Tube Location Game Chromaroma out of Beta

I've blogged about Chromaroma while it was still in beta, but now everyone with an Oyster card (well anyone with a Pre Pay Oyster) can play. Basically, Chromaroma is a "type of location-based top-trumps. You collect places, identities, modes of transport and passengers as you travel around the city; discover and investigate mysteries attached to different locations and build alliances with fellow passengers that share your journeys."


BBC Click have made a short film with good explanation on the security issues involved. And whether we actually want an already crowded London Underground system more clogged up with people rushing around for a game on it.

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Location based Tube Game - Chromaroma

Royal Wedding Model Rail

As the Royal Wedding Oyster Cards go on sale today, I wondered if there was any other rail or transport related William & Kate memorabilia around. Thanks to Tim Hall aka Kalyr, I discovered there was. Hold onto your hats, it's the RW-2 Peco Royal Wedding Commemorative Coal Hopper Wagon.

A bargain at just £14.50, you can be the proud owner of this special model wagon. The limited edition N Gauge Coal hopper makes the perfect "unique addition to your collection". The "beautifully painted" gold and purple wagon is sure to delight model railway enthusiasts around the world.

Great find Tim. I'll send it along to Royal Wedding Tat who are making their own collection so we don't forget what's out there.

If you see any other transport related Royal Wedding items, please send them my way.

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How to Make String Tube Map

If you fancy doing something crafty over the coming break, you could try making a London Underground Map out of string. The effect is really lovely.


String map 2 by fsm vpggruIt's made even better when you see a beautifully shot time lapse video of how it was put together.

String map from fsm vpggru
There's more photos of the map on fsm vpggru's Flickr stream. Hat tip to Sizemore for letting me know.

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Any more thoughts on Private Rod?

Embankment London Underground station has a much photographed door, home to a mysterious "Private Rod"

Private Rod by maximolly.

The door even has its own Facebook page, with people wondering whether "Private Rod" reports to Captain Cabinets.

It appears that current London Underground staff don't know why the door's there either. Jon who works for TfL said "I’ve asked around a lot of the usual fountains of knowledge within LU and as yet have not found an answer.

I received two updates today:

1. The staff at Embankment Tube have no idea what the sign means, but did say that behind the door is nothing but a brick wall!

2. There is a similar door at Ealing Broadway, but again the staff there don't know what it is for."


Private Rod by wirehead2501

I had heard that it may stand for Rail Operating Department - but they clearly don't do much operating if there's only a brick wall behind the door. Why are there only two of them on the whole network? Unless you've seen them elsewhere!

Any more theories as to who or what Private Rod is?

Overtaken by a bus in the London Marathon

Yesterday's London Marathon was as usual full of loads of  runners in fancy dress, amongst them two guys running as a London bus.  I'd been waiting at my cheering point for so long, I half expected three to turn up at once, but it never happened.



Congratulations to everyone who took part - particularly those running for charity.  If you've got a few quid to spare why not sponsor The Guardian's London blogger Dave Hill who ran his first marathon yesterday.

Here's my  Flickr set of the many other London Marathon runners in fancy dress including one of the many Wills & Kates, Spidermen, Supermen and rhinos.

Wonder if next year people will dress up as a London Underground train?

Boris visits Tube work site

Boris visited the District Line between Bromley by Bow and Bow Road stations to see what happens when part of the line is closed. TfL have uploaded a video of his visit where he talks about the works and what they mean for the London Underground upgrade plan.



He finds out at first hand what Ballasted Track Renewal is.  According to Boris it's "absolutely crucial for the improvement of services on the District Line and all sub-service lines". The video is another example of TfL efforts of trying to show engineering work in action (Tube chief Peter Hendy stressed this was something he wanted to do when I met him with other London bloggers last year).

In the video Boris says of the track replacement: "Once it's done this track won't need renewing for another forty years". Not sure how much I'll be using the Tube when I'm a pensioner, but let's hope it's true and will save future commuters the frequent line weekend closures we've been facing.

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Defective Dot Matrix Displays on the Tube

Every so often the platform indicators & in carriage displays have a funny turn. Sometimes this results in the trains being bound for strange locations as Laura from @AboutLondon spotted yesterday.

Last week my London Underground train appeared to be pretty excited about the next stations it was travelling to. Some exclamation marks created a dramatic pause before announcing where we should change to get on the Northern Line:


It was also very pleased about pulling into Piccadilly Circus and South Kensington




If you spot any other borked displays on your journey let me know.

As yet I still don't think much can beat the Northern Line offering a God Service.


Higher power by Deepgreen2009