Train Departure Announcement Generator and Soundscape Software

[two tone green]

Very interested in this as well. Perhaps missed in all the posts the ability to add fictitious stations. 

[two tone green]

Just bought the license and having a play. 

[jamespetts]

A new video has just been uploaded to Youtube with some good records of announcements at Oxford station in 1991:

 

 

At the very beginning of the video, we get,

 

"The train just arrived at platform number 1 is the 10.25 Intercity service to Brighton, calling at Reading, Slough, Kensington Olympia, Clapham Junction, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport, Haywards Heath and Brighton. Change at Reading for Swindon, Bristol Parkway, Newport, Cardiff Central, Bridgend.... [inaudible]".

 

At 2:08, we get:

 

"The train just arrived at platform number 2 will be the 9.50 from London Paddington [inaudible] ...for Oxford only. All change please, all change, the service will be terminating here."

 

This is interesting, as it shows the variation from some of the earlier patterns of late 20th century announcements that I posted a few months ago. These announcements are more similar to the modern pattern of automated announcements in that they follow the destination > intermediate stations model (i.e., "...is for Brighton, calling at Reading, Slough...") rather than just listing all the stations "...is for Reading, Slough... and Brighton"). It also confirms the use of train times in announcements of this period (early 1990s), and the use of sector names "Intercity service to..." rather than "train for" as we we hear in announcements from just a year or two earlier.

 

It also confirms the use of the time hallowed phrase "all change" in announcements of terminating trains of the period.

[The Black Hat]

On 05/05/2021 at 15:40, two tone green said:

Very interested in this as well. Perhaps missed in all the posts the ability to add fictitious stations. 

I have got around that by moving a station with a name from one side of the country to the other (as stations can sometimes have locations attached - even if not listed on signage). 

[two tone green]

It was the audio file needed to add stations. 
 

It  seems from reading the web site additional stations can be added for a fee. 

[1867Adelphi]

Any update on this Hawksey?

[Peter Beckett]

Just bumping this as nothing heard for ages

[Garry D100]

On 19/08/2021 at 06:28, Peter Beckett said:

Just bumping this as nothing heard for ages

Hawksey hasnt been logged into rmweb since 22nd march according to his profile so maybe its on the shelf if he has other more important things to give his time to.

Edited August 22, 2021 by Garry D100

[Hawksey]

Hi all

Sorry for my absence over the last few months but a heavy workload, pandemic problems and other issues had delayed any progress on the BR version.

Good news is that I'm now actively beavering away on it and it will hopefully be ready for release within a month or so.

 

The 'contemporary' version, soon to be renamed something like 'Announcement Generator 2000+' is still available from the website and any licence code purchased for that

will also work with the upcoming 'Announcement Generator BR'

 

Phil - PipnBean.com

[Hawksey]

A few screenshots of the progress so far

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Hawksey

[1867Adelphi]

Really good to hear this is still going ahead.

Hawkesy, I want to purchase a license but ultimately, the pc I have the software on now is not the one that will be used in my shed layout as I plan to have an old laptop specifically left in there,
Will I be able to reinstall and use the license on the laptop that will be in the layout at a later date? Basically is it a multiuse (personal use obviously) or one time code?

 

Thanks for your help

Mike

[Hawksey]

Hi Mike

The license key is linked to a single pc but I'm happy to supply a free extra key for your laptop, just let me know when you're ready and the laptop System ID code as shown on program start-up or in the settings page. The keys will work with the current version and the forthcoming BR version.

The BR version is almost finished, just got the 9000 stations (should be every passenger station ever opened in Briton!) to check and process...probably 2 weeks to finish and test.

[Opelsi]

Thank you for the update.

I am so looking forward to this [the BR version].

Next step for me will be looking into speaker options and where to place them.

Got a couple of options in mind for hard wiring though may also consider wi-fi too.

I think that this will add a fantastic amount of interaction with almost limitless playability (real and fictional rail route announcements etc). and hopefully make the layout come to life with sound, certainly the station area.

Looks like there is a 'Save' function too from the icons displayed which I can see being useful for creating something of a playlist of regular trains.

I am sure someone clever could if not already an easy option, devise an entire working day timetable of announcements mimicking the 24-hour clock to be playable.

Wondering what project you might come up with next Hawksey?  Trying to think of other useful little sound projects for elsewhere on a layout and a system for making the right speakers play in the right places!

 

[Neal Ball]

On 29/09/2021 at 16:48, Hawksey said:

A few screenshots of the progress so far

 

 

 

 

 

 

This sounds very good and will add a further dimension to Henley on Thames….

 

Although I could really do with it being able to work on an iPad - I prefer to keep the laptop (Mac) out of the railway room.

 

How far away is a 1930’s version? 
 

Thanks, Neal.

