User talk:Redrose64/suggestions

Railways

Hey. I saw the message you posted on Talk:Verney Junction railway station. You seem to be knowledgable on railways in that area and was wondering if you may be able to help in the writing of this article I've been working on, Railways in Buckinghamshire. I've done the history up to about 1906, but my knowledge of the post-grouping era is a little lacking, so any additions you could make would be well appreciated. If this doesn't interest you, don't worry. Thanks. Oliver Fury, Esq. message • contributions 20:32, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

You certainly have a huge number of railway related books, maps and publications! I only have 2...! Anyway thanks for your help. Feel free to add stuff to article itself!

I noticed you are living in Didcot. Have you ever thought of writing a 'Railways of Berkshire/Oxfordshire' article? Cheers. Oliver Fury, Esq. message • contributions 18:12, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Route box direction

From what I've been led to believe the direction should be up to London (i.e. north - south). I remember reading something to this effect many moons ago by User:AlisonW but can't for the life of me find it again. Lamberhurst (talk) 10:33, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

About the Oxfordshire disused stations template, I won't get around to this until I get my copy of Cobb's atlas back in mid-August, so if you want to make a start, feel free and I'll chip in later. I also see that you're in Didcot, I've been meaning to get the DN&SR article into shape at some point. Lamberhurst (talk) 11:38, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

County railway templates

Hi. I am compiling a list of all English {{Railway stations in county}} templates here, where I've just added Oxfordshire which you recently created. If you make any more, please add them alphabetically to that list! The same goes for any city station templates. Cheers. Oliver Fury, Esq. message • contributions 07:55, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Is there a similar list for closed stations templates? I did also create {{Closed stations Oxfordshire}}, but it's not complete; reasoning is given in its talk. I did also put some messages on User talk:Lamberhurst inviting comment about both, which I now see you've noticed. Unless I get complaints by the time I get back from the shops, I'll continue! --Redrose64 (talk) 09:14, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Cite formats

Two citation formats are available here User:Jeepday/Cite Jeepday (talk) 13:12, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

I am familiar with {{cite book}}, {{cite episode}}, {{cite journal}}, {{cite map}} and {{cite web}}, also with <ref></ref>, <references /> and {{reflist}} and have used all of these with varying degrees of success - what I'm lacking is an equivalent to {{cite book}} etc. which is suitable for referencing information pulled from a record sleeve or CD booklet. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:25, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

I am not aware of template for that. Per WP:PRIMARY primary sources are discouraged, though WP:SELFPUB does allow for some use (i.e. number of tracks, copyright, etc). When ever possible secondary sources like books, newspaper reviews, etc should be the primary foundation of the article. An article without these secondary sources is more likely to be deleted for failing Wikipedia:Notability. So that is why there is not a cite template for record sleeve or CD booklet. Does this address your question? Jeepday (talk) 13:35, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

If I have in front of me, a CD titled Live at Cropredy '08 by Fairport Convention, which is on the Matty Grooves Records label, I want to add it to both the latter articles. I also want to create the former article for the CD itself, and show the track list and personnel. But you're saying that I can't, because I don't have a book or magazine which reviews it? I have found that track listings are common in Wikipedia album articles (it's the tiny minority that don't have them), but that track listings are rarely given in books or magazines. Thus, are the majority of album articles candidates for deletion? --Redrose64 (talk) 13:57, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

The complexities if WP:N are constantly subject to debate, and I am not the "expert" on it. I am not saying you can't add the info, just saying the template does not exist and because of above there are some issues with existing policy. You might go to Wikipedia talk:Template messages/Sources of articles and look for or start a conversation about making the template you want. The guideline WP:NALBUMS speaks to which albums are more likely candidates for deletion. But basically if the Only published source is the album cover, it would be a strong candidate for deletion. Jeepday (talk) 21:56, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Chiltern Mainline stations

I've had a go at filling in two of the three missing Chiltern Main Line stations, Cropredy and Southam Road and Harbury. I was thinking that you could put all your good GWR knowledge to good use expanding them a bit, if you have the time. Rsloch (talk) 15:08, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

I've made minor changes to the Cropredy station article, more substantial changes to Southam Road & Harbury station article and created discussion pages for both. My references to the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway are from memory, so if you know that they are inaccurate please amend and cite accordingly.

