SnRailUK

Siena Rail UK v 1.0 Copyright (c) 1998 Adrian Wymann October 1998 Overview: 1. General Info 2. Installation procedure 3. Installing the application 4. Running the application 5. Disk Space and System Memory 6. Additional remarks 7. Disclaimer 8. History 1. General Info Siena Rail UK is a reference-type application featuring selected technical information on most of the major motive power on British rails. Locomotives, both diesel and electric, are the main feature, but multiple units, again both diesel and electric, have not been forgotten. In addition to the technical data, every individual type of motive power covered is accompanied by a PIC file illustrating what all the figures and numbers add up to in visual terms. It is this latter aspect of the application which makes it "special" - for more details, cf. below under paragraph 5. The program was originally released as BRITISH RAILWAYS MOTIVE POWER for the Series 3a/3c in July 1998. Based on v1.1 (with Rail UK - the original name of the OPA file - as its shortened title), the program was adapted to run on the Siena (the perfect trainspotter's palmtop companion), making sure that all program features of the 3a/c version would be included in Siena RailUK. The only differences are: - Due to the the smaller screen of the Siena, the motive power data cannot be displayed next to the picture (as with the S3a/c version), but is superimposed over it. The data is spread out over three windows, while the graphics can be viewed before and after the data display. - The selection of motive power has been restricted to locomotives and multiple units which were in mainline operation as of January 1st 1998. In comparison to the 3a/c version, this means 7 down (Classes 03, 26, 81, 83, 85, 415 and 416) and one up (the newly reinstated Cl 55). Apart from rendering the selection of motive power somewhat more logical, this move also means that the program requires 30kB less disk space - which, after all, reaches limits quite quickly even on a 1MB Siena model. - Ahead of the S3a/c version, Siena Rail UK also gives the number of units listed of each class. These figures represent the standings of January 1st 1998 for multiple units and August 30th 1998 for locomotives. These figures do not state the number of units actually in service, but rather the total number of units in possession of the current rail operators - especially with classes which are fading away quickly now (e.g. the Cl 33s), the number of units in actual operation may change from day to day and be much lower than the number of units listed (some of which may be stored and could either be returned to service or sent to the scrapyard). 2. Installation procedure Installing Siena Rail UK v 1.0 follows the usual standard procedure. Unzip the ZIP either on your PC/MAC or your Siena using one of the available tools for this (e.g. WinZip, PsiZip, etc.). Remember to keep the directory informations. Following all of this, your Siena should have a new directory RAILUK, where all the files of the application are placed (i.e. snrail10.opa, the PIC files, and readme.txt). If for some reason you only have the extracted files, just create a directory RAILUK and copy all the files into this directory. 3. Installing the application The short key for this is <PSION+i>, but if you have any doubts or are actually doing this for the first time, it might be a good idea to check the Siena manual. 4. Running the application Following installation, you will find the application's icon on your system screen. By highlighting this and then pressing <ENTER>, you will start Siena Rail UK. Moving around should be easy and straightforward, using the menu and the dialogue options. Pressing <ESC> should get you out of any kind of trouble you're likely to encounter by taking you back to the previous step. Exiting the programme is accomplished by either selecting this option from the menu, or by using the shortcut <PSION+x>. 5. Disk Space and System Memory Siena Rail UK is an application which relies heavily on bitmaps for displaying graphics. This makes it more attractive, but there is a price for this both in terms of disk space and system memory. 5.1. Disk Space Bitmap files (i.e. graphics and pictures) are heavy burdens in terms of disk space. Just one PIC file of Siena Rail UK showing you what a given locomotive or multiple unit looks like takes up 4'820 bytes - and the application contains 30 such bitmap files. Hence the large size of the package: If you want to install the complete Siena Rail UK, you will need 186 KB of free disk space. However, the program only requires four PIC files (pfm_logo.pic, snrail10.pic, bg.pic and bg2.pic) to run properly - all others may be deleted. If a PIC file is deleted, the program can still access all the data, but (obviously) no picture will be displayed. This means that users can cut down considerably on the amount of disk space used by the program by deleting those PIC files which they do not want (or do not like) from the M:\railuk directory. The program thus allows for some amount of "customising" if required. A cut-down minimalist-graphics (i.e. no pics of locos and multiple units) installation will only take up 53 KB. The program is therefore clearly more suited for the 1MB Siena model and has not been tested on a 512kB model. 5.2. System Memory If things on your Siena are pretty cramped or you are using a 512kB model, you could encounter a second aspect of bitmaps, namely that they require and gobble up large chunks of system memory. If you should run out of memory while running the program, the Siena will force you to exit the program. By doing so, it also frees all that clogged-up system memory - so you just hit the icon, and off you go again...back on the mainline... 6. Additional remarks Siena Rail UK v1.0 is distributed as freeware. I actually assembled all of this for my own pleasure, as something in the sense of an "illustrated companion" to the (commercial) "Spotter's mate" software (distributed by Brider Ltd, with whom I have no connection at all other than having bought their software). Whatever your personal reasons - thanks for taking a look at Siena Rail UK v1.0. Any feedback to adrian.wymann@bfa.admin.ch is appreciated. 7. Disclaimer Siena Rail UK v1.0 is (C) Copyright 1998 by Adrian Wymann. The program is freeware and as such may be distributed freely by anybody, provided that it is supplied complete (including this file) and unaltered. This application comes with no performance warranty. By using the program, the user agrees to take no legal action (both now and in future) against the author for any damages suffered, whether direct or indirect, as a result of such usage. 8. History 10/98 v1.0 released