the other 2 understand VB, but Visual BASIC for Applications (which I avoid due to its flexibility). One has a basic understanding of VBA and had to explain to them how the VBA IDE (integrated Development Environment) window, like debugging features – inserting break points and the intermediate window, which is VERY powerful and you can understand how the program is working. But the code? That’s something else. The other understands VBA to a deeper level than me. (Oh one understands I believe Python that I find it difficult to get on with and understands Blender, whereas I tried Blender and struggled.) I like structured rather than spaghetti code, so all my loops and decisions are always indented to which one I am applying my code to (good programming practise) and I was always taught “Do not use GOTO statements”, its not quite true, but yeah, avoid them. Your code is messy! I always use modules; they allow reuse and small code. Goto statements? Don’t. How to get into a mess quickly and have zero usability of code.

    On Err GoTo Hell.

    You may not understand that! Anyway, I think I topped out for PPQG VB6 at less than 500 lines of code. I’m waiting to find out how this one is doing, but you will need Windows 10/11 at least as I’m building it for .Net Version 8. I prefer 3.5 as it doesn’t need 8.0 or even 10. No doubt I’ll talk about more of its development over time.

    Russ the Roofer - does it leak? No it doesn't!
    Russ the roofer – does it leak? No it doesn’t!

    In other news

    You may of noticed I’ve done some changes to the site too, small ones on some pages. I finally found the problem with my templates, so I’ve locked the sidebar, footer and header which resolved most issues on most templates and there is a search bar now. I’ve also put some files up, I had a separate page that just directly linked to a Google Drive as I wanted a publicly accessible drive for all the stuff that I’ve not put onto a page, but that didn’t, so I went the manual way. I’ve got some sources to put up and yes, you can download them and do what you like with them. There will be more in the future. That came from my WIP server and if you are after something that isn’t on my site, just drop me an email, the contact me page should work now and I’ll send it over. I also plan to add some sort of feedback to the side bar, so I’ll see how that goes – more importantly, time. Considering I’m feeling like “Bob the builder” at the moment. “Can I fix it? No I f***ing can’t!”
    As well as – going around the country on the coldest week on record!


    Class 150 at Wigan Wallgate.
    Class 805 at Carlisle

    Ticketless scroat

    Lets just say a Northern guard had a bit of a shock when I hid under a hood and a scarf covering my face, then presented them with my Southern ITSO card, my Staff ITSO card, my PRIV card and my PRIV rate ticket. – it was blowing a gale at -2°C. I had a good laugh, just the Class 150 I was on, (between Ribblehead and Salford Cresent) went from nice and toasty, to the time we got to Blackburn – (or was it Bolton?), it was bloody freezing.


    Yes, that is an Class 805 Evero, yes, that is Ribblehead, Yorkshrie. Unfortunately, I’m not friends with Class 800s now, one took me and a lot of passengers prisoner at Carlisle by refusing to release the doors on 5 out of 10 coaches, with loads of alarms going off in the cab as the train refuses to co-operate with the door release buttons. Considering I was a full fare paying passenger in that I actually brought an advance single on a Disabled Railcard.





    EDIT much later (next day in fact!):

    A partially wasted Sunday with little to do, I was able to get it working. Well, I say wasted, I did manage to rearrange my desk so it was more usable for my height. But, after a lot of head scratching and finding out why variables weren’t parsing, I managed to fix it:


    Only 4 or 5 hours to get back into it and produced something useful. VB6 skills are still relevant. (And I didn’t resort of Xojo – another BASIC IDE!) – hopefully, it’s easy to read. I can add a crap ton of comments if you REALLY want.

    (And yes, I’m that “old school” that I try to follow the Visual BASIC coding standards)

  • Travelling again

    Travelling again

    I finally went further south, its been quiet for me on here (even though in the background, I’ve been busy) as I have been doing a lot of computer stuff, mainly because I am a councillor, so I’ve been trying to sort out a machine. I also ended up travelling quite a bit, here is a selection of photos from a weekend away, I went as far south as I have been for years, in fact, 49 degrees north. a country not in the EU or the UK but a British Crown dependency. That being the island of Jersey.


    For a railway free holiday, oh wait! “Railway free?” Ermm, it has one, 400 metres of it which I didn’t use, but out came my camera(s) and out came the snapping, enjoy. I’ll put one in my end of year review (which I started already).




    What did I think of Jersey? Well, a rich (rude word) paradise. It also has quite a bit more crime than when I visited the Isle of Man, the stench of cannabis was all so present on the island but I didn’t feel unsafe. Everything seems to centre around St. Helier and the island is too overpopulated, so it just didn’t feel as wild as it could of been. But when you try to cram 100k residents in an island about 46sq miles, it will feel overpopulated. I compare it to the Isle of Man and the Isle of Man does have a lot more going for it for me anyway. The weird bit is that I found it easier to socialise on the Isle of Man than Jersey. I know the Isle of Man feels stuck in the past, but if I am honest, that isn’t a bad thing.

    (Final note, I do often say that when a friend and myself go away, something goes wrong – an airline went bust the night we went over – BlueIslands! It did affect us in a good way, we got back to Gatwick Airport early.)

