trackmap.net update: Sweden

I have updated the two track maps for the Malmö and Helsingborg areas in southern Sweden. These maps used to be based on sketches I did in 2000; now they are mostly brought up to last August. Some follow-up work on the Citytunneln connection was still going on at that time; I'm planning an excursion this summer to find out how it ended up.

Meanwhile, I have done a few additional updates on the Copenhagen map: The nortwestern end of the Helgoland depot was rebuilt some years ago; the map has now been changed to fit. And the line maintenance sidings between the S-train tracks north of Hellerup were probably never shown correctly – I've redrawn that part of the map from scratch.

dk.trackmap.net update

Skyscrapercity.com member Spikespiegel noticed that map A was missing a crossover between the main tracks in the south end of Holte. This error is now fixed.

Looking through my backups, it turns out that the map did actually show this crossover until April 2006, where I updated the map based on fresh observations. Apart from this there's no evidence that the crossover has ever not been there, so I think I simply lost it on the editing floor while removing a siding east of the northbound track which was removed in reality around then.

More track map changes

After the last post I continued tinkering with the maps for some days. This bout of activity petered out without any announcement being made, but in the interest of history, I should document more or less what happened:

• I managed to relayout map A such that it now has room (within my arbitrary limits for how large the image is allowed to be) for the long-distance tracks from Glostrup to Høje Tåstrup, which were previously on map C. Map A now includes all long-distance tracks that run beside the S-train network.
  
• As part of this, I redrew the tracks near the platforms at København H. The new drawing shows the same track topology but with less distortion of the real-world geometry. The only downside is that platform tracks 1–4 are now shown at an angle to 5–12 which they are not in reality. But overall I consider it an improvement.
  
• The new layout at map A also made room for most of the still surviving tracks at København G, excluding the locomotive depot and workshops (looking mostly like they did on the now-historic map F), and some tracks described in my sources only as "track group 200". The latter must be some of the freight tracks that remain west of the Dybbølsbro, but I'm not sure exactly which.
  
• A new crossover between the S-train tracks at Bavnehøj was installes in 2007, such that the station now has crossovers in both directions.
  
• The S-train formery known as Gammel Toftegård was renamed to Egedal on 2011-12-04. In what looks like a departure from usual practice, its abbreviation was changed too, from Gtg to Egd. When Godthåbsvej was renamed to Grøndal in 1996, it kept its abbreviation Ght.
  
• The liberated space on map C was put to use showing the western end of the coming high-speed line Copenhagen–Ringsted.
  
• Also on map C, I updated the map of Ringsted, based on Google Maps orthophotos. Normally I'm wary of using that as a source because it is unknown when the photos are from, but in this case the orthophotos showed switches in the new track 0 which I know from other sources were installed in the spring of 2010, so they are definitely newer than my latest personal observations.
  
• Glumsø station was rebuilt in October 2009 with side platforms instead of one side and one middle platform.
  
• Last, I finally took time to ride the Copenhagen metro (map M) with a sketchpad in hand, and noticed several inaccuracies in the previous maps which I'd based off early project blueprints originally supplied by the Metro company.
  

Updated: track map for Copenhagen

Look, an update at dk.trackmap.net! Yes, I am in fact still alive. Amazing, huh?

Specifically, I have updated map A with some news in central Copenhagen:

• The fourth platform track past Dybbølsbro opened last August. High time, one might say -- it has been more than ten years in the making!
  
• Two new tracks between København H and Ny Ellebjerg are nearing completion, on ground that was formerly occupied by the approach to the freight yard and large parts of the freight yard itself. Said freight yard is now a shadow of its former self, and currently handles no freight at all. It is still connected by a temporary track from the central stration (since locomotives must move to and from the locomotive depot at the freight yard), and when the new line opens the remnants of the freight yard will be connected to it.
  
• At the beginning the new line will just be used to increase capacity between København H and Hvidovre Fjern, where the platforms at Valby currently limit capacity when regional trains call there. Eventually, however, it will become the first part of a brand new high-speed line (such as it goes in Denmark, where 250 km/h is "high speed") to Ringsted. I've added an outline of that new line to the map, especially with some details about its intermediate station Køge Nord with a transfer possibility to the S-train lines.
  
• Some storage tracks for regional trains at Østerport added to the map. They've been there for years, but I haven't got around to mapping them until now.
  
• The S-train tracks at Ny Ellebjerg are not shown as being under construction. They opened in the winter of 2006-2007.
  

Other minor changes: The airport branch if the metro is not shown as under construction anymore; it opened in September 2007. The schematic on the map is still the one I got from the Metro company early in planning; I'll have to go out there and verify it sometime...

Also, the overview map has been updated to reflect the above changes.

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By the way, trackmap.net was inaccessible for a week and a half during April, because I'd forgotten to pay the domain name fees. The domain is now renewed, and the problem should not reoccur before 2014 ...

Where's the party?

Denmark got a new government yesterday.

Little more than two weeks after the general election, the leader of a center-left coalition went to the Queen and told that she had a government platform and a parliamentary majority behind it. She was duly appointed prime minister. Then handover ceremonies were held at the various government ministries. Outgoing ministers shook hand with their successors, gave good-natured farewell speeches, and then up and left.