[Neal Ball]

Has anyone downloaded and used the VM software "virtual box" on a mac in order to get the announcer to work>

 

I don't really understand what I should be doing... The instructions suggest I should download windows, but Ive got no idea how I would do that....

 

Maybe the announcer will not work, until such time as there is a mac version....

 

Any pointers would be appreciated.

 

 

Thanks, Neal.

[Ian J.]

Virtual Machine containers (such as VirtualBox) require an operating system to be installed on them so you will need the necessary source install files or disc, then once that's done you can start up the virtual machine and inside that install the programs you want. You will need to have a license for Windows if you want to use that as the 'guest' operating system, just as you would if it was installed directly on the machine.

 

Note that, to the best of my knowledge, currently Windows 11 doesn't play nice with VirtualBox due to issues with the CPU and TPM recognition, something that Oracle will hopefully fix.

[Neal Ball]

7 hours ago, Ian J. said:

Virtual Machine containers (such as VirtualBox) require an operating system to be installed on them so you will need the necessary source install files or disc, then once that's done you can start up the virtual machine and inside that install the programs you want. You will need to have a license for Windows if you want to use that as the 'guest' operating system, just as you would if it was installed directly on the machine.

 

Note that, to the best of my knowledge, currently Windows 11 doesn't play nice with VirtualBox due to issues with the CPU and TPM recognition, something that Oracle will hopefully fix.

Thanks for that… so in which case unless I buy windows I won’t be able to operate it. :-(

[Ian J.]

9 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Thanks for that… so in which case unless I buy windows I won’t be able to operate it. :-(

 

If it's Windows only software then that is true. I don't know if it would work under WINE* on Linux, or if it could be installed in a 'container' or 'docker'** of some kind.

 

* WINE is an approach for getting Windows programs to run on Linux, however some work has to be done to do so, and for smaller programs I think it's not considered worth the effort.

 

** 'Containers' or 'Dockers' are a kind of virtualisation, as they are a program that can wrap around other programs and allow them to run on different operatings systems as they have specific versions of the containers for each operating system, but the programs within remain the same regardless. Again, work is required to make them work, and I'm not sure if such an approach would be viable for a small scale program.

Edited October 22, 2021 by Ian J.

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, Ian J. said:

 

If it's Windows only software then that is true. I don't know if it would work under WINE* on Linux, or if it could be installed in a 'container' or 'docker'** of some kind.

 

* WINE is an approach for getting Windows programs to run on Linux, however some work has to be done to do so, and for smaller programs I think it's not considered worth the effort.

 

** 'Containers' or 'Dockers' are a kind of virtualisation, as they are a program that can wrap around other programs and allow them to run on different operatings systems as they have specific versions of the containers for each operating system, but the programs within remain the same regardless. Again, work is required to make them work, and I'm not sure if such an approach would be viable for a small scale program.

 

Thanks very much Ian.

 

Maybe an easier approach would be some generic announcements put onto a sound decoder, almost like the little Gaugemaster ones. I have the rural one operating under the railway and it is very effective.

 

I could maybe load sounds onto a zimo decoder and have announcements along the lines of "The next train from Platform 1 will call at xx" 

 

Thanks again.

[Hawksey]

You can download a Windows 7 dvd image file from here:

 

https://www.softlay.com/downloads/windows-7-ultimate

 

Select the 64bit version

You'll be able to try it out for 90 days before you need to register 

 

Install Windows 7 virtual machine in VirtualBox:

 

https://o7planning.org/11883/install-windows-7-virtual-machine-in-virtualbox

 

Once it's up and running install the Announcement Generator on the Windows 7 and all should work fine

 

Hope that helps

 

Phil

 

 

 

[Hawksey]

Here's a screenshot of it running within a virtual windows 7 machine on my MacPro

 

[JohnR]

Love this software, and cant wait for the 80's BR version to be available.

[curlypaws]

It runs perfectly under Parallels on the Mac. A little more expensive than VirtualBox, but works fine with Windows 11.

[Hawksey]

Just a quick update

 

The BR version is almost ready for release and all going well will be available by this coming weekend.

Contains every british passenger station ever opened...over 8900 of them!

Added the ability to directly record the announcements in mp3 or wav format for use in Railmaster, Train Sim, Mp3 players etc...

Audio is now split into stereo channels. Announcements and station sound effects will only come from the left speaker, all other effects (weather, birds, church bells, etc) will come from the right speaker. This allows you to place one speaker under the station and a 'atmospheric' speaker elsewhere (under the village/town?)

Choice of 3 types of BR chimes, 3 tone, 4 tone, Birmingham New Street tone, or none.

 

Phil

[InterCitySpud]

Is it true the female voice used almost incessantly today in every London mainline and tube station is called Sonia?

 

Get Sonia nerves.