  • “Trust your instincts” I was taught.

    How many times do you hear “if you see something not quite right, contact the BTP on the text number, see it, say it, sorted”.

    I travel on the railways a lot and I have an eye for detail which does have some advantages, because you get to know what’s right and what is wrong. Plus I interact with the rail staff and occasionally, passengers. When you travel on the same line, day in, day out, thousands of times, you get a feel for things that don’t look right.

    Today, I came across that problem. I’m writing this, because I would like to see more diligent passengers and just speak out. I’ve generalised everything, so it doesn’t come across as specific to a situation, its very relevant.

    While on my usual train, I came across someone who smelt highly of a foul odour, nothing unusual, leaving London anyway, there is a lot of trouble further down the line, so usually, they get off at an intermediate stop, such a larger town. However, the smell and the dress code draws suspicions. I then watch them go to another coach on the train, to the quieter coaches which I ignore but the guard on the train, I make them aware of the individual so they don’t have any issues with them.

    I think nothing more, until later on, when they are still on the train, miles away from London, something not quite right, especially given the apparent age, smell and dress code, hanging around by a doorway in the coach you are in. They look at you with suspicion, but don’t say anything.

    Its not until I get off the train, after finishing talking to the guard, I then witness the same person again at the station I’ve got off, observe what they are doing and notice that they push their way through some barriers and walk out, despite being challenged by staff. So say nothing, look and walk away, out of the station.


    Now this would have one suggestion to me and it shows, a little observation can get you thinking of something possibly more sinister that needs to be looked into. In this case, the length of journey got me suspicious, along with the age and there has been a lot to do with “county lines”. I can’t prove it, but I suspect it.

    So what did I do? Report it as soon as I got home, via email. I would of reported it them at the time, but sometimes, discussing something with someone near to you which is what I did might encourage you to report something that would otherwise go amiss. If it doesn’t turn out to be true, its fine. But think of it this way, if you don’t say anything and your allegations are true, what could happen next?

  • This joined me on the train.

    I do like taking photos of interesting “things”, so this was one of them. Saw this lovely insect flying around the carriage and I had to take a photo of it then stick it on Instagram. With a load of staff (I just happened to be with) and passengers going “What the hell are you taking a photo of?”, even the guard who I was talking to as they nearly get attacked by it, was questioning it, until I took it and turned the phone around.

    This was South Western Railway’s service 07:20 Portsmouth to London Waterloo service (Headcode 1P51) this morning from the post date.

    Butterflies and me seem to be attracted to each other as it’s not the first one I’ve seen, I used to get harassed by one at Guildford – in the middle of November, it didn’t mind me at all, never moved when I put the camera on it either. I wonder if it was the same one? It boarded at Godalming and didn’t see it after Guildford.

    Wildlife on the railway isn’t rare, I came across a lot as a train cleaner, but it does provide an interesting photo. Now I wonder if this fly had a ticket?

  • Railway Byelaws (and one you may not be aware of)

    The interesting thing about the UK rail system is that there are many byelaws. I visited Ireland recently and one byelaw that you should know that can’t be enforced and as you may of read, I’m on the Autistic Spectrum Disorder which I believe I am rather sensitive to:

    • Noise
    • Sight
    • Smell

    In fact, hyper sensitive at times. This is where the byelaws on National Rail are a godsend, because Railway Byelaw 7 in particular which states, coming from the National Rail website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/railway-byelaws/railway-byelaws#conduct-and-behaviour-1 (Retrieved 18/06/2025)

    “7. Music, sound, advertising and carrying on a trade.

    1. Except with written permission from an operator, no person on the railway, shall to the annoyance of another persons:

    a.  Sing, or

      B. Use any instrument, article or equipment for the production or reproduction of sound”

    So when travelling around the UK*, I do ask a lot to turn down their music, sound or whatever that is bothering me, often with a hostile response and just make them aware of the state of play. I often have my staff ID around my neck and an ASD lanyard to denote my disability and for those not in the position, I just recommend asking them to turn down the volume. However, if you don’t feel comfortable, a chat with the guard/OBS doesn’t go amiss.

    For me, sound is rather irritating and it’s something I have been unable to fix – background noise. So if someone is talking to me up close, sometimes, I will home in what’s going on in the background and unable to focus on the foreground, hence why I sometimes inadvertently ignore someone. Sometimes, it’s just motor sounds such as a moving train that is frustrating as it drowns out the person close to me. Sometimes, some sounds at certain frequencies are ear piercing and just generally irritating, yes, I have my headphones to block out the noise but more and more devices are being built without headphones sockets. There’s 2 options, adapters or Bluetooth. Sounds like a simple solution right?

    Ok, in ear earphones are annoying as crap, I can’t listen to them for more than 10 minutes without me wanting to rip them out of my lugs and at worse case, my skin takes offence and guess what happens? A spot in my ear.

    Ok, let’s try over the ear headphones, some are nice and comfy, some are bad. I can wear them much longer but guess what? My skin takes offence and sometimes, I have to take them off for a breather – well longer periods, because my skin builds up oil around the cups and it irritates my skin which guess what? Causes a spot.