The new government wows to dismantle many of the laws the old one passed. The election campaign has been moderately poisonous. These things are important; they affect the life and dreams of real live people all over the country. And yet, when the old leadership lost their majority, what they did was to smile sadly and step aside, hoping for better luck next time.

There had been no mass protests. No armored vehicles in the streets. No weapons fired or even readied. Power simply changed hands, just like that. Those formerly in power will, for the most part, stay in politics. They will do their best to undermine the new government's policies and popularity. They will not be harassed by the authorities for doing so.

That, my friends, is fucking remarkable. If it sounds banal, it is only because it has been the norm for about a half-dozen decades, in about a score countries mostly clustered in about half a hemisphere. Compared to most of history, or even to most of the world today, it is simply unbelievable.

We are, in general, unaware how lucky we are. We should be out in the streets, waving flags, whooping and cheering for being able to do this. We aren't, because it just feels normal. But that doesn't make it so.

For full disclosure, I'm a member of one of the parties in the new government, so it goes without saying that I'm happy to have it. But I'm even happier that sometimes we're not in power, because otherwise we wouldn't be able to do this. A peaceful, democratic change of government is one of the greatest things one can ever be part of -- and it makes me very proud to be Danish.

(If you're from another country that does this regularly, go ahead and be proud of that too. There's enough to go around.)

Memorable moments lost

I just noticed that the initial digits in some timestamps my code logs out looked familiar.

It turns out that for one glorious second about 38 hours ago, the Unix timestamp value (in decimal) equaled my personal identification number.

And I missed it. Drat.

Danish readers born on on September 13 should be prepared!

How to write product descriptions

I own a grand total of zero modular stage deck elements, which happens to be all I need, and even if I did need more, I would want to buy or rent them closer to home than California. This saddens me a bit because these guys' product descriptions are pure gold – they deserve my custom, but I have none to give them!

It seems they're using a website template that wants to have individual descriptions for each product, even if the product has very little individuality to it, leading to such gems as

4' x 3' stage decks are exactly the same size as a 3' x 4' stage deck.
It's amazing.

or (though excerpts cannot possibly capture the surreal beauty of the whole thing. It's like trying to photograph the horizon. Go read in it context, please!)

4' x 4' plexi stage decks are the not as heavy as the 4' x 8' plexi deck.

For some obscure reason, the quiet exasperation of these lines makes me absurdly happy. I can go to bed satisfied now. (Which, considering what seems to amuse me at this hour, must be high time).

Henning's 82nd maxim for Staying Sane on the Internet

Against random individual opponents I will defend the reasonableness of my opinions, but not my moral right to hold and express them. If the latter cannot be assumed granted, then why are we having a conversation in the first place?

(I will, however, occasionally defend the right of others to hold and express their opinions, when it needs doing and does not appear to be too pointless. That's different.)

Dear Abby

Normally I don't read this kind of thing. But the Evil HR Lady mentioned Dear Abby, with a link that I was feeling bored enough to click.

Today, on her front page Abby is relaying a plea from a group of people who use speech synthesizers. They write:

1. Please be patient. It takes us a little bit longer to get our messages out than it does you.
2. Feel free to ask questions. Don't pretend to understand us if you don't.
3. Do not think we are stupid. Have you ever tried to communicate using one of these things?
4. If it looks like we're having trouble, ask if we need help.
5. Treat us like adults – just as you would want to be treated.

and so forth. Abby's response?

I'm pleased to help spread the word. For people who are vocally challenged, you have written an eloquent letter. [...]

Since when is the bar for written eloquence supposed to be lower because the writer can't speak? Has Abby actually read point 3 in the letter she's reprinting? Mysteries abound.

Dear Abby: Well put. For a woman, you write pretty neat yourself.

The book of Job

I've neglected to write anything here recently. Perhaps I should save some of the more self-contained comments I write in other places, to give people a better chance to tell me how mistaken I am. Here's my reaction to a recent Slacktivist post:

I've tried several times to read the Book of Job, but always had to give up about a third way in. The prose set-up is readable enough, but then the speeches start, and they make my eyes glaze over. The only content I can get from them is "a really, really verbose shouting match". The speakers assert their position with great eloquence, repetition, and doubtless masterful poetry in the original language. But while there is much asserting going on, essentially no arguments are presented. And I've not found a line where anyone even pretends to address a point their opponent has made.

The friends repeatedly implore Job to step down and make peace with God again and then everything will be alright (despite, as told in the prologue, that everything went bad while Job was behaving examplary), mixed with alternately chiding Job for complaining and hinting that it must all, somehow, be his own fault. Job, in turn, does not attempt to clear up this misunderstanding but prefers to switch between heaping big flowery loquacious abuse on God and heaping big flowery loquacious abuse on his friends for their (admittedly inexpert) attempts to cheer him up.

This goes on at least until about chapter twenty-something, at which time I admit defeat and put down the bible in exasperation.

If it's a play one could at least try to defend it as a magnificently tongue-in-cheek satire on how different religious viewpoints simply cannot communicate in any meaningful way, because they fail to listen to each other. But that somehow sounds a bit too modern of a morale.

I think I even prefer Plato. Yes, everyone Socrates speaks to is a strawman, but at least they're strawmen who pretend to care what Socrates is saying, and vice versa.

[Original comment thread].