Whilst in that geographical area I greatly expanded the article on Claydon, Oxfordshire, and discovered that village has a museum of steam stationary engines. The museum lacks its own website and I haven't found a link that includes current opening times, but I've included in the article as much about the museum as I could glean from other websites. Motacilla (talk) 00:27, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Photo size

Usually for photos a quick way to reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality very much is if you have Microsoft Publisher, import the photo from its file and then right click on the photo and save it again, preferrably under .jpg. I'm not sure for other systems. Simply south (talk) 13:06, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

I have MS Office "Home and Student 2007" edition, which doesn't have Publisher - only Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. And the interface for Word & Excel is simply shocking compared with previous versions. I would have to have gone for the "Small Business", "Professional" or "Ultimate" editions to get Publisher. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:13, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

I prefer the 2003 version. Never mind. PowerPoint 2007 should do the same job. Go to the insert tab, click on Picture, browse to where your photo is, double click (or press insert), then on the inserted image right click, Save as Picture then decide on either .jpg or .png for the file. Hope this helps. Simply south (talk) 13:27, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Found that I have MS Office Picture Manager 2007, bundled with the other stuff. It's not listed on the box. Select image, then Edit Pictures, then Resize. --Redrose64 (talk) 22:15, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

You might find that downloading Irfanview (it's free!) will be worthwhile. Mjroots (talk) 21:13, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Wotton Railway station

Thanks for noticing that. I forgot to include the "closed" bit in the previous edit to the infobox. I have reformatted it correctly now. --DavidCane (talk) 23:20, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

To attempt to answer your other question, as the station saw LT services that seems to qualify it for the London infobox, as per Waddesdon. However, if it was served by both LT and other "national rail" services then the UK infobox would apply, as per Verney Junction. One question for you - do you think there would be any merit in creating an article on the Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Railway? Lamberhurst (talk) 08:32, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Mmm, it seems that Template:Infobox Closed London station provides far fewer features than Template:Infobox London station. The logical thing would be to have substantially the same parameters, so that should a station close, or reopen, it would be a fairly simple matter to insert or delete the magic word "Closed". For the "to think about" list methinks. --Redrose64 (talk) 10:19, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Agreed and if you do work out how these templates operate, it would be useful to have usage data not only in the Template:Infobox Closed London station but also in the Template:Infobox UK disused station. Lamberhurst (talk) 11:38, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Met & GC Joint article, yes; we have one for the GW & GC Joint after all. Judging by Dow, vol. 3, pp.187-195, the Met & GC Jt Ctte was set up on 2 April 1906, and the lines covered would be:

• Harrow-on-the-Hill South Junction to Verney Junction;
• the Chesham branch;
• the Brill tramway.
• To these we would add Rickmansworth triangle and the Watford branch (opd. 1925).

The recently-opened Uxbridge line (July 1904) is specifically excluded. We would certainly also omit the Stanmore branch (opd. 1932).

As regards the section from Canfield Place to Harrow-on-the-Hill South Junction, this seems to have been built entirely by the Met, and the southernmost pair (of six tracks) were leased by the Met to the GC for 999 years from 1 March 1906, but does not appear to have been part of the Joint Committee.