    Then there is Bluetooth. Oh yeah, I got told off as well for creating too much noise recently, while using my computer at home as my server and my device as a thin client (See this post to why.).  It didn’t work by wired, so I tried Bluetooth. Fine paired, worked, all for about a minute and disconnected, blasting the carriage out with V2 radio music. Great.

    Then there is foreign railways and the worst bit is, I don’t know the rules or even how they enforce them. Northern Ireland Railway has a different set of rules to the UK. Interestingly, Northern Ireland Railways is in the UK, but for devolution purposes, is considered an Overseas’s operator. So you need the FIP Card if you are staff. They are also NOT a member of the Rail Delivery Group which I think would bring many benefits. Unified byelaws under the Railways Act 2003 (I think it is), access to discounts, access to funding, common ticketing to the rest of the UK with the Rail Settlement Plan. Better through ticketing with Ferries, there is a lot to gain. But what do I know? I’m just someone in the UK with a small suggestion.

    Anyway, Northern Ireland Railways and Iranrod Eireann have different rules, I looked and I couldn’t see any mention of Northern Ireland Railways conditions of carriage about noise, meaning it’s unenforceable and “Translink” or “NIR” does not appear in any entity in the Railway Byelaws, despite being administered by the ORR (Office for Rail and Road) – in London.

    Iranrod Eireann on the other hand, isn’t subjected to UK laws or byelaws for obvious reasons. I could not find anything specific, but this news article indicates “No person at any time, shall while on the railway or in any vehicle Willfully interfere with the comfort and connivence of other passenger or person while on the railway or in any vehicle” (From: https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/seven-things-you-might-not-17465087  retrieved: 19/06/2025 at 10:51)

    Interesting. But still doesn’t answer the issue of excessive noise. However, what is also interesting is a lot of papers in the UK are now also starting war on excessive noise and even giving it a name of “Bare beating”. Now if only there was a byelaw for that – look above.

    (For the record, I don’t mind people talking, in fact, I’m on a train as I wrote this, in Northern Ireland, heading to Derry~Londonderry, on a table with 3 guys chatting to each other and they aren’t obnoxious in any way. It’s a reasonable conversation about cars).

    (* except Northern Ireland Railways as the rules are different)

  • Trains again (and women).

    So now for another blog about women – on trains, but this time, I don’t think I’ll see them again.

    I’m over in Northern Ireland as I write this, staying around the Bangor area and a friend and myself decided to get a train from Carnalea to Belfast Grand Central. Bangor has some great views on the line, had a nice CAF Class 4000 unit which the first coach at least, suddenly wanted to divorce its gearbox.

    Carnelea has some nice views and some interesting plants, it’s next to t a golf course too. Only downside is that my friend sat in the first carriage and I did too, I asked to join a lovely lady on a table, the offer wasn’t refused as I use my tablet and battled with the VPN and the tablet, while my home PC sticks the fingers up.

    While taking in the sites that the Bangor line has. Truly amazing. However, confidence is an all time low. So, I get the glance, I look at her occasionally and admire the beauty of the lady and too scared to say anything. If you read previously or if I have mentioned, my rejection rate is very high and I turned into this “I don’t want to take the risk anymore” sort of thing, so talking and taking details is a no no for me now, unless they start talking to me, but then I’m careful. The thing that scared me? The phone and the camera pointed at my direction, that makes me nervous! And it happened a few times during the journey. I should have taken a photo of her, but laws are against me and it’s even more wrong to put a photo on this site. Especially with GDPR.

    Then near to the end of the journey, she started tapping the table after I did, still saying nothing and ignoring the cues, then getting off the train, she was right behind me, the whole way until I stopped and waited for my friend in an open area. She leaves and comes back to use Starbucks and takes a very long time. Then disappeared on another train.

    Why write about it? Well, to give an insight. Too scared to get myself into trouble and a more recent point I’ve put across is that being on the ASD means you misinterpret a lot, I don’t like taking risks, I don’t like getting into trouble, I don’t like making people feel uncomfortable and even if nothing happened. (Can’t anyway for other reasons – I’ll talk about it in due course). I would love to get to know more women, its just my past, my confidence has been shattered and even my colleagues, who are women, its taken me a long time to even talk to them.

    What I find weird is many women get uncomfortable by me, but at the same time, do they realise that some actions make me feel uncomfortable too? It’s like being baited, Being neutral to me is best, or just ask a question like “hows your day?”. I’ll start a conversation that way. If you are wondering, yes, I did go to Belfast, yes, I did have a good day out and ended up taking too many photos of trains again.

  • Note to self: Dealing with passengers.

    I get into a little bit of trouble but I got to be careful what I say… (more…)

  • Interesting thought (When I go abroad)

    Yet, I’m on the avoid list in my own country with women at least…

    What triggered this off is I was talking to a friend I know of, a lady I know from college and is currently elsewhere and spoke about my experiences. I mentioned that I find it difficult to get a date – well attention as well, but I didn’t mention that, unless you are J and sit opposite me saying nothing and her friends know my name.

    (more…)

Accessibility Toolbar