Welcome to the #LongestTrainEU #CrossBorderRail record breaking thread!
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@jon Here is an elk sign for comparison. They should be taken seriously, elk accidents are no fun.
Reindeer, on the other hand, are pretty harmless and max a nuisance: https://youtube.com/watch?v=sRsIZiA8AZA
@sebwilken That looks like an elk. But the reindeer one looks like a stag.
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Hmmm 🤨
The live tracking thinks I have barely left Rovaniemi
But I most definitely have, and am two thirds of the way to Kemi
I simply cannot get any decent GPS signal here, even between carriages
@jon Some trains (for me, often TGVs) just block GPS - the signal just doesn't make it through whatever coating there is on their windows
There's being so far north that the number of satellites above the horizon is low, which means fewer with strong signals, which means train infrastructure may leave too few for your phone to do the 3D geometric calculations properly
And then there's WiFi assisted GPS, which sees your train WiFi and goes "Oh, that network ID? Forget satellites, Stockholm!"
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Welcome to the #LongestTrainEU #CrossBorderRail record breaking thread!
This train journey starts in Kemijärvi
and ends in Lagos 
18 trains, 100 hours 9 minutes, 4008km as the crow flies, 6281 route-km
The background to this project is here:
https://longestjourney.crossborderrail.eu/And the live tracking throughout is here:
https://longestjourneylive.crossborderrail.eu/@jon Can we republish pictures from your trip on https://www.bonjourtchoutchou.fr/ and @BonjourTchoutchou ? (with attribution / license)
It's a hobby website made by train nerds for train nerds.
In any case, have a nice trip!
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@jon Some trains (for me, often TGVs) just block GPS - the signal just doesn't make it through whatever coating there is on their windows
There's being so far north that the number of satellites above the horizon is low, which means fewer with strong signals, which means train infrastructure may leave too few for your phone to do the 3D geometric calculations properly
And then there's WiFi assisted GPS, which sees your train WiFi and goes "Oh, that network ID? Forget satellites, Stockholm!"
@bellinghman Yes, but I even went between the carriages where normally you overcome that window problem and even that didn't work
Anyway it is back working now. Let's see how it goes tomorrow!
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@jon Can we republish pictures from your trip on https://www.bonjourtchoutchou.fr/ and @BonjourTchoutchou ? (with attribution / license)
It's a hobby website made by train nerds for train nerds.
In any case, have a nice trip!
@zorun @BonjourTchoutchou Absolutely! And any pics I have on Flickr too.
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Can some Finn please explain this road sign seen in Kemijärvi earlier?
Is it "you will only hit elk on the roads in half of Finland"? Is there some elk wall across the middle of the country?
EDIT: OK, it's a reindeer herding area
But I have questions!
The antlers on that sign are wrong.
And given I was a LONG way into the area, why do I need the map?
So that was Day 1 #LongestTrainEU #CrossBorderRail
Here's today's summary video from Kemi
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So that was Day 1 #LongestTrainEU #CrossBorderRail
Here's today's summary video from Kemi
And finally a few photos from the day
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And finally a few photos from the day
@jon oh god, AI is coming for the trains!
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@jon oh god, AI is coming for the trains!
No, that's vr technology from a long ago
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@jon oh god, AI is coming for the trains!
@petes_bread_eqn_xls @jon
That was my first thought, too! Was this thing designed by AI?
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No, that's vr technology from a long ago
@matt_jarvin @petes_bread_eqn_xls I agree it is not AI as it's old, but what's the story behind it?
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So that was Day 1 #LongestTrainEU #CrossBorderRail
Here's today's summary video from Kemi
@jon A Czech transportation web bulletin the Zdopravy.cz noticed your #LongestTrainEU : https://zdopravy.cz/6282-km-ze-severu-finska-na-jih-portugalska-zeleznicni-influencer-se-vydal-nejdelsi-moznou-trasu-v-eu-298396/
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@matt_jarvin @petes_bread_eqn_xls I agree it is not AI as it's old, but what's the story behind it?
@jon @matt_jarvin @petes_bread_eqn_xls It’s just a joke by the designer Arto Kukkasniemi.
YLE article in Finnish (from 2006)
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@bellinghman Yes, but I even went between the carriages where normally you overcome that window problem and even that didn't work
Anyway it is back working now. Let's see how it goes tomorrow!
@jon Let's hope so
I've been on ships where the phone GPS thought I was in Sweden when actually off the north coast of Norway, because of that assisted GPS thing believing Google Street View regarding network locations
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@jon A Czech transportation web bulletin the Zdopravy.cz noticed your #LongestTrainEU : https://zdopravy.cz/6282-km-ze-severu-finska-na-jih-portugalska-zeleznicni-influencer-se-vydal-nejdelsi-moznou-trasu-v-eu-298396/
@Nheg Yes, this popped up in my RSS feeds
I didn't even talk to them - they just took the press release! -
@jon Let's hope so
I've been on ships where the phone GPS thought I was in Sweden when actually off the north coast of Norway, because of that assisted GPS thing believing Google Street View regarding network locations
@jon FWIW I have an Android app on my phone named GPS Status (ad supported) that displays what satellites are in view. Right now right here, 71 satellites with 45 fixes. Up in Alaska last year, getting far fewer
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And finally a few photos from the day
And why there is a 6 finger hand on the train door, thanks to @saruwine - 2006 article https://yle.fi/aihe/a/20-24799
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@jon FWIW I have an Android app on my phone named GPS Status (ad supported) that displays what satellites are in view. Right now right here, 71 satellites with 45 fixes. Up in Alaska last year, getting far fewer
@bellinghman Ah that's a handy idea. Will explore tomorrow! Thank you!
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And why there is a 6 finger hand on the train door, thanks to @saruwine - 2006 article https://yle.fi/aihe/a/20-24799
This is the data discrepancy between the screen at Kemi (no train to Haparanda shown tomorrow) and Finntraffic's website where a train is shown (and it is on VR's site too)
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This is the data discrepancy between the screen at Kemi (no train to Haparanda shown tomorrow) and Finntraffic's website where a train is shown (and it is on VR's site too)
@jon I like how you haven’t even crossed the first border and it’s already apparent why my proposal for the tracking was stupid