Aylesbury station became doubly joint in 1907 (my Ian Allan pre-grouping atlas states "MET. & G.C. Jt. & G.W.& G.C. Jt. COMMS.", whilst this map uses a distinct colour (pale blue), denoted as "G.W.&G.C.J^nt AND MET.& G.C.JOINT"). --Redrose64 (talk) 11:57, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

The joint railway is alreday redlinked from Template:Wycombe Railway RDT as Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Committee. --Redrose64 (talk) 15:40, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

SECR PMV

I was wondering what you thought of my suggestion at WT:UKRAIL#Notability Q re working an article up in the article incubator. Alternately I could create a sub-page of my user page for this. Mjroots (talk) 09:47, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I saw your last comment there; but thought that it was directed at the general community. Anyway, not sure what an "article incubator" is, unless it be another term for sandbox. Further comments in this thread will shortly be posted back there. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:24, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Royal Oak tube station Assessment

Well done on an excellent use of references for Royal Oak tube station. I have assessed the article as B class. I made a few additional copy edits which you can see in the diffs:

• Generally, only 1 or 2 references are needed for non controversial facts.
• I reordered the sections so that notes, references and external links come last in the article.
• I added "|lk=on" into the first use of the {{convert}} template, so that a link to chain (length) is provided as this is now a fairly obscure unit of measurement.
• Generally, in the infobox, only the year is used rather than the full date
• I added one or two additional links to unusual terms such as dive under
• I removed the part of the caption in the second image of the gallery as the taxi service station is not mentioned in the article text

Are you planning on referencing other station articles in this way? — Preceding unsigned comment added by DavidCane (talk • contribs) 23:17, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Separately, can you provide a ref on where Royal Oak got its name? Simply south (talk) 23:17, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

No, not yet. Will keep looking. There are an awful lot of pubs in this country called "Royal Oak", so the present statement is plausible, albeit unrefd.

OK, in order.

• Better over-referenced than under-referenced, particularly when certain authors wrote the cited books. However, I have no objection to some of your removals in this instance: in deciding which to keep, you (and others) need to verify what I've added. MacDermot is not easy to find (I recently came across an original at GBP 50.00 for the set of 3 vols, and also Clinker & Nock's 1960s revision also for 50.00 the set). Peacock was a short print run, and is long out of print; Mitchell & Smith are not always WP:RELIABLE, but Croome is easily available and generally good - so I guess that's why you kept Croome and ditched the others. However, Croome doesn't mention the quadrupling, just the tunnel, so I think that MacDermot (the only one which does) should have been kept too.
• I didn't check the section order. I guess I should have done. My main concern was to rewrite the middle bit which I considered scanty and inaccurate.
• |lk=on, fine. I didn't know about that parameter.
• There are many railway station articles where a full date is given for |years1= etc. I've not done a quantitative check to assess relative popularity.
• Links, fine.
• None of the gallery was my work, and since I had no photos to contribute, I left it alone.

Referencing? Not sure what you mean by "in this way" - is it "too many refs that should be cut down", or "use of two-stage refs and the {{harvnb}} template". I shall assume the latter. It mainly depends upon what sort of referencing is already there.

If there are a lot (such as with London Paddington station) I'll follow precedent. But if there are few, and I intend to reference several different pages in the same book, I prefer to use a two-stage (short footnotes, longer book citations) method as per Royal Oak tube station, using <ref>{{harvnb}}</ref>, which might mean re-setting the existing refs to suit.

If there are none at all, I'm likely to use a slightly different two-stage method, which uses {{sfn}}, as I did at Reading Southern railway station and Hinksey Halt railway station. The advantage of that over <ref>{{harvnb}}</ref> shows when you reference the same page in two different places. Consider this:

Statement A.<ref name=Peacock67>{{harvnb|Peacock|1970|p=67}}</ref> Statement B.<ref name=Peacock67 />

which shows as:

Statement A. Statement B.

if you remove the first reference, it breaks the second. Now consider this:

Statement A.{{sfn|Peacock|1970|p=67}} Statement B.{{sfn|Peacock|1970|p=67}}

which also shows as:

Statement A. Statement B.

but here, you can remove either reference, and the other won't get broken in the process. --Redrose64 (talk) 23:37, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

By "in this way", I just meant are you going to reference other tube station articles, as there are so few which have proper referencing at the moment. The format of the referencing is not a problem at all. Personally, I format using the Harvard style as well.

