Great Western Coffee Shop

Here's an interesting one ... the spacing of the columns to hold the overhead electrification wires causing a strobe lighting on the HSTs on the GWR main line is reported as causing migraines to a passenger.  According to the partner of the person involved, "it removes the pleasure of watching out of the window when travelling by train".  I am asked:

* Is anyone else effected by this / is this a known and studied issue?

* Will the new trains have window blinds so that the person involved can shut out the effect?

If they do have blinds I hope they are not the type seen on the Voyagers, where you have to reach an agreement with the person sat behind you (and possibly the one in front) as to the position of it.  I actually feel slightly sick if I cannot see out.

A sleep eye mask would probably solve the problem - you see people using them on planes quite a lot.

I have a collection of various red and purple Virgin Atlantic ones!

Changing the angle of view out of the window will change the viewed speed that these masts pass....so rather than looking out at say 90 degrees, look obliquely, probably forwards. Or sit looking backwards, that would change the view too

.....this time next year you'll be a millionaire!  ;D

After nearly 50 years of travelling intermittently 'under the wires' I never noticed this before but travelling up to London last week I happened to notice the electrification masts more than usual.  Is this because they are bigger and spaced closer together than before? ???

Never noticed this when travelling the ECML (obviously the design is different), but the blue handrails that have appeared in certain places made me feel sick (they are usually at trackside level). Fortunately you can ignore them by looking up slightly.

The handrails (there may be a proper technical term) alternate in height, so there is a similar effect. Quite disturbing!

Whilst I am not affected by strobe lighting I can 100% agree with ""it removes the pleasure of watching out of the window when travelling by train""

There's much to be disturbed by, if you let it, outside a train window: that is if you are lucky enough to be able to see out and not blocked by a pillar or high-backed seat. Many scenic lines on mainland Europe are electrified and frustrate photography, as do noise barriers, base tunnels that have replaced summit routeing, and the rubbish to be seen around inner-city lines. As has been recorded on this forum previously, some of us become nauseous travelling backwards at speed and often a forward facing seat cannot be booked (because the train reverses - especially in Germany and on XC in the UK).

If I were to dwell on these negatives, I could easily persuade myself the train travel is pretty awful and frustrating.  That's when I need to remember my last car journey along the M4 or M6 or trying to drive into Bristol.  When driving I see mainly the road ahead, little scenery and am constantly checking that the other idiots on the road (yes, I'm one as well sometimes) are not going to kill me, which can give me a headache.

And so we could progress through a critique of all forms of transport in the same way.  I agree that train travel isn't what it was...but I don't really want to stick with diesel engine noise and fumes (or soot if you want to go back further). In the end I still go with rail as first option until the accumulated negatives outweigh the other options.

All this nostalgia is going to give you a migraine (and remember that "nostalgia", by its Greek origins, refers to a type of pain).

The "strobe" effect is not a sequence of bright flashes, but of slight dimmings in the lighting. I think it's only really noticeable when the sun lights the window itself, or (more effective) the dirt on it. But as I recall the olden days, train windows were generally a lot filthier than today. That's due to smuts from steam engines and the lack of washing machines you could put all your trains through every night.

And of course, while we didn't have OHLE, every line had its row of telegraph poles. Not usually as big as the biggest OHLE post, though double poles were quite common. So I suspect the issue is not at all a new one, so much as the tendency to complain and for the press to pick up on it.

It's not a problem I've noticed but I can believe a few people are sensitive to it. It'll depend on the brightness of the sun, the spacing of the poles, the speed of the train and as Chris B says the angle of view. I'm not bothered by the 50Hz flicker of mains LEDs either, but I know a couple of people who can genuinely distinguish that flicker even up to 2kHz, and at least one of them – due to a pre-existing condition of the eye muscles (can't track or saccade) – is quite seriously affected by it. But I would imagine the frequency of passing electrification columns or even telegraph poles is much lower.

The trains speed will of course also affect the speed of 'flicker'.

...while the direction (angle) you look in won't. What that will do, I think, is to change how much of your field of view is affected by the change in the light level.