Cyril Harris's What's in a name?, p. 60. (ISBN 1-85414-241-0). gives the source of the name as the "Royal Oak" pub, although he says it now called the "Railway Tap". Not sure if this has since been renamed "the Porchester" as the article states.--DavidCane (talk) 23:52, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

My original intention was to clean up the Oxfordshire station articles, then I broadened this to Ox/Berks/Bucks; then I decided to cover the GCR main line all the way from Woodford Halse or Rugby in to Marylebone, and the GWR lines in Middlesex. Having recently acquired Butt, I decided that the logical thing to do would be Paddington first, and work out from there on a clockwise basis. So, Padd, then Royal Oak, Westbourne Park and so on to Hammersmith; then Acton out to Slough and so on. I could throw in the earlier parts of the Met too. Then the later parts. Then the District. I think you'll need to wait and see; if I get a job I'll need to cut back again.

The most comprehensive source for Underground openings, renamings and closures is Rose (which I have only added to Westbourne Park).

I clean forgot Harris, I bought the 4th ed but it's not on my railway shelves - for some reason (its size perhaps?) it got mixed in with some paperback novels. Do you think that Terry Pratchett might cover the problems of excavating deep-level tube railways on a world which is not spherical? --Redrose64 (talk) 09:59, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

I've added |location=Harrow Weald to the {{cite book}} for Harris. Please could you also fill in the |edition=? Mine is 4th edition, but dated 2001: your 2006 edition might be either 5th or 6th ed. --Redrose64 (talk) 10:08, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

Mine is also the fourth edition, but the 2006 reprint, which is indicated as having "some updating". --DavidCane (talk) 15:21, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

Carmarthenshire categories

I've left you a note at User talk:Enaidmawr which you may find helpful. Skinsmoke (talk) 09:20, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, seen it: I have the "Add pages I edit to my watchlist" setting enabled. --Redrose64 (talk) 11:17, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Girl Illustrated

Glad to hear you found some reliable sources for this [1]. But you didn't add them to the article ... Kenilworth Terrace (talk) 21:00, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Yes I did... see here. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:03, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Ah yes, our edits overlapped. Unfortunately at least two of the sources are not reliable, and all three relate only to one particular person. To establish notability of the magazine, we need reliable sources that discuss the magazine itself, not just mentioning it in passing. Kenilworth Terrace (talk) 21:20, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

More searching... and it's nearly bedtime. I'd like to keep the page, it's notable to a Doctor Who fan, just count the number of DW forum/blog sites carrying questions of the general form "What was the magazine that Katy Manning posed nude for?". --Redrose64 (talk) 21:25, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

IRC invitation

Because I have noticed you commenting at the current RfC regarding Pending Changes, I wanted to invite you to the IRC channel for pending changes. If you are not customarily logged into the IRC, use this link. This under used resource can allow real time discussion at this particularly timely venture of the trial known as Pending Changes. Even if nothing can come from debating points there, at least this invitation is delivered with the best of intentions and good faith expectations. Kind regards. My76Strat 09:21, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Link to Project discussion

Hi Redrose64, I brought the issue or coordinates up in Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geographical coordinates#"Missing" coordinates for roads and railways? in case you wish to participate or simply keep track of. Cheers. Hoverfish Talk 20:23, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, watching it already - notice that I posted in the thread immediately above. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:25, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Reading Wikimeet 2

Hi, I create the page on Meta for 18 Nov (3rd mid Jan?). Could you add the geonotice at the appropriate time? Thanks. Philafrenzy (talk) 22:09, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

Sure. Besides yourself, Geni, Mattgirling, John of Reading, Dsergeant, Marek69 and myself, was anybody else there? I've a feeling that there were eight of us but don't recall all the names. --Redrose64 (talk) 22:13, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

I thought it was eight too but can only remember seven and no additional names. Philafrenzy (talk) 22:18, 23 September 2012 (UTC)